Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men

Christ healing the paralytic at Capernaum,  Chora Monastery Church, Constantinople, 1315-1320

 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 had come to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, 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, with His disciples, crossed over the Sea of Galilee to return to Capernaum.  His own city is His ministry's headquarters, where Peter  has a family home.

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.    There are two things which stand out immediately in this story.  First of all, Jesus is brought a paralytic lying on a bed, seemingly the moment He returns to Capernaum.  We understand that by now Christ is well-known for His healings and all come to Him (particularly in this city).  Second, the scribes also attend to what Jesus is doing, meaning He has now earned their scrutiny as well, as He has become that well-known.  Third, Jesus quite consciously acts in a way to openly challenge the thinking of the scribes (and to reveal that He is aware of their thoughts).  Finally, the fact that there are multitudes that saw it testifies to how well-known He has become, and how openly He is displaying His authority.  My study bible comments that the healing of the paralytic shows us that faith is an indispensable condition for salvation.   The story also gives us, importantly, the understanding that faith is both collective and personal.  It's the faith of the paralytic's friends that help him in his healing.  There are also three signs of Christ's divinity shown here:  He knows the secrets of hearts (see 1 Samuel 16:7, 2 Chronicles 6:30);  He forgives sins, which is a power that belongs to God alone; and He heals by the power of His word.  Let us note also how the crowds marveled and glorified God, as God had given such power to men.  It is another aspect of the Incarnation, as in this sense, the Incarnation of Christ also glorifies humankind.

The mechanisms of the workings of faith are mysterious and intriguing, particularly as how faith works on both an individual and collective (or community) level, as shown in today's reading.   It's important to know that faith works not just one way or the other, but both ways.  Faith works as a kind of network, hidden behind the scenes.  It works directly between creature and Creator, and it also works as a network between human beings, although mediated and energized through Creator.  We can pray for other people, we can pray for ourselves, we can invoke and ask for the prayers of specific others, or collectively within the Church.  It is a network that functions so long as there is a willing voice.  It seems that the slightest opening of the door to faith will result in a far greater outcome than can ever be expected -- as Jesus' illustration of the mustard seed would indicate to us.  It is important to understand this flexibility of faith to work in different ways and on different levels, because in our lives each of us will have different needs at different times.  There will be times when an entire community is affected by particular problems which need to be addressed in prayer.  At those times, communal prayer isn't simply appropriate but perhaps the most beneficial to the members of the community as individuals -- as problems are addressed within that sense of community for each.  In other words, the times when communal prayer teaches us that we are not alone in our struggles can be fundamentally important as part of our own healing in faith.  There are other times when individual prayer is needful and effective, in the sense in which Jesus taught us to pray by going into our room and closing the door, and speaking in secret to our Father who sees in secret (6:6).   This is an intimate level at which prayer works, and the fact that Jesus includes it as a directive in the Sermon on the Mount tells us explicitly how essential this level of faith is to us, especially when we practice prayer.  In Church we pray collectively for those who have passed; in Requiem services we ask the entire Church to pray for our loved ones.  We also collectively invoke the prayers of saints, even as we honor their memory.  In the history of the Church, we are always encouraged to pray for those who have passed -- which teaches us that prayer reaches where nothing else at our disposal can.  So each of us also can do the same on an individual and private level.  Today's reading teaches us the power of the prayers of those who are able to help us, and their effectiveness when we cannot help ourselves, or even if, for some reason, we are unable to pray.  Whatever the circumstances, the Scripture seems to tell us, faith is effective.  All it takes is initiative, both collective and individual.  Whatever the circumstances, we are encouraged to be creative with our prayers, and flexible -- to know that our Father in heaven awaits our call, and that help is at hand.  In these very important ways, the power of prayer is given to us in an unlimited sense.  It calls on us to remember that "with God all things are possible" (19:26).  In today's reading, the crowds glorify God, who "had given such power to men."  While we are not all Christ, all of us have access to prayer and therefore to Christ, and to Father and the Spirit.  God makes this very communion with us possible, and our faith is the one thing necessary.  Let us think, also, about the power expressed in today's reading.  Do the people marvel at the power to heal paralysis, or to forgive sins?  Perhaps, indeed, the answer is simply both, as Jesus would seem to indicate.  In the understanding of the Church, paralysis itself is seen as a kind of analogy to sin.  When we struggle with sin, we are "stuck" somewhere, seemingly unable to move forward in our journey of faith.  Let us remember that prayer helps us to heal from all kinds of ailments, both seen and unseen.  If we need forgiveness, or help with our capacity to forgive others, it awaits simply our faith at work through prayer, on any level.  This is a power He has given to all of us.  It heals us as individuals, even as we are healed also in community.

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.

"Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.' But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one."

- Matthew 5:27-37

The readings from this week have been from the Sermon on the Mount, and today we continue. In yesterday's readings, we read Jesus' expansion on the law against murder. Jesus is taking us deeper into what it is to be truly righteous - He is drawing us in to an understanding of the depths of ourselves, and how we work at righteousness in terms of not only what we do but also what we say and what we think. See You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder'. Jesus has taught in this Sermon that His disciples' righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees - and today He continues with His exposition of what this entails.

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." It's important to understand what Jesus means here by "lust." This is not a simple mutual and natural attraction between men and women that He is referring to. Jesus is talking about cultivating a desire with intent. In short, it's about covetousness - a feeding of a personal desire. He takes us from the forbidden action to the thinking that starts behind it, and taking us into the territory of righteousness that "exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees."

"If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell." Here is the great teaching on what it means to really watch our thoughts, to structure our "inner selves" so that the outer self is taken care of, and to practice the kind of righteousness He desires from His disciples. He's taking us from action to the inner self, the thoughts we nurture and cultivate within ourselves (as illustrated by the example of "lust" above). He uses the body as a metaphor for our inner lives, our "inner body" if you will. Things that poison our minds with what we don't need must be discarded, "plucked out", "cut off" or "cast away." It's our own thinking that can harm our soul, our spirit.

"Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery." Jesus repeatedly preaches throughout the Gospels against an easy divorce of the type that was used during His lifetime. This left women in a truly defenseless and powerless position in the society, and denied the power of real relationship in marriage - one made in sacrament to God. The clause "except sexual immorality" teaches us that divorce is not out of the question in cases of abuse of the relationship. The early church would expand the grounds for divorce, but the theological understanding behind the concept of all relationship is that it can either be strengthened or destroyed depending on our choices, especially in a spiritual context. That which is spiritual at its heart - such as the sacrament of marriage - needs spiritual nurturing and can be destroyed by our carelessness, and this is what Jesus is teaching here about "causing adultery."

"Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.' But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." This is a teaching about what it means for our words to have meaning, our intentions to be true, our inner life reliable. It's not worthy of our relationship with God - or anything else that we love - that we would bind an oath with it. This is what it is to "swear." None of it is really "ours" to swear by. Rather it is our inner integrity, the truth or falseness of our promises, that really makes our word worth something. If we really think about it, what is it that you need in your relations with others but the ability to trust? So He asks us to cultivate our own integrity. My study bible says, "Jesus teaches us to live in the simplicity of the present moment."

That's quite a marvelous thought, don't you think? To live in the simplicity of the present moment is a remarkable thing. It implies integrity and strength -- minus all the rest of the things that we don't need: covetousness, the nurturing of desires that aren't good for us and destroy relationships, the overbearing drama of swearing by one thing or another that is unnecessary and troublesome, the destruction of relationships only to enter into others just as shallow and with the same lack of understanding of real relatedness. Let us think, then, about what it is to waste our time with diversions from this simplicity, from the straightforward and pure heart He seeks for us. Rather, Jesus asks us to cut out the unnecessary, the things we don't need -- and to construct and build on the positive. "To speak the truth and keep our promises," my study bible says. When Jesus preached that we are to be the "salt of the earth," a great deal of that meaning is about covenant -- our ability to seal relationships, to keep promises. It is all about an inner integrity, beginning with our commitment to God who is love, and the promise of how that means we relate to neighbor. Can we start first today by thinking about the meanings of truth, and how an inner truth reflects our integrity? We recall that Jesus' greatest condemnation comes for hypocrites - in the original Greek, meaning "actor." Let your 'yes' be 'yes' and 'no' be 'no' teaches us about our honest truth. We can "cast away" whatever stands in the way. What is your truth today, right in the simplicity of this moment? All the extraneous things we wish to add we'd best stay away from - and stick to the things we truly love.