The boys who cried blasphemy
This week's verses are Matthew 9:1-8:
These verses have beautiful contrast in the way the crowd reacts versus the way the trained experts in the law react. The crowds of people are hopeful and receptive, while the experts in the law have nothing but knee-jerk condemnation.
It's easy to look at the experts in the law like they're stupid, but remember there weren't any Bibles floating around back then. Nobody was out there with a sandwich board sign and a megaphone telling people about Jesus. Nobody knew exactly who he was at the time. We look back at it like it's a movie, and Jesus is dressed in clean theatrical clothes, talking in King James English, and everyone has seen the movie up to this point and read the book beforehand. But that's not how it was.
When people saw Jesus they saw an itinerant preacher, probably a prophet, maybe a revolutionary who would end Roman occupation and restore their ethnostate back to its Jewish-only roots. He looked like an ordinary guy. The experts in the law probably were interested in what Jesus had to say, since they had gone through the trouble to come and find him. But when this "guy" said something that contradicted what they learned in theology school, their brains turned off and they condemned him. How many of us do that, when someone says something to us that contradicts what we think we already know, or what we learned in school, or what our friends say, or what is popular on social media?
Older translations refer to the experts in the law as "scribes." I like that term, because it makes me picture someone who just copies down what they hear and reads it back. If the 24/7 news of Roman Palestine, or maybe the cool folks who hung around the temple school, said that sins can't be forgiven, that would be the first thing out of these scribes' mouths if they saw someone proclaiming the forgiveness of sins.
Are we experts in the law? Are there things in our lives, facts, political opinions, folk wisdom, prejudices, which make us act like scribes? Are there unforgivable sins that would make you cry "blasphemy!" if someone said they could be left in the past with no penalty? As Jesus asked, "Why do you respond with evil in your hearts?"
On the other hand, look at the folks who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus on his stretcher. Have you ever helped carry someone on a stretcher, particularly over rough terrain? It can be an act of love. We don't really know what these people were thinking. Did they know the guy? Was he just someone they found and wanted to help charitably? In any case, they had hope that Jesus would do something for him, and they were right. The paralyzed man's sins are forgiven, and then he is totally healed. What a difference in results between the miraculous hope of the stretcher squad and the negativity of the scribes who wanted to shut down Jesus.
And finally look at the crowd who saw the miracle. They were afraid, as we would be if we saw something supernatural happen that we had no explanation for. But they glorified God who had made it happen. On the one hand, we have the scribes muttering "that's not how the model says to do it" or "#siniseternal" and hating, and on the other we have the crowd not knowing precisely what to make of it, but celebrating God's goodness and power. Which would you rather be?
If the scribes had their way, that man would have spent the rest of his life suffering on his stretcher so that they could avoid "being wrong." Have we shut anything down in our lives or the lives of those we love because we are too ideologically fashionable to accept what God can do? While we're being scribes, the hopeful crowds are seeing miracles, getting free of the past, and watching those among them get back on their feet. Your choice.
After getting into a boat he crossed to the other side and came to his own town. Just then some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Have courage, son! Your sins are forgiven.” Then some of the experts in the law said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming!” When Jesus perceived their thoughts he said, “Why do you respond with evil in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then he said to the paralytic—“Stand up, take your stretcher, and go home.” And he stood up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were afraid and honored God who had given such authority to men.
These verses have beautiful contrast in the way the crowd reacts versus the way the trained experts in the law react. The crowds of people are hopeful and receptive, while the experts in the law have nothing but knee-jerk condemnation.
It's easy to look at the experts in the law like they're stupid, but remember there weren't any Bibles floating around back then. Nobody was out there with a sandwich board sign and a megaphone telling people about Jesus. Nobody knew exactly who he was at the time. We look back at it like it's a movie, and Jesus is dressed in clean theatrical clothes, talking in King James English, and everyone has seen the movie up to this point and read the book beforehand. But that's not how it was.
When people saw Jesus they saw an itinerant preacher, probably a prophet, maybe a revolutionary who would end Roman occupation and restore their ethnostate back to its Jewish-only roots. He looked like an ordinary guy. The experts in the law probably were interested in what Jesus had to say, since they had gone through the trouble to come and find him. But when this "guy" said something that contradicted what they learned in theology school, their brains turned off and they condemned him. How many of us do that, when someone says something to us that contradicts what we think we already know, or what we learned in school, or what our friends say, or what is popular on social media?
Older translations refer to the experts in the law as "scribes." I like that term, because it makes me picture someone who just copies down what they hear and reads it back. If the 24/7 news of Roman Palestine, or maybe the cool folks who hung around the temple school, said that sins can't be forgiven, that would be the first thing out of these scribes' mouths if they saw someone proclaiming the forgiveness of sins.
Are we experts in the law? Are there things in our lives, facts, political opinions, folk wisdom, prejudices, which make us act like scribes? Are there unforgivable sins that would make you cry "blasphemy!" if someone said they could be left in the past with no penalty? As Jesus asked, "Why do you respond with evil in your hearts?"
On the other hand, look at the folks who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus on his stretcher. Have you ever helped carry someone on a stretcher, particularly over rough terrain? It can be an act of love. We don't really know what these people were thinking. Did they know the guy? Was he just someone they found and wanted to help charitably? In any case, they had hope that Jesus would do something for him, and they were right. The paralyzed man's sins are forgiven, and then he is totally healed. What a difference in results between the miraculous hope of the stretcher squad and the negativity of the scribes who wanted to shut down Jesus.
And finally look at the crowd who saw the miracle. They were afraid, as we would be if we saw something supernatural happen that we had no explanation for. But they glorified God who had made it happen. On the one hand, we have the scribes muttering "that's not how the model says to do it" or "#siniseternal" and hating, and on the other we have the crowd not knowing precisely what to make of it, but celebrating God's goodness and power. Which would you rather be?
If the scribes had their way, that man would have spent the rest of his life suffering on his stretcher so that they could avoid "being wrong." Have we shut anything down in our lives or the lives of those we love because we are too ideologically fashionable to accept what God can do? While we're being scribes, the hopeful crowds are seeing miracles, getting free of the past, and watching those among them get back on their feet. Your choice.
Comments
Post a Comment