HEALING THE PARALYTIC

The clock in the back of the big church was well-known for its inability to keep time accurately. Sometimes it would go too fast, and other times it would go too slow. People were always fiddling with the hands of the clock, pushing them ahead or pulling them back. Finally the preacher placed a sign over the clock which read, "Don’t blame the hands, the trouble lies deeper."

There are a lot of problems in the world today, but the real reason lies deeper than all of the outward circumstances. The problem with the world today can be summed up in one word - SIN.

What is sin? The Bible defines sin as that which misses the mark of God’s perfection. The Westminster Catechism says that sin is any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God. It is that which is contrary to the holiness and the justice of God. It is missing the standard of righteousness set forth by a holy and just God.

One of the most distinctive things about Christianity is that it claims that sins can be forgiven. This is the life-blood of the Christian message. This is the message that was presented by Jesus. And this is the message set forth in this chapter.

In the previous versus, Luke describes how Jesus healed a leper by touching him. The news of that miracle had been spread abroad to the point that people are coming from all over to see Jesus, to hear him teach, to see a possible miracle, and in some cases, to be healed.

They were not only coming from the villages of Galilee, but also from as far away as Judea and Jerusalem. This was a distance of 70 miles as the crow flies and they were not crows. They would have had to come the long way, following the popular route down to Jericho and up the banks of the Jordan River. They had come a long way to see and hear Jesus and they were not going to be disappointed.

Each of these instances is spotlighting Jesus as the Lord, the One who...

• Rules nature and therefore must be followed.

• Can cleanse the unclean.

• Can forgive sins.

• Comes to call sinners to repent.

The resulting compound was a general word describing one who had lost control of his body (see Hebrews 12:12 for a figurative use of the same word when describing "the knees that are FEEBLE"). This man could have been the victim of a stroke or some type of nerve disorder.

I cannot read this passage without thinking of my own father who suffered for years from a loss of bodily motor control. He could not walk. He could not dress himself. His disability reached the point prior to his death where he could not feed himself. He was totally dependent upon others to care for him.

This man was in the same predicament. He could not even go to Jesus without help. And so, his friends had placed him upon this pallet and had bound him securely in place so that he would not fall off and hurt himself.

Their excitement mounts as they move through the city streets and approach the house where Jesus is. But their anticipation is dampened somewhat as they reach the house and find people already packed at the doorway, straining to hear the words of the Master within.

1. These men dared to do the difficult.

2. They dared to do the unorthodox.

3. They dared to do the costly.

Imagine the surprise of those within the house. They are sitting and standing wall-to-wall to hear Jesus. He has been speaking to them of sin and repentance and the kingdom of God.

Suddenly, there is a noise above their heads and a portion of the ceiling is removed. They look up to see several faces staring back down. The hole in the ceiling widens and then, a pallet is lowered to the floor. On it lies a man. He may not even have been able to speak. We are not told that he made any request. He has only been placed at the feet of Jesus.

We are like that man. We have been paralyzed with sin. It affects everything that we do and everything that we say. We are helpless in its grip. The only way that we can even come to Jesus is in a state of complete helplessness. We must be brought. And we have been brought. We have been brought by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And we have also been brought through the ministry of the bearers of the bed.

If you have come to Christ and have received spiritual healing in the forgiveness of your sins, then you have been given this commission. You have been called to be a bearer of the bed. You have been commissioned to bring other helpless people to Jesus. You may not have to dig through someone else’s ceiling to do it. But it will take effort. And it will require you to do the unorthodox. And it will cost.

You remember the time that Jesus was in the temple with His disciples and they saw a man who had been blind from birth.

The disciples thought that someone must have sinned to cause this blindness. They were right to a certain extent. There is a sense in which all disease and sickness in the world is caused by sin. It has come about because of that first sin in the Garden of Eden. If there were no sin, then there would be no sickness and no disease. However, this does not mean that everyone who becomes sick is sick because of some specific sin in their life.

That was the mistake Job’s friends made. They saw that he was sick and that bad things had happened to him and so they went to him and advised him to confess the hidden sin in his life. Job responded, "I haven’t done anything!" If you read through the rest of the story, you will find that God ultimately came and rebuked the three friends of Job for their baseless accusations against him.

Here is the principle. Bad things don’t necessarily happen to someone just because they have been bad. And the corollary to that principle is just as true - that good things don’t happen to people just because they are good.

Nevertheless, the ultimate reason that suffering and pain and sickness and death are in the world today is because of sin. Thus as Jesus moves to minister to the needs of this man, He first moves to the root of his problem - his sin.

He says in verse 5, "My son, your sins are forgiven." This is the reason that Jesus came to the earth. It was so that He could provide a way of forgiveness of sins. A righteous God cannot allow sin to go unpunished. We wouldn’t think too much of a judge who had a murderer or a rapist brought into his court if he said, "Well, I know that you are guilty, but I want to be a nice guy and so I am going to let you go." Such a judge would be unjust.

God is not an unjust judge. He came forth with a plan that would provide a just judgment for sin, and yet still provide salvation for men. That plan was the cross. When Jesus died upon the cross, it was as our substitute. He died in our place and suffered the penalty that we deserved. And because of that, Jesus could say to this man, "Your sins are forgiven." This brings us to a problem. Only God can forgive sins.

• The scribes were those whose duty it was to copy the Scriptures. In verse 17 Luke described them as the teachers of the Law. They were entrusted with the Law of God. They thought of themselves as guardians of the truth. And they took their duties very seriously. This is why they had come to hear Jesus. They wanted to see if He was speaking the truth. They wanted to make certain that His ministry was in compliance with the Law of God.

• The Pharisees were the spiritual conservatives of the day. They rejected the liberalism of the Sadducees, holding instead to the inspiration and authority of all of Scripture. They believed in angels. They believed in the supernatural. They believed in a future resurrection. And they were right to believe in all those things.

To tell you the truth, I find myself identifying with these men. They loved the word of God and they hated false teaching. They had stood firm against all of the false religions of a pagan world. And when they heard a man saying, "Your sins are forgiven," it bothered them because they knew that only God is able to forgive sins. They were familiar with the words of the Lord as recorded in the prophet Isaiah.

These Scriptures were right. Only God can forgive sins. And for a mere man to say what Jesus was saying is blasphemy.

Don’t miss this! You cannot listen to what Jesus has just said and conclude that He is only a good man. He is either committing gross blasphemy or else His is the Lord. There is no other choice.

This is a rhetorical question. The truth is that neither is easier. Both are equally impossible for men to do. Both are possible only with God.

There is an interesting contrast between the healing of this man versus the healing of the leper just a few verses earlier.

Suddenly the man moves. He rises from his cot on sturdy legs, picks up his cot, and makes his way from the crowded room. The crowd opens up around him in amazement. Outside, his four friends meet him. He doesn’t even need their help in carrying his bed. Where before there had been skepticism and unbelief, now there is a sense of amazement and awe.

There is a principle here. It is that People will always laugh at what we say until they are amazed at what we do. It will only be as they see evidence of the supernatural lived out in our lives that they will be touched.

What is there in your life that can only be explained in terms of the supernatural? If you can’t think of anything, then go to the Lord and ask Him for a miracle in your life.