But while the Pharisees and scribes exchange all manner of words with the disciples, eight people bring a man crippled with palsy on a bed so that I might help him. But the house was so surrounded by people that the eight men could not bring the sick man into the house and there before Me. They feared, however, that since the house lay right beside the sea, I would immediately (Matthew 9:2) go to the sea through the little door leading from the house towards it, and from there travel somewhere else. But one went to the master of the house, whom he knew, and said, ‘Friend, look, we eight brothers have brought our mother’s brother here together with his bed. Because of palsy upon palsy, he has been unable to leave it for five full years. We wish to present him for healing to the most famous miraculous Healer Jesus, who is now in your house—a healing surely possible for him. But because of the immense crowd, it is quite impossible to bring him into the house before Jesus. Friend, advise me what I should do here!’
The master of the house says, ‘That will indeed be somewhat difficult; for the room where Jesus is is tightly packed with people. There are over a hundred of his disciples there, and in addition a great multitude of Pharisees, priests and scribes from every place and region, and they are holding their deliberations in it. But for the sake of our old and good friendship, I shall nevertheless do something for you on this extraordinary occasion.
‘Look, like most fishermen’s houses, my house is roofed with reeds. We shall set two ladders against the roof from outside and quickly uncover enough of it for you to bring the sick man together with his bed through the hole made. Once he is in the loft in this way, tie strong ropes to the four corners of the bed; I have plenty of them on the floor. I shall then open the trapdoor in the middle of the floor, and we shall lower the sick man together with the bed on ropes into the room. He can then ask Jesus himself to make him well. Those standing in the room beneath the opening will surely make room if they do not want the sickbed to rest on their heads.’
This pleases the one of the eight, and, to the great crowd’s even amused astonishment, they immediately set to work, and the entire undertaking goes well and without any disturbance. Only one person, a truly foolish ultramontane temple man who measured out the letter of the law with the sharpness of a compass, conscientiously remarked to those taking off the roof that they should consider that this was a solemn Sabbath time.
But the eight said, ‘Hey, what have you to say here, you old temple ox? Shut your toothless mouth, crawl up to Jerusalem into Solomon’s stable for oxen, asses, calves and sheep, and bawl your songs of Jeremiah there with these usual occupants of God’s house! We have long been beyond your present, purely beastly worship, and we know that God takes more pleasure in good works than in the bellowing of your oxen and asses!’
This very forceful remark against the temple man by one of the eight silenced the strict Sabbath keeper all the sooner and more surely because the loud retort received immense applause from the whole great crowd. For among most Galileans the temple’s machinations had long ceased to count for anything.
But the still young man had also set forth the full truth in a few words, in a manner a little too droll for Me, and for that very reason received still more applause. For at great feasts a mass of cattle was brought into the temple expressly for this purpose, as were asses and sheep which otherwise bellowed and bleated most; and these animals were also made to fast for a couple of days, so that they would then make all the greater noise in the temple during the sacrifice and compel the people to tremble and quake.
Truly, the solemn worship in the temple, especially on the great feast days, was something so foolishly horrible and at the same time so swinish that its like would probably not be found anywhere else on the whole earth, not even among the wildest peoples. And thus the young man had made an entirely true retort to the strict temple man, in which I Myself took great pleasure, since I knew within Myself that and how it had occurred.
Soon after this scene the trapdoor of the room—or rather of the loft—is opened. A Pharisee making himself important shouts up, asking, ‘What is going on up there, what is happening!?’
The earlier shrewd speaker says, ‘Just a little patience; you will see at once. Look, today is the Sabbath; on this day, as you teach in the synagogues and schools, salvation usually comes from above. But this time the salvation of human beings is below, and so one who does not yet have salvation now comes down to you from above and will seek his salvation down here. Thus nothing contrary to the Sabbath is happening here; for surely it will make no difference whether salvation comes down from above on a Sabbath, or whether someone seeks salvation below when it has already come down before him from the heavens to blind people who cannot behold it even when they bump their noses against it!’
This address again causes great applause among the disciples, but annoyance among the Pharisees. The disciples say loudly, ‘Then down with the one full of affliction from above, who now seeks salvation here below!’ And immediately the sick man is lowered down.
When he now lay on the bed before Me, he begged Me weeping to help him. But since I clearly saw that the sick man, as well as those who have brought him to Me in this way, had a right and true faith, I said to the sick man, ‘Be of good cheer, My son; your sins are forgiven you!’ But I said this here in advance only to test, for their own sake, the scribes who had already become very well disposed towards Me; for the awakening of the daughter of Jairus, who was their ruler, had made this kind My friends.
But when I said to the sick man, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ annoyance immediately arose among some strict scribes, and they said to themselves in their hearts, ‘What is this, what do we hear? (Matthew 9:3.) How is he a true Healer (physician)? He blasphemes God!’ For they considered Me only an exceptional physician; but that a divine power might be at home in Me was for them a Crimen sacri laesi. For God’s power was only in the priests, Levites, Pharisees and scribes (Matthew 9:4), and most particularly only in the temple at Jerusalem!?
But when, naturally, I perceived their innermost thoughts only too quickly (Matthew 9:5), I immediately addressed them and said to them, ‘Why do you think such evil in your heart!? Which is easier: to say, “Your sins are forgiven you” (which you always say, especially to those who come to you with rich sacrifices, and yet at bottom no one is helped by it), or to say with effect, “Rise and walk about”?’
A scribe says, ‘I think you will not be able to help this one much further beyond forgiving sins either!? For someone whom palsy has once reduced to such a state as this man here can be helped only by death!’
I say, ‘Is that what you think?! But I tell you (Matthew 9:6): so that you may see and know that the Son of Man also has power on earth to forgive sins, I now say with effect before you to this sick man, whom you, who presume that you alone possess from God the authority to forgive sins, consider curable only through death: rise, take your bed and go home entirely well and of good cheer!’
At these words the sick man, suddenly entirely well, stretched out his limbs, which had previously been most miserably twisted and in part already completely withered, and in an instant received all his flesh back as well. He thanked Me, weeping from exceeding joy; but he also immediately rose from his bed (Matthew 9:7) and was at once so strong and vigorous that he immediately untied the ropes from the bed, then took the rather heavy and bulky bed under his left arm, easily made his way with it through the great press and himself carried it all the way home to Capernaum.
But all the people (Matthew 9:8) who were present here and had seen this deed began loudly to praise and glorify God for having given a human being such power, which only God Himself can have and through which all things are possible to Him.
This deed strengthened the Pharisees and scribes present anew, so that they again gave up their evil thoughts and would say, ‘This is truly unheard of! How such a thing is possible for you, truly God alone can know, and no other person on the whole earth!’