Mark 2:11, “I say to you, rise, take up your bed, and go to your home.”
Jesus does not say to the paralytic, “you are healed of your paralysis,” or “I take away your disability,” rather, He COMMANDS the man to do what is—for him in his disabled state—impossible (ie, “rise, take up your bed, and go home”). It is precisely in seeking to obey the impossible command that the man receives what is necessary to obey, namely, a healed body.
To paraphrase Augustine, God commands what He wills, and then He gives the ability to fulfill what He commands. He does not command the possible, He commands the IMpossible, and graciously grants the ability to obey. This is not only true in obvious examples like Mk 2:11; ultimately, “love your enemies,” is just as impossible for the natural human heart as “stand up and walk” is to a paralyzed body. And yet, in both cases, the Lord grants to those who seek Him in faith the miraculous ability to obey.
In this sense, then, the commands of the Lord are HEALING commands…they are not burdens to be borne, but gifts to be received. Again, the command “love your enemies” is not the high bar set by a judgmental deity looking for reasons to send people to hell, rather, it is a gracious and healing word spoken over our sin-paralyzed hearts: “Dead heart, hateful heart, selfish and hard heart, I say to you, rise from your sick bed, walk on legs of grace, and come to your home.” The same is true for all commands; when received and obeyed in faith, they become words of miraculous healing…words by which decades long “paralysis” can be healed.
And the Lord speaks to what is dead and broken and barren, causing it to live and be healed and be fruitful, precisely because He Himself has borne the totality of death, brokenness, and barrenness (ie, all that is separation from God) in Himself on the cross and overcome these things by His resurrection. Christ gives and fulfills the impossible command that the paralytic rise because He Himself bore the sin and paralysis of this man and rose (Is.53:4-6). In the same way, He commands us in the deadness of our sin to live in love because He Himself, in love, died under our sins and now lives as Love.
