A Noise Louder than a Hammering Roof

In Happy Feet, every emperor penguin tries to attract a mate by singing a unique heart song. If a male’s and a female’s heart song match, they mate. After laying eggs, the mothers go off fishing while the fathers watch the eggs carefully in the frozen arctic, huddling together and trying to keep the eggs warm. When the eggs hatch, the fathers leave while the babies wait for their mothers to return and feed them. Soon, the mothers return with a stomach full of fish to feed their young, and, by miracle, they find their babies and feed them. Although a movie, it captures a truth: we can drown out noises to hear what we want to hear.

After a brief trip away from Capernaum, Jesus and his disciple returned home. Hearing Jesus had returned, many gathered that they spilled out through the door to the outside. Four friends wanted their paralytic friend to be healed. They carried him on a stretcher and brought him to Jesus. Finding that in no way could they approach him through the crowd, they uncovered the covering and digging, they lowered the stretcher with the paralytic lying in it. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:1–5).

We who live in modern homes with concrete roofs envision those four friends hammering away for hours to open a hole in the roof to lower their friend down. Whereas Mark’s words are generic – “they uncovered the covering while digging” – Luke gives a specific picture: “Climbing the roof, they removed the tiles” (5:19). The house Jesus was in had an atrium in the middle with an opening for them to collect rainwater. The opening was lined with tiles. The four friends removed those tiles to lower their friend on a stretcher. Nevertheless, it would have been noisy and alarming. https://arh342.weebly.com/rooms-in-the-domus.html

Jesus wasn’t bothered by those noises; instead, he heard something else.

“Now, some of the scribes who were sitting in the house were dialoguing in their hearts: Why does this man blasphemy like this? Who can forgive sins except for the One God? Jesus knew this in his spirit and asked: Why are you dialoguing in your hearts.” (2:6­–8)

To Jesus, the dialogues in their hearts were louder than the digging and removing of the tiles. While they questioned his divinity, he proved it by hearing their hearts’ dialogues. Then he asked them a question.

“Which is less laborious to say – Your sins are forgiven or Get up, take your stretcher and walk?” (2:9)

The adjective Jesus used is a combination of “good” and “labor” or “easy labor.” In Greek, the phrase, “Your sins are forgiven,” is four words, whereas “Get-up and take the stretcher, yours, and walk” is eight words, twice as much labor to say. Since healing him or forgiving him was equally the same to Jesus, he chose to converse his energy by saying fewer words. Nevertheless, he demonstrated his power because that man immediately got up, took his stretcher, and walked away from them. Similarly, he demonstrated his divinity as everyone (except maybe for the scribes) praised God by seeing the miracle (2:12).

Jesus demonstrated his divinity by hearing the scribes’ dialoguing hearts, healing the paralytic, and bringing glory to God. Even now, he proves his divinity by hearing our hearts’ cries, healing us, and bringing God glory through us.