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He Healed Me - Twice!
A Contextual Reflection on Luke 5:17-26

In the West, we have become so preoccupied with analyzing a leaf (for example, a statement of Jesus) under the microscope that we tend to forget that the leaf came from a tree (the Gospels), and that tree is part of a great forest (all of Scripture). As a result, we can become so easily focused on the leaf issues of a passage that we often lose sight of its larger contextual background – the tree and the forest.

What we often need when ooengaging the Scriptures is an elevated perspective on the text, a different and wider frame of reference, one where we can take in the complete tree and the whole forest. Having done that, we can then return to a specific passage to examine more closely the leaves that we thought we knew and understood and discover more of what we may have been missing. This is the approach we will take in opening up Jesus' encounter with a paralytic and His confrontation with the religious establishment that is now monitoring His Kingdom of God ministry.

In approaching this Luke 5 encounter of Jesus with a paralytic, contextually it helps to keep three things in view:

The BIBLE'S Context ? what we also call “The Five Story Lines of Scripture” or the really Big Picture of the Bible. From this 30,000 foot perspective, we first look for what is revealed in any biblical passage about 1) who God is and how He does things, 2) who the Adversary is and how he does things, 3) the character of the Mutiny , 4) the nature of the Human Condition , and 5) God's eternal plan of Rescue and Restoration to return everything back to its original sinless condition.
The BOOK'S Context ? those contextual themes that Luke has already placed in his narrative, e.g., the Rescuer has come, He is establishing a new Kingdom, He is beginning to remake His disciples' worldview, and He is bringing God's mercy to those who have been deprived of it. This is the book-specific perspective from 5,000 feet that we also need to “see” and incorporate.
The PASSAGE'S Context ? look for the specific contextual clues that Luke (a Holy Spirit inspired artist with words) gives us with the names, phrases, sites, references, and idioms that he uses to “paint” this encounter. This is the ground-level view of a passage. In this particular encounter, Luke is assuming his readers understand where this scene takes place (Capernaum), what Jerusalem stands for, how Galilean houses and roofs are constructed, what Pharisees and teachers of the law represent, as well as how “forgiveness” works in the behavioral theology of observant Judaism.

So far in the fourth and fifth chapters of Luke, Jesus has already established His Divine authority and is systematically expanding the scope of it. He has established His authority over the Adversary in the three temptations, then sequentially over temporary disease (in Simon Peter's house), demon possession, over nature with the great catch of fish, and over terminal disease with the healing of the man covered with leprosy. Now the time has come in Luke's meticulous narrative development for Jesus to assert His authority to forgive sin.

Luke starts to paint his Holy Spirit inspired portrait of this encounter by telling us that o ne day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem (NASB). Jesus is now on the radar screen of the religious establishment. His healing of the leper in the prior passage and sending him straight to the Temple to present himself to the priests has apparently had its desired “announcement” effect. Since such a miracle was deemed by many to signal the advent of the Messianic Age, this Rabbi Yeshua needed to be immediately checked out.

As Luke continues his narrative, we learn that some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed. Being a paralytic in that culture meant that you were a person with a stigma, e.g., people who were lame were forbidden from participating in the ordinary priesthood. At first-century Qumran, people with disabilities were not allowed by the Essenes to fully participate in that Dead Sea sect's community life. As a result, issues of rejection and exclusion would be a regular part of a paralytic's life. Given this contextual backdrop, what is stunning in Luke's narrative is that this paralytic not only has a friend, but apparently has several loyal friends, friends so committed to him that they are willing to do whatever is required to bring him to Jesus.

Luke informs us that these friends were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. Most likely Jesus was back in Simon Peter's house, one of the larger insulae houses in Capernaum . This type of house was a multi-room structure with many side rooms arranged around a central courtyard. Each of these sleeping and storage side rooms was typically narrow (usually 3 - 6 feet wide) and quite deep, with few or no exterior windows.

Since these houses were commonly made of basalt, a “hard, dense, dark volcanic rock,” these black-walled side rooms would have been quite dark. Whatever light penetrated these rooms would have to come through the room's entrance facing the courtyard. From the detail Luke gives us, we can deduce that Jesus was standing in front of one of these dark side-room entrances addressing the crowd in the courtyard. Because of the spectator crowds that Jesus attracted, it was not possible for the friends of the paralytic to even enter the courtyard, let alone get close to Jesus. However, being committed to bringing their paralyzed friend to Jesus, they came up with a creative, alternative plan to overcome their “separation” from this miracle-working rabbi. Since rabbis would teach for hours as long as people would listen, they could tell from the current size of this crowd that they had sufficient time to carry out their plan. From there these friends devised a surprising plan that Luke compresses into one sentence: but not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. That means these friends had to “read” the eyes of the crowd while up on the roof to determine which of the many side room entrances Jesus was standing in.

The roofs of first-century Galilean homes were flat and served multiple social meeting purposes. Thus there were always outside stairs leading to the roof. While the translation of the NASB text calls out the roof covering tiles (a word Luke chose to use to communicate to urbanite Gentiles who had tile roofs but no understanding of Galilean roof construction) , archaeological evidence suggests these roofs were typically composed of hard-packed earth and stone covered with some type of hard substance, e.g. brick or stone. This earthen roof was laid down over a wooden lattice of tree branches, boughs and limbs which in turn rested on basalt cross beams. Thus, it was a major effort to open up a large enough hole in such a roof through which to drop a person on a stretcher.
Creating an access hole near Jesus in the targeted side room where Jesus was standing would have taken a considerable period of time during which there had to have been a growing commotion going on around Jesus. Standing in the courtyard, most of the crowd would be able to see these friends of the paralytic at work on the roof slowly opening up an ever-expanding hole, and wonder: what is going on?

Using some imagination, we can envision some of this scene. Slowly a hole began to appear in the roof, growing until it was large enough for a man on a stretcher to descend. All during this time, clumps of dirt and stones were likely dropping down around Jesus. As the hole in the roof enlarged, more and more daylight penetrated into this dark room behind Jesus providing what photographers call a back-lighted scene. Obviously, Jesus carried on with His teaching as this intriguing hole in the roof grew, debris from the hole continued to fall, and more and more of heaven's light entered the dark room (world) behind Him illuminating this unfolding scene for all to “see!”

Finally the paralytic is dropped down and lands next to Jesus to the shock and surprise of almost everyone except Jesus. To the Scribes and Pharisees, their surprise would have been laced with arrogant scorn. How dare people do such an audacious thing for such an obvious “sinner?” (Remember the disciples' reaction in John 9:2 when they saw a blind man: Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?) In this way, Luke implicitly brings “sin” into this scene, a theme he first introduced in 5:8 and is continuing to develop.

As Jesus faces this paralytic, the crowd must have wondered, “What will Jesus do about this brazen interruption?” Luke records that seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” Let's consider Jesus' surprising mercy-laden declaration from three different perspectives: that of 1) the paralytic and his friends, 2) the Pharisees and teachers of the law, and 3) Jesus.

The friends of the paralytic had to have been stunned as they realized their plan wasn't going as they had hoped. Getting forgiveness for their friend wasn't why they came, not what they wanted and certainly not what they were expecting. They brought him to Jesus to be healed. They might well have been thinking, “Get real Jesus. Be relevant to our friend's predicament here. Be responsive to his real and obvious need.”

From the perspective of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, they too had a “problem” and began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sin, but God alone?” Well, they got that part right! No one can forgive sins but the Divine and that authority has not been delegated to men. Furthermore, they are prisoners of their “forgiveness” paradigm: 1) exercising scrupulous behavior, 2) going to the ritual purification baths when ceremonially unclean, and 3) participating in Temple offerings and sacrifices, make you “right with God” by definition. “Forgiveness” is imputed to you by the religious “system.” Thus from the Pharisees perspective, there could be no real “forgiveness” without Temple sacrifices and offerings. Yet Jesus had just declared this paralytic “forgiven,” even though there was no animal sacrifice rendered here and they are obviously not in the Temple ! Thus, blasphemy was their only logical conclusion.

Looking at this scene from Jesus' perspective, He has the perfect holistic solution for this paralytic's predicament. We can only imagine what Jesus was thinking to Himself as others grappled with the unconditional “forgiveness” He had just proclaimed: “Yes, you Pharisees are right that forgiveness does require a sacrifice, and this is not the Temple . In just a little while, however, I will be standing before Pilate in another courtyard getting ready to make an incredible sacrifice that will change the access to God's forgiveness. In addition, I have a new 'Temple' in view.”

Furthermore, Jesus knew the paralytic's friends did not understand that if He healed their friend, the paralytic would still be paralyzed (separated) in his spiritual relationship with the Father. Jesus knew he really needed to be restored in his relationship with his Creator. So first things first, everything has to start with forgiveness. Their friend needed to be fully restored, not just rescued from his physical paralysis.

Perhaps a comment is in order on the faith that Jesus commends. Notice His reference is to their faith. It is not just to the faith of the paralytic, but to the faith of his friends. In fact it is not entirely clear if the paralytic had sufficient faith to be healed; rather it might only have been the collective faith of his stretcher-bearing friends. Nevertheless, the question needs to be asked: What kind of faith did they exhibit? Is it a fully matured creedal faith? Do they have a sufficient understanding of who Jesus is? Not at all. But they do seem to be convinced that Jesus can make a difference, and that is enough to fuel their desire to get their friend in front of Jesus. That threshold amount of “faith” is sufficient for Jesus to affirm in a miraculous way. There are times when we need to be carried by the faith of our friends when our own faith seems insufficient to carry us forward.

As this encounter builds to a climax, Jesus asserts his Messiahship in no uncertain terms by referring to Himself as the Son of Man. This direct remez reference back to Daniel 7 (a standard rabbinic teaching technique which uses a short phrase to intentionally hearken back to a longer prior passage) is Jesus' way of saying that I am God's Messiah and your statement that only God can forgive is not only correct, but I am His Divinely authorized representative. (For a more extensive development of remez , refer to the March 2007 Reflection, “The Last Words of Jesus: What Did He Really Say and Mean?”) The phrase your sins are forgiven you is in the perfect passive tense which means that God has already forgiven the paralytic his sin. Furthermore, Jesus is in essence saying, I have the authority to pronounce that forgiven outcome to you. What is remarkable here is that we are given no clues by Luke that the paralytic even wanted to be forgiven!

Putting an exclamation point behind His assertion that He has the authority to forgive others as God's Agent, Jesus says to the paralytic I say to you, get up, pick up your stretcher and go home. As Luke records, Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. Why did Jesus direct the paralytic to pick up his stretcher and carry it home? Could it be that He wanted it to be a tangible memorial, a lasting memory, of what Jesus did for him? Do you have such remembrances?

In previous Reflections, we observed that the Hebrew understanding of glorifying means to accurately reveal and portray God to others. This ex-paralytic went home accurately telling his story and in so doing correctly portrayed God (Jesus) to others. That's what “prisoners” who have been set free are expected to do – glorify God by accurately telling their story to whoever will listen rightly depicting what God has done for them.

As Luke ends this encounter, he records that they were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen remarkable things today.” How true! Note that when one person starts glorifying God, others tend to do the same. Glorifying God can be contagious!

As the friends of this now ex-paralytic scrambled back down the roof stairs and trailed him home, I wonder if they realized that they had just received far more than their highest expectations. Their friend had just received a double healing – an outer healing to be sure, but an inner healing as well along with hope for the future. That is often the way it is when you come to Jesus. In His loving response you often get soooo much more than you hoped or planned to receive. Remember… God can do anything, you know, far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams (Ephesians 3:19, The Message).

Now returning to our tri-level (forest-tree-leaf) contextual framework for digging into a passage, let's start by asking what have we learned in this passage from the 30,000 foot (forest) level about “The Five Story Lines of Scripture?” We can observe that:
With regard to Who God is and how He does things:

God forgives the sin of a person that separates him or her from Him.
He is Sovereign in when and how He forgives.
God is incredibly merciful – He will forgive a person who was not even expecting to be forgiven.
He is unpredictably beneficent – come for just one thing and get sooo much more! Come for an outer healing and received an inner healing as well!

With regard to the Mutiny:

Religious institutions become part of the continuing Mutiny when they create artificial restrictions and conditions on how and when God can forgive people.

With regard to the Human Condition:

“Church” crowds of Jesus spectators can be impediments to seekers wanting to encounter Jesus.
Spiritual and physical paralyses are an inevitable reality of the Human Condition.

With regard to God's Eternal Plan of Rescue and Restoration:

It is centered in the Person, Power and authoritative life-giving, forgiving Word of Jesus.
Rescue from spiritual paralysis and the journey to Restoration begins with forgiveness.
As the paralytic's case history attests, God's Plan starts with Rescue but ends in Restoration.
Glorifying God is part of God's Plan to bring the “Good News” of Rescue and Restoration to others as we continue to remember and share with others what God has done in our own lives.

From the book-specific (tree) view of 5,000 feet, Luke continues to underscore the character of Jesus' ministry in this encounter as He portrays Jesus a) bringing God's mercy to those who need it and have been systematically deprived of it, b) teaching and remaking His disciples' worldview - this time regarding forgiveness, c) bringing more “outsiders” into His new Kingdom, d) rescuing and restoring yet another “prisoner” (Luke 4:18).

Another new theme having to do with sin and its remedy is also being developed in these early Luke 5 passages. Luke first introduced the reality of sin in 5:8 with Simon Peter's response to Jesus regarding the great catch of fish. He then extends the theme by way of analogy of the man covered (as we are with sin) with leprosy. Now in this encounter with the paralytic, he links humanity's hopeless case of sinfulness (separation from God) with God's gracious and merciful remedy of forgiveness.
From a ground-level perspective, the “leaves” in this passage also teach us that:

There are times when we all need to be carried on the wings of faith of others. That is part of what the Body of Christ is all about. Are you willing to let the Body carry you during those times and seasons of faint faith in your life?
We need to be forgiving people. If God's plan of Rescue and Restoration starts with forgiveness, whenever we are unwilling to forgive another, we are not only an impediment in God's Plan, but we are actually acting in ways that keep the mutiny going. Most of us can deal with “forgiveness for cause.” It's easier to forgive others when we can see a “reason” for why another wronged us. But real forgiveness and authentic mercy starts when there is no reason, no rationale to excuse what another has done to us ? when it is deliberate, premeditated and intended to harm. Is there anyone in your life right now that you cannot forgive? Ask the Spirit to start to soften your heart toward that person or those people.
We are called to be continually glorifying God ? accurately telling our story and portraying God to a watching world. Does your life glorify God? How contagious has your glorifying God been to others?
Beware of your expectations when you come to Jesus. We should be people who come to Jesus with a sense of expectancy, but without rigid expectations of what He needs to do and when, where and how He needs to do it. We should be people with open, receptive hands ready to receive whatever God in His sovereignty lovingly chooses to put in them at any moment in time, not people clinging to our preconceived notions of what we self-servingly think needs to be done. We often come to Jesus preoccupied with our need for healing, but there are times when Jesus wants to focus on our restoration issues.
What kind of a friend are you and is your church to people with disabilities ? Do you spend time with them? Would you creatively and determinedly bring them to Jesus to be rescued and restored?
In ministering to disabled people, be holistic. Embrace an integrated holistic emphasis to the social, physical and spiritual needs of people with disabilities. Jesus always took a holistic view of those He encountered including this paralytic. People with disabilities need Jesus to be sure. But they also desperately need jobs, housing, socialization and community.
Do you have tangible remembrances in your life to remind you of what God has done for you (see, for example, Joshua 4:1-9)? Remembering is the most prevalent theme in the Scriptures. Why does God emphasize so much the remembering of whom He is and what He has done? Because He knows how easily and repeatedly we can forget.

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