Basic HTML Version
Chapter 5—Healing of the Soul
Many of those who came to Christ for help had brought disease
on themselves, yet He did not refuse to heal them. And when
virtue from Him entered into these people, they were convicted
of sin. Many were healed of their spiritual disease as well as of their
physical maladies.
Among these was the paralytic at Capernaum. Like the leper,
this man had lost all hope of recovery. His disease was the result
of a sinful life, and his sufferings were embittered by remorse. He
had appealed to the Pharisees and physicians for relief, but they
pronounced him incurable. They denounced him as a sinner and
declared that he would die under the wrath of God.
The palsied man had sunk into despair. Then he heard of Jesus.
Others, as sinful and helpless as he, had been healed, and he was
encouraged to believe that he, too, might be cured if he could be
carried to the Savior. But hope fell as he remembered the cause of
his malady. Yet he could not dismiss the possibility of healing.
His great desire was relief from the burden of sin. He longed to
see Jesus and receive the assurance of forgiveness and peace with
heaven. Then he would be content to live or die, according to God’s
will.
There was no time to lose. Already his wasted flesh bore signs
of death. He asked his friends to carry him on his bed to Jesus, and
this they gladly set out to do. But so dense was the crowd that had
assembled in and around the house where the Savior was that it was
impossible for the sick man and his friends to reach Him. They were
unable to get close enough even to hear His voice.
Jesus was teaching in the home of Peter. As usual, His disciples
sat close to Him, and “there were Pharisees and teachers of the law
[35]
sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and
Jerusalem.”
Luke 5:17
. Many of these had come as spies, look-
ing for reasons to criticize Jesus. Beyond these thronged a mixed
multitude—the eager, the reverent, the curious, and the unbeliev-
45