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But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.
Luke 5:16 NASB
On the heels of being with His Father in prayer, Jesus is strengthened and empowered for divine service. In this case, it is the healing of a paralytic.
One 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; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.
Luke 5:17 NASB
In a very intentional way, Luke is highlighting the fact that in between his healing of the leper and now with the paralytic, Jesus was strengthened by His Father. He was not a “workaholic” as we would consider some today. He was balanced in a rhythm of prayer and solitude which strengthened Him to perform great miracles.
In this story, a man is lowered through the roof of a house on a stretcher in order to reach Jesus and be healed. Because of the crowd that was following Jesus, they could find no other way to get to Him. Jesus responds, but addresses the faith of the man instead of his physical condition.
Seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” 22 But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 “But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” – He said to the paralytic – “I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.”
Luke 5:20-24 NASB
Jesus connected healing with forgiveness – but why? Probably the easiest way to explain this is to understand that Jesus was looking for a faith response. Even in the Old Testament, followers of God who believed in the coming Messiah and lived their lives with this type of assurance were “credited righteousness through faith.”
…and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. 22 Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Romans 4:21-22 NASB
Jesus, in this encounter with the paralytic, sees his incredible faith and connects the physical with the spiritual. In the same way this man came with faith in Jesus to heal his physical body, we can come with faith and be forgiven of our sins. When Jesus faces resistance from the Pharisees, he says to them, “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?”
He says to us today, get up and walk! You are free from your sin, and by faith you are healed!