Daily Bible Reading 22nd May 2026 // Luke 5:16-26
16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralysed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, 19 but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’, or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralysed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. 26 And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
We must pay close attention to the question Jesus asked the Pharisees in 23. The question was not which was easier to do, forgive or heal; for forgiveness (which is eternal) is a greater miracle than healing palsy (which is temporal). The question was which was easier to say. And what Jesus meant was this: ‘You think it would be easier to say, “Your sins be forgiven” than to say “arise and walk”, for the first statement is incapable of proof or disproof, and therefore anyone could say that without much fear of proving an imposter; whereas, if you said, “Arise and walk” and the man did not do it, you would be proved an imposter. Therefore, to prove that My word is valid in the unseen realm as it is in the seen, I will heal him too, as a proof that I have power also to forgive sins'. Thus, the miracle in the visible realm (healing) was the evidence and proof of the greater miracle in the unseen, invisible realm, and its sign and seal.
We see, then, that for Jesus the central and all-important issue was forgiveness: 'The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins' - this is the glory of the gospel. This is the heart of all - not miracle in the physical realm, but in the spiritual. This is the deepest need, the crying, desperate need of humanity. Our problem is not psychological, emotional, but spiritual. It is not a problem of disorientation or of alienation, fundamentally considered, but a problem of sin; and our need is not primarily or fundamentally for adjustment or integration, or any of the other popular words in use today: our need is for forgiveness. We need to know the forgiveness of sin. This is the true healing.