Luke 5:17-26

Applebury's Comments

Jesus Heals a Paralytic
Scripture

Luke 5:17-26 And it came to pass on one of those days, that he was teaching; and there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, who were come out of every village of Galilee and Judaea and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 And behold, men bring on a bed a man that was palsied: and they sought to bring him in, and to lay him before him. 19 And not finding by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went up to the housetop, and let him down through the tiles with his couch into the midst before Jesus. 20 And seeing their faith, he said, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this that speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? 22 But Jesus perceiving their reasoning, answered and said unto them, Why reason ye in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say, Arise and walk? 24 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath authority on earth to forgive sins (he said unto him that was palsied), I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go unto thy house. 25 And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his house, glorifying God. 26 And amazement took hold on all, and they glorified God; and they were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to-day.

Comments

And it came to pass.We lose something of the vividness of Luke's descriptions. He had studied these events of the ministry of Jesus until they seemed to be taking place before his eyes as he wrote. By diligent study of the record he left for us to read, we can make these incidents come to life in our minds too.

This incident is the first in a series of five in which Luke records the complaints of the Pharisees against Jesus because He helped the people in their needs (Luke 5:17 to Luke 6:11).

that he was teaching.The ministry of Jesus was one of teaching and healing; the miracles demonstrated to His hearers that His message was from God. His message, confirmed by His miracles, is the basis of our faith in Him. See Mark 16:20; Hebrews 2:3-4; John 20:30-31.

Jesus taught in the synagogues; He taught by the sea; He taught wherever crowds were gathered together or where a single individual was ready to listen. He always taught with authority (Matthew 7:28-29).

The ministry of the apostles followed the same pattern, They taught the people on Pentecost. They continued to teach although they were threatened with death (Acts 4:18-20; Acts 5:42). Paul taught in Ephesus, both publically and from house to house (Acts 20:20). He wrote to Timothy: Till I come, give heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching (1 Timothy 4:12). And again, The things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2). The gospel message must be taught (Matthew 28:18-20).

and there were Pharisees.They were separatists, possibly implying separation from everything unclean. Paul said that they were the straightest sect of the Jew's religion (Acts 26:5). They believed in the resurrection and angels and spirits, but the Sadducees rejected all this (Acts 23:8).

The Pharisees led the opposition to Jesus, constantly complaining that He had broken the Law and that He was guilty of blasphemy. But they were never able to prove their charges.

and doctors of the law.These law-teachers are called scribes by Matthew and Mark (Matthew 9:3; Mark 2:6). For an example of the work of the scribes see Ezra 7:6; Ezra 10:1; Hebrews 8:1-8.

Various functions were performed by them in the time of Jesus. They were best known for their work of guarding and teaching the Law. But both scribes and Pharisees were condemned by Jesus for their hypocrisy in applying the law. They taught it, but failed to live by it (Matthew 23:1-36). But they were not all like that; for an example of a scribe who had a better understanding of the Law, see Mark 12:28-34. And think of Nicodemus a Pharisee who dared to defend Jesus before the counsel and to identify himself with Jesus although He had been put to death on the crossthe Roman instrument of execution of criminals. See John 7:50-52; John 19:39.

out of every village.This incident took place in Capernaum (Mark 2:1). John suggests that the Pharisees had already begun the opposition to Jesus in Jerusalem (John 4:1). For that reason, He left Judea and came again into Galilee where the opposition was not so great. He said, A prophet hath no honor in his own country (John 4:43-45). In Galilee He was less likely to have difficulty with the leaders. There He could carry on His work of preparing the disciples to take the gospel into all the world (Luke 24:46-47). They were not content, however, to let Him carry on a ministry in Galilee without keeping close watch on its progress lest His influence with the people become too great. Later, they complained that if they should leave Him alone, all men would believe in Him and the Romans would come and take away their place and their nation (John 11:47-48).

And seeing their faith.Faith that is put into action can be seen. The friends of the sick man believed that Jesus had the power to heal him. The multitudes were blocking the entrance to the house where He was, but the men found a way to let him down through the roof into the presence of Jesus.

Man, thy sins are forgiven.In this dramatic way, Jesus pointed out that His mission was to forgive the sinner and save the lost. He knew that the man had been put in His presence because they wanted Him to heal him. He exercised the power of the Lord that was with Him to heal in order to prove that the Son of Man had authority on earth to forgive sins.

Who is this that speaketh blasphemies?It would have been blasphemy for a man to assume the prerogative of God and presume to forgive sins. They were correct in saying, Who can forgive sins, but God alone? They failed to see that the Son of Man was also the Son of God. He was not guilty of blasphemy, for He spoke with the authority from God. Nevertheless, the Jews kept up their complaint, and in the end condemned Him to death because they said He was guilty of blasphemy (Mark 14:64).

Why reason ye in your hearts?Only God can forgive sins, and only God can look into the hearts of men and know their secrets. On the Day of Judgment, He will judge the secrets of mens-' hearts (Romans 2:16; Hebrews 4:13). With the heart, man thinks (Matthew 9:4), reasons (Mark 2:8), believes (Romans 10:9-10), and understands (Matthew 13:5). The Scriptural heart is the intellect on which the facts of the gospel make impact that results in belief (Romans 10:9-10). It is the emotions that respond to the love of God (Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:19). It is the will, for with the heart man purposes and determines (2 Corinthians 9:7; 1 Corinthians 7:37). The consideration of the goodness of God (Romans 2:4) and godly sorrow for sin (2 Corinthians 7:10) and the knowledge of the coming judgment (Acts 17:30-31) lead the sinner to change his will and decide to serve Christ. That is repentance. The heart condemns, for it is the conscience. The blood of Christ can cleanse the conscience by blotting out the sin that otherwise would constantly remind the sinner of his guilt (Hebrews 10:22; Hebrews 9:14). Baptism, which Peter declares saves us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the act of obedience by which the sinner asks God for a good conscience, one that commends rather than condemns (1 Peter 3:21).

Which is easier?Jesus implies that it is just as easy to say, Thy sins are forgiven as to sayand actually cause it to be doneArise and walk. The power of the Lord was with Him to heal. Why didn-'t he heal the man first? Forgiveness of sins is of first importance! The miracle was to prove that the Son of Man had authority on earth to forgive sins.

the Son of man hath authority on earth to forgive sins.In their reasoning, the Jews had linked this authority with God. Son of Man does not imply that He was merely human; He was also Son of God. Note the force of His argument in the trial before the Jews where they understood His reference to Son of Man to imply that He is also Son of God (Luke 22:67-70).

glorifying God.At the command of Jesus the paralyzed man immediately arose and went to his home glorifying God. It was a genuine miracle. Luke, the beloved physician, was convinced that the power of the Lord was with Him to heal. Those who say that Jesus was merely a master of psychology who relieved this man of psychosomatic symptoms disregard Luke's statement about the power of the Lord and the technique of Jesus in dealing with the case. The people also glorified God, for they had seen strange things, that is, things not based on normal experience.