God heals the paralytic (Vie et Miracles de Jésus Christ, Paris, Jollain, no. 26)

The image glosses the lapidary formula of the gospel story, "And behold, a paralytic was brought to him, lying on a bed". How was the paralytic brought to Jesus? For the illustrator, it was with ropes that he was lowered, through a trapdoor, to the basement changing room of the Bethesda pool.

This very practical explanation also has a spiritual significance: the image can be read the other way around. Above the unfortunate sufferer, a trapdoor opens and, under Christ's impulse, helping hands pull him up. The hands are thus both human hands and the very hands of God's helping, merciful hand.