but the man had not sought healing from Him. The
solution to his biggest problem was right at his fin-
gertips, but because he was too stubborn or faithless
or depressed, he laid untouched while those around
him found deliverance in Christ. His story makes us
mindful of people who live next to a church or have a
Christian sharing their home, yet do not seek the
Christ whose touch could make them whole.
healed, they lifted him up and carried him to
would not be turned back once they set their hands
to the task. The Bible says that they "tried to take
him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When
they could not find a way to do this because of the
crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on
his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd,
right in front of Jesus" (Luke 5:18�19).
of the house so that people could sit on the roof in
the cool of the evening. It was up such steps that the
men went. We can picture them listening to Jesus'
voice from above and then carefully removing the
tiles to make a hole big enough to lower a man lying
flat. Not that something like this could have gone
unnoticed. The dust sifting down from the tiles would
have fallen on Jesus and the people below. As the
tiles were removed, shafts of sunlight would have
poured down. By now, all talking would have stopped
as the people below stood transfixed watching the
scene of a hole opening up above them. Think of how
the owner of the house must have reacted!
act took place as a stretcher was lowered slowly to
the floor below, people parting as it descended. Now,
imagine if you were the man on that mat. Paralyzed,
mat did not remain level. You would fall off helplessly
to the floor, and every eye would be on you. There
would be no place to hide. And suppose Jesus did
not want to heal you? There you would lie, not only
helpless but humiliated. This was an all or nothing
gambit. In the utter silence that now gripped the
house, we are told that, "Jesus saw their faith" (vs.
20).
"Friend, your sins are forgiven" (vs. 20). In those
days people believed that God punished the sinful
not only in the afterlife but in the present life as
well. The severity of the affliction proved how greatly
they had offended God. This paralyzed man surely
spent hours wondering what terrible deed he had
committed for God to strike him down like this. In
his mind, he must have been the greatest sinner in
Capernaum because he bore such an affirmity. Not
only paralyzed physically this man was paralyzed in
his soul as well. He would not believe he could be
healed until he knew he had been forgiven. Jesus
spoke to his need with words of forgiveness. We, like
him, have no greater need than to hear Christ tell
us that our sins are forgiven. While we might not
bear an outside sign of our heart's need, we remain
paralyzed and hopeless until Christ touches our heart
with forgiveness.
this man was being justly punished for his wrongdo-
ing. Who was Jesus to undo the sentence of divine
judgment? Second, in their minds Jesus was blas-
pheming because He took it upon Himself to forgive
the sins that only God could forgive. Rather than
feeling pity for the man, they resented Christ's ac-
tions to free him from his bondage.