Here is the story of healing of the paralytic in Peter's home.
In the healing of the paralytic at Capernaum, Christ again taught
the same truth. It was to manifest His power to forgive sins that
the miracle was performed. And the healing of the paralytic also
illustrates other precious truths. It is full of hope and encouragement,
and from its connection with the caviling Pharisees it has a lesson
of warning as well.
Like the leper, this paralytic had lost all hope of recovery. His
disease was the result of a life of sin, and his sufferings were embit-
tered by remorse. He had long before appealed to the Pharisees and
doctors, hoping for relief from mental suffering and physical pain.
But they coldly pronounced him incurable, and abandoned him to
the wrath of God. The Pharisees regarded affliction as an evidence
of divine displeasure, and they held themselves aloof from the sick
and the needy. Yet often these very ones who exalted themselves as
holy were more guilty than the sufferers they condemned.
The palsied man was entirely helpless, and, seeing no prospect
of aid from any quarter, he had sunk into despair. Then he heard of
the wonderful works of Jesus. He was told that others as sinful and
helpless as he had been healed; even lepers had been cleansed. And
the friends who reported these things encouraged him to believe that
he too might be cured if he could be carried to Jesus. But his hope
fell when he remembered how the disease had been brought upon
him. He feared that the pure Physician would not tolerate him in His
presence.
Yet it was not physical restoration he desired so much as relief
from the burden of sin. If he could see Jesus, and receive the assur-
ance of forgiveness and peace with Heaven, he would be content to
live or die, according to God’s will. The cry of the dying man was,
Oh that I might come into His presence! There was no time to lose;
already his wasted flesh was showing signs of decay. He besought
his friends to carry him on his bed to Jesus, and this they gladly
undertook to do. But so dense was the crowd that had assembled in
and about the house where the Saviour was, that it was impossible
for the sick man and his friends to reach Him, or even to come within
hearing of His voice.
Jesus was teaching in the house of Peter. According to their
custom, His disciples sat close about Him, and “there were Pharisees
and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every
town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem.” These had come as
spies, seeking an accusation against Jesus. Outside of these officials
thronged the promiscuous multitude, the eager, the reverent, the
curious, and the unbelieving. Different nationalities and all grades
of society were represented. “And the power of the Lord was present
to heal.” The Spirit of life brooded over the assembly, but Pharisees
and doctors did not discern its presence. They felt no sense of need,
and the healing was not for them. “He hath filled the hungry with
good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away.” Luke 1:53.
Again and again the bearers of the paralytic tried to push their
way through the crowd, but in vain. The sick man looked about
him in unutterable anguish. When the longed-for help was so near,
how could he relinquish hope? At his suggestion his friends bore
him to the top of the house and, breaking up the roof, let him down
at the feet of Jesus. The discourse was interrupted. The Saviour
looked upon the mournful countenance, and saw the pleading eyes
fixed upon Him. He understood the case; He had drawn to Himself
that perplexed and doubting spirit. While the paralytic was yet at
home, the Saviour had brought conviction to his conscience. When
he repented of his sins, and believed in the power of Jesus to make
him whole, the life-giving mercies of the Saviour had first blessed
his longing heart. Jesus had watched the first glimmer of faith grow
into a belief that He was the sinner’s only helper, and had seen it
grow stronger with every effort to come into His presence.
Now, in words that fell like music on the sufferer’s ear, the
Saviour said, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.”
The burden of despair rolls from the sick man’s soul; the peace
of forgiveness rests upon his spirit, and shines out upon his counte-
nance. His physical pain is gone, and his whole being is transformed.
The helpless paralytic is healed! the guilty sinner is pardoned!
In simple faith he accepted the words of Jesus as the boon of
new life. He urged no further request, but lay in blissful silence, too
happy for words. The light of heaven irradiated his countenance,
and the people looked with awe upon the scene.
The rabbis had waited anxiously to see what disposition Christ
would make of this case. They recollected how the man had appealed
to them for help, and they had refused him hope or sympathy. Not
satisfied with this, they had declared that he was suffering the curse
of God for his sins. These things came fresh to their minds when
they saw the sick man before them. They marked the interest with
which all were watching the scene, and they felt a terrible fear of
losing their own influence over the people.
These dignitaries did not exchange words together, but looking
into one another’s faces they read the same thought in each, that
something must be done to arrest the tide of feeling. Jesus had
declared that the sins of the paralytic were forgiven. The Pharisees
caught at these words as blasphemy, and conceived that they could
present this as a sin worthy of death. They said in their hearts, “He
blasphemeth: who can forgive sins but One, even God?” Mark 2:7,
R. V.
Fixing His glance upon them, beneath which they cowered, and
drew back, Jesus said, “Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For
whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise,
and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on
earth to forgive sins,” He said, turning to the paralytic, “Arise, take
up thy bed, and go unto thine house.”
Then he who had been borne on a litter to Jesus rises to his
feet with the elasticity and strength of youth. The life-giving blood
bounds through his veins. Every organ of his body springs into sud-
den activity. The glow of health succeeds the pallor of approaching
death. “And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth
before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified
God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.”
Oh, wondrous love of Christ, stooping to heal the guilty and the
afflicted! Divinity sorrowing over and soothing the ills of suffering
humanity! Oh, marvelous power thus displayed to the children of
men! Who can doubt the message of salvation? Who can slight the
mercies of a compassionate Redeemer?
It required nothing less than creative power to restore health to
that decaying body. The same voice that spoke life to man created
from the dust of the earth had spoken life to the dying paralytic.
And the same power that gave life to the body had renewed the
heart. He who at the creation “spake, and it was,” who “commanded,
and it stood fast,” (Psalm 33:9), had spoken life to the soul dead in
trespasses and sins. The healing of the body was an evidence of the
power that had renewed the heart. Christ bade the paralytic arise and
walk, “that ye may know,” He said, “that the Son of man hath power
on earth to forgive sins.”
The paralytic found in Christ healing for both the soul and the
body. The spiritual healing was followed by physical restoration.
This lesson should not be overlooked. There are today thousands
suffering from physical disease, who, like the paralytic, are longing
for the message, “Thy sins are forgiven.” The burden of sin, with its
unrest and unsatisfied desires, is the foundation of their maladies.
They can find no relief until they come to the Healer of the soul. The
peace which He alone can give, would impart vigor to the mind, and
health to the body.
Jesus came to “destroy the works of the devil.” “In Him was
life,” and He says, “I am come that they might have life, and that
they might have it more abundantly.” He is “a quickening spirit.” 1
John 3:8; John 1:4; 10:10; 1 Corinthians 15:45. And He still has
the same life-giving power as when on earth He healed the sick, and
spoke forgiveness to the sinner. He “forgiveth all thine iniquities,”
He “healeth all thy diseases.” Psalm 103:3.
The effect produced upon the people by the healing of the par-
alytic was as if heaven had opened, and revealed the glories of the
better world. As the man who had been cured passed through the
multitude, blessing God at every step, and bearing his burden as if it
were a feather’s weight, the people fell back to give him room, and
with awe-stricken faces gazed upon him, whispering softly among
themselves, “We have seen strange things today.”
The Pharisees were dumb with amazement and overwhelmed
with defeat. They saw that here was no opportunity for their jealousy
to inflame the multitude. The wonderful work wrought upon the man
whom they had given over to the wrath of God had so impressed the
people that the rabbis were for the time forgotten. They saw that
Christ possessed a power which they had ascribed to God alone; yet
the gentle dignity of His manner was in marked contrast to their own
haughty bearing. They were disconcerted and abashed, recognizing,
but not confessing, the presence of a superior being. The stronger
the evidence that Jesus had power on earth to forgive sins, the more
firmly they entrenched themselves in unbelief. From the home of
Peter, where they had seen the paralytic restored by His word, they
went away to invent new schemes for silencing the Son of God.
The Desire of Ages pp. 266-271
