Text: Matthew 9:1-8

Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2 Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” 4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” 7 Then the man got up and went home. 8 When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.

Friends today I like to highlight some thoughts from the text using the following phrases for our bible study.

“Paralyzed Man” - The divinity and humanity of Jesus is inseparable. His compassion was enacted in different forms to heal the society. Healing the paralyzed man is one such act of compassion and tells us a motif behind it. More than the magical display of Jesus the moral theme in this pericope spins the odds out of human life. I invite you to imagine this physically changed man as a society is crippled with many negatives. We cannot deny the presence of derogatory division and discrimination in society which has paralyzed the normal life what God as complemented to the life in general. The abuse of resources and the lack of proximity to the resources is the ill effect of the polluted and the insane mind of the dominant society and mindsets. However here, the and voices and the works of Jesus emphasize the importance of resolving it as a call of God. While celebrating the miraculous power of Jesus one should also remember that these acts are performed to communicate the truth, to restore the dignified and blessed life in every individual and society.

Here we can see two kinds of people, the people who brought this man to Jesus and the other the teachers of the law. While elaborating it we can define them as:

1. Who wants to resolve the issue. Genuine people always think about others. They are passionate towards the suffering and the suffering communities. They display a quality stewardship to the needy and the disabled. They like to serve, because the love of God compels them to do so. They attempt even the human impossibilities with the faculty of faith. Some men brought this physically challenged man to Jesus because this man’s problem was not addressed properly for a long time. They were courageous to address the problem and attempted to resolve it by bringing it to Jesus. 

2. Who worried about their “own authority” instead of resolutions. The second group of people were so concerned about themselves and their role in resolving instead of man’s healing. They were so cheap in putting themselves in an impossible act of healing. Instead of introspecting their call they started to question the young Jesus and his words. Their intentions were crippled by their own understanding, because they were alienated from hope and God. The new teaching of Jesus and his offering of new life dissipated them from their own understandings about life and humans. The proposals for change irritated them because they lacked vision with God for life. They strongly believed in God who santiones hierarchy and supremacy. They failed to understand the inclusive power of God who offers new life in Christ to all. They were very narrow and were mundane in their thinking and entertained evil instead of Good.

Authority of Jesus

The text clearly says how Jesus offered a holistic healing to this man. The authority of God helps people to understand themselves and help them to resolve their own issues. Every human being has the capacity of God to celebrate life in its fullness. The vicious human agency and its uncanny dominant nature spins the harmony board into misery and fails to display the design of God. Jesus was keen displaying his authority in healing the wounded by his words and deeds. He offered a new life. He said “Get up, take your mat and go home” is a powerful phrase because it has a deep theological motif. His words of absolution gave hope to the hopeless man and empowered him to handle his own problems. ‘Mat’- is a sign of a long-term problem and Jesus asked him to take up his own problem and walk with it with the power of God. When God is with us, we can handle any situation with faith.

God Bless These Words, Amen!

Text: Luke 8:26-39

26 They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” 29 For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31 And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. 32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. 33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. 34 When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, 35 and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. 37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. 

Reflections
Exorcism is one of the important ministries that Jesus performed during his lifetime in the world. He displayed his passion to resolve the uncanny riddles in human life. Many a time with a reasoning mind, it is difficult to explain the exorcism because the cognitive impulses
become blurred in the world of mysteries. Mysteries in life are enormous because of the facts we believe and the perceptions and a partial truth. And the call to a Christian is to realize the fullest truth in grasping the eternity while living in a temporal world. The incredible power of God is beyond all human scales and generates a sense of breaking the barriers which dehumanize humans to attain his/her inalienable blessings of God.

The above text poses many arguments, and I would like to argue about this demon possessed man with following points. We need to understand the reason for his possession. “Possession” whether a choice or forced upon him is one of the arguments that sprouts in the analytical mind. Perse would have been forced to live in segregation, and that would have made him to be an anomalous person from the general stream. This man was naked and did not live in a house but in tombs. I feel it’s a symbolic representation of a state that one lacks his/her own self -realization when they have the ability to do so. A naked man can be mapped as the one who lacks respect for his own body. Even though we have different philosophies spinning around the world, normally in a modern view, clothes do give some status to the body. Specially in a caste ridden society the outcaste is denied to wear a top and denied to wear his/her own sandals. Thirdly, he lived in the tombs. We can interpret tombs as a symbolic representation of
segregated settlements in a casteist and racist world. I do understand this interpretation as a limit because some people like isolation. The key point is that when it becomes a choice it can be appreciated, but when it is forced on someone, then we need to challenge it. Because choice is one of the traits of freedom and freedom enhances one's self-dignity.

The text quite frankly tells us that Jesus travels from one shore to another to set this man free and transform the man to realize himself, respect himself and to live with self- dignity. Jesus calls us today to continue to help people to realize themselves. Defining who am I will be the first self in liberation. Defining the “I” must be relative and mutual. Everyone is in the image of God, and we need to restore that image to those who have lost it; that is our call. The human and mundane structures have collapsed the divine design of equality and liberty. The divine Jesus and his moral philosophy demands we restore human dignity to all for a decent life.

May God bless these words.

​Amen.

Text: Luke 8:22-25

22 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and  set out. 23 As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.24 The disciples went and
woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown! ”He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25 “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

Reflections:
1. “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.”
Change is the unchangeable phenomenon in life. Static becomes the sign of death, but mobility is the sign of life. Life never ceases for those who believe in mobility. For Christians, even physical death is an entry to eternity. Life can't be ceased; it belongs to God. The text tells us that God always travels with us on our journeys. He invites us to walk our journey. The providence of God is a perpetual promise for those who are committed to follow His path. “God is with us” can be understood when we retrospect about our own journeys, whatever they may be. Traveling with God is a commitment and a call. Life becomes hard when we confine ourselves with a side. Life has many ends and sides which have to be taken notice of to perceive the reality in life. Mobility and openness are interrelated concepts of life. The disciples were open for surprises, and they followed Jesus. Jesus can be conceptually understood as the Truth, the Life and the Way. When we follow the truth, we don’t need to worry because God is truth, and it is eternal. Let us travel with Jesus; travel with truth.

2. “As they sailed, He fell asleep.”
Truth sometimes is hidden. The falsified notions threaten us and spins our life in an unpredictable domain. The miseries in life delineate our committed journey because the forces of the world pose their authority on us as ultimate. But God is All and God is the Beginning and End of life. A faith journey always accompanies a struggle because it is rooted in life and enhances it. True faith never destroys anything but creates hope and peace. Faith is one of the faculties to travel with God and for God. Here, the sleeping Jesus is in the midst of the disciples who were struggling with the wind and storm; this could be interpreted symbolically as the loneliness of an individual or a group who is left alone in the world of mendacious complexities surrounded by fears. But the assurance of God in our struggles is the greatest power to endure the situation. Faith in God is the key to face the threatening agencies at their faces. Let us have faith in God and his promise; let us travel with Jesus; travel with faith.

3. “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”
In our life journey, we need to be nailed with Christ. Christ becomes our apex. He is the true gravity of our life and those who walk with illusions and fantasies need to devote themselves to the life of Christ because life has many mysterious knots which keep life a mystery. A devotee of Christ will rely on the power of God and not by his own strength to untangle a tangible life. A devotee of Christ always understands his limitations and humbly submits to the will of God. He also wrestles with God and searches for resolution. Devotees of Christ will constantly work for resolutions and never let the forces destroy their journey for life. We, as the followers and devotees of Christ, are called to wrestle with God together with God in finding the resolutions created by the forces of the negative world.

May God Bless these Words. Amen.

Text: Luke 8:19-21

19 Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but
they could not reach him because of the crowd. 20 And
he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are
standing outside, wanting to see you.” 21 But he said to
them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear
the word of God and do it.”

The family is a basic unit of society and initiated by God, the Creator. While giving them the Ten
Commandments, one of the powerful commandments is, “Honor your parents”. In the Hebrew bible we can trace, 

“כבד את־אביך ואת־אמך למען יאריכון ימיך על האדמה אשר־יהוה אלהיך נתן לך .” 
1
meaning, “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that they may go well with you in the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you”.

This pronounces a blessing of longevity, and no other commandment complements its subjects
except this one. It is mandatory for children to take care of their parents, and if they dishonor
them by striking, then it is a highly punishable breach of the Torah and even leads to stoning.
In Jewish literature, the responsibility of the children is elaborated in a fascinating way, “What
is it that women (and men) are obligated to do it for their parents?” The rabbis say that
reverence involves not sitting in a parents’ place, contradicting a parent, or arguing with a parent.

Honor is defined as offering food and drink to one’s parents, helping them get dressed, and help them to go out and in (Bavli, Kiddushin 31b). The many anecdotes that the Talmud brings to illustrate honor to parents all feature old and sometimes even demented parents. The conclusion is that the Torah, according to the rabbis, is not telling parents how to keep rebellious kids in line—which is what many parents erroneously think the verse is saying—but rather telling adults in the prime of life how to deal with their aging parents. The Torah is saying that children must take care of aging parents’ day by day, meal by meal. This is surely a taxing demand. Most parents today would not dream of asking their children to look after them, and most children today could not imagine doing so. But that is how the rabbis understand the Torah. And since they make no distinction between good and abusive parents, the rabbis imply that the same rules hold for all parents.2

In such a background and context, Jesus’ new hermeneutics invites us not to evade from the
Torah, rather, it helps us to see a larger family. Here he qualifies and defines the real mother
and brother of Jesus. We never knew he visited them later, but some propositions force many
to misunderstand this text. I would like to share a few thoughts.

1. Say No to nepotism: I feel Jesus did not play any nepotism while doing the mission of God. On the other hand, he was responsible to the family, even while carrying the cross, by asking his own disciple to take care of his mother, Mary, who suffered in enacting the plan of God. Jesus always insisted on the universal family. Family of God is always inclusive, which includes the forgiver and the forgiven. The Lord’s Prayer is so self-evident about Jesus’ understanding of God’s family which is grounded in fullness for all. It never excludes anyone and anticipates the deliverance from evil.

2. Say Yes to God’s Will: In life, the self- emerging will is a contra to the general will. The general will is not the will of the majority but the will of the least, last and lost sections of the society. Philosophical realms speculate over this ultimatum of life, which envisions peace and justice for all in a broken and unjust society. Jesus was equipping the people through his passionate words to live a divine life. God’s ill will be discerned in a context which may encounter challenges while actively executing it. Persecutions and oppositions are inevitable, but faith in God will empower us in this engagement. 

Let us continue as a church family to say, we are one in Christ, and we are united to the whole human bond as brothers and sisters. By living such standards, we will continue to transform the world that is divided and self-centered.

God Bless these words! Amen.

1 Hebrew Bible. Exodus 20:12
2 http://www.jtsa.edu/caring-for-our-parents