The Paralyzed Man

Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. (NASB) James 5:14-16

Here we discover that we can be sick because of some sin that we have committed. Healing comes when our sins are forgiven and the elders pray over us. Notice that the prayer of the elders must be offered in faith. The sick person is not required to have faith. If we look carefully at Luke 5:20, we discover that Jesus saw the faith of the four men and then forgave the man. Forgiveness came first, and not the healing. The healing came later.

How much faith was required? James 1:6-8 says that we must not doubt. Does that mean that we must believe that God will heal; otherwise, God will not heal? The answer is provided in the example of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in Daniel 3:13-17.

In this passage, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego are ordered by Nebuchadnezzar to bow down and worship the king’s image. The three men respond by telling the king that they will not worship the image, and then add this,

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. (NASB) Dan. 3:17-18

These men did not know if God would deliver them, but they believed that God could. These three men are examples of faith, and God honored them.

The double minded man in the book of James is one who does not know if God could heal. People are healed when elders believe and the illness is due to sin. And the four men carrying the paralyzed man believed that Jesus could heal. Jesus saw their faith, forgave the man and planned to heal him. The paralyzed man was paralyzed because he had committed sin as implied in Jesus’ statement. But all paralysis is not due to personal sin.

When Jesus said, “. . . Your sins are forgiven you,” He comforted and encouraged the man. The man would have believed that his paralysis was due to sin because the religious leaders of his day taught that all sickness was due to sin. In his case, his paralysis was due to sin and Jesus forgave him, comforting him.

The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? (NASB) Luke 5:21-22