Big Healing Book - Luke 5:17-26

Luke 5:17-26:

And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him.
And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.
And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.
And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?
But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason think ye in your hearts?
Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?
But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.
And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, 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 to day.

Notes on Luke 5:17-26:

The power of the Lord was present to heal the scoffing religious leaders. So, why weren’t they healed? They did not mix faith with that power. Only the paralytic got healed as far as we know, and that is because he and his four friends had exercised their faith. (Jesus saw “their” faith, and that had to include the faith of the paralytic, who otherwise surely would not have let four friends lower him down through a roof if he didn’t think it would be worthwhile.) This is one time when it was good to have friends who let you down.

The scribes and Pharisees went “through the roof” in the wrong way when they saw this healing and the only thing they “got” was mad. This shows that receiving healing is NOT simply dependent on the power of God being present to heal. Even when the healing anointing is in manifestation, God still expects you to believe that you receive.

The amazed people who said they has seen strange things were not saying that as a derogatory statement, because Luke says that they were filled with fear, not derision. The other accounts state that they marveled, glorified God, and basically said, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!”

This shows that Jesus equated healing with the forgiveness of sins. In effect, He said, “I will prove my authority to forgive sins by removing sickness, one of the punishments for sin, from this paralytic.”

Without faith, you can see a miracle happen right under your nose and not receive anything yourself. Don’t be like the religious people in this story – be like the paralytic and his friends. Refuse to settle for anything less than God’s best, even if it’s inconvenient to press for it.

Many modern translations say in verse 17 that the power of the Lord was present to heal “the sick,” or just to “heal” in general, but that is not supported by the Greek pronoun autos that is used at the end of this verse. Autos is a pronoun that refers back to something already mentioned. The sick were not mentioned, but the Pharisees and the doctors of the Law were mentioned. Therefore, the King James Version, NKJV and Young’s Literal Translation are correct when they say that the power of the Lord was present to heal them – the Pharisees and the doctors of the Law. Perhaps the translators thought that if the power were present, the religious leaders would have been healed, so “them” couldn’t mean what it plainly means in Greek. But the correct translation brings out the powerful point that even when the power of God is present to heal someone, that person must cooperate or he will still not get healed. The religious leaders were too busy criticizing Jesus to be in the mode to receive. Yet in His mercy, God provided healing for the enemies of the gospel if they would only receive it! It’s safe to stick with what the original text says rather than to try to reason around it, thinking that it really couldn’t mean what is actually says.

This event is also recorded in Matthew 9:2-8 and Mark 2:2-12.