Paralyzed No More (Mark 2:1-12.)

Through the magic of imagination, I was able to capture an interview with the man who was healed after being totally paralyzed.  I think you may have heard his story before. It can also be found in Mark 2:1-12.  You might even be able to catch the periodic poetic rhyming in this man's speech. Enjoy the story.

 

I had forgotten what it was like to walk,

to be able to care for myself

and go where I wanted;

to run through the village

and into the meadow

where the sight of softly swaying stalks of sun-drenched grains

fill your heart with delight.

I’d forgotten even what it was like to walk across the cool shuttered rooms

to the kitchen to join with my brothers,

and any others

who were there, eating eye to eye.  

They brought me my food upon a tray

And set me where I would not be in the way

They carried me.  My brothers, they had to carry me! 

Them and my friend Ya’acov who still remembers when we played tag

among the trees and scooped tadpoles

from the trickling stream

and told each other stories until the fires turned to glowing embers. 

But everything was different today.

They gave me no choice, ignoring my voice

of dissention. I had no say.

Today, they say, we are gong to see the Healer, that Yeshua, the one from Nazareth. 
Miracles, they tell me

and their voices ring with excited intentions

to make me one of them.

I don’t want to go, I tell them.

but they were so sure

and since I could not get off my bed

I was borne along in dread

to the destination the others

had determined for me.

Crowds of people barricaded the door

with no intentions of letting them carry me in.

Though I begged to go home,

I knew they would win

over my protests

and my pleading would fall upon deaf ears.

Then I heard cheers from within the house:

“He hears!  He hears!”

As someone was freed from a life of deafness.

by this Yeshua, this healer from Nazareth.

Always somebody else, I thought.

I swallowed the familiar sense of failure

That had been my daily bread

Ever since That Day.

There is no way I told myself,

to be free of That Day,
Not anymore

I told myself

I’ll have to pay

And live out my days

upon this litter,

causing others to bear this bitter task

– me as the burden they had to carry.

I was shaken from my self-absorbing reverie

And jostled on my bed

as I was lifted high above their heads.

My brothers, who with uplifted arms

pulled me with ropes they found somewhere,

up into the air, past the windows,

and clearing the cross beams to the roof above where Ya’acov was waiting 

I settled with a thud

and then wondered

if being this high made me any closer to God.

I marveled that they’d done it,

and that they’d cared for me this much

that each would play a part to bring me here.

They had such hope, I knew,

but the thought of further failure

caused me to fear of disappointing them again

and brought panic

to my already pounding heart.

Now what? I asked them tentatively

afraid of what they intended next

concerned they would ask something of me

I could not give them.

But they knew what I could not do.

They knew all too well

without my having to tell them

what was racing through my mind.

Then dirt was flying here and there.

and I was tasting dust

but I could only watch

as they dug a hole after lifting off the thatch.

Oh, how I wished that we were home.

“Hey! What’s going on?” shouted someone

from below.  I just wanted to go.

But there surely was no way to make them stop. If only I could just hop

off this bed and fly away.

But it was clear I’d have to stay

and see this through

whatever my brothers and Ya’acov

were determined to do.

And then again with the ropes they’d found

they lowered me down upon my bed

to just in front of the Man who stood and said

something about how much faith my brothers had   
to be so determined that they’d bring the lad
to Him through a hole in the roof.

He seemed not annoyed but delighted,

even touched by this act

of what He called courageous faith.

His words about faith stirred something inside me.

All of a sudden I knew that I could face whatever would happen.

Somehow I sensed there would be no disgrace, the very thing I feared the most.

He bent down to talk with me at my level

and His eyes, His eyes – what color were they?

I cannot recall, for all colors seemed to be

at home in Him,

as if in His eyes – in those eyes

He Himself was also everyone else,

and even me.

I can’t explain what I seemed to see.

But then, He looked into my own eyes

as if He saw the core of me

And He said to me,

“Son, your sins are forgiven.”

At this the crowd grew quiet. Deafeningly silent.

But I was not concerned with them.

I could only try and grasp what He just said.

Forgiven? The words ricocheted around my head.

My thoughts came so quickly.

Suddenly I was back on That Day

when my poor choice had sent me

hurling down an emotional ravine

that had left me reeling

and so devastated, I could hardly move.

How could I have let it happen like that? 

I was powerless against it.

And afterwards, I had lain there in my misery

in darkened silence for so long

that when I tried to move

I couldn’t. And since

even the thought, even a flicker of remembrance of That Day would

bring me such dismay

that it kept me paralyzed inside

as if part of me had died

and the rest of me was in mourning

And unable to rise.

Forgiven, He said.  He’s forgiven me of my sin.

How can He do that? He’s just another man.

But I looked again into His eyes - His eyes

and saw reflected there myself as if my sin

was absorbed into His very being, and then

I knew that it was true

I knew I was forgiven

as if my sin had never been.

That Day, I knew, no longer had control of me

and, just like that, I was free to live again!

While I was still trying to process this

and have it all make sense to me

a discussion was going on with

some men wrapped in tallit.[1]

“So you will know” Yeshua said,

“that the Son of Man

can forgive the sins of men,”

He looked at me again and said,
“Son, take up your bed a walk.”

I had been so overwhelmed and awed

that my guilt had fled

I had forgotten I was still upon my bed.

I looked inside myself for the usual dread

and for the hopelessness but they were gone. 

Carefully I bent my knees

and slowly stood upon my legs.

which no longer felt like useless pegs.

Straightening up inch by inch,

I felt the strength

grow in my body.

I reached for His arm to steady me

but He had already reached for me

to be there as I needed Him

until I stood erect. 

The crowd cheered, at least most of them,

Though a few in the throng

scowled as if He’d done something wrong.

But I didn’t listen for long,

This was so right.

This was so good.

And from where I now stood

I lifted my arms to my brothers and Ya’acov

who peered down through the hole

in the roof above

where they’d watched from that height

and who now were cheering

with all of their might. 

With a love I’d never known before

I gave praise to my God

and great thanks to Yeshua.

“Pick up your bed and go home,” He said.

I gathered my litter under my arm

and climbed over the people in the room

who made room for me to walk

through the crowd as they cheered me on.

I ran – yes I ran – outside to Ya’acov and my brothers who met me there with great joy

and hugs that could smother. 

They lifted me off of the ground, spinning me around, then watched me walk and jump and leap in the sunshine.  When we finally  realized the time, I said,  “Come on. Let’s go home” and I began walking 

into my future where my life was waiting for me to begin again.

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[1] Fringed prayer shawl.