He Preached The Word Unto Them

1. The account of the healing

The account of the healing of the man “sick of the palsy” (Mt. 9:2) illustrates the differences between Mark’s account (2:1-12) and Luke’s account (5:17-26). Matthew wished to highlight the omniscience of the Lord and the power of His spoken word while Mark’s point of view was to magnify the preaching of the Lord when the man “sick of the palsy” was brought to Him, and Luke used a milder form saying that “he was teaching: (Lk. 5:17). There is no discrepancy between the three writers. Each wrote from a different perspective and once they are placed side-by-side, one can see that they actually harmonize. 

In his gospel, Mark presents the Lord Jesus as the tireless servant of God doing “the Father’s business” (Lk. 2:49). That business of His earthly ministry was to preach and teach the word of God to the Jews first and the miracles were the visual proof of His divine authority that He was sent of God and that He was God in the flesh.  As important as is the healing of the man sick of the palsy, almost lost in this miracle is Matthew’s emphasis that Jesus “preached the word unto them” before He forgave the palsied of his sin and healed him of his infirmity before the watchful and startled eyes of many that included Pharisees and scribes, “doctors of the law” (Lk. 5:17). 

2. Preaching is important

Preaching is important. Teaching and preaching were the core, the heart of the ministry of the Lord. The Greek word as used by Mark simply means “to speak a matter, to utter, to say something.”

It is not the Greek word where a herald would stand in a public forum and declare in a loud authoritative voice the king’s business. Jesus was in a private home, a confined area, probably seated around a table and teaching in a much calmer manner but with great solemnity much like a Sunday school setting. Many people packed the small home. So much so that the friends of the palsied man could not enter the home and were forced to do the unthinkable—go to the top of the home, remove some tiles, and lower their friend on his bed into the midst of the Lord. With that the mood inside the home changed, and the morning message, when Jesus looked on the man and said, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mk. 2:5). 

The scene brings to mind an urgent word from Paul to Timothy when he wrote, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Ti. 4:2). The Lord was “instant” in that moment. He seized upon it to teach on the most important subject that each listener needed to hear—the subject of forgiveness. 

Several important lessons surface from this miracle that are applicable to all God’s people, not just teachers and preachers. The first thing we notice is the emphasis of His preaching. Mark said that he “preached the word.” The ‘word’ in this case was the Old Testament scriptures. It was all that the Jews had. The Pentateuch. The Mosaic Law. The law and the prophets. The poetical books. Neither Matthew, Mark, nor Luke tell us the topic or subject of Jesus’ message prior to the arrival of the palsied man and his friends, but it was the word of God.

3. Good Preaching

Good preaching, sound preaching, scriptural and spiritual preaching addresses people’s nature and needs. The nature of man is sinful. Born with a sinful nature, man can do nothing but sin. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” said Paul (Ro. 3:23). Nature proves this. Experience proves this. The word of God proves this. Good preaching addresses the need of everyone. In this setting, the primary need of the palsied was forgiveness. Palsy is a shortened form of paralysis. None of the gospel writers addressed the cause of the man’s paralysis, but the Lord addressed the cause without asking the man what had happened to him. “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.”

From that statement, one can deduce that he had been involved in, or committed a specific overt act of sin for which God punished him by allowing this paralysis to come upon him. That perhaps sounds harsh or strange, but God did directly touch some for overt acts of sins. Consider the sister of Moses, Miriam, who was struck by God with leprosy temporarily as punishment for revolting against and speaking against Moses (Nu. 12:1-12). Remember, too, the Jews called leprosy “the finger of God” because it was their conviction that the leper had sinned directly against God. It is impossible to know with certainty the cause of the man’s paralysis, but the Lord went to the heart of the issue by addressing his ‘sins’, his needs. This was really the emphasis of the Lord’s preaching that day.

4. Over and over the Gospel

Over and over the gospel accounts state the impression that the Lord’s teaching and miracles made on the mind and heart of the people. John said once, “And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Jn. 7:15). Marvelled means to wonder at, admired, were even awe struck by His messages and miracles, or were amazed as in Mark 2:12 when they said, “We never saw it on this fashion.”

While opinions about who Jesus were divided among the common people and especially the clergy, for the majority of them, His preaching gave them encouragement. For the multitudes, Jesus’ messages were often hard but heartening. They dealt with reality and were refreshing. On the other hand, for most of the Pharisees and scribes His messages confused and condemned them. But preaching, good preaching, biblical preaching is just this way. It cuts at our sinful tendencies and condemns our sinful shortcomings as it provides healing to our hearts and hope to live a life of purity and victory and gives direction and purpose to life. We need to follow the example of the Lord’s messages.

It is known, and we see, that not everyone embraced and received the preaching of the word of God by the Lord Jesus. Consider the enmity of the Pharisees toward the word of God as Mark recorded, “But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mk. 2:6-7). His word, the word of God fell upon stony ground, the hardened hearts of this religious band. Not all of enmity will be open and confrontational. Oftentimes Satan works silently and subtly as he did when he planted the seed of doubt in the mind of Eve toward God’s word saying, “Hath God said?”. The opposition was silent here as the Lord read the thoughts of the Pharisees and scribes. 

Enmity and opposition will come in some form when we present the word of God whether as a witness, teacher, or preacher., or a particular aspect of ministry to others. It will come. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit to recognize it and confront it. Take heart as the palsied man did when Jesus said to him, ‘Be of good cheer!”