NOTES for Mar 2:1-12

Paying attention to form while failing to see the essence is a characteristic feature of the Pharisees. But this is not a corporate trait of ancient Jewish religious figures; it is a type of human consciousness, a personality type, as a psychologist would say. In the healing recounted today by the evangelist Mark, this personality type appears in all its glory. The scribes who witnessed the healing do not care that Christ raised the paralytic. What matters is only that, from their point of view, He is blaspheming. That God heard Jesus of Nazareth and gave the paralytic a new life does not matter. What matters is that the scribes believe it is wrong to speak that way. Even the principle that “winners are not judged” is repugnant to them. They condemn Christ all the same. Choosing between ideas and a living person, the scribes choose ideas. Sadly, they are not alone...