Pericope 12 - makes amends with faithful friends/ he does more with faithful four/ helps the leaders & us readers!
And having entered once again into
Capernaum, news after days was heard,
"He's back at home." And heaps got gathered too
- together, so that there's no room (absurd?)
not even at the door outside (no few!),
and he was telling them the message there.
Along they come and bring to him this dude,
a paralytic being carried where
his group of four could take him.
(When Plan A,
though now begun, was stymied, they'd then give
Plan B a try, or then Plan C create.
This creativity was how they'd live!)
To come near they weren't able.
- Not today!
because the crowd (that gathered made a sheath)
they then broke up the roof above (some way),
removed the roof where he was (underneath),
then they let down the pallet there, on which
the paralytic man (could only) lie.
And Jesus, having seen their faith*, his pitch
to paralytic bloke (was this "high five"!):
"My son, the sins of yours - 'forgiven' are!"
(He looked up at the roof, and at those men*.
And he knew of some others not too far
away, whom he would battle with again:)
Some Teachers of the Law were sitting there
and thinking, dialoguing in their hearts:
Why does this man say this? He blasphemes! Where
can folk (outside of priests in temples) start
to speak for God like this? It's God alone
who can forgive your sins! And straightaway
then Jesus, in his spirit having known
that this was what their inside voice would say,
said unto them "Why these thoughts in your hearts?
(then in their questing, he helps them along,
with questions, and with signs from God, he starts)
"Which one is easier, (as folk look on)
to say (with matching words and deeds as well)
to paralytic people "Now your sins
'Forgiven' are!" or else to (show and) tell:
"Get up, take up your mat and walk!" (Which wins?
I'll do the hardest, clearest one to do!)
Just so that you might know the Son of A
(where A stands for "a" man, but "Adam" too)
has (God's) authority, right here today,
on Earth, for giving sins away (and that!)
Addressing then the paralysed (alone):
"I say to you, get up, take up your mat
and go back (now, yourself) into your home!"
And up he got, and straightaway he (tried,)
- took up his mat, went out before them all
so that they were amazed and glorified
God, saying "We have not seen this before!"
1Καὶ εἰσελθὼν πάλιν εἰς Καφαρναοὺμ δι’ ἡμερῶν ἠκούσθη ὅτι ἐν οἴκῳ ἐστίν. 2καὶ συνήχθησαν πολλοὶ ὥστε μηκέτι χωρεῖν μηδὲ τὰ πρὸς τὴν θύραν, καὶ ἐλάλει αὐτοῖς τὸν λόγον. 3Καὶ ἔρχονται φέροντες πρὸς αὐτὸν παραλυτικὸν αἰρόμενον ὑπὸ τεσσάρων.
4καὶ μὴ δυνάμενοι προσενέγκαι αὐτῷ διὰ τὸν ὄχλον ἀπεστέγασαν τὴν στέγην ὅπου ἦν, καὶ ἐξορύξαντες χαλῶσιν τὸν κράβαττον ὅπου ὁ παραλυτικὸς κατέκειτο. 5καὶ ἰδὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς τὴν πίστιν αὐτῶν λέγει τῷ παραλυτικῷ· τέκνον, ἀφίενταί σου αἱ ἁμαρτίαι. 6Ἦσαν δέ τινες τῶν γραμματέων ἐκεῖ καθήμενοι καὶ διαλογιζόμενοι ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις αὐτῶν· 7τί οὗτος οὕτως λαλεῖ; βλασφημεῖ· τίς δύναται ἀφιέναι ἁμαρτίας εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ θεός; 8καὶ εὐθὺς ἐπιγνοὺς ὁ Ἰησοῦς τῷ πνεύματι αὐτοῦ ὅτι οὕτως διαλογίζονται ἐν ἑαυτοῖς λέγει αὐτοῖς· τί ταῦτα διαλογίζεσθε ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν; 9τί ἐστιν εὐκοπώτερον, εἰπεῖν τῷ παραλυτικῷ· ἀφίενταί σου αἱ ἁμαρτίαι, ἢ εἰπεῖν· ἔγειρε καὶ ἆρον τὸν κράβαττόν σου καὶ περιπάτει; 10ἵνα δὲ εἰδῆτε ὅτι ἐξουσίαν ἔχει ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἀφιέναι ἁμαρτίας ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς– λέγει τῷ παραλυτικῷ· 11σοὶ λέγω, ἔγειρε ἆρον τὸν κράβαττόν σου καὶ ὕπαγε εἰς τὸν οἶκόν σου. 12καὶ ἠγέρθη καὶ εὐθὺς ἄρας τὸν κράβαττον ἐξῆλθεν ἔμπροσθεν πάντων, ὥστε ἐξίστασθαι πάντας καὶ δοξάζειν τὸν θεὸν λέγοντας ὅτι οὕτως οὐδέποτε εἴδομεν. Mark 2:1-12 NA28
* Imagine the scene. How does Jesus "see their faith"? How did they "let the man down through the roof, to the place where Jesus was"? When the man hit the floor on his mat, what did the four do with the ropes or rags that held the corners? If you've imagined it, you probably understood it!
Audio (unpolished, walking towards Bribaree from Lone Pine NSW, from Temora).
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