Healing the Paralytic

This window portrays Jesus healing a paralyzed man. Though Jesus healed many crippled and diseased people during His ministry, the healing portrayed in this window was of particular importance. On this occasion four friends of a paralyzed man brought their friend to where Jesus was so that Jesus might heal him (Mark 2:1-13). When they arrived at the home where Jesus was teaching there was no way they could get inside because of the great crowd of people. So determined as they were, they carried their friend up to the roof and dug a hole through the mud and thatch above where Jesus was teaching. Once the hole was opened they lowered their paralyzed friend, upon his cot, down into the crowd in front of Jesus. Jesus immediately recognized what great faith the man had because of all the trouble he had gone through in order to obtain an audience with Him. This man really believed that Jesus could heal his condition! However, when the man was finally set before Jesus, Jesus did not heal his legs but declared that the crippled man’s sins were forgiven. This enraged many of the Jewish leaders who heard Jesus’ declaration, because they rejected Jesus’ claims to be divine. These Jewish leaders declared that Jesus had no authority to forgive sins, since he was not God. In response to this, and to prove that He was in fact God and did have divine authority to forgive sins, Jesus called for the paralyzed man to arise, pick up his mat, and walk home. Immediately the man was healed, stood up, obeyed Jesus, and walked out of the house. Again through a strategic miracle Jesus proved that He was God.