GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 2:11
Slap on the Mat
On my high school wrestling team, after what seemed like an hour’s physical exercise and running the stairs over and over—probably more like 30 minutes—we began practice. Coach Smitty, William C. Schmitt, demonstrated some moves. In practice, there were no bells or whistles. Coach Smitty would kneel beside the mat while his students assumed their positions, standing facing one another. Then the coach would slap the mat, and the match started. The object, of course, was to take down one’s opponent and pin him by holding his shoulders flat on the mat for two seconds. It all started, though, with the coach’s slap on the mat.
According to St. Mark, four friends carried a paralytic to Jesus, who pronounced his sins forgiven. Some guardians of orthodoxy—scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the law—were aghast that someone would presume to do what only God could do: forgive sin, a statement punishable by stoning to death. Knowing their criticism, Jesus asked whether it was easier to forgive sins or to order a paralytic to walk. Then, speaking to the paralytic, Jesus said, “I say to you, ‘Get up, take your mat, and go to your house.’” (Mark 2:11) There are three imperatives in this short statement: get up, take up, and go. These were not requests; they were imperatives—commands spoken by someone with authority.
Jesus’ pithy statement to the paralytic reminded me of Coach Smitty’s slap on the mat: short, visible, and immediate—get up, take up, and go. In one sense, this marked the beginning of a contest between Jesus and the guardians of orthodoxy. Jesus put action behind his words; they, on the other hand, spent hours and days quibbling about words.
The mat has been struck: the contest is on. One must choose which “team” they will join.
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