Verse 17 Jesus’ reputation had caught the attention of the Jewish religious leaders from all around.

Verse 20 Jesus saw the faith of these men. They fully believed Jesus could heal and that’s why they went to such lengths to climb a roof with their friend on a mattress, cut a hole in the roof over Jesus, and lower the man down. That’s desperate! And that’s faith!

Jesus looked at the faith of this paralyzed man’s friends and declared the man’s sins were forgiven. Notice Jesus didn’t look at the paralyzed man’s faith. He looked at his friends’ faith. When we are weak in our faith, weak in our strength, we need to have friends around us who can pick us up and bring us to Jesus. Jesus honors that! You can’t ride the coattails of a friends’ faith your whole life. But in a moment of weakness, having a friend escort you to the Throne Room in your heart where Jesus is waiting and willing to restore what’s been broken, this is His mercy for you.

Everyone else could see that this paralyzed man needed physical healing but only Jesus could see he needed spiritual healing. And when Jesus declared this paralyzed man’s sins were forgiven, the man was changed. His situation changed. He could walk!

Verse 21 The religious teachers had some questions. They only had known God to take away a man’s sins. Jesus was claiming the authority to take away sin now. This the leaders call a blasphemy. An offense against God. Sacrilegious. Jesus was pretty much saying he was equal with God and these men were not having it.

Verse 22 But then what’s interesting is that Jesus supernaturally reads their mind and knows their thoughts. He answers them before they have a chance to say anything else. “Why do you question in your hearts?” (ESV) I highlighted this in my Bible. So many times we question Jesus. Doubt Jesus. In our hearts. And He can read all those thoughts. He knows our deepest of deep thoughts. This is a convicting question/statement on its own.

Verse 23-25 Jesus proves that He has the spiritual authority to forgive sin by demonstrating his divine authority to heal this man’s legs. If Jesus was stretching the truth on his spiritual authority, then how could this paralytic now walk?

Verse 26 Witnesses to this miracle started glorifying God. I love how it says “Everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe.” (NLT) “And amazement seized them all.” (ESV) I can just see jaws dropped and an overwhelming sense of shock and awe overcomes everyone in the crowd. Wow! This must be Him! Who else could do that?!

Prayer: Jesus, you hold Heaven and earth in your hands. You hear the thoughts of my heart, You see the motives behind every move I make, forgive me for the weakness in me that chooses anything other than You in what I do. In how I think. You hold the power to forgive and set me free. You unleash favor and mercy and shower me in unending love. Thank you for calling me yours, Jesus. Help me, Holy Spirit, in my moments of weakness. Surround me with friends who can usher me back to You. Help me be that friend to someone else who is struggling in their life. Give me the faith that forgets all my human suggestions and instead radically, desperately carries his/her weak heart to You, Jesus. Help me go to such lengths to get them to You. Only You know what they need. Only You can forgive and heal a heart. Only You can change the inside that will change everything on the outside. Only You can go to the depths of my soul, see it all, and love me still. Thank You, Jesus, for your healing in my soul, for taking my sin to the cross, and offering me new life in You. Thank you for your peace, your comfort, your restoration in my life. To You alone, I give all the glory. You are extraordinary, Jesus. Thank you for changing me. I pray for continued change to become more and more like You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.