Luke 5:17-26--Jesus Heals a Paralytic

Luke 5:17-26
English Standard Version
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Jesus Heals a Paralytic
17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, 19 but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed--“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. 26 And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”

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Now Jesus has gained the attention of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law in the same way that John the Baptist did once the crowds started following John, but Jesus' ministry is mostly in Galilee and the Pharisees are mostly centered around the Temple near Jerusalem, so they would have to make quite the trip to come see Him in Galilees.  It seems Jesus probably made it easy for them and came to them as the text says that Jesus was visiting every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem.  Jesus is going to be more confrontational with the Pharisees now during this part of His ministry and they are going to closely scrutinize Him (for good reason as He seems to be claiming to be the Messiah, but also because He has to potential to be the leader of a religious cult or a zealot that wants to overthrow the government).

While Luke does not tell us exactly where Jesus is when this event takes place, some cross-references do tell us the location.  Jesus is back in Capernaum again (which seems kind of like His home base of operation). so we do see that the Pharisees made quite the trip from Jerusalem to come see and examine Him.  The location of the story is not super-important, but it does make sense now why there are so many people in the area that know about Jesus and want to see Him.  This is the same village that implored Jesus to stay and He said that He had to go to the other villages and towns and preach the gospel to them too.  Now He's back!  Is He here to stay?  How long will He be here for this time?  They'd better come to hear and see Him before it's time for Him to leave once again.

Now there were so many people following Jesus and eager to see Him that when He went into the this house, the whole house was filled with people pushing in on each other to get closer to Him and the people were pressing together outside the house to get close enough to hear Him and perhaps have the chance for Him to heal them or someone they had brought to Him for healing.  Somehow though the Pharisees had no issue getting inside to hear Jesus (they probably used their power and position to make people move out of the way and give them the best place to observe Jesus).  Now there was a man who was a paralytic, a quadriplegic, and his friends carried him around on a bed when he needed to go out (what great friends he had).  These friends knew that Jesus was able to heal this man and they wanted to take him to Jesus for healing, but they could not get in because of the crowds, so they decided to use whatever means necessary to get their friend to Jesus and they went up onto the roof (the roofs in Israel at that time were flat) and they opened up the roof to lower their friend down on his stretcher/cot right in front of Jesus.  They had faith that if they could just get their friend to Jesus that Jesus would heal Him (note that at this point we have not seen Jesus heal anyone at a distance yet, so it's reasonable to them that they have to get their friend physically in front of Jesus so that Jesus can talk to their friend and possibly touch him).

We can only imagine that the owner of the house was not very pleased with these men making a hole in his roof, but we don't see that part of the story.  We see some friends that are not going to give up on their paralyzed friend getting the opportunity to come face-to-face with God because so far, he would have been kept out of the Temple due to his disability.  Jesus does not ask the man what he wants or needs, but He just simply said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."  This must have been most strange to the friends who brought this man to Jesus for healing and to the crowds who were thinking they were going to see a miracle, but Jesus is setting up the Pharisees who He knows are in the room (and Jesus knows that this man needed His sins to be forgiven).  The Pharisees know the Scriptures well enough to know that only God has the power to forgive sins and that that God had instructed such atonement to happen a certain way in the Old Testament (at the Temple by way of blood sacrifice) and now Jesus is claiming that He can just speak and forgive their sins.  Of course this would sound like He was declaring to be God in the flesh, because He was.

The Pharisees are reasoning this in their own minds (and hardening their hearts in the process), and Jesus proves even more that He is God in the flesh by telling them what they were thinking and answering them, though they had not spoken a word of it out loud.  Don't miss this verse:  "22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts?"  Jesus has just proven to them that He is God in the flesh and is omniscient, knowing even their inward thoughts.  Jesus doesn't stop there though, for He knows the hearts of the Jews, especially these Jewish leaders, and the will want to sign to prove to them that this claim that He's making is true.  So, He says, "So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." (calling Himself the Son of Man is in and of itself a claim of divinity), but before He did this, Jesus had a little teaching session with the Pharisees.  He asked them a question that everyone would assume to be rhetorical, though Jesus will show it was not rhetorical at all.  Which is easier?  To tell a man that his sins have been forgiven (where there is no visible, testable, verifiable evidence), or to tell the paralytic man to "Rise and walk."?"  Clearly the first is "harder" if true because other prophets have done miracles of healing, but only God can forgive sin.  But the second is falsifiable and something that no one would say unless they could really do it--someone might claim to have the power to forgive sin but not be able to do it and give people false hope.  So, Jesus argued from the lesser to the greater here and said that so that they would know that He had the authority to forgive sins, He would heal the paralytic man, and He told the paralytic man, "Rise, pick up your bed, and go home." 

The text tells us that the man immediately rose and picked up his bed/cot/mat and went home glorifying God for all to see and hear the miracle that had been done, not only in his body, but also in his heart.  Don't forget that Jesus also forgave this man's sins--that was the greatest miracle that happened this day, the healing of the man's body was just a sign to the people, especially the Pharisees, that the inward healing had taken place.  Yet there is a fringe benefit to this too.  The man is now able to go to the Temple and offer sacrifices of thanksgiving to the LORD for healing, and the man is now able to follow after Jesus (if that's what he wants to do).  We focus often on the friends bringing the paralytic to Jesus as some sort of lesson on evangelism.  That's not a terrible application, but the point of this story is Jesus and that He is God in the flesh and that He has the authority not only over the evil spirits and diseases and disabilities, but He also has the power within Himself to will that sins be forgiven .  No man should have this power since all sin is sin against God and only the one offended can offer forgiveness.  If there was any question to Jesus' deity at this point, this should put it to rest--it makes no sense when some claim that Jesus never claimed to be God.  He did so right here and the Pharisees and those in the crowd understood it, but they couldn't argue with it.  All the people can say is, "We have seen extraordinary things today," but nothing they see will make them believe if God does not change their hearts.