With the arrival of the first organized opposition to Jesus, opportunity is provided for Him to demonstrate with explicit clarity the meaning of His mission. Here is the setting.

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. (v 17)

It happened “one of those days,” that is, a week day, while He was teaching in a house in Capernaum (Mk. 2:1) Luke tells us that some “Pharisees” and “teachers” of the Law were sitting in His audience. Apparently a fairly large delegation  from the villages of Galilee, Judea and even Jerusalem came to look into Jesus’ ministry. Pharisees were the most serious believers of their day, strict in the religious observances and moral conduct, Pharisees were so eager not to break God’s laws that they “put a fence about the Law,” as it sometimes has been expressed. Morris cites the example of the third commandment forbidding taking the Lord’s name in vain. They took the command a step further, refusing even to pronounce the Lord’s name. This pattern extended across the whole Law of God, with, “the unfortunate result of externalizing religion,” Morris explains.[1] Rules were multiplied, to cite another example, defining work in relation to the Sabbath, and what constituted a burden not to be carried (Jer. 17:21-24). Josephus estimates the number of Pharisees at a little over 6,000 (Antiquities, XVII. 42). Yet despite their relatively few numbers, they were very influential. “They were the unofficial religious leaders of the day and they spearheaded the opposition to Jesus,” Morris explains further.[2]

Only Luke tells us that the “teachers of the Law” were present, emphasizing, says Gooding, “that on this occasion a number of Judaism’s official teachers of the Old Testament were present.”[3] Whereas the priests to whom the leper was sent were experts in Israel’s rituals, these teachers were experts in Israel’s theology. These two groups had come “in force, from all over the small country,” as Wright observes.[4]  They were there not so much to listen as to judge, not to learn but to critique. Every minister knows what it is to have persons of this sort in one’s congregation. Their task is to catch the preacher in some misstatement, some error for which he may be condemned and censored. This is what Jesus faces. Apparently they persisted in their ill-motives though they were hearing His teachings and seeing “the power of the Lord.” They were witnesses of a ministry that amazed and astonished others. They observed in particular the healing of a paralytic.

Yet this adversarial context becomes the occasion for Jesus both to state and illustrate the central purpose of His mission. Jesus came that He might forgive our sins and deliver us from our spiritual paralysis. How does He do so? Through faith and through His power to heal.

Paralysis

We begin with the problem of paralysis.

“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.” (v 18)

The man needing healing is “taken with a palsy” or as the KJV puts it “paralyzed” for undisclosed reasons. He is being carried on a “bed” or “stretcher” by some men. He is not able to move about on his own. He cannot bring himself to the physicians. He cannot take himself to a healer. His condition, particularly in the ancient world, is more like death. He lies immobile. He can do thing to improve his condition. He cannot move himself to a place of healing. He has no personal power by which to heal himself. His condition is one of complete dependence, complete helplessness, and complete hopelessness.

For these reasons, paralysis is an outstanding metaphor for the human condition. Bad as his physical condition is, it is paralleled by a spiritual condition that is even worse. This is why Jesus addresses the spiritual first saying, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” (v. 20) Terrible as physical paralysis is, the immediate need is not physical healing, but spiritual. He may remain for the moment physically imprisoned in a lifeless body so long as he is first delivered from his spiritual paralysis. The physical may wait because the spiritual is the greater need. Physical paralysis is paralleled by an even more serious paralysis of the soul.

We are to see in the paralytic our own spiritual condition. We are born in sin and under the wrath and curse of God. Yet there is nothing that we can do to extract ourselves from our circumstances. We are unable and disinclined to move ourselves to God. We are unable to save ourselves or bring ourselves to One who can save us. We are spiritually paralyzed. The Apostle Paul likens us to corpses, “dead in our trespasses and sins.” (Eph. 2:1). The Bible describes our spiritual condition as “helpless” (Rom. 5:6). It describes us as “hopeless” (Eph. 2:12). Jesus says, “no one can come to me”­ ─ we’re like the paralytic, unable to bring ourselves to the physician ─ “unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (Jn. 6:44; cf 6:65). We are spiritually weak, spiritually impotent, spiritually paralyzed. We cannot subject ourselves to the Law of God and we cannot please God  (Rom. 8:7, 8).

If we are to be healed, we must depend on forces outside ourselves: the initiative of the faithful and ultimately, the intervention of God and upon whom they call. We must all understand this about ourselves, and in understanding it abandon any thought of saving ourselves. We cannot through moral deeds or religious works bring life to ourselves.

“Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my fears forever flaw,

All for sin could not atone;  

Thou must save and Thou alone.” [5]

We must look beyond ourselves for help.

The faithful

Help does come for the paralytic, first in the form of believing friends. Having explored avenues of entrance to the house in which Jesus is teaching and healing and seen that they are blocked by the crowd (v. 18b), they do not give up. These are men of great faith in Jesus’ power to heal. They press on. Ryle notes, the “determined earnestness” of these men.”[6]

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. (v 19).

Houses in ancient Israel had flat roofs, the roofing material consisting of tiles, and typically  with external staircases. Because the crowd prevented them from bringing the paralyzed man directly to Jesus, they climbed the stairs to the roof, removed the tiles, and lowered him down right in front of Jesus.

            “And when he saw their faith, he said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you." (v 20)

Luke explains their motivation, which at the same time explains Jesus’ inclination to heal: “and seeing their faith” (v. 20). The reference to “their faith” probably refers to the whole group, the paralyzed man and his friends. The paralytic is beneficiary of the faith of the faithful. They bring him to Jesus. Without their initiative, he isn’t healed. This pattern repeats itself over and over through the centuries, as the spiritually paralyzed are brought to the place of healing. The faithful pray for an unbelieving friend or family member. They faithfully live lives that adorn the gospel and draw others to Christ (Titus 2:10). The faithful, like Philip say, “come and see,” and bring the unbelieving to the place where they might hear the gospel (Jn. 1:46). The faithful say a word of witness as opportunity presents itself, giving account of the hope that is within them (1 Pt. 3:15). Almost without exception people who come to believe benefit from one of the above forms of intervention that makes possible the healing of their dead souls. Do not underestimate the power of lay witness. Clergy are expected to be good and witness, and are all but discounted as a result. However, the witness of non-clergy often makes an impact when the witness of the “professionals” doesn’t. A lay person, who carries a paralytic to the feet of Jesus, is an agent in the salvation of a sinner, a wonderful thing.

It would seem that Jesus also commends the faith of the paralyzed man. Jesus does not heal him because he is morally good. He’s a sinner. Jesus does not heal him because he is particularly religious, participating in all the regular Sabbath services, the holy days, and all the required rituals and ceremonies. He is unlikely to have participated at all. Jesus forgives his sins and heals him because of his faith.

            “Nothing in my hand I bring,

            Simply to Thy cross I cling;

            Naked, come to Thee for dress;

            Helpless, look to Thee for grace;

            Foul, I to the Fountain fly;

            Wash me, Savior, or I die.”

This is the crucial ingredient in the deliverance of souls. Not religious observance, not moral rectitude, but faith.

The healing

“And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" (v 21)

The “scribes” are the same men identified as “teachers of the Law” in verse 17. They might be Pharisees or Sadducees. An ordinary person who said what Jesus said, who claimed the power to forgive sins, would be guilty of blasphemy. Jesus’ opponents seem never to entertain the thought that Jesus might not be an ordinary person. Sins were forgiven by God, through the ordinary channels of the priests, the temple, the altars, and  the sacrifices. Jesus, however, offers forgiveness directly, through His word, and ultimately, through His cross.

“When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, "Why do you question in your hearts?” (v 22)

That Jesus “perceived their thoughts,” was “aware of their reasoning” (NASB), or “knew what they were thinking” (NIV), probably meant that He read their thoughts.[7] “Why are you reasoning in your hearts,” He asks. (NASB). Their “reasoning” was incorrect (same word in both clauses.)[8] So Jesus proposes a challenge.

“Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?” (v 23).

It is easy to say “your sins are forgiven,” because whether they have been or not is unverifiable. However, to command a paralytic to rise and walk is difficult in that it is immediately subject to verification. He either rises and walks or doesn’t. Jesus argues from the more difficult to the less difficult. The physical healing is meant to confirm the spiritual healing. Since neither can be done without the power of God, “the person who can do the latter is also authorized to do the former.”[9]

“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." (v 24).

Here Jesus clearly states the purpose of the healing, saying what we have been claiming as we have been progressing through Luke’s gospel. Physical healings are visual illustrations of what Jesus is able to do for our souls. “Son of Man” was Jesus’ favorite self-designation. This is the first time that it appears in Luke, with 25 more uses to follow. It is probable that Jesus used it because it was free from misleading associations, while still being Messianic. (Dan. 7:13ff).

The result of Jesus command to “rise”? Immediate healing.

“And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God.” (v 25)

The healing establishes that Jesus is the “Son of Man” who has “authority” or “power” (exousia) to forgive sins. The older British commentator, William Munson cited by Morris, gets it right saying “the incident is intended primarily to bring out (that Jesus) comes to deliver souls from the paralysis of moral and spiritual energy.”[10]

The response of the crowd is overwhelming:

And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, "We have seen extraordinary things today." (v 26)

Human agency could not explain what had taken place. They had seen paradoxa, paradoxes, remarkable things, extraordinary things. They were “seized with astonishment,” (NASB) “amazement” (ESV), and they glorified God and were “filled with awe” or “fear” (NASB, phobos), the response of those who sense that they have been in the presence of God.

Jesus is demonstrating that a new and complete way of dealing with sin is to be realized in Him. Forgiveness was offered in the Old Testament, but it was incomplete. The conscience could not be “made perfect” (Heb. 9:1-10). Forgiveness was always incomplete. Additional sacrifices were always to be offered. Finite sacrifices, the blood of bulls and goats, were offered for infinite debts. (Heb. 10:4). However, Jesus can forgive sins on the basis of a once for all sacrifice for sin, sufficient for all sin for all time (Heb. 10:6-14; 9:12-14). Jesus died “once for all, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Pt. 3:18). The Law, with its system of priests, sacrifices, and altars could point only to greater things, to Christ, our High Priest, to the Lamb of God, whose shed blood would take away the sin of the world, and to the altar that was Calvary (Jn.1:29). Jesus proclaims a forgiveness that is final and complete. Sins never again are remembered and additional sacrifices are unnecessary, indeed forbidden.

See what He has done for physical paralysis? He can do the same for the far more important paralysis of our souls. Our greatest needs are not to be located in this world, any more than were the paralytics’. The gospel is not about “our best life now,” as one preacher puts it. It’s not about health and wealth. It’s not about restoring my marriage or child raising principles, or successful money management. Let me say respectfully as well, it’s not about transforming the culture. The Bible has something to say about all of those things, but they are not the gospel and our fundamental need is not to be found in these places. Our need is for the forgiveness of sin. Our need is for restored life in our paralyzed souls. If we will but come to Him as did this man, trusting Him, believing in Him, He will forgive our sins and restore our spiritual health and reunite us with the God who alone can make us whole.