Luke 5:21

And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?

The first indication of the systematic effort on the part of the leaders of the Jewish Church to persecute and discredit Jesus. The story is an independent incident, having no connection with the foregoing, since Luke has no interest in exact chronological sequence. The chief men of the Jewish nation had received full information of the preaching and of the miracles of this otherwise unknown Galilean rabbi, who had not so much as asked their sanction for His work. The local men, of the various synagogues of Galilee, the experts in the Law and in all the doctrines as they had been fixed by tradition, were not equal to the situation. So they were reinforced by men from Judea, and especially from Jerusalem, Pharisees and scribes, the most learned men and skilled in the Law. All these were present in a house where Jesus was teaching the multitude. Not that they were eager for the Word of Life, but that they were watching for some opportunity of accusing Him. And the power of the Lord, the omnipotent majesty of the Triune God, was present in Jesus to the intent that He should heal. The other persons of the Godhead were never mere disinterested or neutral onlookers while the work of redemption was going on, but the entire Godhead in its three persons wrought the salvation of mankind. The chance for which the Pharisees and teachers of the Law had been waiting presented itself very quickly. Certain men bore upon a couch or hammock a man that had suffered a stroke of paralysis. "Commonly those who are attacked in all their members by severe nervous debility are quickly taken away; if not, they live, it is true, but seldom recover their health, and for the most part drag on a miserable life, losing, moreover, their memory. The sickness of those who are partially affected is, it is true, never severe, but often long and almost incurable. " When these men with their burden reached the house where Jesus was staying, they anxiously sought a way in which they might bring the sick man and lay him before Jesus, for that was the purpose of their coming. They had the conviction of faith that this prophet from Nazareth was the Christ, who could easily cure their friend. But the crowd in the house and before the door was too densely packed; it was impossible to find an opening through which they might wedge themselves into the room where Jesus was speaking. But they were not long at a loss as to further procedure. They climbed the outside stairway to the roof of the house, they took off some of the tiles or material of which the roof was made, and then lowered the sick man on his hammock before the feet of Jesus. Luke's account is influenced by his desire to make the manner of performing this work of love clear to the Romans for whom he was writing. Jesus paused in His teaching at this interruption, and His omniscient gaze swept the faces of the newcomers, including that of the sick man. In every one He read the firm conviction as to His ability to help, and also a voiceless pleading and interceding that He would show mercy. He was satisfied with the results of His scrutiny, and therefore turned to the paralytic with the words: Man, forgiven are thy sins! Note: Sin is the cause of all misery, sickness, and death in the world. By removing the cause, the consequences were, in effect, taken away. The sick man's faith knew this; he knew that the greatest earthly gift became his by these comforting words of Jesus. It was not a case of special punishment for special sins, but one in which the Savior knew where the healing must commence, in the soul. No sooner had Jesus uttered the words of forgiveness than the scribes and Pharisees began to reason, to discuss the matter, either in their hearts only, or in an undertone among themselves. Their Pharisaic conscience was deeply grieved that any one presumed upon remitting sins. Such arrogance they must brand as blasphemy; for surely no one could forgive sins but God only. If Jesus were not God, He could not forgive sins in His own power; and His arrogating this authority to Himself would have been blasphemy against God, in the proper sense of the word. But that these scribes and Pharisees might have the fullest and most absolute proof of His divine power and Godhead, He now worked in their presence three miracles, all of which could be done only by an omniscient and omnipotent Being. These miracles were: the remission of the sick man's sins; the revelation of the secret thoughts of the scribes; the restoration of the paralytic in a moment to perfect health.