Book of Common Prayer

Two into one will go

¹¹ So then, remember this! In human terms, that is, in your “flesh,” you are “Gentiles.” You are the people who the so-called “circumcision” refer to as the so-called “uncircumcision”—circumcision, of course, being something done by human hands to human flesh. ¹² Well, once upon a time you were separated from the Messiah. You were detached from the community of Israel. You were foreigners to the covenants which contained the promise. There you were, in the world with no hope and no god!

¹³ But now, in Messiah Jesus, you have been brought near in the Messiah’s blood—yes, you, who used to be a long way away! ¹⁴ He is our peace, you see. He has made the two to be one. He has pulled down the barrier, the dividing wall, that turns us into enemies of each other. He has done this in his flesh, ¹⁵ by abolishing the law with its commands and instructions.

The point of doing all this was to create, in him, one new human being out of the two, so making peace. ¹⁶ God was reconciling both of us to himself in a single body, through the cross, by killing the enmity in him.

Unveiling the new Temple

¹⁷ So the Messiah came and gave the good news. Peace had come! Peace, that is, for those of you who were a long way away, and peace, too, for those who were close at hand. ¹⁸ Through him, you see, we both have access to the father in the one spirit.

¹⁹ This is the result. You are no longer foreigners or strangers. No: you are fellow citizens with God’s holy people. You are members of God’s household. ²⁰ You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Messiah Jesus himself as the cornerstone. ²¹ In him the whole building is fitted together, and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²² You, too, are being built up together, in him, into a place where God will live by the spirit.

The healing of the paralytic

2 Jesus went back again to Capernaum, where, after a few days, word got round that he was at home. ² A crowd gathered, so that people couldn’t even get near the door as he was telling them the message.

³ A party arrived: four people carrying a paralyzed man, bringing him to Jesus. ⁴ They couldn’t get through to him because of the crowd, so they opened up the roof above where he was. When they had dug through it, they used ropes to let down the stretcher on which the paralyzed man was lying.

⁵ Jesus saw their faith, and said to the paralyzed man, “Child, your sins are forgiven!”

⁶ “How dare the fellow speak like this?” grumbled some of the legal experts among themselves. ⁷ “It’s blasphemy! Who can forgive sins except God?”

⁸ Jesus knew at once, in his spirit, that thoughts like this were in the air. “Why do your hearts tell you to think that?” he asked. ⁹ “Answer me this,” he went on. “Is it easier to say to this cripple, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your stretcher, and walk’?

¹⁰ “You want to know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins?” He turned to the paralytic. ¹¹ “I tell you,” he said, “Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.” ¹² He got up, picked up the stretcher in a flash, and went out before them all.

Everyone was astonished, and they praised God. “We’ve never seen anything like this!” they said.