After preaching in Galilee, Jesus came back to Capernaum, the city that he took as his residence after Nazareth. “News spread that he was at a home” or “at home”, so, was he living with Peter or was that a house he rented? In this place, a paralyzed man was brought to him carried by four men that couldn’t enter the house because of the crowd at the door. They went up to the roof, made a hole in it and let the man down on what was called in the text “his mat”.
In Palestine, as in Mount Lebanon, and not from a very long time, we used to have houses with wooden roofs covered by soil, and we used to use the roller to stack the soil in order to avoid rain leakage.
Jesus’ word to the sick person: “My son, your sins are forgiven” made the Jews say that this was blasphemy because it indicates a human that made himself a God, and for them Jesus was only a man. No man in the Old Testament- even a prophet or a Master of the Law- has ever said to another person: You sins are forgiven.
When they were shocked by this, the Lord told them: “Is it easier to say to this paralyzed man, ‘your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’?” However, the Master wanted to prove his words so he said to the paralyzed: “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home”.
Why did Jesus say first: Your sins are forgiven? The answer is that forgiveness of sins is more important than healing, and the Jews used to think that illness results from sin. But the New Testament doesn’t say that: In the text of the man born blind (in the Gospel of John), the Lord says about him: “His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents’ sins”.
The miracle happened and everyone saw it.
One of the lessons that we learn from this miracle is to be convinced that spiritual healing is more important than the physical one. If we had an illness, we should first ask the Lord to save us from sin and to constantly repent. Another lesson is that we should take every sinner to Jesus as the four men took the paralyzed man; and like they carried him, we should carry the sinner through our good behavior so that he learns from it or from our good words and he leaves his sin.
We shouldn’t only blame the sinner, but also, through the spirit of humility, preach him with good speech and show him the advantages of the virtue that he went against. The danger falls on us when we discipline him harshly; harshness contains arrogance. We should discipline the person that fell in a very kind way to avoid letting him stay in his sin. We should daily remember him in front of Jesus; we should cry for him so that Jesus receives him in his mercy.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “شفاء المشلول” – 20.03.2011
