A Sheet Big Enough to Lower the Planet [and Her Temperature] (Luke 5:17-26)
Climate Bible Study: July 2021
What if your prayers, and those of, say, just three others were sufficient to weave a sheet large enough to lower Planet Earth down gently to the feet of Jesus? What if journalists at COP26 send off their reports of what they witnessed at Glasgow with the tagline: “We have seen remarkable things today”? What if, here in 2021, Jesus is inviting us to recapitulate the story of his healing of the paralyzed man, told most fully in Luke 5:17-26, but also in Matt 9:1-8 and Mark 2:1-12?
Whenever I’m reading a story, any story, I’m looking for the points of disruption. For that matter, it wouldn’t be a story in the first place unless “something (out of the ordinary) happened.” The story of Jesus in Capernaum healing the paralyzed man who was lowered through the roof to him is full of disruptions. To begin with, it’s the story of a miracle, which by definition is a disruption wrought by one who is the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of all creation. And then there’s the matter of tearing a hole in someone’s roof just because you couldn’t get in the front door! I like to imagine the crowd below, annoyed, brushing off dust and straw, and clucking their tongues. The owner of the house was no doubt looking up, horrified. But I like to imagine Jesus with a bemused smile on his face. What’s a little rubble among friends when there are sins to absolve and a broken body to heal?
The smaller disruptions included in a story usually end up being the most revealing, such as when you expect the narrator (in this case, Luke) to say something one way and then he doesn’t; the grammar or the pronoun or one small word seems out of place. Or when you think you know what Jesus is going to do or say next, because “that’s what I would do,” and Jesus does the exact opposite, or at least the slightly skewed. Like I said, this story is full of them.
Two such disruptions are in verse 20 alone of Luke 5: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven.’” The theology I was trained in allows for Jesus seeing MY faith and then forgiving MY sins. Or I remember the stories of other healings in Scriptures where Jesus says, “Go, your [second person singular possessive] faith has made you well.” That’s what I expected to hear in this sentence, and no doubt when Jesus referred to “their” faith, he included the faith of the paralyzed man himself, but Jesus had his eye on all five of these friends: their faith somehow participated in the healing of their friend, spiritually and physically. I know there is already an organization named “Friends of the Earth” but when we pray, that’s who we are: we are like friends of the earth who lower our friend down to the feet of Jesus. He looks up, sees our faith, and we mysteriously get to participate in glory.
The second disruption in verse 20 is one that caught the Pharisees and teachers of the law off guard as well. To be fair to them, this was supposed to be the healing of a paralyzed body. I know that is what I expected, reading this story as if for the first time. It’s what the four friends were hoping for. Even that introductory phrase—“When Jesus saw their faith”—makes sense to me in how faithful intercessory prayer can result in God’s miraculous physical healing. But, the first words out of Jesus’s mouth were, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees considered this blasphemy, since God alone can forgive sins. Jesus challenges them: “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” He then proceeds to command the paralyzed man to stand up and walk. Again, I have been trained to think dualistically, so that this might be perceived as a story where Jesus wants to prioritize his “spiritual” mission (the forgiveness of sins) over physical concerns (the healing of creatures), but Jesus’s point is about the authority that he possesses, and his authority is one, it is integrated, it encompasses body, soul, and eco-system. There is nothing about working on climate change that is not physical. There is nothing that is not spiritual. And just like what Jesus said of this man—now forgiven, now healed, now “praising God”—and his four friends: our faith affects the spiritual climate of an issue like climate change.
One of my greatest joys in this first of Climate Intercessors is to look across and see you, your hands firmly bunching up a corner of the sheet. We flash each other a smile. Sure, we’ll probably catch heck from the owner of the house, but this is good, dusty work. I know that all the ins-and-outs of the Paris Agreement and the negotiations of a COP can be overwhelming, but whenever you feel like it is getting too complicated, just think of climate intercession as simply placing the earth at the feet of Jesus. We can expect him to do . . . well, we can expect him to be Jesus and that feels like enough.
You are very dear to God,
Lowell Bliss
On behalf of the Climate Intercessors leadership team