Reel Luke

Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man

Luke 5:17-26

Helpful Stuff to Know

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Pharisees were men who studied and followed religious laws and traditions, especially about the Sabbath. They were faithful to God, but sometimes missed out on truth around them (especially about Jesus) because it was unfamiliar and felt threatening.
Teachers of religious law were sometimes called scribes. They carefully studied and followed the laws and traditions, like Pharisees, and also could write Scripture, contracts, and other important documents.
Homes in Jesus’ day often had flat roofs where people could enjoy cool air in the evenings. The staircases for the roof were usually on the outside of the house. The roofs often had clay tiles laid over wooden beams. The space between beams was insulted with dried mud.
Different translations use different words for what the paralyzed man was lying on — cot, bier, bed, mat, sleeping mat, stretcher. It probably had handles on the corners for easy carrying, similar to a first-aid stretcher today.

Be Sure Not to Miss

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Pharisees and teachers of religious laws thought they were defending God, but in their zeal they often missed God himself.
The paralyzed man never directly asked Jesus out loud to be forgiven or healed. Jesus must have known what was in the man's head and heart.
Jesus healed the man outwardly (visible) in order to prove that he'd already healed him inwardly by forgiving him (invisible). Today Jesus forgives us (heals us spiritually) to prove that someday in new creation all our brokenness and illness will be healed (heals us emotionally and physically).
By forgiving the man’s sins, Jesus publicly declared that he himself was God.
The story says that Jesus saw the faith of the friends, not of the man. The word used for faith here (and in other places in the Bible) can also mean loyalty, allegiance, or faithfulness.

Be Careful About

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This story doesn’t promise that if you introduce your friend(s) to Jesus, things will turn out like they did in this story. Even so, it's always a good idea to share the truth of Jesus with our friends. Then we must trust God to work out his plans in their lives.

Here's a few different ways you can read and recap the story with your group.

Read it through one time with people just listening to you. Then read it through a second time with people following along in their own Bibles.
Ask a few people to act out the story while you read it.
Ask one or two people to retell the story after hearing it.
Ask two people to retell the story in the first person, as though they were actually there. One person can do the play-by-play (tell the details of what happened), and the other can offer color commentary (add details about how they felt, what surprised them, what confused them, etc.). First-person retelling can make the story feel more real. It's also a blast.

Where did this story happen? What do you think it looked like? Smelled like? Sounded like?
Make a list of all the people in the story (including "crowd" if there is one), and give a one-word description of each e.g. impatient, desperate, funny, selfish, awkward, etc.
List everything that Jesus did and said in the story. What was your favorite scene or statement?

Why do you think Jesus forgave the man before healing him? How do you think the man felt about that?
Whose idea do you think it was to seek out Jesus: the friends or the paralyzed man? Why?
Who do you think fixed the roof??
When have you been amazed by Jesus, like the people in this story (verse 26)?

Why do you think this story is included in the Bible? What do you think God wants us to learn from it?