Extraordinary Times
Background
5:17. Jesus faced a crisis decision. Would he keep the healing powers to himself in the face of unbelieving leaders with political power? Or would he heal and let these leaders react as they would? His opponents certainly made a power play. They brought in the troops from every corner of the country to wait, watch, and react.
5:18–19. The people ignored these power confrontations. They saw a power source and did everything necessary to connect with it. At times crowds held the upper hand. Their physical presence prevented anyone from reaching Jesus. Not these resourceful men. If they could not carry the paralyzed man on his pallet through the crowds to Jesus, they would make their own doorway to the Master Physician. They cut away the roofing tiles and lowered the man’s pallet attached to ropes. Now the sick man became the object of power-play politics.
5:20–21. Jesus made his power play on behalf of the sick man. He pronounced him cured from illness, sin, and death. Religious leaders made a power play against Jesus. Anyone who claimed to forgive sins put himself on an equal level with God. No one dared make such claims. Jesus must be arrested. He must not influence the crowds.
5:22–25. Jesus’ power extended even beyond forgiving sins. He could read minds. He knew they saw him as a blasphemer, one who claimed for himself powers limited only to God. He proved his point. He told the man to walk. Immediately he walked, carrying away his pallet. Jesus’ healing powers won this round of argument.
5:26. The people knew who had won. They knew who had divine power. They came to Jesus. Again amazement and praise filled their lives. What they saw made them awestruck. They stared in wonder at what God had done. Revealing power is more than healing power. It is the power to put all life forces back together. As such, it is a gift from God. It reveals who has God’s power. It also reveals who opposes God’s power.
17. He was teaching. The pronoun has a slightly emphatic force: he as distinguished from the Pharisees and teachers of the law.
Doctors of the law (νομοδιδάσκαλοι). Only in Luke and 1 Tim. 1:7. Luke often uses νομικὸς, conversant with the law, but in the other word the element of teaching is emphasized, probably in intentional contrast with Christ’s teaching.
Judaea and Jerusalem. The Rabbinical writers divided Judaea proper into three parts—mountain, sea-shore, and valley—Jerusalem being regarded as a separate district. “Only one intimately acquainted with the state of matters at the time, would, with the Rabbis, have distinguished Jerusalem as a district separate from all the rest of Judaea, as Luke markedly does on several occasions (Acts 1:8; 10:39)” (Edersheim, “Jewish Social Life”).
Was present to heal them. The A. V. follows the reading, αὐτούς, them; i.e., the sufferers who were present, referring back to ver. 15. The best texts, however, read αὐτόν, him, referring to Christ, and meaning was present that he should heal; i.e., in aid of his healing. So Rev.
18. Taken with a palsy (παραλελυμένος). Rev., more neatly, palsied. Whenever Luke mentions this disease, he uses the verb and not the adjective παραλυτικός, paralytic (as Matt. 4:24; 8:6; Mark 2:3–10; compare Acts 8:7; 9:33); his usage in this respect being in strict accord with that of medical writers.
19. Tiles. Wyc. has sclattis, slates.
Couch (κλινιδίῳ). Luke uses four words for the beds of the sick: κλίνη, as ver. 18, the general word for a bed or couch; κπάββατος (Acts 5:15; 9:33), a rude pallet (see on Mark 2:4); κλινίδιον, a small couch or litter, as here, a couch so light that a woman could lift and carry it away. Thus, in the “Lysistrata” of Aristophanes, 916, Myrrine says: “Come now, let me carry our couch” (κλινίδιον). The fourth term, κλινάριον (Acts 5:15), cannot be accurately distinguished from the last. The last two are peculiar to Luke.
Into the midst before Jesus. See on Mark 2:4.
21. To reason. See on Mark 2:6. The words who is this that speaketh blasphemy, form an iambic verse in the Greek.
22. Perceived. See on Mark 2:8.
23. Walk (περιπάτει). Lit., walk about.
24. Unto thee (σοὶ). Standing first for emphasis. Luke emphasizes the direct address to the man: unto thee I say, in contrast with the apparently less direct, thy sins be forgiven thee. In Jesus’ mind the connection between the sins and the man’s personal condition was assumed; now he brings out the personal side of the connection. In forgiving the man’s sins he had healed him radically. The command to rise and walk was of the same piece.
26. They were all amazed (ἔκστασις ἔλαβεν ἅπαντας). Lit., amazement took hold on all, as Rev. On ἔκστασις, amazement, see on Mark 5:42.
Strange things (παράδοξα). From παρά, contrary to, and δόξα, opinion. Something contrary to received opinion, and hence strange. Compare the English paradox. Only here in New Testament.
Christ often spoke to religious leaders. The Pharisees (see endnote 9) and teachers of the law had travelled far and wide to hear him. As they gathered to hear Jesus, ‘the power of the Lord was present to heal them’ (v. 17). Then, strangely, a paralysed man was let down through the roof tiling by his friends. Such was the determination of his friends, they resorted to this method of gaining the Lord’s attention.
Jesus pronounced the man forgiven—the most important blessing he could give. Yet forgiveness has an invisible effect. The people were angry, since no one has the right to forgive sins but God alone. No prophet or religious leader in the Old Testament had ever claimed such authority. Yet Jesus does so, for he is God.
Next, Christ astounded the crowd as they witnessed the visible transformation of the man. He told the man to rise, and healed him. It is clear from Luke 5:24 that the healing was designed to give evidence of the man’s forgiveness. He arose, took up his mat and went home, ‘glorifying God’. The reaction was electrifying (v. 26). No one had seen the power of God at work in this way before.
Here is, I. A general account of Christ’s preaching and miracles, v. 17. 1. He was teaching on a certain day, not on the sabbath day, then he would have said so, but on a week-day; six days shalt thou labour, not only for the world, but for the soul, and the welfare of that. Preaching and hearing the word of God are good works, if they be done well, any day in the week, as well as on sabbath days. It was not in the synagogue, but in a private house; for even there where we ordinarily converse with our friends it is not improper to give and receive good instruction. 2. There he taught, he healed (as before, v. 15): And the power of the Lord was to heal them-ēn eis to iasthai autous. It was mighty to heal them; it was exerted and put forth to heal them, to heal those whom he taught (we may understand it so), to heal their souls, to cure them of their spiritual diseases, and to give them a new life, a new nature. Note, Those who receive the word of Christ in faith will find a divine power going along with that word, to heal them; for Christ came with his comforts to heal the broken-hearted, ch. 4:18. The power of the Lord is present with the word, present to those that pray for it and submit to it, present to heal them. Or it may be meant (and so it is generally taken) of the healing of those who were diseased in body, who came to him for cures. Whenever there was occasion, Christ had not to seek for his power, it was present to heal. 3. There were some grandees present in this assembly, and, as it should seem, more than usual: There were Pharisees, and doctors of the law, sitting by; not sitting at his feet, to learn of him; then I should have been willing to take the following clause as referring to those who are spoken of immediately before (the power of the Lord was present to heal them); and why might not the word of Christ reach their hearts? But, by what follows (v. 21), it appears that they were not healed, but cavilled at Christ, which compels us to refer this to others, not to them; for they sat by as persons unconcerned, as if the word of Christ were nothing to them. They sat by as spectators, censors, and spies, to pick up something on which to ground a reproach or accusation. How many are there in the midst of our assemblies, where the gospel is preached, that do not sit under the word, but sit by! It is to them as a tale that is told them, not as a message that is sent them; they are willing that we should preach before them, not that we should preach to them. These Pharisees and scribes (or doctors of the law) came out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem; they came from all parts of the nation. Probably, they appointed to meet at this time and place, to see what remarks they could make upon Christ and what he said and did. They were in a confederacy, as those that said, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah, and agree to smite him with the tongue, Jer. 18:18. Report, and we will report it, Jer. 20:10. Observe, Christ went on with his work of preaching and healing, though he saw these Pharisees, and doctors of the Jewish church, sitting by, who, he knew, despised him, and watched to ensnare him.
II. A particular account of the cure of the man sick of the palsy, which was related much as it is here by both the foregoing evangelists: let us therefore only observe in short,
1. The doctrines that are taught us and confirmed to us by the story of this cure. (1.) That sin is the fountain of all sickness, and the forgiveness of sin is the only foundation upon which a recovery from sickness can comfortably be built. They presented the sick man to Christ, and he said, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee (v. 20), that is the blessing thou art most to prize and seek; for if thy sins be forgiven thee, though the sickness be continued, it is in mercy; if they be not, though the sickness be removed, it is in wrath.” The cords of our iniquity are the bands of our affliction. (2.) That Jesus Christ has power on earth to forgive sins, and his healing diseases was an incontestable proof of it. This was the thing intended to be proved (v. 24): That ye may know and believe that the Son of man, though now upon earth in his state of humiliation, hath power to forgive sins, and to release sinners, upon gospel terms, from the eternal punishment of sin, he saith to the sick of the palsy, Arise, and walk; and he is cured immediately. Christ claims one of the prerogatives of the King of kings when he undertakes to forgive sin, and it is justly expected that he should produce a good proof of it. “Well,” saith he, “I will put it upon this issue: here is a man struck with a palsy, and for his sin; if I do not with a word’s speaking cure his disease in an instant, which cannot be done by nature or art, but purely by the immediate power and efficacy of the God of nature, then say that I am not entitled to the prerogative of forgiving sin, am not the Messiah, am not the Son of God and King of Israel: but, if I do, you must own that I have power to forgive sins.” Thus it was put upon a fair trial, and one word of Christ determined it. He did but say, Arise, take up thy couch, and that chronical disease had an instantaneous cure; immediately he arose before them. They must all own that there could be no cheat or fallacy in it. They that brought him could attest how perfectly lame he was before; they that saw him could attest how perfectly well he was now, insomuch that he had strength enough to take up and carry away the bed he lay upon. How well is it for us that this most comfortable doctrine of the gospel, that Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Saviour, has power to forgive sin, has such a full attestation! (3.) That Jesus Christ is God. He appears to be so, [1.] By knowing the thoughts of the scribes and Pharisees (v. 22), which it is God’s prerogative to do, though these scribes and Pharisees knew as well how to conceal their thoughts, and keep their countenances, as most men, and probably were industrious to do it at this time, for they lay in wait secretly. [2.] By doing that which their thoughts owned none could do but God only (v. 21): Who can forgive sins, say they, but only God? “I will prove,” saith Christ, “that I can forgive sins;” and what follows then but that he is God? What horrid wickedness then were they guilty of who charged him with speaking the worst of blasphemies, even when he spoke the best of blessings, Thy sins are forgiven thee!
2. The duties that are taught us, and recommended to us, by this story. (1.) In our applications to Christ, we must be very pressing and urgent: that is an evidence of faith, and is very pleasing to Christ and prevailing with him. They that were the friends of this sick man sought means to bring him in before Christ (v. 18); and, when they were baffled in their endeavour, they did not give up their cause; but when they could not get in by the door, it was so crowded, they untiled the house, and let the poor patient down through the roof, into the midst before Jesus, v. 19. In this Jesus Christ saw their faith, v. 20. Now here he has taught us (and it were well if we could learn the lesson) to put the best construction upon words and actions that they will bear. When the centurion and the woman of Canaan were in no care at all to bring the patients they interceded for into Christ’s presence, but believed that he could cure them at a distance, he commended their faith. But though in these there seemed to be a different notion of the thing, and an apprehension that it was requisite the patient should be brought into his presence, yet he did not censure and condemn their weakness, did not ask them, “Why do you give this disturbance to the assembly? Are you under such a degree of infidelity as to think I could not have cured him, though he had been out of doors?” But he made the best of it, and even in this he saw their faith. It is a comfort to us that we serve a Master that is willing to make the best of us. (2.) When we are sick, we should be more in care to get our sins pardoned than to get our sickness removed. Christ, in what he said to this man, taught us, when we seek to God for health, to begin with seeking to him for pardon. (3.) The mercies which we have the comfort of God must have the praise of. The man departed to his own house, glorifying God, v. 25. To him belong the escapes from death, and in them therefore he must be glorified. (4.) The miracles which Christ wrought were amazing to those that saw them, and we ought to glorify God in them, v. 26. They said, “We have seen strange things to-day, such as we never saw before, nor our fathers before us; they are altogether new.” But they glorified God, who had sent into their country such a benefactor to it; and were filled with fear, with a reverence of God, with a jealous persuasion that this was the Messiah and that he was not treated by their nation as he ought to be, which might prove in the end the ruin of their state; perhaps they were some such thoughts as these that filled them with fear, and a concern likewise for themselves.
Jesus returned to Capernaum, possibly to Peter’s house, and the crowd gathered to see Him heal and to hear Him teach. But a new element was added: some of the official religious leaders from Jerusalem were present to investigate what He was doing. They had every right to do this since it was the responsibility of the elders to prevent false prophets from leading the people astray (Deut. 13; 18:15–22). They had interrogated John the Baptist (John 1:19–34) and now they would examine Jesus of Nazareth.
Since this is the first time the scribes and Pharisees are mentioned in Luke’s Gospel, it would be good for us to get acquainted with them. The word Pharisee comes from a Hebrew word that means “to divide, to separate.” The scribes and Pharisees probably developed out of the ministry of Ezra, the priest, who taught the Jewish people to obey the Law of Moses and be separate from the heathen nations around them (Ezra 9–10; Neh. 8–9). The great desire of the scribes and Pharisees was to understand and magnify God’s Law and apply it in their daily lives.
However, the movement soon became quite legalistic and its leaders laid so many burdens on the people that it was impossible to “serve the Lord with gladness” (Ps. 100:2). Furthermore, many of the Pharisees were hypocrites and did not practice what they preached (see Matt. 15:1–20; 23:1–36). In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7), Jesus exposed the shallowness of pharisaical religion. He explained that true righteousness is a matter of the heart and not external religious practices alone.
The scribes and Pharisees picked a good time to attend one of our Lord’s meetings, because God’s power was present in a special way and Jesus would heal a man with palsy. If leprosy illustrates the corruption and defilement of sin, then palsy is a picture of the paralysis that sin produces in a life. But Jesus would do more than heal the man; He would also forgive his sins and teach the crowd a lesson in forgiveness.
The paralytic was unable to come to Jesus himself, but he was fortunate enough to have four friends who were able to get him to Jesus. These four men are examples of how friends ought to minister to one another and help needy sinners come to the Saviour.
To begin with, they had faith that Jesus would heal him (Luke 5:20); and it is faith that God honors. Their love for the man united them in their efforts so that nothing discouraged them, not even the crowd at the door. (How tragic it is when spectators stand in the way of people who want to meet Jesus. Zaccheus would have this problem. See Luke 19:3.) When they could not get in at the door, they went on the roof, removed the tiling, and lowered the man on his mat right in front of the Lord!
Jesus could have simply healed the man and sent him home, but instead, He used the opportunity to teach a lesson about sin and forgiveness. Certainly it was easier to say to the man, “Your sins be forgiven!” than it was to say, “Rise up and walk!” Why? Because nobody could prove whether or not his sins really were forgiven! Jesus took the harder approach and healed the man’s body, something everybody in the house could witness.
Was the man’s affliction the result of his sin? We do not know, but it is probable (see John 5:1–14). The healing of his body was an outward evidence of the spiritual healing within. Jesus astounded the religious leaders by claiming to have authority both to heal the body and to forgive sins. The people had already acknowledged His authority to teach and to cast out demons (Luke 4:32, 36), but now He claimed authority to forgive sins as well. The scribes and Pharisees could not deny the miracle of healing, but they considered His claim to forgive sins nothing less than blasphemy, for only God can forgive sins. For making that kind of statement, Jesus could be stoned, because He was claiming to be God.
In Luke 5:24, we have the first recorded use of the title Son of man in Luke’s Gospel, where it is found twenty-three times. Our Lord’s listeners were familiar with this title. It was used of the Prophet Ezekiel over eighty times, and Daniel applied it to the Messiah (Dan. 7:13, 18). “Son of man” was our Lord’s favorite name for Himself; this title is found at least eighty-two times in the Gospel record. Occasionally He used the title “Son of God” (Matt. 27:43; Luke 22:70; John 5:25; 9:35; 10:36; 11:4), but “Son of man” was used more. Certainly the Jewish people caught the messianic character of this title, but it also identified Him with the people He came to save (Luke 19:10). Like Ezekiel, the Old Testament “son of man,” Jesus “sat where they sat” (Ezek. 3:15).
The healing was immediate and the people glorified God. But even more than receiving healing, the man experienced forgiveness and the start of a whole new life. Our Lord’s miracles not only demonstrated His deity and His compassion for needy people, but they also revealed important spiritual lessons about salvation. They were “object lessons” to teach spiritually blind people what God could do for them if only they would believe in His Son.
Luke introduces us to two tax collectors who trusted Christ—Levi (Matthew) (Matt. 9:9) and Zaccheus (Luke 19:1–10). It was bad enough when Gentiles collected taxes for Rome, but when Jews did it, the stigma was even greater. Levi not only followed Jesus, but he invited many of his “sinner friends” to meet Jesus. This is a good plan for new believers to follow: introduce your old friends to your new Friend before they drop you.
Once again, the scribes and Pharisees were on hand to criticize (vv. 21, 30). But Jesus defended Himself and His new friends by using three illustrations. First, He compared Himself to a physician who came to meet the needs of the sick. Jesus saw lost sinners as sick patients who needed healing, not as enemies who should be condemned. Second, He compared Himself to a joyful bridegroom who invited hungry and unhappy people to His feast. To the scribes and Pharisees, religion was a funeral; but to Jesus, it was a wedding feast!
His third illustration had to do with the old and the new. If you patch old garments with new cloth, the cloth will shrink when washed, and you will have a bigger tear than before. If you put new wine into old brittle wineskins, the fermenting liquid will produce gas, and the skins will burst. Jesus did not come to “patch” people’s lives but to make them whole. He did not come to mix the old and the new but to bring new life to all who trust Him (2 Cor. 5:17). The tragedy is, people say “the old is better!” and do not want the new. The Book of Hebrews was written to explain how much better the new covenant faith is.
Verses 17–26
How many are there in our assemblies, where the gospel is preached, who do not sit under the word, but sit by! It is to them as a tale that is told them, not as a message that is sent to them. Observe the duties taught and recommended to us by the history of the paralytic. In applying to Christ, we must be very pressing and urgent; that is an evidence of faith, and is very pleasing to Christ, and prevailing with him. Give us, Lord, the same kind of faith with respect to thy ability and willingness to heal our souls. Give us to desire the pardon of sin more than any earthly blessing, or life itself. Enable us to believe thy power to forgive sins; then will our souls cheerfully arise and go where thou pleasest.
5:17 This verse was probably not intended to suggest that Jesus’ healing power was intermittent. Luke nowhere stated that the power of Jesus to heal was at any time absent from Him. Luke’s point here seems to have been to focus on Jesus’ dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit (4:18).
5:19 Houses with tile roofs were uncommon, though not unknown, in first-century Palestine. It is not clear, however, if Luke was actually referring to a roof of baked clay tiles or to something else. The Greek word here translated “tiles” (keramoi) can mean “clay,” and Luke may have been merely referring to the common mud-clay roof, which seemed to be the case in Mk 2:4. Alternatively, Luke’s word choice may be an accommodation to his audience’s normal experience of Greco-Roman architecture, which included roof tiles, and only meant to express the idea that the men dug through the roof.
5:24 For more on Jesus’ self-designation as the Son of Man, see note on Mk 2:10, 28.
I. THE POWER OF CHRIST IN THE GOSPEL IS MAINLY A POWER TO HEAL. 1. It is a Divine power which comes from our Lord Jesus, because He is most surely God. It is the sole prerogative of God to heal spiritual disease. 2. Although our Lord Jesus healed as Divine, remember that He also possessed power to heal because of His being human. He used no other remedy in healing our sin-sickness but that of taking our sicknesses and infirmities upon Himself. This is the one great cure-all. 3. The power which dwelt in Christ to heal, coming from Him as Divine and human, was applicable, most eminently, to the removal of the guilt of sin. Reading this chapter through, one pauses with joy over that twenty-fourth verse, “The Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sin.” Here, then, is one of the great Physician’s mightiest arts: He has power to forgive sin. 4. This is not the only form of the healing power which dwells without measure in our glorious Lord. He heals the sorrow of sin. It is written, “He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.” When sin is really manifest to the conscience it is a most painful thing, and for the conscience to be effectually pacified is an unspeakable blessing. Sharper than a dagger in the heart, or an arrow piercing through the loins, is conviction of sin. When Jesus is received by faith. He lifts all our sorrow from us in a moment. 5. Christ also heals the power of sin. 6. And He is able to heal us of our relapses.
II. A second remark arises from the text: THERE ARE SPECIAL PERIODS WHEN THE POWER TO HEAL IS MOST MANIFESTLY DISPLAYED. The verse before us says that on a certain day the power of the Lord was present to heal, by which I understand, not that Christ is not always God, not that He was ever unable to heal, but this—that there were certain periods when He pleased to put forth His Divine energy in the way of healing to an unusual degree. The sea is never empty; it is indeed always as full at one time as at another, put yet it is not always at flood. The sun is never dim, he shines with equal force at all hours, and yet it is not always day with us, nor do we always bask in the warmth of summer. Christ is fulness itself, but that fulness does not always overflow; He is able to heal, but He is not always engaged in healing. 1. On this occasion there was a great desire among the multitude to hear the Word. 2. The healing power was conspicuously present when Christ was teaching. 3. A further sign of present power is found most clearly in the sick folk who were healed by Jesus. 4. The particular time mentioned in the text was prefaced by special season of prayer on the part of the principal actor in it.
III. WHEN THE POWER OF THE LORD IS PRESENT TO HEAL, IT MAY NOT BE SEEN IN ALL, BUT MAY BE SHOWN IN SPECIAL CASES AND NOT IN OTHERS. We do not find that this power was wanting among the publicans; we have an instance here of one of them who made a great feast in his house for Christ. Where, then, was the power lacking? Where was it unsought and unfelt? 1. It was, in the first place, among the knowing people, the doctors of the law. These teachers knew too much to submit to be taught by the Great Rabbi. There is such a thing as knowing too much to know anything, and being too wise to be anything but a fool. Beware of saying, “Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, that is very applicable to So-and-so, and very well put.” Do not criticise, but feel. 2. Those, moreover, who had a good opinion of themselves were left unblest. The Pharisees! no better people anywhere, from Dan to Beersheba, than the Pharisees, if you would take them upon their own reckoning. 3. The people who stood by, as one observes, they did not come to be preached at, they came for Christ to preach before them. They did not come for Christ to operate upon them; they were not patients, they were visitors in the hospitals. 4. Those who felt not the healing power sneered and cavilled. When a man gets no good out of the ministry, he is pretty sure to think there is no good in the ministry; and when he himself, for want of stooping down, finds no water in the river, he concludes it is dry, whereas it is his own stubborn knee that will not bend, and his own wilful mouth that will not open to receive the gospel.
IV. In the last place, I want Christian people here to observe that WHEN THE POWER OF CHRIST WAS PRESENT, IT CALLED FORTH THE ENERGY OF THOSE WHO WERE HIS FRIENDS TO WORK WHILE THAT POWER WAS MANIFEST. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ healing the sick:—1. The infinitude of Christ’s power. 2. The tenderness of Christ’s power. 3. The beneficence of Christ’s power. 4. The availableness of Christ’s power. The conditions on which is secured the outflow of Christ’s beneficent power. 1. Helplessness. Leper and paralytic men were unable to relieve themselves. 2. Humility. 3. Faith. (P. P. Davies.)
Vers. 18–26. A man which was taken with a palsy.—
Carried by four:—
I. THERE ARE CASES WHICH WILL NEED THE AID OF A LITTLE BAND OF WORKERS BEFORE THEY WILL BE FULLY SAVED. Yonder is a householder as yet unsaved: his wife has prayed for him long; her prayers are yet unanswered. Good wife, God has blessed thee with a son, who with thee rejoices in the fear of God. Hast thou not two Christian daughters also? O ye four, take each a corner of this sick man’s couch, and bring your husband, bring your father, to the Saviour. A husband and a wife are here, both happily brought to Christ; you are praying for your children; never cease from that supplication: pray on. Perhaps one of your beloved family is unusually stubborn. Extra help is needed. Well, to you the Sabbath-school teacher will make a third; he will take one corner of the bed; and happy shall I be if I may join the blessed quaternion, and make the fourth. Perhaps, when home discipline, the school’s teaching, and the minister’s preaching shall go together, the Lord will look down in love and save your child.
II. We now pass on to the second observation, that SOME CASES THUS TAKEN UP WILL NEED MUCH THOUGHT BEFORE THE DESIGN IS ACCOMPLISHED. They must get the sick man in somehow. To let him down through the roof was a device most strange and striking, but it only gives point to the remark which we have now to make here. If by any means we may save some, is our policy. Skin for skin, yea, all that we have is nothing comparable to a man’s soul. When four true hearts are set upon the spiritual good of a sinner, their holy hunger will break through stone walls or house roofs. III. Now we must pass on to an important truth. We may safely gather from the narrative THAT THE ROOT OF SPIRITUAL PARALYSIS GENERALLY LIES IN UNPARDONED SIN. Jesus intended to heal the paralysed man, but He did so by first of all saying, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” The bottom of this paralysis is sin upon the conscience, working death in them. They are sensible of their guilt, but powerless to believe that the crimson fountain can remove it; they are alive only to sorrow, despondency, and agony. Sin paralyses them with despair. I grant you that into this despair there enters largely the element of unbelief, which is sinful; but I hope there is also in it a measure of sincere repentance, which bears in it the hope of something better. Our poor, awakened paralytics sometimes hope that they may be forgiven, but they cannot believe it; they cannot rejoice; they cannot cast themselves on Jesus; they are utterly without strength. Now, the bottom of it, I say again, lies in unpardoned sin, and I earnestly entreat you who love the Saviour to be earnest in seeking the pardon of these paralysed persons.
IV. Let us proceed to notice that JESUS CAN REMOVE BOTH THE SIN AND THE PARALYSIS IN A SINGLE MOMENT. It was the business of the four bearers to bring the man to Christ; but there their power ended. It is our part to bring the guilty sinner to the Saviour; there our power ends. Thank God, when we end, Christ begins, and works right gloriously.
V. WHEREVER OUR LORD WORKS THE DOUBLE MIRACLE, IT WILL BE APPARENT. The man’s healing was proved by his obedience. Openly to all onlookers an active obedience became indisputable proof of the poor creature’s restoration. Notice, our Lord bade him rise—he rose; he had no power to do so except that power which comes with Divine commands. He did his Lord’s bidding, and he did it accurately, in detail, at once, and most cheerfully. Oh! how cheerfully; none can tell but those in like case restored. So, the true sign of pardoned sin, and of paralysis removed from the heart, is obedience.
VI. ALL THIS TENDS TO GLORIFY GOD. Those four men had been the indirect means of bringing much honour to God and much glory to Jesus, and they, I doubt not, glorified God in their very hearts on the housetop. Happy men to have been of so much service to their bedridden friend! When a man is saved his whole manhood glorifies God; he becomes instinct with a new-born life which glows in every part of him, spirit, soul, and body. But who next glorified God? The text does not say so, but we feel sure that his family did, for he went to his own house. Well, but it did not end there. A wife and family utter but a part of the glad chorus of praise, though a very melodious part. There are other adoring hearts who unite in glorifying the healing Lord. The disciples, who were around the Saviour, they glorified God too. And there was glory brought to God, even by the common people who stood around. We must, one and all, do the same. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Jesus’ method of doing good:—The first thing which He did was not the thing which He was expected by men to do. His first word seemed remote from the thing needing then and there to be done. The friends of that palsied man expected the famed Miracle-Worker to heal him; and instead, Jesus said only, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.” That was not the first nor the last time that ecclesiastical logic has drawn a correct circle of reasoning by which the living truth has been shut out. Jesus stood for the moment looking upon the disappointed faces of His friends, and meeting the cruel eyes of His enemies. He knew that His word of Divine forgiveness, which seemed remote from the very present need of that palsied man, and which to the Pharisees was idle as a breath of air, was nevertheless the force of forces for the healing of the world. He knew how to begin His work among men, before any form of suffering, with a word which should bring down to the soul of man’s need the power of the heart of God. The multitude looked on and saw the momentary failure, as it seemed, of the Christ of God. “But Jesus, perceiving their reasonings,” &c. “Whether is easier?” &c. Which is the greater force, the love of God forgiving sin, or the miracle of healing? Jesus began with the greatest work. The miracle, as it seemed to the people, was not the greater work which Jesus knew He was sent to accomplish. The physical miracle followed easily upon the diviner power of God’s love which Jesus was conscious of possessing and exercising over the might of evil, when He said, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.” The people, when they saw the lesser work done, not comprehending the power of God then and there present upon the earth, and working first the greater work of the forgiveness of sin, were amazed and filled with fear, and said, “We have seen strange things to-day.” And this opinion of the people must be our opinion of these miracles if we do not know Jesus any better than those doctors of the law at Capernaum had learned Christ. But as in that case soon appeared, Jesus Christ was right in the way He chose to begin His work, and the people were all wrong. He did the harder thing first, and the easier thing next. And the method of the Church, following Christ’s, is profoundly right. It is practically true. The gospel of Divine forgiveness we must put first; our benevolences second. Sin is first to be mastered; then suffering is more easily healed. (Newman Smyth, D.D.)
The gospel of forgiveness:—In this miracle many truths are presented to us; e.g., 1. A strong faith will overcome difficulties. 2. The readiness of Christ to welcome the needy, and to reward faith. 3. The enmity and opposition of the human heart. 4. The superiority of spiritual to temporal blessings. 5. Testimony given to the Divinity of Christ by His (1) forgiving sin; (2) searching the heart; (3) healing the body. But the central truth of the passage appears to be, the gospel of forgiveness preached to the poor.
I. THE NEED IT MEETS. The figure presented to us: a paralysed man—helpless, incurable—a mere wreck. Three things combined in him. 1. Disease. 2. Poverty. 3. Poverty of spirit. He had a sense of sin—connected his misery with his sin—was softened, penitent.
II. THE HOPE IT AWAKENS. Indefinite—but the hope of good. Had heard of Jesus. Drawn by the Father. The attraction exercised by Christ. All obstacles overcome. Jesus must be reached.
III. THE BLESSING IT BESTOWS. 1. Forgiveness. A word lightly used; little valued by many. But ask the friend, the child, the sinner who feels himself wrongdoer, and longs for reconciliation. 2. Manner of bestowment. (1) Immediate. (2) Free. (3) Complete. (4) Authoritative. (5) Effectual.
IV. THE OPPOSITION IT EXCITES. The spirit of opposition to grace always the same; the form differs. Here it was provoked by Christ’s assumption; commonly by man’s presumption.
V. THE VINDICATION IT RECEIVES. Christ proves His power to forgive, confutes His adversaries, saves the man. The gospel may appeal to results. CONCLUSION: Application to (1) The careless. (2) The anxious. (3) The healed. (Emilius Bayley, B.D.)
Reflections on the healing of the paralytic:—1. This passage suggests some serious consideration relating to the great numbers who sometimes assemble when the gospel is to be preached. Some hear with profit; but how many seem to hear in vain. 2. Be exhorted to imitate the benevolence of the four men who brought the paralytic to Christ. All who are themselves in health, strength, and comfort, ought to be ready to perform the various offices of humanity to those who are in sickness, or any trouble. 3. There are some things here for the consideration of the sick. The best use of sickness is for religious improvement. 4. It is delightful to think that the Son of Man has still power to forgive sin. (James Foote, M.A.)
The healing of the paralytic:—Here is an instance of the secondary services which men may render to each other. The men who carried the sufferer could not cure him. Still they could help him by kind and sympathetic attention. We should not shrink from the lower duties simply because we cannot discharge those which are higher. The method of approaching Christ adopted by them, and Christ’s approval of it, show that the one thing to be particular about is to get to Christ, rather than to be fastidious as to the mere manner by which the object is accomplished. The great thing that Jesus Christ valued in men was faith. His answer to the faith of man was always in proportion to the fulness and courage of that faith. In this case He gave the very highest answer at once, with an apparent abruptness that startled the scribes and the Pharisees as if He had committed high blasphemy. Look at the harmony between the action of the men and the speech of Jesus. He did not receive them coldly, and test their sincerity by much questioning and seeming reluctance. On the contrary, no sooner did He see a special exhibition of faith in His power, than He instantly spoke the highest word which God Himself can address to the heart of man. Singularly enough, in this instance Jesus Christ passed from the high spiritual act of forgiveness to the high spiritual act of penetrating the hidden thoughts of those who were secretly accusing Him of blasphemy. The twenty-second verse shows the absolute fearlessness of Jesus, in that He did not wait for an audible expression of unbelief or aversion. He who could thus read the heart showed another phase of that great power by which He released man from the captivity of his guilt. The power is one; only in its application is it varied. In His further remarks upon this case Jesus Christ shows that He can begin His work either from the highest spiritual or the highest physical point. It is curious to observe how sensitive were the scribes and Pharisees in the matter of the forgiveness of sins by any but God Himself, and yet how dull they were to draw the right inference from the fact that Jesus perceived their thoughts. The man who can read the thoughts of the heart has a presumptive claim to be considered able to do more than lies within the sphere of ordinary men. We find, however, that they passed from this instance of spiritual insight without a remark. This is a danger to which we are all exposed—the danger, namely, of seeing blasphemy where we ought to see Divinity, and of neglecting to construct the right argument upon such evidences of Christ’s power as are patent to our own observation. The effect produced upon the minds of the spectators (ver. 26) was apparently satisfactory, yet not really and permanently so, or there could have been no recurrence of hostility. We see from this how possible it is to be amazed, even to glorify God and to be filled with fear, and yet to fall back from this high feeling into positive distrust and enmity. Feeling must be consolidated by understanding, or it will prove itself a poor defence in the day of repeated trial. Christianity is an argument as well as an emotion; and to separate them is to divide our strength and to miss the great purpose of Christian instruction. (J. Parker, D.D.)
The story:—1. Is an admirable commentary on the psalmist’s words, “Thy gentleness hath made me great.” As we follow the steps of the narrative, we feel how, by His gentleness, by the wise gradations of His approach to the paralytic’s true need, Christ is gradually raising him into his best moods. 2. Reminds us that in His grace Christ rewards the very moods of faith and hope which He Himself has produced. He says, “Be of good courage”; and, at the word, courage springs up in our fearful hearts. He says, “Thy sins are forgiven”; and we are able to believe that He, who can forgive sins, can do for us whatever we may need. And then, having inspired faith and courage, He rewards them as though they were our virtues rather than His gifts: He bids us “arise and walk,” to prove our victory over sin, to show that we have found new life in Him. So that the reward He bestows is—new and happier service. 3. Teaches that Christ often crosses our wish to supply our want. No doubt the supreme desire of the Galilean paralytic was deliverance from the palsy. But that is not the first thing Christ grants him. There must be faith before there can be healing; the man’s sins must be forgiven before he can be made whole from his disease. But then, when our sins are really forgiven us, forgiveness implies a free restoration to health. (S. Cox, D.D.)
Spiritual uses of affliction:—
I. A CASE OF DIRE DISEASE.
II. PRACTICAL SYMPATHY EVOKED.
III. UNEXPECTED HINDRANCES. IV. THE INGENUITY OF FAITH.
V. A GRACIOUS ORDER OF BLESSING.
VI. PLAUSIBLE OBJECTIONS CONFUTED.
VII. HUMAN RESTORATIONS BY JESUS MADE COMPLETE.
VIII. HUMAN SUFFERING RESULTING IN BRINGING GLORY TO GOD.
Ver. 17. And it came to pass on a certain day, &c.] When he was at Capernaum, as appears from Mark. 2:1. As he was teaching: in the house where such numbers were gathered together, to hear the word of God preached by him, that there was not room for them, neither within the house, nor about the door, Mark 2:2. That there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by; who were sometimes called Scribes, and sometimes lawyers, and were generally of the sect of the Pharisees: which were came out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem: having heard much of his doctrine and miracles, they came from all parts to watch and observe him, and to take all opportunities and advantages against him, that they might expose him to the people: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them; not the Pharisees and doctors of the law, who did not come to be healed by him, either in body or mind; but the multitude, some of whom came to hear his doctrine, and others to be healed of their infirmities, ver. 15. The Persic version reads the words thus, and from all the villages of Galilee, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem, multitudes came, and the power of God was present to heal them.
Ver. 18. And behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy, &c.] Four men brought him, as Mark says, ch. 2:3 and which the Ethiopic version expresses here: and they sought means to bring him in: into the house where Jesus was: and to lay him before him; at his feet, in hope of moving his compassion, and to obtain a cure of him: of the nature of this disease, and of the sort which this man’s seems to be, see the note on Mark 2:3.
Ver. 19. And when they could not find by what way, &c.] As by the door, or in at a window of the house: they might bring him in; to Jesus, in the house: because of the multitude: which was about the door, and all the fore part of the house: they went upon the housetop; by a ladder, or pair of stairs, which usually were on the outside of houses; see the note on Matt. 24:17. the houses of the Jews being flat-roofed: and let him down through the tiling with his couch, into the midst before Jesus; that is, they untiled the roof, or took away the tiles which were about the trap-door, or passage, into the inside of the house; and so making it wider, let down the man upon his couch, or bed, into the middle of the room and of the people, just before Jesus, where he was sitting; see the note on Mark 2:4.
Ver. 20. And when he saw their faith, &c.] That is, Jesus, as the Syriac and Persic versions express it; when he saw the faith both of the paralytic man, and of the men that brought him, which was shewn in the pains they took, and trouble they were at, in getting him to him; he said unto him. The Vulgate Latin only reads, he said; but the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions, still more fully express the sense, rendering it, he said to the paralytic man; and the Ethiopic version, he said to the infirm man: as follows: man, thy sins are forgiven thee. The other evangelists say, he said son; perhaps he used both words: however, all agree that he pronounced the forgiveness of sins, which were the cause of his disease; and which being removed, the effect must cease; so that he had healing both for soul and body; see the note on Matt. 9:2.
Ver. 21. And the Scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, &c.] To think and say within themselves, and it may be to one another, in a private manner: saying, who is this which speaketh blasphemies? what vain boaster, and blaspheming creature is this, who assumes that to himself, which is the prerogative of God? Who can forgive sins but God alone? against whom they are committed, whose law is transgressed, and his will disobeyed, and his justice injured and affrouted. Certain it is, that none can forgive sins but God; not any of the angels in heaven, or men on earth; not holy good men, nor ministers of the Gospel; and if Christ had been a mere man, though ever so good a man, even a sinless one, or ever so great a prophet, he could not have forgiven sin; but he is truly and properly God, as his being a discerner of the thoughts of these men, and his healing the paralytic man in the manner he did, are sufficient proofs. The Scribes and Pharisees therefore, though they rightly ascribe forgiveness of sin to God alone, yet grievously sinned, in imputing blasphemy to Christ: they had wrong notions of Christ, concluding him to be but a mere man, against the light and evidence of his works and miracles; and also of his office as a Redeemer, who came to save his people from their sins; and seem to restrain the power of forgiving sin to God the father, whereas the son of God, being equal with him, had the same power, and that even on earth, to forgive sin; see the note on Mark 2:7.
Ver. 22. But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, &c.] Being God omniscient; he answering said unto them, what reason ye in your hearts? This he said, not as being ignorant what their reasonings were, for it is before said he perceived their thoughts, but to expose the wickedness of them; in one exemplar of Beza’s ’tis added, evil things, as in Matt. 9:4 see the note there.
Ver. 23. Whether is it easier to say, &c.] Mark adds, to the sick of the palsy: to whom Christ had said that his sins were forgiven him, which had given offence to the Scribes and Pharisees, imagining that he had assumed too much to himself: wherefore he proposes the following case to them, which they thought was most easy for man, or more proper and peculiar to God to say, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, rise up and walk? Neither of them could be said by a mere man, with effect, so as that sins would be really remitted on so saying; or that a man sick of a palsy, by such a word speaking, would be able to stand upon his feet and walk; but both of them were equally easy to him, that is truly God; and he that could say the one effectually, could also say the other: or in other words, he that could cure a man of a palsy with a word speaking, ought not to be charged with blasphemy, for taking upon him to forgive sin: our Lord meant, by putting this question, and acting upon it, to prove himself to be God, and to remove the imputation of blasphemy from him; see the notes on Matt. 9:5. and Mark 2:9.
Ver. 24. But that ye may know, that the son of man, &c.] Whom the Scribes and Pharisees took for a mere man, in which they were mistaken; for though he was really a man, and the son of man, yet he was God as well as man; he was God manifest in the flesh: hath power upon earth to forgive sins: even in the days of his flesh, whilst he was in his humble form on earth; for he did not cease to be God by becoming man, nor lose any branch of his power, not this of forgiving sin, by appearing in the form of a servant; and, that it might be manifest, he said unto the sick of the palsy: these are the words of the evangelist, signifying, that Christ turned himself from the Scribes and Pharisees to the paralytic man, and thus addressed him: I say unto thee, arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.
Ver. 25. And immediately he rose up before them, &c.] As soon as ever these words were spoken by Christ, the man, before sick of the palsy, finding himself perfectly well, got off of his couch, and stood up on his feet before the Scribes and Pharisees, and all the people: and took up that whereon he lay; his couch, or bed: and departed to his own house; with it upon his back: and went to his business, as the Persic version renders it: glorifying God: both for the healing of his body, and for the pardon of his sins; each of which he knew none but God could do. This circumstance is only mentioned by Luke, and shews the sense the man had of the great favours bestowed upon him: he glorified God, by ascribing them to his goodness and power; by offering the sacrifice of praise, or giving thanks unto him for them; by publishing them among his neighbours, to the honour of his name; and by living a holy life and conversation, to his glory, under a grateful sense of his kindness: yea, he glorified Jesus Christ as God, who he knew must be God, by forgiving his sins, and curing his disease; he proclaimed his divine power, and ascribed greatness to him; he confessed him as the Messiah, and owned him as his Saviour, and became subject to him as his Lord.
Ver. 26. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, &c.] Not the Pharisees, and doctors of the law, but the common people: and were filled with fear; of the Divine Being, whose presence and power they were sensible must be in this case: saying, we have scen strange things to-day; paradoxes, things wonderful, unthought-of, unexpected, and incredible by carnal reason, and what were never seen, nor known before; as that a man, who was so enfeebled by the palsy, that he was obliged to be carried on a bed by four men, yet, on a sudden, by a word speaking, rose up, and carried his bed, on his back, home.
In 5:17 a series of controversy stories begins. In the first one Jesus’ enemies are offended by his assumption of the authority to forgive sins. In succeeding incidents, they are aroused by his association with sinners, by the failure of his disciples to fast, and by the disregard for sabbath traditions. The climax is reached when Jesus’ opponents come to the conviction that they cannot afford to allow him to continue his course unhindered: they must do something with him (6:11).
Special points.—The lake of Gennesaret is another name for the Sea of Galilee (5:1).
Jesus instructed the cured leper to follow the requirements set forth in Leviticus 13–14 (5:14). The accredited authorities had to pronounce him cured if he was to be restored to society. The incident may also show Jesus’ respect for the Mosaic law.
The Pharisees, from whose ranks came some of Jesus’ principle antagonists, were characterized by their scrupulous observance of the great body of oral traditions. These interpreted the meaning of the written law.
Palsy (5:18) is an archaic English word used to designate various kinds of paralysis. The cure of the paralyzed man was a response to the faith of those who brought him to Jesus. But faith was not essential to Jesus’ healing power (see 17:11–19). Son of man (5:24) is a title found in the Gospels only on the lips of Jesus, who avoided the use of Messiah (Christ). Son of man is a figure of power and glory associated with the end-time in some Jewish writings. Jesus interpreted it in the light of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. The Son of man must suffer and be rejected before he is exalted to a position of glory and power.
Verse 17 includes an odd construction: kai dynamis kyriou ēn eis to iasthei auton (and the power of the Lord was for him to heal). First, does “Lord” mean Jesus or God? Second, does the “him” of the purpose clause function as object or subject of the infinitive? “And the Lord’s power was for him to heal” might then mean “Jesus’ power was oriented towards healing,” or “God’s power was enabling Jesus to heal”; the alternative, “and the Lord’s power was for healing him,” would have to mean that Jesus’ power was aimed at healing a specific person, and that would make no sense in context. Most commentators argue that “Lord” is equivalent here to “God,” noting that Luke has used this terminology often in the first four chapters. While Luke certainly does use “Lord” to mean “God,” he also uses “Lord” to mean “Jesus”; the first time is when Elizabeth calls Mary “the mother of my Lord” and, more to the point, “Lord” means “Jesus” in the previous two pericopes (5:8; 5:12). Luke’s narrator can use “the Lord” without any further identification to mean Jesus (7:19; 10:1, etc.). Allowing, then, that “Lord” can mean God, and that however we translate this verse, Luke always believes that God’s power enabled Jesus to heal, let us consider the possibility that here it means “Jesus,” and that this phrase is meant to tell us something about Jesus’ intentions that day. After all, Luke has shown the reader in the previous few sections that Jesus is not always or automatically interested in healing. He healed many in Capernaum, but only as many as he could see in one day, and then he left. He healed the leper in the story just prior, but withdrew when confronted by crowds. Luke’s implication is that while Jesus could heal scores of people, healing was not always his intent or his primary mission, and on some days he would leave rather than deal with more requests for healing. On this day, however, he had his mind set on healing and teaching.
On that day, too, Jesus was surrounded by “Pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem.” This is not an unfamiliar posture for Luke’s Jesus. Looking backwards, this scene recalls the temple scene in 2:41–51; on that day, the twelve-year-old Jesus was seated in the midst of the teachers, amazing them with his insight. Looking forward, Jesus will dine with Pharisees on three occasions, and each time there will be elements of questioning and examination that go both ways (7:36–50; 11:37–54; 14:1–24). On this occasion, they are on Jesus’ turf; we are not told whose house they are in, but clearly he is the teacher and they the audience. This episode will show how the Pharisees act when they are guests, and will serve as the first salvo in the ongoing skirmishes between Jesus and the legal experts of Judaism.
Who were the Pharisees? Wary interpreters of the New Testament will realize that the historical questions—who were they, really?—and the questions about who the Pharisees are in Luke are connected but not identical. The sidebar “Who Were the Pharisees?” deals with the historical reconstruction; what follows in this section deals with Luke’s portrait, without raising the questions of his toricity. [Who Were the Pharisees?]
Who Were the Pharisees?
We find information about the Pharisees in the New Testament, where they are mostly bad guys; in Josephus, where they are sometimes described as political opportunists and sometimes as very popular interpreters of the Law; in the Mishnah, where they are pictured as the forerunners of the rabbis whose opinions make up the bulk of the volume; and in the Dead Sea Scrolls, where their opinions are ridiculed by the Essenes as weak and wishy-washy. So far as we know, we have no first-hand accounts by Pharisees. We have, instead, first-hand materials written by two former Pharisees: Paul, who writes as a Pharisee who now believes that Jesus is the key to all things, and Josephus, whose claim to have been a Pharisee is widely doubted (he also claims to have been a Sadduccee and an Essene, as well as a member of a very small sect begun by a man named Banus, all before he was 19; he also was the greatest general of the war of 66–70, and at age 14 all the legal experts came to ask him for advice—well, you get the picture).
It is impossible to say when the Pharisees originated. Josephus first mentions them in his account of the reign of John Hyrcanus I (135–104 BC), so some believe their movement began during the Hasmonean period, in reaction to the Hellenizing impulse among some Jews. Others trace the roots of the movement to the Exilic period and to the attempt to protect Jewish religion and culture from being swallowed up under foreign influences.
An older view treated Pharisees as the dominant religious party within Judaism during the first century. This view, which relies heavily on some passages in Josephus and on the negative characterization of the Pharisees in the New Testament, sees the Pharisees as so popular that they were able to force other Jews, including the high priests, to follow their interpretations of the Torah. When Jesus opposed them, under this interpretation, he was making enemies of a group with the clout to arrange his death.
Another view sees the Pharisees as a religious sect with little actual influence over the temple leaders. In this reading, the Pharisees concentrated on religious observance, trying to live their whole lives as if they were priests in the temple. To keep this level of purity, they ate and interacted mostly only with others of their group.
Yet a third interpretation sees them as a sort of political interest group—a sort of midpoint view between the first and second—who were educated but not members of the aristocracy or ruling class. They were professionals who worked for the upper classes as secretaries, teachers, judges, and clerks.
Josephus says there were about 6, 000 Pharisees. One cannot put too much stock in Josephus’s numerical estimates, but this one would mean that they were a much smaller group than the priests and only slightly larger than the Essenes. His stories about them mostly place them in Jerusalem, whereas the Gospels mostly place them in Galilee.
Most interpreters would agree that the available evidence allows us to say that Pharisees believed in some form of life beyond death, as opposed to the more traditional Jewish view that death is the end of life; that they believed in angels and in angelic revelations to humans; that in their quest to be especially obedient to the Torah, they tended to stretch biblical rules to cover new situations; and that they tended to be more scrupulous about certain areas of Torah such as tithing and avoiding uncleanness.
Some English translations of 5:17 (e.g., the NRSV) give the reader the impression of a crowd gathered around Jesus with the Pharisees sitting nearby. The Greek text only mentions the experts: “And so it was that one day he was teaching and there were Pharisees and law-teachers sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem; and the Lord’s power was aimed at healing.” Healing whom? Well, it is not exactly clear. There are at least four options. The first is that even though the text only names the Pharisees and law-teachers in 5:17, we are supposed to think of a separate crowd and read them back in from 5:19. Jesus heals some of them while the Pharisees watch. My objection to this reading is that it is perfectly clear in Mark, so that if that was what Luke wanted, he could have copied Mark verbatim. The second option is to read 5:17 as “the Lord’s power was for the purpose of healing him,” namely the paralytic. On this reading, there is no healing until 5:25, and Luke has put in 5:17 so we can know that a miracle will happen in due course. Possible, but not plausible; Luke tends not to give away the ending of the story. The third option is to read 5:17 to mean that Jesus was healing some of the scribes and Pharisees that day—some of them had ailments that they brought to Jesus, and he was helping them out. The fourth option is that 5:17 means only that Jesus was in a healing mood, but not that anyone was actually being healed; the Pharisees and scribes sat there with their bum knees and fluttery hearts and could have had help, but never asked. These last two options fit Luke’s language and theology better, and put the conflict later in the story in a new light.
In the next verse some men arrive, carrying a paralytic on his bed, trying to find a way to enter (here is where we discover Jesus is in a house) and set the paralyzed man in front of Jesus: “And when they could not find how to bring him in because of the crowd, going up upon the roof, they set him down through the roof-tiles with his bed into the middle (of the crowd) in front of Jesus” (5:19). This is a “hole in the bottom of the sea” sort of sentence: “because of the crowd upon the roof through the tiles with his bed into the middle in front of Jesus.” Luke opts for this string of prepositional phrases as a sort of rhetorical flourish; this is pleonasm, using more words than is necessary in order to make the scene more vivid. You can almost see the caption balloons next to the heads of the guys carrying the bed: “Those sorry #@*s won’t move over—now what?” “Let’s try the roof!” “Wait, you’re going to drop him!!” “Yank those things off—you’re going to have to make the hole bigger.” “OK, on three—down you go.” “Yo, Jesus—can you give us a hand here?”
As many commentators note, the roof is tiled, not thatched, which is another indication that Luke is thinking of larger, nicer, and more generally Mediterranean homes and not of the smaller Galilean homes with mud-and-straw roofs. And unless we readers are supposed to supply a larger non-Pharisaic crowd, Luke has created an all-expert audience who begin as recipients of Jesus’ teaching and who now function both as barriers and witnesses to the miracle. Picture, then, a nice house filled with well-educated aristocratic people and their advisers; they will not move to let in the rabble, and are no doubt rolling their eyes at the impudence of the group that cuts the hole in the roof.
The story in Mark is more like the “Jesus Mafa” painting—mixed crowd of people that includes some elders and teachers, and a rough hole in a mud-and-stick roof. The illustration by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld is much more like Luke’s image, if you ignore the women: a finer house, and a crowd of Pharisees and teachers who are put off by the appearance of the man on the mat.
Jesus saw “their faith”—vague enough that it can include the paralytic and those who carried him—and said, “Man, your sins have been forgiven” (5:20). Technically, Jesus does not forgive his sins, but pronounces forgiveness. As God’s prophet, Jesus has been sent to announce God’s release/forgiveness to the captives (4:18), but if he announces that it has been done, speaking not just about what God is willing to do but what God has done, he risks being a false prophet. Does Jesus in fact know God’s heart so well that he can say what God’s decision is about a particular sinner?