But Jesus took the first opportunity that presented itself, and retired for prayer and spiritual communion: V. 16. And He withdrew Himself into the wilderness and prayed. He asked and received strength from His heavenly Father to carry on His work according to the divine will. This constant communication with God was the secret of His being able to perform so much work; a hint that might well be applied in the case of all His followers.
The healing of the paralytic: V. 17. And it came to pass on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem; and the power of the, Lord was present to heal them. V. 18. And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy; and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before Him.
The first indication of the systematic effort on the part of the leaders of the Jewish Church to persecute and discredit Jesus. The story is an independent incident, having no connection with the foregoing, since Luke has no interest in exact chronological sequence. The chief men of the Jewish nation had received full information of the preaching and of the miracles of this otherwise unknown Galilean rabbi, who had not so much as asked their sanction for His work.
The local men, of the various synagogues of Galilee, the experts in the Law and in all the doctrines as they had been fixed by tradition, were not equal to the situation. So they were reinforced by men from Judea, and especially from Jerusalem, Pharisees and scribes, the most learned men and skilled in the Law. All these were present in a house where Jesus was teaching the multitude.
Not that they were eager for the Word of Life, but that they were watching for some opportunity of accusing Him. And the power of the Lord, the omnipotent majesty of the Triune God, was present in Jesus to the intent that He should heal. The other persons of the Godhead were never mere disinterested or neutral onlookers while the work of redemption was going on, but the entire Godhead in its three persons wrought the salvation of mankind. The chance for which the Pharisees and teachers of the Law had been waiting presented itself very quickly. Certain men bore upon a couch or hammock a man that had suffered a stroke of paralysis.
"Commonly those who are attacked in all their members by severe nervous debility are quickly taken away; if not, they live, it is true, but seldom recover their health, and for the most part drag on a miserable life, losing, moreover, their memory. The sickness of those who are partially affected is, it is true, never severe, but often long and almost incurable."