Expectancy

I recently read these words from Luke:

(17) And it came about one day that He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. (18) And behold, some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in, and to set him down in front of Him. (19) And not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, right in the center, in front of Jesus. (20) And seeing their faith, He said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you." (21) And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?" (22) But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts? (23) "Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins have been forgiven you,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? (24) "But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins," — He said to the paralytic — "I say to you, rise, and take up your stretcher and go home." (25) And at once he rose up before them, and took up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God. (26) And they were all seized with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen remarkable things today." Luke 5:17-26 NASB

The phrase "and the power of the Lord was present" grabbed my attention. I thought Jesus always had the power of the Lord present in His life? What does this mean? There were times that he could not perform miracles because of unbelief. For example, Matthew wrote that Jesus was unable to do many miracles in his home town because of the people's doubt and unbelief (Matthew 13:58). What is interesting is the clash of unbelief and faith between two groups of people in the above verses. There were the religious people representeed by the Pharisees and teachers of the law and then there were the men, who apparently had faith in Jesus to heal, who carried the paralyzed man to Jesus so that he would do somethig about it. There is also the the individual in need. I wonder what his thoughts about Jesus were up to this point?

So what was it that caused the power of the Lord to be present? I think it is found in the opening words, "And it came about one day that He was teaching." God's word causes hope to rise up in the hearts of individuals to believe. It is the responsibility of those proclaiming God's word to live out His word. It is the responsibility of the listener to accept it. It is obvious that not everyone was accepting. It is obvious not everyone was expecting. It is obvious that there were some looking for an excuse to criticize. What are your thoughts on this matter?