2:3,4
Many houses in those days often had outside stairs going up to the roof. Roofs would have beams, these were covered with branches or reeds, and then this was overlaid with mud or clay. Such roofs could support the weight of a man. Anyway, we now have one of the most well known healing incidents. The four men carrying a paralytic with them, presumably a friend of theirs. Finding no other way into the house, they carried him up the stairs, and then dug a hole in the roof, and lowered the bed down into the room. This shows how confident they were in Jesus’ ability to heal, as well as their determination not to miss out on this opportunity, and their initiative.
2:5
Jesus made events take a rather different turn, one they weren’t expecting. When we go to Jesus we will sometimes get much more than we expect! The first thing Jesus does is to tell the man his sins are forgiven. Now why does He do this? Part of the reason, perhaps the main reason, is that folk believed there was an association between sickness and sin. We often have the exact opposite belief, ie there is no association between sickness and sin. The Biblical truth is that ultimately all sickness is a result of the fall, sometimes sin is a direct result of a person’s sin, and sometimes it isn’t. So Jesus may have been addressing a fear in the man that he was paralysed because of his sin, and therefore there was no hope for him. So Jesus declares the man free of his sins. He is free to be healed.
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