Verses 17-20 “17And 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 Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
18And, 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.
19And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.
20And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.”
The men who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus were determined to get him to the Savior somehow. They went to a lot of trouble to get him there, and in that they set a good example for us. Jesus took note of their faith, but it was not their faith that got the man’s sins forgiven. It was the man’s own faith that made the connection to Christ. No one is saved by proxy. “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).
Verse 17 causes us to wonder if the paralyzed man and/or his four friends were “Pharisees and doctors of the law.” We can not be dogmatic about this, but we do know that “the power of the Lord was present to heal them” and to save them if they they would trust in Him.