Day 2 Jesus forgives sins

Jesus heals a Paralysed Man

This is in the Bible in Luke chapter 5

I wonder how much you like surprises? There are good surprises and there are bad surprises, and the people in our true Bible story had some big surprises.

Jesus was teaching in a house in Galilee and there were loads of people wanting to see Jesus. They knew Jesus was both a great teacher and that he healed sick people. There were so many people wanting to see Jesus that the house was full & people were spilling out onto the street.

4 friends had heard about Jesus and brought their friend who was paralysed (that means he couldn’t walk because his legs didn’t work) to see Jesus. But when they got there, they couldn’t get in the house because of the crowd. Now in those days the houses had stairs on the outside of the house which went up onto the flat roof.

So the four men carefully carried their paralysed friend up the stairs onto the flat roof. And then they started to make a hole, they removed the tiles so that they could lower their friend through the roof to Jesus. They lowered their friend to the ground and everyone was expecting Jesus to heal the man. But Jesus surprised everyone and said to the man who couldn’t walk “Friend, your sins are forgiven!” Now that is a surprise!

But the Religious Leaders were really angry and muttered to each other “Who does he think he is?! He can't say that” and “That is against God! Only God has the authority to forgive sins!”

But Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking and he spoke to them “Why are you thinking these things. Which is easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up and walk’? You don’t believe I have the authority to forgive sins. But so that you know I have authority on earth to forgive sins, I will prove it by healing this man” Jesus turned to the man and said “Now, get up, pick up your mat and go home.” And that is just what he did. He got up, pick up his mat and went home!

The crowd praised God when they saw what Jesus had done. Jesus has done something that no-one, but God can do. He healed the man to prove that he is God and that he has the power to forgive sin.

And Jesus still has the power to forgive us for all the wrong we have done, he can do that because he is God. He does it because he loves us SO much. That is brilliant news and the greatest treasure ever.