Healing of the Paralytic (Luke 5)

In Luke 5, the friends of the paralytic cannot get him to Jesus, and so they lower him through the roof. As many commentators have pointed out, this situation is a sign of the paralytic’s exclusion from community. By the end of the story, though, others join with him in “glorifying God” (vv. 25-26) for the healing. The excluded paralytic is united to a liturgical community, a eucharistic assembly.