(Please read the Scripture passages first, before the homily.)
Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Rise, pick up your mat and walk”? At one time I counted the syllables, and discovered it had to be easier to say six syllables than seven. Later I learned that it was not about counting syllables, letters or anything like that. I learned instead that words are just words and that it is very easy to say a word, but much harder to do the word.
So Jesus told the man that his sins were forgiven. He only spoke words unless he could show the forgiveness. Jesus also told the man to get up and walk, only words, unless the man would get up and walk. At the word of Jesus, the man got up and walked. The words were easy, but the deed done proves the strength of the words.
I draw two conclusions from this. Jesus could heal bodily infirmity by a word and therefore he could forgive sins by his word. Jesus could say and could do as he said. Jesus was a person mighty in word and in deed.
This reminds me of another word, a word spoken in the book of Genesis. God spoke a word, an easy word, but a powerful word. In speaking that word, God created the whole big universe and everything in it. God is powerful in word and deed. Jesus is likewise powerful in word and deed.
Mark wrote his Gospel to show Jesus as the Son of God. Jesus is like the God who can create by the word, because Jesus can make whole the human person by speaking a word.
Jesus is among us today. In the Eucharist, the word of Jesus changes bread and wine into his Body and Blood. In the proclamation of the Scriptures, Jesus is among us speaking his powerful words. Jesus comes us forgiving our sins and telling us to pick up our mats and walk. Jesus challenges us, as he did the paralytic in the Gospel’s story, to pick up and keep moving. Do we dare to treat this as a mere word, a weak word that only makes one feel good? No, the command today as it was then is to obey, listen to, heed and do the strength of that word of God.
Mark often described Jesus in his account of the Gospel as a person mighty in word and deed. Jesus was mighty in word and deed. He has given us another example in today’s passage.