Trinity 19 + Matthew 9:1-8 + October 22, 2017
Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1) Jesus enters Capernaum, His own city, and is confronted by several men carrying a paralytic on his bed. St. Mark gives us more details. Mark records that Jesus was in a house, and “ Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door ” (Mark 2:2). Jesus preaches repentance and God’s mercy to the packed house. But the crowd poses a problem for the friends of the paralytic. They can’t get their friend’s bed to Jesus. Undeterred, they climb onto roof, hauling their friend in the bed up their too. The Israelites build their houses to have flat roofs, which is why these friends can then dig a bed-sized hole in the roof. Once “ they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying ” (Mark 2:4). It must’ve been quite a sight. Their ...