Matthew 9.2-8 (Healing of a Paralytic)

I am presently reading the Gospel of Matthew and came upon a healing story that made me pause and do a reread:

And just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9.2)

On the face of it, it’s pretty amazing. Even though the story implies it, there is no explicit request made by either the paralyzed man or his friends. Where were they going with that man? If we didn’t have Mark 2.1-12 or Luke 5.17-26 where the story is told more fully, we might think that they were carrying their friend somewhere and just happened to encounter Jesus. It is through Mark and Luke that we are told they had to climb to the roof of the house and then lower their friend down because of the large crowd surrounding Jesus. I wonder why Matthew didn't mention that...

And certainly, the request of the men would have been for their friend's healing. Namely, they wanted for Jesus the healer to remove the paralysis and offer their friend the freedom of mobility. Since they had rudely barged in on Jesus, he had several options at his disposal; I think I would have scolded them for breaking into the line -- "Wait your turn! It's not fair to others." Or he could have quickly touched the man to heal him and moved on to what he was doing. But Jesus does things differently; he stopped whatever he was doing and now they had his full attention. This was more important.

Even though I am reading between the lines, I believe Jesus noticed two things. 

First of all, he saw the wonderful commitment to friendship – the men went to extreme lengths to see their friend healed. They treated this situation most personally and so with urgency and desperation, they pushed themselves upon Jesus whom they believed had the power to heal. That was their faith that Jesus saw and noted, “Jesus saw their faith.”

But Jesus noticed, I think this is what caught his attention, the hesitancy of the paralytic. The urgent plea of the friends contrasted with the bowed face of the man who refused to look into Jesus’ eyes (I know it's not in the text; I am creating a scene in my mind). Most probably, the paralytic felt he deserved his plight, he felt it was somehow justified when he considered his sinful life. I believe that is what Jesus saw…a man who was confronted by Perfect Holiness and in front of him, he lowered his head.

And so Jesus healed him. Jesus freed him from paralysis – both inside and out. He was free to move about. But he was first freed from guilt and a sense of judgment. “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

Remarkable story in several ways. I want friends like that. When I am down and paralyzed, outside or inside, I want friends who will go out of their way, climb the side of the house, push through the roof top and lower me down, using all of their strength, so that I can encounter Jesus and receive my healing

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Inside Iglesia Evangelica Peruana San Antonio, Peru

And I am so thankful that Jesus cares about our whole. Nothing is more important than that. He will push aside whatever he was doing and give us his full attention. And he will heal us completely. But it requires our initiative. In some ways, that's the hardest part, isn't it?