Luke 5:24

Now the Pharisee, while he was doubting concerning our Lord, that He was not a prophet, pledged himself to the truth unawares, in saying—Had this man been a prophet, he would have known that this woman is a sinner. Therefore, if it should be found that our Lord knew that she was a sinner, He is, according to thy word, O Pharisee, a prophet. Our Lord, therefore, hastened to show both that she was a sinner, and that her sins were many; that the testimony of his own mouth might confute him as a liar. For he was companion of those that said: Who is able to forgive sins, but God only? For from them our Lord received testimony, that, therefore, He Who is able to forgive sins, is God. Thenceforth, then, the contention was this, that our Lord should show them whether He was able to forgive sins or no. So He speedily healed the members that were visible, that it might be made sure that He had forgiven the sins that were invisible. For our Lord cast before them the word which was expected to catch him that said it; so that when they should rush forward to catch Him by it, according to their wish, they might be caught by Him according to His wish. Fear not, My son, thy sins are forgiven thee. While they were hastening to catch Him on the charge of blasphemy, they pledged themselves unawares to the truth. For Who is able to forgive sins but God only? Accordingly, our Lord confuted them [as though saying]: "If I shall have shown that I am able to forgive sins, even though ye do not believe in Me that I am God; yet abide ye by your word, which determined that whoso forgives sins is God." Therefore that our Lord might teach them that He forgives sins, He forgave that man his hidden sin, and caused him to carry his bed openly; that by the carrying of the bed which carries [those that lie on it], they might believe in the slaying of the sin that slays.

(ubi sup.) He shews the pardon of sins by the healing of the body. Hence it follows, He says unto the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Rise. But He manifests the healing of the body by the carrying of the bed, that so that which took place might be accounted no shadow. Hence it follows, Take up thy bed. As if He said, "I was willing through thy suffering to cure those who think that they are in health, while their souls are sick, but since they are unwilling, go and correct thy household."

(ubi sup.) That the infirm soul may no more rest in carnal joys, as in a bed, but rather itself restrain the carnal affections, and tend toward its own home, i. e. the resting-place of the secrets of its heart.

A place still remains open for disbelief when it is said, "Your sins are forgiven you"—for people cannot see the forgiven sins with the eyes of the body. By contrast, the putting off of the disease and the paralytic's rising up and walking carries with it a clear demonstration of a godlike power. Jesus adds, "Rise, take up your bed and go home." And he returned to his house, delivered from the infirmity from which he had so long suffered. This very fact proves that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins. But to whom does he refer when he says this? Himself only, or us too? Both the one and the other are true. For he forgives sins as the incarnate God, the Lord of the law. We too have received from him this splendid and most admirable grace. He has crowned human nature with this great honor also, having even said to the holy apostles, "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." And again, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." And what is the occasion on which we find him speaking this to them? It was after he had trampled on the power of death and risen from the grave, when he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." After he had made them partakers of his nature and bestowed upon them the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, he also made them sharers of his glory, by giving them power both to remit and to bind sins. And as we have been commanded to perform this very act, how much more must he himself remit sins, when he gives to others authority to enable them to do so?

But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. If He is also God, according to the well-known testimony of Isaiah, who blots out our iniquities (Psalm 50), and the Son of Man has the power on earth to forgive sins (Matthew 9), therefore He Himself is both God and the Son of Man, so that Christ as man by the power of His divinity can forgive sins, and the same Christ as God can die for sinners through the frailty of His humanity.

He says to the paralytic: I say to you, rise; take up your bed, and go into your house. Spiritually to rise from the bed is to draw the soul away from carnal desires, where it lay sick. To take up the bed is to deprive the flesh itself, thus corrected by the reins of continence, of earthly delights by the hope of heavenly rewards. For the same bed that is washed every night by David, that is, chastised with a worthy flood of penitence for the stains of each sin. But taking up the bed and going to the house is to return to paradise. For that is the true home, which first received man, not lost by right but by fraud, and finally restored by Him who owed nothing to the fraudulent enemy. Alternatively, the one who was sick returns home with the bed when the soul, having received the remission of sins, returns with the body itself for the inward custody, lest after forgiveness it commits something for which it might justly be struck again.

Observe that on earth He forgives sins. For while we are on earth we can blot out our sins. But after that we are taken away from the earth, we shall not be able to confess, for the gate is shut.

He interposes the conclusion in what he adds: But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. For this is what he intends to conclude finally; and it is true according to the testimony of John 1: "Behold the Lamb of God; behold him who takes away the sins of the world"; and Revelation 1: "He loved us and washed us from our sins in his blood."

The assumption he subjoins when he adds: He said to the paralytic: I say to you: Rise, take up your bed etc.

And note that the preceding words are the Savior's and so are the following; but this phrase, which says: He said to the paralytic, is the word of the Evangelist, which he interposes because the first words were of the Lord to the Pharisees, namely the proposition and the conclusion: but the assumption he spoke by turning his speech to the paralytic, to whom he commands an act that can befit only a healthy person, namely to rise, when he says: Rise: just as Peter said to the lame man in Acts 3: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk."

He commands him to take up his bed, when he says: Take up your bed. A grabatum, however, is the bed of the poor who are sick, on which nothing is spread except at the head; whence it is called from graba, which means head. So in John 5 he commands that man who had been sick for thirty-eight years: "Rise, take up your bed and walk."

He commands him to walk and go to his house, when he adds: And walk and go to your house, so that, namely, you may rejoice with your own, as in Mark 5: "Go to your house, to your own, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for you." — In these three things is included perfect health against the three evils which the sickness of paralysis causes. For it renders one unfit for standing and more unfit for working and most unfit for walking: and conversely he commands uprightness of posture, strength of action and readiness of movement: which once obtained, one is made perfectly healthy.