Go

Go home (2:11)

On 13th May 1981, Mehmet Ali Ağca fired four shots at Pope John Paul II as he was being driven across St Peter's square in his white jeep. The Pope suffered severe loss of blood from the two shots that hit his torso, while Ağca was immediately apprehended by the Vatican security chief, aided by a group of spectators. Ağca was sentenced to life imprisonment but later was forgiven by the Pope and returned home to Turkey. John Paul II survived but thereafter went around in a bullet proof Popemobile, like a museum exhibit in a glass cage. Everyone could still see him but it would take more than a lone gunman with a revolver to get at him again.

Jesus gives the paralysed man two commands, pick up you mat and walk, and make your way to your home. The first is so he knows for sure he has been healed. So what's the second? Is it so everyone else knows for sure that he has been healed. Maybe by now Jesus has already given up on secrecy. Or maybe it is that Jesus knew the man needed to get used to walking in case he forgot he was well and who had healed him.

Sometimes after we have been found by Christ and forgiven of sin we grow used to it. We forget what has been done for us and return to old habits. We become ungrateful or proud or pompous or unloving. Then we need to return to that first moment of freedom and take the long walk home.



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