Miracles - Healing - Paralysis
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Paralysis is a difficult and frustrating condition to deal with.
Your body refuses to do what you command it.
Most everything you do become more difficult.
Often to the point of needing assistance.
So when Jesus heals someone of paralysis, it makes quite an impression,
Both on the healed and on those around them.
Paralytic Forgiven
Paralytic Forgiven
And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them.
Jesus fame is spreading.
There He is in Capernaum, when people find our that He is there.
And a huge crowd shows up, to the point where there was no room for them.
And Jesus preached.
Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.
Four friends bring a paralytic to Jesus to be healed.
Only there’s no room for them to get near Him.
(Remind you of another time when there was no room for Jesus?)
Do the friends get discouraged and go home?
NO, they find a way to get their friend to Jesus.
What’s a little broken roof when a man’s future is at stake.
When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
We’ve seen Jesus heal before.
He talks about their faith healing them.
But here, it doesn’t say the man is healed, but that his sins are forgiven.
Needless to say, this did not sit well with some people.
And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Have you ever noticed how often leaders in the church seem to be the most reluctant to accept the Words of God?
Here, the leaders have seen what Jesus has done before.
Many have seen, or at least heard of the miracles.
Why else would they be there to listed to His teaching.
But when Jesus does something that is outside of their tradition,
The church leaders are ready to pounce!
This man speaks blasphemies!
Only God can forgive sin.
Yet they never seem to realize that, since Jesus is healing, an act of God.
And that, after being healed, so many of those sinners are coming to God.
That maybe if only God can forgive sins, and Jesus seems to be forgiving sins,
Maybe Jesus is God.
And let’s not forget, Jesus not only forgives sins, he knows of the unspoken sins.
But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts?
These men of god have been busted.
Jesus knows what they were thinking.
And He challenges their assumptions.
Mark 2:9–12 (NKJV)
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
Jesus challenged the scribes traditions and assumptions.
Then He provided proof of who He was.
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”
The very reason He first told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven was so He would have this chance to prove it to the church leaders.
But that was not the only time Jesus challenged church traditions when healing a paralytic.
Crippled Woman
Crippled Woman
Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.
Jesus is teaching on the sabbath,
Nothing to extraordinary there.
When He sees a woman who has been crippled for years.
Seems a pretty simple and straightforward situation,
So what does Jesus do?
But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
Jesus heals her.
What else would you expect.
But you see, that did not comport with Jewish tradition.
But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.”
The rulers of the synagogue completely ignore the miracle that was just done in their presence.
Ignore the wonderful thing that was done for this woman.
Don’t even recognize the act of the God they claim to follow.
Nope, the jump right onto their tradition.
There are six days to work,
Don’t come to be healed on the Sabbath.
Why would anyone expect to encounter God on the Sabbath.
And why would God perform a miracle on the Sabbath?
God wouldn’t heal someone on the Sabbath.
Needless to say, God was about to school these “experts”.
The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.
You Hypocrites....
Wait, I thought Jesus was supposed to be nice to everyone.
He wouldn’t say something unkind right?
He wouldn’t challenge the assumptions of the church leaders, would He?
YOU BET HE WOULD!
Jesus called these church leaders Hypocrites...
Literally actors or two-faced.
Then He proves it.
You let your ox or donkey out of its stall and lead it to water.
Should you treat this woman at least as well as your donkey?
She has been bound for eighteen years,
Should she be loosed at least as much as your ox?
No wonder those church leaders were put to shame.
But this was not the only time Jesus used a paralytic to challenge the Jews traditions regarding the Sabbath.
Paralytic at Bethesda
Paralytic at Bethesda
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
There are many things sick people will do in the hopes of getting well.
Sick people would hang around this pool of Bethesda, hoping to be healed.
One man had been a cripple for thirty-eight years.
I would imagine, by the time Jesus asks him if he wants to be made well, this man was pretty desperate.
The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
Sometimes we get target locked...
We become so focused on how others have been treated,
Or on our assumptions of how God will answer our prayers,
We don’t see the possibilities right in front of us.
Jesus didn’t ask this man if he wanted help getting into the pool,
He asked Him of he wanted to be made well.
Even though the man did not yet understand, Jesus healed him.
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.
That alone would be a pretty good story,
But that is not the entire story.
You see, once again, Jesus healed on the Sabbath.
The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”
It’s important to understand that the Law of Moses did not prohibit carrying a bed on Sabbath,
It only prohibited working on the Sabbath.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
Labor = ʿabad /aw·bad/ - to work, serve.
Work = mâlaʾkah /mel·aw·kaw/ - occupation, work, business.
What the Pharisees had done was to come up with an oral tradition to “explain” the Torah to the common man.
And in this “tradition”, they redefined “work” to be certain activities,
But always with exceptions,
That they controlled.
And one of those “traditions” was the prohibition of transport things from one place to another.
So it was not God’s law that prohibited carrying your bed on the Sabbath, but the commandments of men.
Which explains why Jesus said...
And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’ ” Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place.
Who is this man that told you to violate our traditions?
Remember, the Pharisees thought of their traditions as law.
But the one who was healed didn’t know.
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.
Yes, Jesus found this man.
And He tells him to sin no more.
The man told the Jews who had performed the miracle.
And the Jews persecuted Jesus,
For doing a good thing, on the wrong day.
Placing their commandments above the God they claim to serve.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Yes, these three stories are about paralytics being healed.
More importantly, they expose the hypocrisy and arrogance of church leaders who put their traditions above the Word of God.
“Only God can forgive sins.”
Yet when someone actually forgives sins, they cannot be God.
“God would not work on the Sabbath.”
But someone who does miracles only God could do, and does them on the Sabbath.
Therefore He could not be God because we know that God does not work on the Sabbath.
And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
Traditions can be good things,
But not when we place them about God’s Word.
When God, or someone in the name of God, does something that does not fit within our traditions, what do we do?
Do we automatically dismiss it because it doesn’t fit our assumptions?
Do we take it as gospel, because someone said it was from God?
Or are we Bereans?
Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
I believe Scripture is clear on several points.
God is not confined to our expectations, traditions, or commandments.
Neither are we nearly smart enough to know what God will do when.
Which means, just as the Bereans did, we should listen with all readiness, then search the Scriptures to see if it is so.
