“Be renewed in the spirit of your mind”
It is a wonderful phrase set in the midst of a powerful passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, a passage which opens us out to the possibilities of our being transformed into better and more thoughtful people, literally new people. At issue is whether we have learned Christ – the constant challenge in our lives, I might add – “if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.” It means a change, a change of mind, of attitude and outlook. What stands out is the very thing missing from our culture and church – teaching and a commitment to intellectual and spiritual life. We are, I fear, like those whom Paul calls the Gentiles, who walk, he suggests, “in the vanity of their mind[s]”, their “understanding darkened”, “alienated from the life of God” through two things: “ignorance” and “hardness of heart.” Tough words!
The consequence, as Paul sees it, is a dissolute and aimless life – “lasciviousness,” and “all uncleanness with greediness” are the terms he uses. He could be commenting on our world! Yet it is precisely in the face of such things that something new and strange is revealed; a change in attitude and outlook. By God’s Word and Spirit we are called to a new life, a constant “renew[ing] of the spirit of our minds.”
Paul makes it clear that this change in attitude and outlook is founded in the motions of God’s love towards us in Jesus Christ. The Epistle reading ends with the exhortation to be “kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Forgiveness. I know this is Pumpkin Sunday in Windsor but here is something bigger than the biggest pumpkin and greater than a flotilla of pumpkins. That something which is bigger and greater is forgiveness. Forgiveness is the big and great concept.
It is the most distinctive teaching of the Christian Church. A creedal doctrine, forgiveness underlies and defines the true nature of the Christian community. In our liturgy this morning, it signals the segue to the Gospel reading from St. Matthew, a story which Mark and Luke also tell, adding certain things that belong to each of their insights into the miracle of God’s healing and transforming grace. Mark and Luke indicate that the man who is paralyzed is lowered down through a hole in the roof by his friends in order to be placed at the feet of Jesus. But the whole point of the story in each of the Gospels is the dialogue and the teaching that ensues. As Mark has those who saw the healing of the paralytic say, “we never saw anything like this!” And as Luke puts it, “We have seen strange things today.” The event awakens a sense of awe and wonder and God is glorified. Why?
Because the story is about one of the most important things that Jesus wants us to know. It is something which we can’t know if we are not willing to be honest about ourselves. What Jesus emphatically wants us to know is that he is the forgiveness of sins. This Gospel story illustrates this teaching most dramatically and most compellingly. It locates the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins at the center of human redemption. It is ultimately about more than physical healing. It is profoundly about the healing of our souls, about our being returned to God and about the power and nature of intercessory prayer.
Jesus sees their faith. He sees the faith of those who brought the man sick of the palsy to Jesus. What is intercessory prayer about except the placing of one another with Jesus? In the dramatic imagery of Mark and Luke it is as if the man has been lowered down into a grave only to find himself at the feet of Jesus. Everything unfolds however from that moment of finding ourselves at the feet of Jesus. It is death and resurrection, we might say. Nothing makes sense about this unless we recognize our need for healing and grace. Jesus understands the meaning of the action of those who have brought the man sick of the palsy. They seek the good of another.
The scene becomes a teaching moment and a very powerful one. Yet, Jesus’ immediate response is astounding and initially perplexing, if not disturbing, for all of us. He addresses the man lying on the stretcher with the words, “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.” Two things to note. First, he names him as son. How wonderful to be reminded that we are the children of God! It opens us out to a kind of intimacy and relationship that is only thinkable by virtue of the radical meaning of God’s engagement with our humanity in Jesus Christ. Indeed, the whole story turns on that reality. Secondly, he bids him “be of good cheer” because his sins are forgiven. Somehow that is the most important thing; the things of our souls matter more than the things of our bodies. The suggestion, too, is that somehow what belongs to human suffering is inextricably bound up with sin. Nothing troubles us more than that idea and it is one which we can, I am afraid, completely misunderstand.
All suffering is related to the story of the Fall, to the reality of human sin, but that doesn’t mean that there can be a direct quid pro quo such that this particular thought, word or deed of mine results in this particular sickness, illness, condition or whatever. On the other hand, as doctors will tell us, certain ways of living will result in certain physical ailments – how we use the material things of the world is a spiritual matter that often has only too obvious physical consequences. The point of this Gospel story though, is that God addresses the deepest disorders of the human condition in Jesus Christ. At the heart of that condition is something spiritual. We are bent out of shape. We are incomplete without God’s transforming grace. It is the great teaching.
Jesus makes this clear in the context of the reaction by the scribes in Matthew’s and Mark’s account and the Pharisees in Luke’s account. They react to Jesus proclamation of the forgiveness of the paralytic sins. Why? Because only God can forgive sins, they think. They are, of course, right and wrong.
Matthew tells us that they question Jesus “within themselves” but our innermost thoughts are not hidden from God. The fact that Jesus “know[s] their thoughts” is itself a testimony to his being God with us. That is part and parcel of the teaching point and, indeed, without that understanding of God’s all-knowing none of this makes any sense. They say within themselves that “this man blasphemeth,” meaning that he is speaking against God. But Jesus wants us to know something that is profoundly important about God and his will for us. What he has said to the man “sick of the palsy” is a blessing, a good that he proclaims towards him. They have challenged that idea, forgetting about the radical nature of God’s forgiveness of sins, meaning that God can and does forgive sins. “Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?” Jesus says. He is accusing them of being hard-hearted. In a way, they have blasphemed God by denying the idea of divine forgiveness while at the same time recognizing that God alone can forgive sins. For them, Jesus is the proverbial stumbling block. Such is ignorance and hardness of heart.
Jesus responds. “For whether it is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee? Or to say, Arise and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.” It is a wonderful lesson and a profound teaching about what Jesus wants us to know without which we cannot be truly ourselves, truly who we are in the sight of God. God reveals his heart to us in Jesus Christ. He is tender-hearted towards us. He has forgiven our sins. The healing of the paralytic is for the sake of teaching us the forgiveness of sins. To know this is to know what Christ wants us to know and to be changed by that knowledge. It should change our attitude and outlook towards one another, opening us out to the true and only infinite exchange between God and man, the redemption of our humanity in Jesus Christ. At issue is whether we will be renewed in the spirit of our minds.
“Be renewed in the spirit of your mind”
Fr. David Curry
Trinity XIX
October 14th, 2012