The Gospel today from the second chapter of the Gospel of St Mark is about the healing of a man who was paralyzed—who was unable to move an important part of his body. This man had a lot of friends who wanted to bring him to Christ to be healed, but there were so many people in the home of St Peter, where Christ was staying, that it was impossible to bring this man on a stretcher close to Christ. So what did his friends do? They climbed on the roof, coming up to the roof from the outside staircase, made a hole in the roof and lowered him down directly in front of Christ.

What does it mean for this paralytic and for us to be healed?  From what do we need to be healed? I’ve called this sermon “Be healed, inside and out.” This man and his friends both thought that he needed to be healed, because some part of his body wasn’t working properly; and he couldn’t walk, and had to be carried to meet Christ on a stretcher. Yet the first thing that Christ says to the man is “My son, your sins are forgiven.” That is a remarkable response which must have surprised the paralytic, his friends and the crowd. Everyone was expecting Christ to do a healing of the body, but first Christ saw the faith of this man and his friends; and He said, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”

What is going on? The second century theologian, St Clement of Alexandria tells us that Christ is “the all-sufficient Physician of humanity, the Saviour [who] heals both body and soul [together].” Indeed that was what happened. First, Christ healed this man’s soul by forgiving his sins; and then Christ healed his body, saying to him, “I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.” Today we would call this experience a healing of the whole person—an opportunity to live life more fully in the absence of pain. And it all happened because of the faith of the friends of the man who was paralyzed; and the willingness of this man to seek to be healed. That was what Christ saw—not simply someone who was ill, but someone whose friends had faith in the power of Christ to heal the whole person, as well as a person who was open to being healed. Then Christ did not tell the newly healed man to become one of His followers, nor to reach out and seek to bring other people to Him. Christ told him, “Go home.”

Perhaps an opportunity will arise for some of us to pray with a close friend who is ill and to ask Christ to heal that person. The healing can be accomplished at home; and the newly healed person can stay at home. However, the healing that the person needs may not be quite what we think is needed. St Augustine challenges us with a brief but powerful claim. He writes: “You have been [paralyzed] inwardly. You did not take charge of your bed. Your bed took charge of you.”

That’s quite human, isn’t it? When we get sick and go to bed, it’s easy to let the bed take charge of us, instead of our taking charge of the bed. Now, if any of us or our friends are sick, we have a right to stay in bed, but not to let our beds take charge of us. Consider the situation of Queen Victoria when her beloved husband Albert died in December 1861. What did she do? She became depressed, wore black and mourned him for forty years until she died in 1901. That was letting her bed take charge of her; and, as the three-part BBC Television series, “The Children of Queen Victoria” indicates, her children suffered terribly, because she demanded that all her children serve her needs; and she made little attempt to understand and meet their needs. Parents, do not model your behaviour on Queen Victoria and expect your children to meet your needs. Perhaps what our children think they need is not always what they really need, as bodies and souls—as whole persons—but Christian parents and children, with their hopes and prayers, can work out together what are the true needs in a specific situation and how can those needs can best be met.

St Augustine was commenting on Psalm 40(41) which begins: “Blessed is he who understands the poor and needy . . . May the Lord help him on his bed of pain; You [that is, the Lord] turned his bed from sickness to wholeness.” Ancient Christian Commentaries on Scriptures, which gathers many prayers and reflections from the Church Fathers, sensibly applies those words to chapter 2 of the Gospel of St Mark. Whatever our problems—and we each have different problems—we all wish to experience our beds being turned “from sickness to wholeness.” Then the sickness will have gained meaning, will have brought purpose to our lives.

The fifth century bishop, St Peter Chrysologos urges us to reverse our relationship with sickness. He preached on this Biblical passage from St Mark: “Take up your bed. Carry the very mat that once carried you. Change places, so that what was the proof of your sickness may now give testimony to your soundness. Your bed of pain becomes the sign of healing, its very weight the measure of the strength that has been restored to you” [end of quote].

One modern Biblical commentary writes of this passage: “Nothing definite can be said about the nature of the man’s [illness] beyond the fact that he could not walk. The determination of the four men [who carried the stretcher] to reach [Christ] suggests that his condition was desperate.” Before each Divine Liturgy, as I prepare the bread and the wine to become the Body and Blood of Christ, I read the names of the people that you wish to be healed—living people who are ill, and those who have died but are still remembered by you. As I place on the diskos a crumb of bread to be consecrated, I sometimes read the particular illnesses from which you hope members of your family and your friends will be healed. There are many desperate situations; and I come to know better the concerns and hopes of you as parishioners. That enables me to share with you the hope that sickness can be turned to wholeness, just as it was for the paralyzed man and his friends. Healings take place through the power of Christ; and we as human beings cannot know when Christ will chose to exercise that power. But it is good that we can ask for healing; and we can hope that Christ will be present for each of us and for those who are ill as He was present for the paralyzed man and his friends.