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Gospel Reading - Paralyzed man lowered through Roof

¹Several days later he returned to Capernaum, and the news of his arrival spread quickly through the city. ²Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there wasn’t room for a single person more, not even outside the door. And he preached the Word to them. ³Four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher. ⁴They couldn’t get to Jesus through the crowd, so they dug through the clay roof above his head and lowered the sick man on his stretcher, right down in front of Jesus.^a

⁵When Jesus saw how strongly they believed that he would help, Jesus said to the sick man, “Son, your sins are forgiven!”

⁶But some of the Jewish religious leaders^b said to themselves as they sat there, ⁷“What? This is blasphemy! Does he think he is God? For only God can forgive sins.”

⁸Jesus could read their minds and said to them at once, “Why does this bother you? ^9-11I, the Messiah,^c] have the authority on earth to forgive sins. But talk is cheap — anybody could say that. So I’ll prove it to you by healing this man.” Then, turning to the paralyzed man, he commanded, “Pick up your stretcher and go on home, for you are healed!”

¹²The man jumped up, took the stretcher, and pushed his way through the stunned onlookers! Then how they praised God. “We’ve never seen anything like this before!” they all exclaimed.

1. Implied
2. Literally, “scribes.”
3. Literally, “the Son of Man.”