Luke 5:21-25
Luke 5:21 (KJB)
And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which
speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?
The scribes who were in attendance now accuse Jesus of blasphemy, of course,
they said it within themselves and not out loud. They knew that God was the only
one who was allowed to forgive sin. They could have seen Jesus as a prophet but
the scribes had believed that prophetic ministry had ceased or that Jesus was
claiming to be God. They had despised Jesus and that is why they spoke of Him as
“who is this” which would be speaking only of His humanity and not His deity.
Luke 5:22 (KJB)
But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What
reason ye in your hearts?
Here should have been the answer to whom they were dealing with. Only God could
know the inner thoughts of a man and here Jesus is pointing out the fact that
they were thinking evil in their hearts toward Him. They should have realized
that Jesus was more than a mere man when He showed He had the ability to read
the hearts of man. He poses the question to them which should have shocked them
because how could a mere man know the thoughts of another?
Luke 5:23 (KJB)
Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and
walk?
Here Jesus asks them a question which has only two possible answers. The first
answer is that to God, it is very easy to heal a sickened body and to heal the
soul by forgiving all their sins. The second answer would be the opposite. To a
mere human being, it would be impossible for that person to do either. How can a
sick or paralyzed person heal their physical body or how can a sinner cleanse
their own soul? It is an impossibility on both. So to answer the question. If
they say He is just a man, then what happens next will prove them wrong. If they
say he is God, then what He does next will confirm that analysis. So they are
caught between two answers which would cause their belief system much trouble.
Luke 5:24 (KJB)
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.
Since there would be no way for the scribes to know if the man’s sins were truly
forgiven, what Jesus did was to heal the man’s paralysis and once the man
started walking again, then the scribes could assume that the man’s sins were
also forgiven simultaneously. This outward manifestation of the healing
represented the fact that the man’s sins were forgiven. The word for “power” in
this verse carries with it the meaning of not only having the power to perform a
miracle but having the right or authority to be able to perform that miracle. As
the Son of God, Jesus had the authority to perform the miracles which were in
keeping with His ministry.
Jesus heals this paralytic and then commands him to take his bed and to go to
back to his home. The man who was healed had said nothing during the entire
event. He was a testimony to the power of God. His body was healed and was now
strong plus his soul was now cleansed of all sin. Jesus then tells him to take
up his bed and the commands him to go back to his house.
Luke 5:25 (KJB)
And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and
departed to his own house, glorifying God.
The man immediately obeys Jesus and arising from the bed, he now had the
strength in his body to be able to walk and he then took his bed and went to his
house. Could you imagine the look on the faces of those in his house when he
walked in and put his bed down? I can just imagine the joy that was experienced
in his house because his friends had no doubt, accompanied him back to his house
but this time, he carried his own bed.