Healing Paralysis (Luke 5:17-26)

One day He was teaching; and there were {some} Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting {there}  who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and {from} Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was {present} for Him to perform healing.

As we continue to follow Jesus in His ministry, we find Him coming in contact with one of the strictest divisions among the Jews. The Pharisees were dedicated to keeping every minuscule detail of the law of God (their view of it anyway). In some cases, they were so strong about the minutest point in the law that they would forsake common sense to keep it.

Barclay said of the Pharisees in his commentary:

“If we are to understand what happened to Jesus we must understand something about the Law, and the relationship of the scribes and Pharisees to it. When the Jews returned from Babylon about 440 B.C. they knew well that, humanly speaking, their hopes of national greatness were gone. They therefore deliberately decided that they would find their greatness in being a people of the law. They would bend all their energies to knowing and keeping God’s law. The basis of the law was the Ten Commandments. These commandments are great wide principles for life. They are not rules and regulations; they do not legislate for each and every circumstance. For a certain section of the Jews that was not enough. They desired not great principles; they sought a rule to cover every conceivable situation in life. From the Ten Commandments, they proceeded to develop and elaborate these rules.”

The following are examples of the rules they had made:

“The commandment says, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy’; and then goes on to lay it down that no work must be done (Exodus 20:8-11). But that was not enough for the Jews. They asked, ‘what is work?’ They went on to define work under 39 different heads which they called, ‘Fathers of Work.’ Even that was not enough. Each of these heads was infinitely sub-divided. Literally thousands of rules and regulations began to emerge. These were called the Oral Law, and they began to be set not only at level with the Ten Commandments, but even above them.”

“One of the works forbidden on the Sabbath was carrying a burden. Jeremiah 17:21-24 says, ‘Take heed to yourselves and bear no burden on the Sabbath day.’ But these legalists insisted, a burden must be defined. So the definition was given. A burden is, ‘food equal in weight to a dried fig, enough wine for mixing in a goblet, milk enough for one to swallow, oil enough to anoint a small member, water enough to moisten an eye-salve, paper enough to write a custom-house notice upon, ink enough to write two letters, reed enough to make a pen’…and so on endlessly.”

One final example from Barclay will lead us to our point for today,

“To heal on the Sabbath was to work. It was laid down that only if life was in actual danger could healing be done; and then steps could only be taken to keep the sufferer from getting worse, not to improve his condition. So a plain bandage could be put on a wound, but not any ointment; plain wadding could be put into a sore ear, but not medicated. It is easy to see that there is no limit to this. The Scribes were the experts in the law who knew all of these rules and regulations, and who deduced them from the law. The name Pharisee means, ‘The Separated One’; and the Pharisees were those who had separated themselves from ordinary people and ordinary life in order to keep these rules and regulations.  Note two things. First, for the Scribes and Pharisees these rules were a matter of life and death; to break one of them was deadly sin. Second, only people desperately in earnest would ever have tried to keep them, for they must have made life supremely uncomfortable.”

When Jesus arrives in the presence of these teachers, the text says, “the power of the Lord was {present} for Him to perform healing.” Jesus has spent a large portion of His earthly ministry thus far teaching and healing others. Now, as He attempts to continue that work, He will have to face the strict views of the Pharisees. These Pharisees were from all of the surrounding regions and had come together and were sitting in a meeting within the place where Jesus had drawn a large multitude. Jesus didn’t need any of their rules and regulations; the needs of man were of much more importance than some false manmade religious agenda. While Jesus had a high respect for God’s law, He wasn’t going to accept the erroneous twists that the Scribes and Pharisees had placed upon its commands. Eventually, Jesus became hated and was then killed under the accusation that He was a lawbreaker and that He taught others to do the same. Jesus wasn’t a lawbreaker, but He was a lawmaker. On this occasion, He was teaching these so-called religious leaders that they were failing to remember what was most important to God. They had forgotten about the weightier matters of the law. All they wanted to do was fight over the words and ways of Jesus dealing with this paralyzed man who needed some help. It is from this point on that Jesus will be under the scrutiny of the critical eyes of the Pharisees.

And {some} men {were} carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. But not finding any {way} to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle {of the crowd}  in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, He said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you."

The house in Palestine would have been flat on top with long boards that were only raised to a slight peak for the rainwater to run off. Each board would have a small gap in between that would be filled with small twigs that were covered in mortar that were marled over. It was very easy to remove the roof on one of these homes.

On this occasion, some individuals had a paralyzed man on a stretcher, and they were trying to carry him to Jesus to be healed. As we have already seen, Jesus tends to draw a large crowd for the healings that he performs. While it would have been hard for one person to press their way through the crowds to get to Jesus, these men were going to have to find out how to make their way to Him with a sick friend lying on his stretcher. The regular entrance to where Jesus was located was apparently blocked by others, because the text says, “…not finding any {way} to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle {of the crowd}  in front of Jesus”

These men were so intent on making sure that they were able to get to Jesus for a healing that they climbed up onto the roof of the place where Jesus was and pulled back the roof to lower their friend to Jesus. Right in the middle of all of these people who had come to find healing from the Lord, a man is lowered into the presence of Jesus with the aid of others. How many of us are so intent on helping our friends get to Christ that we would be willing to go to great lengths to get them there? If you have a friend who has not yet come to Jesus, they are sick with sin. You need to take the time to lead them to the One who can take away that burden from their life. Imagine being paralyzed and unable to move, knowing that somebody loved you enough to lead you to Jesus. Think about the gratitude that would be shown by the one who was set free from that handicap. The same is true when we lead a dead sinner to a new life in Jesus Christ (I Tim. 4:16; James 5:19-20).

Because of the effort that these individuals had put forth to get to Jesus, the text says, “Seeing their faith, He said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you." While I am not an advocate for being saved by someone else’s faith, here we can see the importance of the faith of our relatives and friends. How many times have you heard someone mention, their “mother’s prayers” their, “daddy’s constant example of dedication to serving the Lord” even perhaps, “a friend who would never give up on you”. When faith is put into action, it leads to the result of action on the part of the Lord. As the scriptures teach, “Faith without works is useless”(James 2:18-24). The Lord is waiting for us to draw near to Him so that He can draw near to us (James 4:8).

-Jesus comforts this sick man by calling Him, “Friend…”. Anyone who comes to Jesus to have sins removed is a friend to Him. Jesus once said in John 15:14,  "You are My friends if you do what I command you.” The Lord commands that we come to Him and receive the rest that we need from life’s heavy burdens (Matthew 11:28-30).

The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this {man} who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?" But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts? "Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins have been forgiven you,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? "But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,"-- He said to the paralytic-- "I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home." Immediately, he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.

Now this is where the Pharisees step in to analyze the work of Jesus in healing this paralyzed man. They assumed that what Jesus was saying and doing was nothing but blasphemies. Their question was, “Who can forgive sins, but God alone?"

Understand that sickness and sin were always inseparable in the minds of the Jews. The Pharisees would often claim that if someone was ill, it was because they were a sinner. Until their sins were removed, the sickness would continue. When anyone sick was healed, this sect would then say that they were also forgiven of all sin.

Because of this view, Jesus is not only making a strong point about who He is and what He is able to do, but at the same time, He is setting the Pharisees up so that they can see how ridiculously legalistic they are with their own laws.

Jesus further demonstrates His Divine qualities in knowing the hearts of these Pharisees. Matthew's account in Matthew 9:4 informs us that Jesus judged their thoughts to be evil. They were making a distinction between what Jesus was saying and what they thought He should be saying. In their minds, forgiving sin was only an act that God could perform. Little did they know, God was the One working among them in the Lord, Jesus. Besides that truth, understand that what Jesus was getting the Pharisees to see was that He was the Savior of the world. Jesus said to these scribes and Pharisees that this work was done so that they would “know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” 

Notice Jesus’ claim to be the fulfillment of a long-awaited promise of a coming Son of Man in the Messianic hope, while he also claims the right to be able to forgive sins. The people had a false view of the Messiah, as they thought He would surely benefit them physically, but God was the only one who would help them spiritually. The people didn’t comprehend that the Messiah would be the deliverer of their souls. All authority belongs to Him, and we must heed His commands.

The question asked of the Pharisees by Jesus was, “Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins have been forgiven you,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'"?. Which of these statements do you think was easier to say? Would you choose, “Your sins have been forgiven you” or “Get up and walk”? Truly, it would be easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven”, since there would be no visible evidence of that taking place. It would have been more difficult to say, “Get up and walk”, since it would require that the one being healed show visible signs of being able to act in accordance with those instructions. Jesus says both of these statements on this occasion to prove his Divinity before the scribes and Pharisees.

As a side note, one of the most powerful teachings Jesus ever delivered to the Pharisees had to do with being hypocritical. In that lesson, Jesus taught them that they must clean the inside before cleaning the outside. It could be that Jesus was emphasizing that point here as He states in order the proper method of healing. He said, “Your sins have been forgiven you,” first, and then said, “Get up and walk”.

We cannot walk in the light of God’s word without removing the darkness that is within our lives. Let us rid our lives of sin, and we will be blessed with the ability to live an abundant life.

Jesus finished his discourse with the paralytic in saying, "I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home." It seems that Jesus was simply appeasing the Pharisees by showing them that the miracle He was about to work would prove that He was God in the flesh.

They could not deny the wonderful healing that had taken place before their critical eyes. They would either accept Jesus as the Son of God or reject Him as a phony. The text tells us that Jesus was given power from on high to carry out the work of His Father. While the Pharisees could question Him for claiming to be able to forgive sins, they could only admit that a notable miracle had occurred.

This end of this section of our text concludes, “Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.” There are two things here that we want to notice. One is the diligence of the paralytic in obeying every word that Jesus said (“got up…picked up…went home”). Do we respond to the Lord’s commands with that much dedication? Secondly, recognize the response that the man had after Jesus healed him. The man went home praising and glorifying God. He understood where His blessings came from, and so should we. How are we doing with giving glory to God in our daily routine? Think about it!

They were all struck with astonishment and {began} glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen remarkable things today."

Interestingly, the response of the crowd who heard the message and saw the miracle matched the response of the healed man. While they were astonished by what had happened, it also caused them to have respect for the power and authority that was exercised on that occasion. The text tells us that the statement of the people was, “We have seen remarkable things today."

Indeed, when the Lord impacts our lives as He works His will in us, we can all agree and repeat those fine words. Perhaps someone is reading this who the Lord can change by helping them to overcome sin and its setbacks. Whether you need to become a Christian or you need to repent of some sin that you have committed after dedicating yourself to Him, allow the Lord to do something remarkable for you today. Reach out to me and let me know how I can assist you in your spiritual needs.