How to cite this article: JP Staff Writer, “Two Kinds of Love in the Story of the Paralyzed Man,” Jerusalem Perspective (2025)
[https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/30025/].
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Many JP readers have known the story of the paralyzed man since Sunday School (Matt. 9:2-8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26).[1] The memorable image of the men digging a hole through the roof of the house and lowering their friend down on his bed before the feet of Jesus in order to bypass the crowds captures the imagination. As the story unfolds, Jesus declares that the paralyzed man’s sins are forgiven, but some bystanders accuse Jesus of speaking blasphemy. Yet, when Jesus commands the paralyzed man to get up, take his mat and walk, and the paralyzed man miraculously obeys, Jesus’ critics are confounded, and the crowds acclaim Jesus as their hero.
So familiar are the details of the story that we can easily forget to ask what motives, convictions and aims are behind the strange responses of Jesus to the unusual behavior of the paralyzed man and his friends, and of his critics to Jesus’ seemingly innocuous proclamation of forgiveness. Why was Jesus so nonchalant about the friends’ destruction of other people’s property? What was really at stake in the tussle over the forgiveness of sins? Is the most important lesson of the story that Jesus is the Son of Man, who has authority to forgive sins?[2] Or does the story intend to reorient the reader’s perceptions and behaviors in a particular direction?
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- [1] Luke’s version of the story describes the man as being παραλελυμένος (paralelūmenos; Luke 5:18), which could mean that the man was incapable of voluntary movement (i.e., paralyzed), but could also mean more generally that he was weakened from sickness and therefore unable to walk. The Markan and Matthean versions of the story are more explicit in referring to the man as a παραλυτικός (paralūtikos, “paralytic”; Matt. 9:2; Mark 2:3). Because the designation “paralyzed man” is most familiar, this is how we will refer to the sick man in the story, without, however, excluding the possibility that the man was merely bedridden and not paralyzed in the strict sense of the word. ↩
- [2] For this view, consult standard commentaries. ↩
