“And when they could not come nigh unto Him for the press, they uncovered the roof where He was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.” (Mark 2:4)
After Jesus healed the leper in Capernaum, He told the leper not to tell anyone but to show himself to the priest as a testimony of who Jesus was. But the leper just couldn’t keep quiet and proclaimed it so much that Jesus couldn’t enter the city anymore. (Mark 1:44,45) So Jesus went to the desert places where people from everywhere came to Him. After a few days He entered Capernaum again and was in a house. When it was found out, people crowded into the house until there was no more room. That was the situation the friends of this man with the palsy found themselves. Their love and desperation for their friend’s healing made them resort to extreme measures. They tore the house’s roof and lowered the man to Jesus. (Mark 2:1-4)
There are a few things here. People crowded to Jesus. And the four friends of this sick man believed and were determined for Jesus to heal him. The same thing happens today. A certain healer or proclaimed prophet comes to town and crowds fill the venue, but there is a difference. Today, we have the Word of God which tells us how Jesus is the One Who healed. We have God the Holy Spirit Who can tell us things we do not know. (John 16:13) But just as the friends of this sick man, people are desperate to hear from God. They are desperate for healing. There are brethren that would rather go to a man, just like themselves, and get 2nd hand healing than to draw near to God and trust God for their healing. They begin to trust more on the touch of this person than a touch from God. While the Lord has made provision in the body of God, the church, for the sick to prayed for and for hands of the elders to be placed on the sick, it is the faith in the Supreme Healer, Jesus and His provision that heals.
The reason people flock to these healers is because they are slothful and don’t make an effort to seek their healing through faith in God. They would much rather allow another’s faith to heal them. Or they are not believers who need healing and are testing to see if God will heal them through a healer. They are more sincere because they don’t know that God has already provided healing through faith in Jesus.
In those days the world was in darkness. The Israelites were the only ones who had knowledge of God. The Scriptures they had told of the coming Messiah. But their understanding was darkened, and they only thought on earthly terms. Many believed Jesus was the Messiah after seeing the miracles and wonders that He did. But they thought their Messiah would bring them peace from the Romans and their enemies. They followed Him and hailed Him as the Messiah in Jerusalem when He entered the city on a donkey. (Luke 19:35-40) But they turned on Him when He didn’t and went to the cross instead. They didn’t understand the deliverance that Jesus worked on their behalf at the cross. And in that work of deliverance is healing. Complete “zoe” healing of spirit, soul (mind, will, emotions) and body.
The sick man’s friends were seeking Jesus for physical healing for their friend. They went to great lengths to get this healing. Something interesting happened when Jesus healed the sick man. Jesus said, “...Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” (Mark 2:5) It was scandalous to the scribes who were there. No one has the power to forgive sins, only God. Throughout Scripture, Jesus speaks and acts like God. But people don’t get it. He is God. Jesus keeps giving them hints, but their understanding is darkened. (Mark 2:5-10) Then Jesus demonstrates His divinity. “But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.” (Mark 2:10-12) The deliverances and healings that Jesus did on earth had never been done. He showed that He was the Messiah, the Anointed One from God. Jesus fulfilled every prophecy that was written about Him, 300 messianic prophecies.
Jesus is not merely a prophet, a good man who did good, a healer or a holy man, but He is God the Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Redeemer Who delivered us Who took our punishment and death so that we could live eternally. And in that work of the Cross, is provision for healing. "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." (1Peter 2:24)
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