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Jesus Heals a Paralytic 17One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick.18Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus.19When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.20When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” 21The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?23Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?24But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins....” He said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”25Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.26Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”
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BWellcome - (eBible Novice) 11 months ago.
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With this event, there’s almost a sub-plot developing between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders. Just looking at the beginning and end of the story, it’s simply a matter of a) Jesus responding to the remarkable faith of a paralyzed man and his friends by healing him and b) the people responding to the miracle with praise and awe to God. Sandwiched in the middle, however, is Jesus’ little interaction with the religious leaders.
One almost gets the sense that Jesus is actually looking at the Pharisees when he forgives the man’s sins and it obviously rubs them the wrong way. It’s clear from v. 24 that Jesus’ intention is to connect his power to heal with his power to forgive sins. However, it seems that the Pharisees, being the theologians, are the most tuned in to this side of the issue (though it’s there for anyone to pick up on.) Jesus recognizes this, so it almost becomes an underhanded message to the religious leaders about who he is. The way Luke tells the story, Jesus is indirectly communicating his deity to these religious leaders. Not only is God the only one with the power to forgive sins, as the Pharisees acknowledge, he’s also the only one with the power to heal a paralytic on the spot, which the Pharisees struggle to grapple with.
Of course, it’s easy to say “Your sins are forgiven.” People can write him off as a crazy heretic, since there can be no evidence that he’s actually done something about their sin problem. BUT, if he says, “Get up and walk” and it works, it provides evidence that points to his ability to forgive sins, which there is otherwise no immediate evidence for.
With that said, human paralysis and other physical sickness and dysfunction is a result of sin anyway. If Jesus can take care of that more temporary consequence of sin, maybe he has the ability to address the sin issue as a whole!
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GOD_IS_LOVE - (eBible Scholar) 10 months ago.
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And the(incomparable,incorruptible,incomprehensible,incontrovertible) power of the Lord was present to heal them<>Jesus Christ full of the Holy Ghost went about His Father's business doing good healing all oppressed of the devil<>Here we see the Son of God and the Son of man manifested Himself as Emmanuel(GOD with us)<>Not one time in the gospels will we see Jesus turn away anyone coming to Him because of His compassion to heal the sick and take away the sin (and at certain times He had divine appointments with those in need of Him)<>John the Baptist announced Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world<>Through our faith in Jesus shed blood, we are freed of the law of Moses because the righteousness of God is given unto us freely according to His grace and truth in Jesus Christ unto us Redemption<>+<>
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