Hello friends.
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in dogs.
Welcome to season two.
Of our Lectio Divina series,
The Questions Jesus Asked.
As we prepare to begin today,
Just find yourself in a comfortable position.
Allow your breathing to slow.
Let the noise and urgency of your day just begin to settle to give you space to truly be in this moment.
Today we're going to listen to a question from Jesus that reaches beneath words and beneath appearances.
It's a question that's directed not towards outward behavior as such,
But towards the hidden interior world that we all carry within us.
Now in Mark chapter 2.
Jesus is teaching in a crowded house when four men lower a paralyzed man through the roof.
Seeing their faith,
Jesus says to the man,
Son,
Your sins are forgiven.
And straight away,
The religious teachers who were there begin to silently judge him.
Now they don't speak out loud but internally.
They're accusing Jesus of blasphemy,
And Jesus,
Who perceives their thoughts,
Asks them this question.
Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?
Now what's quite,
I guess,
Striking here is that Jesus responds.
Not just the spoken words.
But to the hidden movement that's beneath them.
He's addressing their interior world.
And quite often.
We think of.
Spirituality,
Particularly in the Christian tradition.
As quite often being about how we exhibit outward behaviors,
Actions,
Our morality,
Jesus repeatedly gets people to bring their attention inward to the heart,
To perception.
To those silent narratives that we carry.
And the scribes in this passage,
They're not violent people,
They're religious people,
They're thoughtful people.
People who are trying to protect their understanding of God.
Somewhere along the way.
Their hearts have become closed.
No longer seem to be able to recognise grace when it appears right there in front of him,
In this case,
In this beautiful healing.
Maybe that's part of what this question asks of us today.
What are the thoughts that we quietly rehearse within ourselves?
What assumptions have hardened inside us?
What judgments have become automatic?
What stories do we tell ourselves about others?
About God or even about ourselves.
Most of us.
We carry an almost constant stream of internal commentary.
We interpret people before listening to them.
We defend ourselves in imagined conversations.
We replay wounds.
We create identities around things like fear and shame and success.
Uncertainty or even control and Quite often these thoughts become so familiar that we mistake them for truth.
But Jesus gently interrupts the inner noise.
Why are you thinking these things?
In your hearts.
And notice too that this isn't a question of condemnation,
But it's a question of awareness.
And it's an awareness that has an invitation.
To bring our hearts into the light and to have a good honest look at what's there.
In contemplative spirituality,
Transformation often begins.
Not by fighting our thoughts,
But by noticing them,
By seeing them clearly,
Bringing them into the presence of Christ rather than hiding beneath them,
Because the heart It can really become crowded,
Crowded with fear.
Crowded with resentment.
Crowded with.
With religious certainty.
With self-protection.
But the deeper work of God.
Isn't just about behavioural modification,
It's the slow healing of perception itself.
And the invitation of this question isn't to be thoughtless but spacious.
Spacious enough to notice what's moving within us without becoming trapped by it.
And some maybe today.
This question,
As you hear it from Jesus,
Isn't accusing you.
Maybe Jesus is simply inviting you to become aware of the interior burdens that you've been carrying for far too long and maybe beneath all the noise within the heart.
There's a quieter voice that's waiting to be heard.
So as we move into our reading and reflection in Lectio format,
I'm simply going to read the passage through three times with space between for you to sit and meditate,
To notice the word,
The phrase,
The image.
That the Spirit brings to your heart.
And just allow that to sit with you and for God to speak to you through it.
As we share our reading today around this question from Mark chapter 2 verses 1 to 12.
When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days.
It was reported that he was at home.
So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them,
Not even in front of the door.
And he was speaking the word to them.
Then some people came,
Bringing to him a paralyzed man.
Carried by four of them.
And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd.
They removed the roof above him.
And after having dug through it,
They let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.
When Jesus saw their faith,
He said to the paralytic,
Son,
Your sins are forgiven.
Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts,
Why does this fellow speak in this way?
It is blasphemy.
Who can forgive sins but God alone?
At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves,
And he said to them,
Why do you raise such questions in your hearts?
Which is easier to say to the paralytic,
Your sins are forgiven,
Or to say,
Stand up and take your mat and walk?
But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
He said to the paralytic,
I say to you,
Stand up,
Take your mat.
And go to your home.
And he stood up and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them,
So that they were all amazed and glorified God,
Saying,
We have never seen anything like this.
When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days.
It was reported that he was at home.
So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them,
Not even in front of the door.
And he was speaking the word to them.
Then some people came,
Bringing to him a paralyzed man.
Carried by four of them.
And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd.
They removed the roof above him.
And after having dug through it,
They let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.
When Jesus saw their faith,
He said to the paralytic,
Son,
Your sins are forgiven.
Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts,
Why does this fellow speak in this way?
It is blasphemy.
Who can forgive sins but God alone?
At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves,
And he said to them,
Why do you raise such questions in your hearts?
Which is easier to say to the paralytic,
Your sins are forgiven,
Or to say,
Stand up and take your mat and walk?
But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,
He said to the paralytic,
I say to you,
Stand up,
Take your mat,
And go to your home.
And he stood up and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them.
So that they were all amazed and glorified,
Goethe saying,
We have never seen anything like this.
When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days.
It was reported that he was at home.
So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them,
Not even in front of the door.
And he was speaking the word to them.
Then some people came,
Bringing to him a paralyzed man.
Carried by four of them.
And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd.
They removed the roof above him.
And after having dug through it,
They let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.
When Jesus saw their faith,
He said to the paralytic,
Son,
Your sins are forgiven.
Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts,
Why does this fellow speak in this way?
It is blasphemy.
Who can forgive sins but God alone?
At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves,
And he said to them,
Why do you raise such questions in your hearts?
Which is easier to say to the paralytic,
Your sins are forgiven,
Or to say,
Stand up and take your mat and walk?
But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,
He said to the paralytic,
I say to you,
Stand up,
Take your mat,
And go to your home.
And he stood up and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them,
So that they were all amazed and glorified God,
Saying,
We have never seen anything like this.
Gracious God as we ponder the depths of our hearts today.
Contemplating this question of Jesus.
Help us to see the things that cloud us from reality.
That block our vision of truth.
And make us to turn away from becoming who we truly already are in you.
Help us.
To see these things as they are and to work through them with your strength and help.
May our hearts be places where we don't hold onto burdens,
But that we create space in which you can meet us,
Encourage us,
Nurture us,
And help us to thrive.
And may grace,
Peace and love go with us and remain with us today and every day.
Until next time,
Friends.
Grace and peace be with you.
