Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Luke 5:26

"And amazement took hold on all, and they glorified God; and they were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to-day." — Luke 5:26 (ASV)

The healing validates the declaration of forgiveness. The command to the paralyzed man is impossible of fulfillment—except for the power of God. To respond took an act of obedience based on faith, and he stood up “immediately.” The result is the glorification of God , both by the man and by the crowd. The onlookers were also filled with awe at the powerful demonstration of God’s word (cf. Acts 2:12). The final word is “today.” Its use in this particular position, at the very end of the passage, strikingly recalls its occurrence as the first word said by Jesus after reading the Isaiah passage in

Nazareth (4:21). By including it here Luke assures the reader that this indeed is the awaited eschatological “today.”

The succession of people on whom the Lord bestows his favor continues. We have seen his grace to a demoniac, a leper, and a paralytic; and now we see it given to a tax collector. So Jesus liberates those suffering from malign spirits, physical handicap, and social disfavor. The antagonists, the Pharisees and teachers of the law (who were merely named in the preceding narrative), are again on the scene.