When He saw their faith, He said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you"

 

 And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."  Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed."  Immediately the leprosy left him.  And He charged him to tell no one, "But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded."  However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.  So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem.  And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.  Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him.  And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.  When He saw their faith, He said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."  And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies?  Who can forgive sins but God alone?"  But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts?  Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Rise up and walk'?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins: -- He said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."  Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.  And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen strange things today!"

 

- Luke 5:12-26 

 

Yesterday we read that, as the multitude pressed about Jesus to hear the word of God, He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets.  Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon's and asked him to put out a little from the land.  And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.  When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch."  But Simon answered and said to Him, "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net."  And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.  So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.  And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.  When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"  For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.  And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid.  From now on you will catch men."  So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.

 

And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."  Leprosy, we should understand, was one of the most dreaded diseases of the time of Christ.  It brought great physical suffering, and also total banishment and isolation from society.  This was both in accordance with Mosaic Law and general practice of the time and for centuries later; my study Bible explains that leprosy is also a symbol of our sin. 

 

  Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed."  Immediately the leprosy left him.  And He charged him to tell no one, "But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded."  Christ gives the command to "show yourself to the priest" in order to convince the priests by a tangible miracle that He is superior to Moses.  So writes St. Cyril of Alexandria, who is cited here by my study Bible.  The priests hold Moses to be greater than Christ, but Christ heals a leper immediately and with His own divine authority.  When Miriam, the sister of Moses, as struck with leprosy, Moses had to seek mercy from above, and still she was only healed after seven days (Numbers 12:10-15).  In addition, we should understand that Christ is telling the healed leper to fulfill the precepts of the religious law, in which priests were charged with dealing with lepers and leprous houses, as well as giving a certificate to enable the person to again participate in the community.  

However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.  So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.  Note that this is Christ's response to the growing fame of Himself and His ministry:  He often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.  The more the world presses in and knows Him, the more He seeks communion with the Father.

Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem.  It's important to note that at this time, due to the rising fame of Jesus as described above, the Pharisees and other members of the religious establishment have clearly taken note of His ministry.  Here, Jesus is still in Capernaum, but these Pharisees and teachers of the law have come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem to observe what He's doing; that is, they have come from all areas of Israel.  

 

 And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.  Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him.  And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.  When He saw their faith, He said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."  And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies?  Who can forgive sins but God alone?"  But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts?  Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Rise up and walk'?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins: -- He said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."  Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.  And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen strange things today!"  My study Bible comments that, as shown by the healing of the paralytic, faith is an indispensable condition for salvation.  It encourages us to note that faith is both collective as well as personal -- as here the faith of the paralytic's friends helped in his healing.  The text tells us that Christ acts to forgive when He saw their faith.  My study Bible cites three signs of Jesus' divinity here.  First, He knows the secrets of hearts (see 1 Samuel 16:7; 2 Chronicles 6:30).  Second, He forgives sins, a power which belongs to God only.  Finally, He heals by the power of His word.

We note that in the healing of the paralytic, forgiveness and healing go hand in hand.  The Gospels include careful examples of Jesus explicitly denying that sin is responsible for afflictions in particular cases.  For example, when the disciples observe a man born blind, they ask Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"  Jesus tells them that he is not blind because of sins, his own or those of his parents, but "that the works of God may be revealed in him" (see John 9).  In today's story, however, there seems to be a different understanding; that this man's paralysis is somehow connected to sin.  In fact, in patristic literature, paralysis is seen as an image or allegory to sin.  We become "stuck" in a repeated sin, habits we repeat and can't get past, ways of thinking we don't wish to change, false beliefs that keep us in the same bad place until we can come to a better understanding or more clarity.  Although we know very well that in this world 'bad things happen to good people' (and Jesus serves as our primary example of that), and the Gospels show us the malice of demonic presence and affliction of all kinds upon the innocent, here there seems to be some connection between this man's paralysis and sin -- as the first thing Jesus does, because of their faith, is forgive the paralyzed man for his sins ("Man, your sins are forgiven you").  The remarkable characteristic here is that forgiveness is extended to this man not because of anything he has done, but because of the faith of his friends, who so earnestly seek to get him before Christ that they go up on the roof and lower him down through the tiles into the crowded home.  They have made every effort on his behalf.  But again, we note that it's not simply because of their effort per se, but because of their faith that prompts those efforts.  Here, then, the power of faith is clearly on display -- because the great faith of the man's friends can work to free him from the paralysis of sin, and then even of the physical paralysis of his body due to Christ's spiritual and physical healing and intervention.  While there are several things to learn from this story, perhaps its greatest news for us is the power of prayer that is conveyed here.  Prayer is not only shown as being collective, but it is also somehow "contagious" -- that is, if we are a part of a praying community, we can benefit from that prayer, even when we are "stuck" somewhere in our own incapacity for prayer, our own sins or spiritual paralysis that puts us in such a state.  The prayers of a community can still help those who are nominally connected to that body of faith; prayers here work like a network that does not stop functioning just because one of its points isn't fully functioning.  Even if one is unable to participate due to some sort of affliction, be it of the soul, spirit, or body, prayer here works to bring that person before Christ, to help to gain freedom from sin and affliction, to find forgiveness.  This is why we may pray for others, why every Church service contains numerous prayers for both the living and the dead, for those of community and even outside the nominal church community in some sense (such as civil authorities).  It is why we pray for saints and we consider that saints may also pray for us; we are all part of the communion of Christ, the "great cloud of witnesses" that surrounds us (Hebrews 12:1).  In short, there are no real barriers to prayer that we know of, as illustrated in today's text.  We pray for those who have passed as well as for the living; and like the friends of the paralytic in today's reading, we may pray for those who, for whatever reason, may not be capable of praying for themselves.  It seems safe to say that we all know people who are either unaware of or unable to face their own problems, who may need our faith and our prayers even in secret for them.  Clearly, from the teachings of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, our prayers need not be known to others to be effective.  The one thing we might say makes our prayers ineffective is insincerity, hypocrisy, doing things only to be seen by others (see Matthew 6:5-6).  (For Christ, we know this also includes charitable deeds.)  For today, let us take note of the amazing power of prayer to make itself effective against all kinds of barriers.  It need not be the person with the problem who prays to be effective; time and space make no difference in terms of boundaries or barriers.  And let us consider, also, that we pray together with an entire created order of beings, including angels of unknown number and rank.  When we think about prayer, let us consider what a wide network we join, together with the work of the Holy Spirit in us and among us, for all gather unto Him.  Jesus Himself sets the example in today's reading, withdrawing all the more for prayer as His ministry expands.  Let us take confidence in doing likewise.