Amy C Walters

Jesus Heals a Paralytic – Luke 5:17-26

A large crowd of Pharisees and teachers of the law had come from all over to listen to Jesus teach. So when some friends interrupt by lowering a paralyzed man through the ceiling, they fail to understand what Jesus is doing or what it reveals about who he is. From them, we learn that we need to be open to what Jesus is doing.

This is the third post about this story and so far, we haven’t talked much about the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. This group plays a big role here and will continue to in many stories throughout the rest of Luke. This is actually the first time that Luke introduces them.

We’re told that these Pharisees and teachers of the law were there sitting and listening to Jesus teach. They had come from “every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem.” So religious experts from all over were packing this house to listen to Jesus. 

Then, these men carrying their paralyzed friend on a mat approach the house and try to get in, but they can’t because of the crowd. How is it that these Pharisees don’t notice these men trying to get in? They miss or ignore several adult men trying to enter a house carrying a stretcher? 

There’s something a little bit heartbreaking about that, that these religious people are content to sit and continue listening instead of looking for a way to help. Wouldn’t it be the saddest thing to be the one who is an obstacle to Jesus?

Nevertheless, the friends persist. They go up onto the roof. They lower their friend down through the roof into the room to see Jesus. And Jesus says, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” 

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law begin to think to themselves, “who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 

Let’s notice a couple of things about what they’re doing here. First of all, they begin to think these things to themselves. They are not voicing this out loud. Jesus is right there. They could have raised their hands and said, “Teacher, how can you forgive sins? Only God can forgive sins.” 

I think there’s something about unbelief, about doubt that likes to hide. It doesn’t like to come out into the open where it can be addressed. Maybe that’s why the Pharisees don’t address it–they already doubt and question who Jesus is. 

But Jesus doesn’t allow their thoughts to stay hidden. He addresses them. Luke writes, “Jesus knew their thoughts and said, ‘why do you think these things in your hearts?’” 

Remember what Simeon said all those stories ago, that because of Jesus, the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed (Luke 2:35)? Here we are seeing it. Jesus is revealing the thoughts in those Pharisees’ hearts.

Look too at the order of the things that the Pharisees and teachers of the law say: “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 

They are first assuming that it is a blasphemy issue. But what if they started with the second question, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Could they then, instead of jumping to conclusions of blasphemy, been open to see what Jesus was doing?

“Who can forgive sins but God alone?” He claims to forgive sins, and now he has healed the man physically. Perhaps he is God.

Instead, the Pharisees jumped to the conclusion that Jesus is speaking blasphemy. So he addresses what’s in their hearts, and he doesn’t allow it to stay hidden there.

In fact, Jesus creates a problem for them. “‘What’s easier, to say your sins are forgiven, or to say get up and walk? But so that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,’ he says to the paralyzed man, ‘I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.’” 

Jesus creates a conundrum to challenge their assumptions. He’s going to force them to wrestle with this question of who is he really? If he’s a blasphemer, how can he heal? If he can heal and if he says he can forgive, perhaps he is God.

Sometimes the tension that we wrestle with, the things that we struggle to understand, are there so that we don’t just float along with our assumptions. Sometimes those tensions force us to wrestle with what we really think, what we really believe, and take things to their conclusion. And even though that tension is frustrating, we don’t like to live in it, it leads us to a place of deeper understanding of who Jesus really is.

At the end of this story, we’re told that “immediately the man stood up in front of them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home praising God. And everyone was amazed and praised God. They were filled with awe and said, ‘We have seen remarkable things today.’” 

That “everyone” would include the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. They were amazed. They praised God. And yet it still seems like they missed out on what he was doing. They missed out on what he was actually saying.

So it’s possible to be amazed, to be filled with awe, to praise God and still miss the point. It’s possible to go to a church service and love the music and love the preaching, but still go away unchanged.

The people in this story say at the end, “We have seen remarkable things today.” I think that maybe gives us a glimpse into what they had come for. They wanted to see something remarkable. And with those expectations set firmly in place, they missed out on what Jesus is actually doing.

They missed out on being able to participate in what’s going on because they don’t notice or they don’t care about these friends trying to bring the man to Jesus.

They missed out on who Jesus is because they are jumping to conclusions that he’s speaking blasphemy.

They missed out on a changed heart because they are just there to see something remarkable.

Luke makes this interesting comment toward the beginning of the story that “the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick.” Now, Jesus had healed the sick in previous stories, and yet this comment does not appear in those stories. Some previous stories do talk about the Holy Spirit, so maybe this is a way, again, to bring the Holy Spirit into this. 

But I think it also gives us a glimpse of what Jesus is intending to happen in this story: healing the sick. And the Pharisees are missing out on it. In fact, the Pharisees themselves are an obstacle to it.

Our key truth for today, which we learn from some of the mistakes of the Pharisees, is that we need to be open to what Jesus is doing.

Jesus has things he wants to accomplish in this, things that he is teaching even through his miracles. But the Pharisees have come with such set expectations and assumptions for what they are looking for, for what they want to see, what they want to experience, that they miss out when Jesus goes a different direction, a direction they don’t expect.

The Pharisees expect to hear teaching from a good teacher. So they don’t help the friends get to Jesus. And they accuse him of blasphemy. 

Being open to Jesus allows us to see the needs around us and be a part of helping out in them. And being open to Jesus allows us to hear what he wants to teach us. 

The friends who had brought the paralyzed man came expecting Jesus to heal. But first Jesus forgives and then heals. Being open to what Jesus is doing allows them to see that Jesus is able to forgive.

I don’t know about you, but I know I have gone to church at times before thinking, I just really want to sing some of the songs that I really love today, or I want to hear something in the sermon that’s new to me, that I haven’t heard before, that really challenges me. And then if those things don’t happen, if God does not meet my expectations for what I want from that service, I go away grumpy.

Is that the right attitude to have? No, God is wanting to accomplish things in that service, and when I am insisting on my own way and what I want out of it, I miss out on what he is doing.

God is gracious and good to give us the things that we need. We see that in this story, in the way that Jesus forgives the man, meeting the deepest need that he has. But when we are insisting on just what we want, we might be missing out on Jesus showing us what we really need.