Jesus Heals a Paralytic

Scripture Reference: Luke 5:17-26 (also Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12)

A skit about the forgiveness of sins, healing, ministry, leading others to Christ.

Cast:
Friend - One of the friends of the paralytic

Props:
none

My buddies and I all believed in God. We went to the Synagogue each week, we said our daily prayers, and studied the Scriptures. But I don’t think I really knew God until that day.

We had all heard about the Preacher who was teaching about God’s love and was healing the sick & lame. We also know He’d caused quite a stir among the leaders of the Temple. We went to Jesus one day. See one of our buddies was paralyzed, and we want to see if Jesus could heal him. Since he couldn’t walk, we lifted up his mat and carried him there. But when we got there, we found a huge crowd trying to get to Him. Jesus was in a house, and there was no way to push through the crowd and get to Him. We were determined to get our buddy to Jesus, so we set him down and thought. We finally hit upon the idea of lowering him through the roof. You see, our houses were built with flat roofs, so people could go up on the roof on hot nights to cool off. We went up the outside stairs and dug a hole in the roof, removing the tiles. We then lowered him through the hole in the roof right in the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. I think we surprised everyone.

I guess we impressed Jesus, because He turned to our buddy and said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” His sins are forgiven?!? What a strange thing to say! We brought our buddy, so he could be healed and walk again.

Then, almost like he could read their minds, Jesus turned to the leaders of the Temple and said, “Why do you have such evil thoughts? Do you really think that I speak blasphemy? Which is easier to say: ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you know that I have the authority to forgive sins....” Then he turned to our buddy and said, “Get up, take your mat, and go home.” Then he got up! Our buddy got up, picked up his mat, and went home praising God. We all praised God and sang hymns all the way home. We saw something remarkable that day!

I have thought about that day so many times. I have wondered why Jesus first said our buddy’s sins were forgiven, and this is what I think: His healing people was good – very good – and it showed He had authority that no one else had. But that wasn’t the main thing. The main thing is that He cam to forgive sins. By comparison, healing our buddy was easy and less important. Don’t get me wrong, seeing our buddy walk was a great thing! But it has no eternal value, because some day his body will be in the grave, where no one walks. Forgiveness of sins is forever, because it lets us spend eternity with God. And that was the truly remarkable thing that happened that day!