Why do you think evil in your hearts?

 So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city.  Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed.  When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you."  And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, "This Man blasphemes!"  But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?  For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" -- then He said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."  And he arose and departed to his house.  Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

- Matthew 9:1-8

Yesterday we read that when Jesus and the disciples had come to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (away from Capernaum), to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way.  And suddenly they cried out, saying, "What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God?  Have You come here to torment us before the time?"  Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding.  So the demons begged Him, saying, "If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine."  And He said to them, "Go."  So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine.  And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water.  Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men.  And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus.  And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region.

So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city.  Jesus' own city is Capernaum, to which He and the disciples return after the encounter with the demon-possessed men in yesterday's reading (see above).  They have crossed back over the Sea of Galilee to familiar territory of their ministry "headquarters," where Peter's family home is located.

Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed.  When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you."  And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, "This Man blasphemes!"  But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?  For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" -- then He said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."  And he arose and departed to his house.  Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.  My study bible comments that, as shown by this healing of the paralytic, faith is an indispensable condition for salvation.  Faith is both collective and personal.  In this particular healing, it is the faith of the paralytic's friends that helped in his healing.  It notes that there are three signs present in today's reading that testify to Christ's divinity.  First (as discussed in yesterday's commentary), Jesus knows the secrets of hearts (see 1 Samuel 16:7, 2 Chronicles 6:30).  Second, Jesus forgives sins, which is a power (as the the scribes know) that belongs to God alone.  Finally, Jesus heals by the power of His word, as He did with the centurion's servant (in this reading).

Within the Church, and through the words of Christ, we accept that there is power to forgive sins which was spoken by Christ on the occasion of His first risen appearance and great Commission to the disciples.  He told them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (see John 20:19-23).  We also confess in the Nicene Creed, "I believe in one baptism for the remission of sins."  So through the power of Christ there is forgiveness of sins, an indispensable facet of our faith, which is also illustrated through today's reading and Christ's healing of the paralytic.  Here we find another evocation of a tie between sins and paralysis.  In the Church, through her history, sin has been understood to be a kind of paralysis of the soul.  That is, something in which we are "stuck" and not moving forward spiritually or otherwise.  We may repeat the same old sin day after day, frequently tiring of such repetition, and wondering why -- when we so desire to change and we know our lives would be better for doing so -- we still have not managed to escape from the same old destructive patterns of behavior.  This happens despite the fact that we know it only harms our own interest and well-being.  St. Paul writes, "For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice" (see Romans 7:15-20).  But something wonderful happens in today's reading, and that is the revelation that we're not simply all on our own in this business of faith.  We're not left to struggle with our meager resources of faith or strength as individuals, and far from it.  For we not only have the power of Christ, and of the Trinity, working to help us through our prayer.  We are also capable of being assisted by other faithful.  This is a remarkable thing to think about.  This is not an intellectual mission whereby we talk out our problems and become healed solely by thinking about it.  This is, in fact, a different and deeper tie, one more mysterious.  It is again a return to that mysterious inner place of all human beings, the heart.  Within the heart, we may somehow be touched by the faith of others who pray for us, who practice intercession through prayer, just as this paralytic's friends do.  In this story and this understanding, therefore, we find the ancient wisdom of the Church in invoking the prayers of the saints to help us -- for the communion of saints includes those living fellow faithful and those who are acknowledged through the history of the Church, as well as the angels who help to guide us.  This is quite an incredible, uncountable number of helpers connecting us with faith through prayer and helping us with our strength.  We are never alone.  The friends of the paralytic in today's reading give us a sense in which even when we are too weak to help ourselves, help is still available.  It gives us a sense that in the heart there are mysterious connections through faith that can't be understood purely on an intellectual basis.  It links with the understanding that Christ Himself -- the Lord -- is literally the "heart-knower" (καρδιογνώστης/kardiognostes in the Greek of Acts 1:24).  This mysterious space of the heart, we know, contains all kinds of things, both good and bad, as Christ has taught us:  "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things" (Matthew 12:35).  We also know that hearts can be "hardened" so that they don't perceive as they ought or work as they ought, and hardening is another image of paralysis, an inability to move, inflexibility.  Interesting to note that physically the heart is a muscle, isn't it?   But in Scriptural terms, the heart is the center of a person, the place that contains and connects all that we are -- and connects us also with faith and whatever it is we choose to love or worship.  In the heart, then, are connected vast spaces and forces beyond our grasp.  So for today, let us consider the state of the heart and Christ's repeated words regarding the heart and what it contains.  Let us remember that it is the "pure in heart" who shall see God (Matthew 5:8), but also the unexamined heart which may store all kinds of things to bad effect (Matthew 12:34).   Our healing is connected to the state of our hearts, and more importantly to whether or not we are capable of allowing Christ in to heal (Matthew 13:15).  Let us consider for today what it is to have a "hard" heart, one stymied by paralysis -- and how to go forward and break out of that which keeps us bound.