#38 Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralytic

#38 Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralytic

Please first read: JST Matthew 9:2-8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26

To fully understand what is happening it is necessary to have the corrections and additions the Prophet Joseph Smith made to restore these passages of scripture to their original writings.

Jesus has now completed a lengthy trip through Galilee, teaching, healing, and performing many miracles. His fame is widespread throughout the entire area and multitudes follow and flock to Him. Many are now gathered here in Capernaum to hear and be healed. The Jewish leaders are very concerned about His popularity and teachings. In attendance today are scribes, Pharisees, and doctors of the law from all Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. Their worst fears will be realized as Jesus first forgives the man his sins, and then heals him of his palsy. All three writers tell and testify of this, none more clearly than JST Luke 5:20-24.

Apostle James E. Talmage:

“The official (Jewish) class had opposed our Lord and His works on earlier occasions, and their presence in the house at this time boded further unfriendly criticism and possible obstruction. In their hearts they accused Jesus of the awful offense of blasphemy, saying to themselves: ‘Who can forgive sins but God only?’ Jesus knew their inmost thoughts, and made reply thereto, saying: ‘Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?’ And then to emphasize, and put beyond question His possession of divine authority, He added: ‘But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.”          

Apostle Bruce R. McConkie:

“If Jesus should first forgive the man’s sins – since none but God can forgive sins – such an act would be an announcement that he was God; then, if he commanded the sick person to rise up and walk, it would be proof that his claim to divinity was true. The teaching situation is ideally prepared, and the Master Teacher knows the course to pursue.”

“In part their (Jewish leaders) thinking is correct. None but God can forgive sins, and if this man is not God, then the words he has spoken are blasphemy, and according to divine law, the penalty for such is death. If, however, this man is the Messiah, then the prerogative he has assumed is proper, and it is within his province to loose on earth and have it loosed eternally in the heavens. Messiah can forgive sins because Messiah is God.” 

“We are not told whether the paralytic here forgiven by Jesus was a member of the Church or not. The overwhelming probability is that he was, and that he had already been baptized for the remission of sins. Jesus was now forgiving his sins anew, as he did many times to Joseph Smith and the early elders of his latter-day kingdom.”

Comment:

Several things in the scriptures indicate that faith in various forms is in attendance here in addition to the faith of the one seeking healing. Consider the planning and efforts of the four men bringing the palsied one. Distance, crowds, annoying and disrupting others, getting the man up to, and dismantling, the roof. They must have believed that Jesus not only could cure him, but would cure him. Why else would they do it?  

Jesus recognized and rewarded their faith. When the cure was affected Jesus immediately used it as a teaching opportunity to confront the Jewish leaders who were there to accuse him of a variety things, including the charge of blasphemy. Jesus was the challenger right off and put his would-be accusers on the defensive.

Edersheim:

The teachings of Rabbinism had no “word of forgiveness to speak to the conscience burdened with sin, nor yet word of welcome to the sinner.” Also possibly on the mind of the palsied was the Jewish belief that such sicknesses were the result of sin and “that recovery would not be granted to the sick unless his sins had first been forgiven him.” Suffering was deemed to be an expiation of sin. If so, happy would he be for the first words from the Savior to “Be of good cheer.” Jesus knows of the man’s thoughts, his faith, and his fears. With his sin forgiven (in the eyes of the people) he is ready to be healed.

“Jesus was in the presence of those Scribes (and others) who would fain have wrought disbelieve, not of his power to cure disease – which was patent to all – but in his Person and authority.” “By first speaking forgiveness, Christ not only presented the deeper moral aspect of His miracles, as against their ascription to magic or Satanic agency, but also established that very claim, as regarded His Person and authority, which it was sought to invalidate. In this forgiveness of sins He presented His Person and authority as Divine, and He proved it such by the miracle of healing which immediately followed.”

Geikie:

“The Rabbis were the heads of the nation in the widest sense, for the religion of the people was also their politics. They were the theologians, the jurists, the legislators, the politicians, and indeed, the soul of Israel. The priests had sunk to a subordinate place in the public regard. The veneration which the people felt for their Law was willingly extended to its teachers … the Rabbis. They were greeted reverently in the street and in the market place, men rising as they passed; front seats at the synagogues, and a place of honor at all family gatherings. Jerusalem was, naturally, the headquarters of the wisdom of the Rabbis, but they were found in all the synagogue towns both of Judea and Galilee.”

“Their only idea of a religious teacher was that he should never venture a word on his own authority, but slavishly follow other earlier Rabbis. For anyone to dispute with a Rabbi or murmur against him, or to hesitate in accepting and obeying his every word, was no less a crime than to do the same towards God Himself.”  “The lofty words of Jesus at once caught the ears of the lawyers on the watch. They sounded new, and to be new was to be dangerous. It was the turning-point in the life of Jesus, for the accusation of blasphemy now muttered in the hearts of the Rabbis present.” 

                        

Ludlow:

The Joseph Smith Translation concludes this verse “thy sins be forgiven thee: go thy way and sin no more.” (Matthew 9:2) Forgiveness of sins comes only by compliance with that law of forgiveness which the Lord has ordained … That the paralytic here healed had complied with that law is evident; otherwise the Lord Jesus, whose law it is, would not have pronounced the heartening benediction, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” Our Lord’s ministry was in conformity, not in opposition to his own laws.

Jackson and Millet:

Much of the law of Moses dealt with sacrifice and offerings to cleanse individuals from sin. The law also anticipated the future day when Christ would come with power to cleanse repentant individuals from all sin and make possible a reuniting with God. By including this miracle, Matthew, Mark, and Luke testified that Jesus was the anticipated Messiah with all earthly power, and that through him sins could be forgiven and individuals brought to stand clean and pure before God.

Farrer:

Typical houses were low and had easy access to their roofs, especially when built on rising ground. It was common for them to have an outer staircase to the roof.

Glenn R. McGettigan

April 2015

References:

“Jesus the Christ.” Talmage   

 Mortal Messiah.” Volume 2. “Doctrinal New Testament Commentary.” Volume 1. McConkie “Miracles of Jesus the Messiah.” Howick  

“Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.” Volume 1. Edersheim

“Life of Christ.” Geike  

“Studies in the Gospels.” Ludlow

“The Gospels.” Jackson/Millet

“Life of Christ.” Farrar   

“Lord of the Gospels.” Clark

“Behold the Messiah.” Matthews