Training Evangelists at Bethsaida

148:9.1On Fri­day af­ter­noon, Oc­to­ber 1, when Je­sus was hold­ing his last meet­ing with the apos­tles, evan­ge­lists, and other lead­ers of the dis­band­ing en­camp­ment, and with the six Phar­isees from Je­ru­sa­lem seated in the front row of this as­sem­bly in the spa­cious and en­larged front room of the Zeb­e­dee home, there oc­curred one of the strangest and most unique episodes of all Je­sus’ earth life. The Mas­ter was, at this time, speak­ing as he stood in this large room, which had been built to ac­com­mo­date these gath­er­ings dur­ing the rainy sea­son. The house was en­tirely sur­rounded by a vast con­course of peo­ple who were strain­ing their ears to catch some part of Je­sus’ dis­course.

148:9.2While the house was thus thronged with peo­ple and en­tirely sur­rounded by ea­ger lis­ten­ers, a man long af­flicted with paral­y­sis was car­ried down from Ca­per­naum on a small couch by his friends. This par­a­lytic had heard that Je­sus was about to leave Beth­saida, and hav­ing talked with Aaron the stone ma­son, who had been so re­cently made whole, he re­solved to be car­ried into Je­sus’ pres­ence, where he could seek heal­ing. His friends tried to gain en­trance to Zeb­e­dee’s house by both the front and back doors, but too many peo­ple were crowded to­gether. But the par­a­lytic re­fused to ac­cept de­feat; he di­rected his friends to pro­cure lad­ders by which they as­cended to the roof of the room in which Je­sus was speak­ing, and af­ter loos­en­ing the tiles, they boldly low­ered the sick man on his couch by ropes un­til the af­flicted one rested on the floor im­me­di­ately in front of the Mas­ter. When Je­sus saw what they had done, he ceased speak­ing, while those who were with him in the room mar­veled at the per­se­ver­ance of the sick man and his friends. Said the par­a­lytic: “Mas­ter, I would not dis­turb your teach­ing, but I am de­ter­mined to be made whole. I am not like those who re­ceived heal­ing and im­me­di­ately for­got your teach­ing. I would be made whole that I might serve in the king­dom of heaven.” Now, not­with­stand­ing that this man’s af­flic­tion had been brought upon him by his own mis­spent life, Je­sus, see­ing his faith, said to the par­a­lytic: “Son, fear not; your sins are for­given. Your faith shall save you.”

148:9.3When the Phar­isees from Je­ru­sa­lem, to­gether with other scribes and lawyers who sat with them, heard this pro­nounce­ment by Je­sus, they be­gan to say to them­selves: “How dare this man thus speak? Does he not un­der­stand that such words are blas­phemy? Who can for­give sin but God?” Je­sus, per­ceiv­ing in his spirit that they thus rea­soned within their own minds and among them­selves, spoke to them, say­ing: “Why do you so rea­son in your hearts? Who are you that you sit in judg­ment over me? What is the dif­fer­ence whether I say to this par­a­lytic, your sins are for­given, or arise, take up your bed, and walk? But that you who wit­ness all this may fi­nally know that the Son of Man has au­thor­ity and power on earth to for­give sins, I will say to this af­flicted man, Arise, take up your bed, and go to your own house.” And when Je­sus had thus spo­ken, the par­a­lytic arose, and as they made way for him, he walked out be­fore them all. And those who saw these things were amazed. Pe­ter dis­missed the as­sem­blage, while many prayed and glo­ri­fied God, con­fess­ing that they had never be­fore seen such strange hap­pen­ings.

148:9.4And it was about this time that the mes­sen­gers of the San­hedrin ar­rived to bid the six spies re­turn to Je­ru­sa­lem. When they heard this mes­sage, they fell to earnest de­bate among them­selves; and af­ter they had fin­ished their dis­cus­sions, the leader and two of his as­so­ciates re­turned with the mes­sen­gers to Je­ru­sa­lem, while three of the spy­ing Phar­isees con­fessed faith in Je­sus and, go­ing im­me­di­ately to the lake, were bap­tized by Pe­ter and fel­low­shipped by the apos­tles as chil­dren of the king­dom.