In our last little talk about Jesus, we were noticing how He cleansed a leper. Now we want to see Him healing a man who was sick with the palsy.
Jesus had left the “desert place,” where He had gone to escape the crowds, and was returned to Capernaum. The word soon got out that He was in the house, and the crowds gathered, so that the house was filled inside, and thronged about the door, while Jesus preached the word to them. You will find this in the second chapter of Mark.
While Jesus was preaching to these people, four men came, carrying on a bed a man sick with the palsy. They wanted to bring this man to Jesus, to be healed. But the crowd was so great that they could not get in at the door. So they took the man upon the roof of the house, and lifted the tiling, so as to make a hole in the roof, and then they let the sick man down into the presence of Jesus. These men believed that Jesus would heal the sick man, and so they did not allow difficulties to hinder. If they could not get in at the door, they could make a hole in the roof, and get the man to Jesus in that way.
“When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” It does not speak of the sick man’s faith, though he may have had faith, too; but it speaks of the faith of the men who brought him. Jesus saw their faith and answered it too. And if some of you will bring some poor sinner to Jesus to be saved, counting on His grace to do it, I think He will answer your faith also.
But this man not only had a sick body which needed healing; his sickness was connected with sins, and so Jesus said to him, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” If there was power in Jesus to heal the sick body, there was also grace in Him to forgive the man’s sins. Do you not think this was very blessed? He forgave the sins first, and then healed the body.
But do you think this grace in Jesus made everybody glad? No, there were some present who did not love Jesus. They did not believe in Him, and thought Him only a sinful man like themselves. They did not know that Jesus was God as well as man; and so when He spoke about forgiving sins, they called it blasphemy, and said “Who can forgive sins but God only?” This was the reasoning of their wicked hearts. But Jesus let them know that He could read their hearts, and that He could do what none of their doctors could, and what no mere man could do. Could any but God put strength into a palsied man, so that he could immediately rise up and walk? No, God alone could do this. Well, then, Jesus was God, for He said to the sick man, “Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.” And at once the man rose up before them all, and went out with his bed. If Jesus, then, was God, could He not also forgive sins? Yes, God was in Jesus, forgiving sins. The palsied man’s case was proof of this. The people were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, “We never saw it on this fashion.” No, they had never seen such power and grace. Oh! how it should have drawn their hearts to Jesus.
And how is it with you, dear children? Do your hearts respond to the love of Jesus, who came down from heaven to earth to heal and to forgive? His love is just the same now as then, and if you believe in Him, you will get your sins forgiven. And if He has forgiven you, then you can do like the four men; you can bring others to Jesus, that He may save them too.
ML 10/14/1900