“Thou Canst Make Me Clean”
217
by remorse. He had long before appealed to the Pharisees and doctors,
hoping for relief from mental suffering and physical pain. But they
coldly pronounced him incurable, and abandoned him to the wrath
of God. The Pharisees regarded affliction as an evidence of divine
displeasure, and they held themselves aloof from the sick and the
needy. Yet often these very ones who exalted themselves as holy were
more guilty than the sufferers they condemned.
The palsied man was entirely helpless, and, seeing no prospect
of aid from any quarter, he had sunk into despair. Then he heard of
the wonderful works of Jesus. He was told that others as sinful and
helpless as he had been healed; even lepers had been cleansed. And
the friends who reported these things encouraged him to believe that
he too might be cured if he could be carried to Jesus. But his hope fell
when he remembered how the disease had been brought upon him. He
feared that the pure Physician would not tolerate him in His presence.
Yet it was not physical restoration he desired so much as relief
from the burden of sin. If he could see Jesus, and receive the assurance
of forgiveness and peace with Heaven, he would be content to live or
die, according to God’s will. The cry of the dying man was, Oh that
I might come into His presence! There was no time to lose; already
his wasted flesh was showing signs of decay. He besought his friends
to carry him on his bed to Jesus, and this they gladly undertook to do.
But so dense was the crowd that had assembled in and about the house
where the Saviour was, that it was impossible for the sick man and his
friends to reach Him, or even to come within hearing of His voice.
Jesus was teaching in the house of Peter. According to their custom,
His disciples sat close about Him, and “there were Pharisees and
doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of
Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem.” These had come as spies, seeking
an accusation against Jesus. Outside of these officials thronged the
promiscuous multitude, the eager, the reverent, the curious, and the
unbelieving. Different nationalities and all grades of society were
[268]
represented. “And the power of the Lord was present to heal.” The
Spirit of life brooded over the assembly, but Pharisees and doctors did
not discern its presence. They felt no sense of need, and the healing
was not for them. “He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the
rich He hath sent empty away.”
Luke 1:53
.