The promise made to Abraham was that all nations would be
blessed who blessed Abraham. Potiphar
saw that the Lord was with Joseph, Abraham's great-grandson, and so Potiphar
blessed Joseph by giving him stewardship of more. When he did, the Lord blessed and increased
Potiphar. Potiphar's wife, however, had
a thing for Joseph and attempted to seduce him, quite forcefully. Joseph flees her and leaves behind his
garment. Where have we seen this before,
Joseph without his garment, his garment as identification. (Cue the Jeopardy music) Why we just saw this,
his brothers took his garment, the garment by which his father could identify
him. Even in prison, after Potiphar had
him arrested over this charge concerning sporting with his wife, the Lord
blessed Joseph, gave him favor with the jailer, and he became steward of all,
even in prison.
In yesterday's lesson we saw Jesus reaching out and touching
a leper when no one else would touch such a one, and today's Gospel reading has
a similar incident. A paralytic is
brought before Jesus and instead of first healing the man Jesus forgives his
sins. The scribes pose the question in
their hearts, not with their lips, of who can do such a thing as forgive
sins. Only God has power to forgive
sin. Jesus knew what was in their
hearts. Because He was God? If we are thoughtful people, careful in what
we say and do, we have to admit that if we took the time we, too, could know
this objection. Jesus, without
defensiveness or apology for misspeaking, speaks into their thoughts. He poses a problem, which would be greater,
forgiveness of sin or healing a paralytic.
The answer should be, healing the paralytic, because priests could
assure penitent sinners, sacrificers, that they were forgiven. Jesus then speaks healing and, lo and behold,
the man walks. I believe Jesus wasn't
picking a fight with the scribes, He spoke forgiveness first because the
paralysis was tied to some sin.
We have the mind of Christ.
How can Paul say that given the divisions in the church at Corinth? His argument is that they aren't living up to
their call and potential, they are living at the carnal level rather than the
spiritual level. Our bodies and minds
need to be brought into alignment by the Gospel. Discipline is the process of aligning those
two things. We can diet to lose weight
when we recognize in our heads that we are fat and unhealthy and diet is a form
of discipline. We can also diet because
we recognize that the body is made for more than food and drink, it is a
temple. In one example our mind controls
our body and in the second our spirits control the body. The first sin was
carnal, the body overcame the spirit. Jealousy
and strife are carnal, desire based problems.
Paul says that is the problem, they haven't been sanctified, they aren't
pursuing spiritual and eternal things.
At the end of the day, Paul says, whatever materials are used to build
the house need to be as durable as the foundation, Christ. Our problems, like Potiphar's wife, and like
the paralytic and the scribes, are typically related to spiritual problems
masquerading as something else.
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