Luke 5:21, commentary and pictures

At Capernaum the scribes and Pharisees silently charged Jesus with blasphemy for telling the paralytic his sins were forgiven, because forgiveness belongs to God alone and His words claimed God's authority as His own right. They reasoned inwardly without speaking, looking at one another with the same thought, but Jesus read their minds and fixed His reproving glance upon them until they cowered back. He answered their unspoken question by declaring that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, and proved the claim by commanding the man to rise and walk in an immediate healing they could not set aside. He forgave first, lifting the crushing burden of guilt and bringing peace and renewal to heart and mind before healing the body, showing Himself one with the Father with the same power on earth as in heaven. The proof filled the healed man and the witnesses with awe and thanksgiving to God, but the accusers refused to believe and were exasperated into hardened hatred and unbelief despite the most convincing evidence before them.

Setting and Background

Luke 5:21 belongs to Jesus teaching and healing at Capernaum, where crowds gathered to hear Him and the sick were brought to Him for help. Even lepers had been healed there and no one seeking Him was turned away. It was beside the lake where the lame, the blind, the paralytic and the dying were healed. Pharisees and teachers were gathered nearby in that same scene.

The paralytic brought there suffered palsy as the penalty of a sinful life and transgression of God's law. His suffering was embittered by remorse, he had sunk into despair with all hope of recovery lost, and he feared Jesus would curse and reject him as others had, believing himself under God's judgment. Like the Pharisees and even the physicians, he feared Jesus would pronounce a curse upon him and warn him to flee instead of healing him.

Above bodily cure he longed for relief from the burden of sin and assurance of forgiveness and peace with heaven. He would then be content to live or to die according to God's will. He had heard that others as sinful and helpless as he had been healed by Jesus and was encouraged to believe he too might be cured if carried to the Saviour, trusting Jesus could grant mercy and pardon and relieve his troubled mind. Yet hope fell as he remembered the cause of his malady.

The priests, scribes and Pharisees had given him no hope when he appealed to them for relief. They pronounced him incurable, denounced him as a sinner, and declared he would die under God's wrath, telling him his palsy was God's righteous retribution for wrongdoing and proof of God's anger toward the transgressor. They held themselves aloof from the sick and needy without sympathy, looked coldly and with horror on his shriveled form, refused him one ray of encouragement, and increased his suffering. They exalted themselves as holy and favored of God though more corrupt in heart and life than the sufferers they condemned, and they could be more guilty than those they condemned while treating illness as evidence of God's displeasure.

Pharisees, teachers and doctors of the law were gathered nearby watching Jesus with hostility and anxious expectation to see what disposition He would make of the paralytic. They hoped to find grounds to accuse Him. They entrenched themselves in the sanctity of their office, expressed annoyance at being troubled with so disagreeable a matter, and said they could not raise one from the dead because dissolution had already commenced.

The Blasphemy Accusation

The scribes and Pharisees reasoned inwardly and silently, without exchanging words but looking into one another's faces with the same thought when Jesus told the paralytic his sins were forgiven. Jesus read their unspoken thoughts and fixed His reproving glance upon them, beneath which they cowered and drew back. They had gathered nearby watching Him with hostility and anxious expectation to see what He would do with the paralytic, while the forgiven man remained in blissful silent happiness with the light of heaven on his countenance and the people looked on with awe.

They held that forgiveness of sins belongs to God alone, so they judged Jesus' declaration that the paralytic's sins were forgiven to be speaking blasphemies. They treated His words of divine pardon as an assumption of infinite power and a claim to God's authority as His own right. Their objection arose because they regarded such pardon as what only God has right to give.

They seized His words of divine pardon as grounds for unbelief and accusation and laid hold of them to accuse Him. They counted the supposed blasphemy a crime worthy of death to present before the people. Their aim was to arrest the tide of popular sentiment toward Jesus and to save their own influence over the multitude.

Their objection exposed their failure to recognize that Jesus is the Son of the living God and the Teacher sent from God with divine authority to forgive, despite the evidence before them. He was one with the Father with the same power on earth as in heaven, yet they did not recognize that divine authority when He forgave the repentant man, lifted his burden, and confirmed it by healing him.

Their reasoning illustrates blind, self-seeking religious controversy, with men in the blindness of their minds giving full sway to what they suppose is righteous indignation against one who sets aside cherished fables, acting like men who have lost their reason. It strives for supremacy and gives vital importance to matters and disputes that are not vital at all and are regarded as vital only because men have given importance to them. Those who reason so do not consider the possibility that they have not rightly understood the Word, that they have misinterpreted and misapplied the Scriptures and built up false theories calling them fundamental doctrines of the faith.

Christ's Forgiving Authority

Jesus knew the unspoken thoughts of the scribes and Pharisees who charged Him with blasphemy for telling the paralytic his sins were forgiven, and He answered them directly by declaring that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins. Without exchanging words they had looked into one another's faces with the same thought, seizing His words of divine pardon as an assumption of infinite power that could be presented before the people as a crime worthy of death to arrest the tide of popular sentiment toward Him and save their own influence over the multitude. He read their thoughts and fixed His reproving glance upon them, then proved His right to pardon by commanding the paralytic to arise and walk.

That immediate healing was a visible, convincing sign they could not set aside, showing God working through His Son to give both forgiveness and healing. By renewing the man in heart, mind, and body He demonstrated His authority as the Son of God to bring forgiveness, righteousness, and peace. Lifeless arms became quick to obey the will, shrunken leaden-hued flesh became fresh and ruddy with health, a firm free step replaced helplessness, and peace and purity replaced the marks of sin and suffering with hope written on the countenance, as the man walked home carrying his couch with ease.

The proof reveals His divinity, for He is one with the Father with the same power on earth as in heaven, and God gave the Son power to forgive. He possessed and claimed as His own right a prerogative they thought belonged to God alone, showing Himself a Superior Being. They recognized the presence of a Superior Being in Him and that He possessed power they thought belonged to God, but would not confess what this revealed about Him.

He forgave first, lifting the crushing burden of guilt and restoring hope, peace, and joy before healing the body. His forgiveness cleansed the soul from sin and brought relief to the mind, renewing heart, mind, and body. Health of soul had to come before the man could appreciate health of body, since his deepest suffering came from the burden of sin.

The healing shows Him ministering to both soul and body as the Healer of the soul who alone can impart peace, displaying compassion for the guilty and afflicted and power to bring salvation. The burden of sin with its unrest and unsatisfied desires is the foundation of much physical disease, and thousands suffering physical disease today are longing for that same message of forgiveness and can find no relief until they come to Christ, whose peace restores vigor to the mind and health to the body. His words of forgiveness give the same full assurance through the Word of God as hearing Christ speak in person, together with the command to sin no more.

Responses to the Proof

The man who had been slowly borne in on his couch walked home carrying it with ease, his lifeless arms made quick to obey the will. His shrunken leaden-hued flesh became fresh and ruddy with health, and a firm free step replaced his helplessness. The marks of sin and suffering were taken away and replaced by peace and purity, with hope written on the countenance, bringing health and vigor to the body and light to the darkened home.

The healing brought hope and strength to the man and his family, and God was glorified through His Son. All who saw the immediate restoration were amazed and filled with fear and glorifying of God. The true response was great rejoicing and tears of joy, glad thanksgiving and glory to God through Jesus. That gratitude grew into steadfast faith in Jesus and an unshakable faith and loyalty to Christ that no doubt could dim and no unbelief could mar, ready even to lay down life for Him.

The same evidence did not lead the scribes and Pharisees to believe that Christ was the Teacher sent from God and the Son of God. It exasperated them into intense hatred and bitter prejudice, with malice, unbelief and skepticism and closed hearts. They kept up constant watching to find occasion against Him, because they wanted evidence that He was a deceiver. The stronger the evidence presented to their minds, the more they armed themselves against it, till God left them to forge chains that would bind them in hopeless darkness, with no reserve power left to reach hearts so hardened. For the time their influence over the multitude was forgotten, leaving them dumb with amazement and overwhelmed with defeat, with no opportunity to turn the people against Jesus. The gentle dignity of Jesus united with His miraculous work stood in marked contrast to their proud, self-righteous, arrogant bearing, disconcerting and abashing them.

They had held that the power to forgive sins belonged to God alone, yet they saw Jesus possess that power and claim it as His own right. They recognized the presence of a Superior Being in Him but would not confess it. What they witnessed was the most convincing and unquestioned proof yet that He was the promised Saviour, a miracle of mercy joining forgiveness of sins with healing of the sick. Their caviling also stands as warning, for they treated illness as evidence of God's displeasure and kept apart from the sick, though they could be more guilty than those they condemned.

Model for Ministry Today

The account belongs to Christ's ministry to spiritual and physical need, showing His work as the great Restorer and as a genuine medical missionary. His words of forgiveness lifted the paralytic's crushing burden of guilt and brought hope, peace, and joy, and the healing that followed showed that He could minister to both soul and body. He sent the paralytic home well, and in this He is the model for gospel and medical missionaries who are to minister to both soul and body.

Afflicted, suffering people in whom the Spirit of God is working and who inquire for truth are to be pointed to Jesus as the sin-pardoning Saviour for forgiveness, rather than being urged with any special doctrine. God made the mind and can mold it without human power, yet He honors men by asking them to cooperate with Him in this great work, working for the precious soul as Christ would work, and it is for their own present and eternal good to follow the Lord's way with suffering humanity. Angels of God make impressions on the human mind to prepare it, and while some refuse to be illuminated by the light God would shine into the chambers of the mind and into the soul temple, many respond to the light and every form of deception and error is swept away from their minds.

The scribes and Pharisees charged Him with blasphemy for forgiving the sick of the palsy, on the ground that only God can forgive sins. He knew their unspoken thoughts and answered by healing the paralytic to prove that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, giving His enemies a sign they could not set aside. The immediate healing amazed all who saw it and filled them with fear and glorifying of God, yet it did not lead the scribes and Pharisees to believe that He was the Teacher sent from God and the Son of God, but only exasperated them in intense hatred, bitter prejudice, and constant watching to find occasion against Him, because they wanted evidence that He was a deceiver. Their scandal, reproach, falsehood, hired false witnesses, distorted reports, and demands for a sign are the same accusation and spirit now directed against God's commandment-keeping people.

The challenging of His authority to forgive sins and the treating of the issue as a controversy is an example of how self-seeking people can give undue importance to matters and disputes that are not vital. In the blindness of their minds religious leaders give full sway to what they suppose is righteous indignation against one who sets aside cherished fables, acting like men who have lost their reason. They do not consider the possibility that they have not rightly understood the Word, that they have misinterpreted and misapplied the Scriptures and built up false theories calling them fundamental doctrines of the faith. Such religious controversy has its foundation in self striving for supremacy about matters which are not vital points at all and are regarded as vital only because men have given importance to them.

When He told the paralytic his sins were forgiven He exercised the power that belongs to God alone, cleansing the soul from sin and bringing relief to the mind before healing the body, proving He is the Healer of the soul who alone can impart peace. Health of soul had to come before the man could appreciate health of body. The burden of sin with its unrest and unsatisfied desires is the foundation of much physical disease, and thousands suffering from physical disease today are longing for that same message of forgiveness. They can find no relief until they come to Christ, whose peace restores vigor to the mind and health to the body.