Luke 05.17-26 What
we will study today is Healing and Forgiveness 01. The Players (Luke 05.17-19); that 02. The Power to Forgive (Luke 05.20-24);
and in how 03. The Paralytic Healed (Luke 05.25-26).
01. The Players (Luke 05.17-19)
Luke 05.17 “One day He was teaching,” Both Matthew and Mark record
for us (Matthew
09.01-08; Mark 02.01-20) that Jesus was in Capernaum and He
must have been in a large house because Mark tells us in Mark 02.02 that “And many were
gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door;
and He was speaking the word (G3056. logov) to them.”
Luke 05.17 “and there were some Pharisees”
Dr. Luke mentions the Pharisees for the first time in his
gospel, and they were one of the five main sects at this time. The Pharisees
have their origin between the Old and New
Testaments and from the Chasidim, the “pious ones”, who opposed the Greek
culture influencing the Jews under the evil and wicked Seleucid, King Antiochus
Epiphanes. They get their name from the Hebrew word (H6567) vrp which means to separate, and they were called
this because they were the “separated ones” when it
came to their strictness on obeying the Law of Moses. They
had only about 6,000 members at the time of Herod the Great (Josephus Antiquities 17.2.4) and they believed in
the strictest observance of the law and to be meticulous in all religious
duties, especially tithing. They would tithe what they ate, what they sold,
what they bought, and not be a guest of the Am
ha-arets (country people), those who didn’t care to know the law and thus
they were cursed in the eyes of the Pharisees. They also believed in the Jewish
thought of the predestination of God towards mankind, but they also taught that
man has freedom of choice to do good or evil. They believed in angels (Acts 23.08),
the resurrection of the dead (Acts 23.06-08) and demons. They were looking
for the Messiah to come, but because of their zeal for the Law of Moses, they
became focused on the outward keeping of the rituals of the Law and not on the
heart. They were generally made up of the
middle class and popular with the common people, who ironically they looked
down upon. They were the minority in the Sanhedrin, but their popularity gave
them great influence on the general population (Acts 05.34-40). After the destruction of the Temple in 70ad and the dissolution of the
Sadducees, they became the prevailing influence in Judaism. (cf. Alfred
Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus
the Messiah [Peabody; Hendrickson, 1993], Book 01, Ch 08, p67, 1.97; Book
03, Ch 02, p215-24, 1.311-25)
Paul the apostle was a Pharisee,
which he mentions in his letter to the Philippians (Philippians 03.04-11).
Luke 05.17 “and teachers of the law sitting there,” These were not the
modern day lawyers that you and I are familiar with. These were most likely
scribes, and they were professional students of the Law, with their specialty
being the explanation and application of the Law. There were many Pharisees who
were scribes, so they often worked together.
Dr. Luke then tells us that
these Pharisees and scribes came “from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem;” (Luke 05.17)
This tells us that they were aware and concerned about the teaching and ministry
of Jesus. Dr. Luke doesn’t record for us, but one of the first public acts by
Jesus was when He overturned the Sadducees temple business by driving out the
money changers and vendors selling merchandise that was highly marked up and
ripping off the people (John 02.14-16). So Jesus was a marked man by all
the religious leaders.
Luke 05.17 “and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.”
Paul tells us that when Jesus came, He “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 02.07) Jesus gave up the rights to
the independent use of His Divine power, and ministered instead under the
submission and will of the Heavenly Father, not clinging to His rights (Philippians 02.05-11).
Jesus always has the power to
heal, but the conditions were not always constructive. For example, Matthew
tells us that when Jesus taught in the Nazareth synagogue and said that “A prophet is not
without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” (Matthew 13.57; Luke 04.24),
that He didn’t “do many miracles there (Nazareth) because of
their unbelief.” (Matthew 13.58)
While Jesus was teaching, “some
men were carrying on a bed a man who
was paralyzed” (Luke 05.18). In Mark’s Gospel (Mark 02.03)
he tells us that four men were carrying the paralyzed man. We are not told
about how this man became paralyzed, if it was a birth defect or some accident
that happened to him. Unlike with leprosy (Luke 05.12-16), paralytics were not outcasts in
society, though they were often look down upon because the prevailing teaching
of that time was that God would punish those who sin with physical ailments (John 09.02),
which is not always true. Jesus responded to that belief by saying that some
people go through hardship and ailments “so that the works of God might be displayed in
him.” (John
09.03) When these four men got to the house where Jesus was
preaching the word (Mark 02.02), the four men “were trying to
bring him in and to set him down in front of Him.” (Luke 05.18) But
they could not find “any way to bring
him in because of the crowd,” (Luke 05.19)
Dr. Luke then tells us “they went up on the roof” (Luke 05.19) Houses
at this time were built with flat roofs with short walls on the outside (Deuteronomy 22.08).
The rooftop, or upper room in larger houses, would be used as a place to pray (Matthew 10.27;
Matthew 24.17;
Mark 13.15;
Acts 10.09).
It was from the rooftop that King David saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the
Hittite bathing when he should have
been on the frontlines of the battle (2Samuel 11.01-02). Outside of the house and
the upper room, there would a set of stairs leading to the top. This was used
for the guests who stayed in the upper room so that they would not bother the
inhabitants in the main house floor. The
place where it seems that Jesus was at was in the upper room, because we are
told that there was a big crowd (Mark 02.02) and the
upper room was usually a place for people to meet and hear a rabbi teach (Acts 01.13; Acts 20.08). In the roof on the upper room, there was a small trapdoor.
So when the men carrying the paralytic brought him to the roof, they removed
the surrounding tiles around the trapdoor “and let him down through the tiles with his
stretcher, into the middle of the crowd,
in front of Jesus.” (Luke 05.19)
02. The Power to Forgive (Luke 05.20-24)
One can only imagine what the
people in that upper room was thinking as the men on top started to move about.
Then as they started to tear the tiles to fit the stretcher through the
trapdoor, tiles and roofing materials start to fall on their heads. Then this
man is lowered right in front of Jesus, and there is no record that the
paralytic or the four friends who carried him said anything to Jesus, but His
response would catch everyone there by surprise.
Luke 05.20 “Seeing
their faith” When Jesus saw the faith of the paralytic and the four
who carried him, “He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven
you.”” Matthew
and Mark record for us that Jesus called the paralytic “Son” in
Matthew 09.02
and Mark 02.05,
and in Matthew
09.02 Jesus says, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.” or “be of good cheer”
in the King James Version, adding more of a personal touch between the
Creator and the creation. There are some who speculate that the reason that
Jesus said, “your
sins are forgiven you.” (Luke 05.20) was to show to all that were present
that though the man was guilty of some sin that made him paralyzed was
forgiven, so take courage, and be of good cheer! The Rabbis considered disease
in general was the result of sin. “No
death without sin, and no pain without transgression” (Shabbat 55a) and “the sick is not healed, till all his sins
are forgiven him” (Nedar. 41a). There are those who say that when Jesus
said, “your sins
are forgiven you.” (Luke 05.20), He was simply addressing the greatest
need of man, that which is the source of all pain and suffering, sin in
general.
If Jesus told this man that “your sins are
forgiven you.” (Luke 05.20) because of a specific sin caused by
the man made him paralyzed (like the prevailing thought of the day), or because
this was a situation that sin in this world caused this man to be paralyzed,
the grace of God is seen here so clearly, and “the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 09.03),
yet this man didn’t speak of his need, for the Lord knew what he needed, the
forgiveness of his sins. More than the healing of his paralyzed legs,
this man needed the forgiveness of his sins. There are many Christians, churches
and parachurch organizations that believe the greatest need is to take care of
the physical needs of people, much like what Richard Stearns, the president of
World Vision said in an interview in 2007, “As
a Christian organization, we are motivated by our commitment to Christ to love
our neighbors and care for the less fortunate. That’s why we do what we do. We
don’t proselytize.”
No
tinkering with superficial discomforts, or culture of intellect and taste, or
success in worldly pursuits, will avail to stanch the deep wound through which
our life-blood is ebbing out. We need something that goes deeper than all these
styptics. Only a power which can deal with our sense of sin, and soothe that
into blessed assurance of pardon, is strong enough to grapple with our true
root of misery. It is useless to give a man dying of cancer medicine for
pimples. That is what all attempts to make man happy and restful while sin
remains unforgiven, are doing. Social reformers need this lesson. Many voices
proclaim many gospels to-day. Culture, economical or social reconstruction, is
trumpeted as the panacea. But it matters comparatively little how society is
organised. If its individual members retain their former natures, the former
evils will come back, whatever its organisation. The only thorough cure for
social evils is individual regeneration. Christ deals with men singly, and remoulds
society by renewing the individual. (Alexander MacLaren, Alexander MacLaren’s Exposition of Holy
Scripture, Luke 5)
These people need to hear the Good News that Jesus came as
man, died, and rose from the grace three days later so that our sin will be
forgiven and we can have eternal life in Heaven (1Corinthians 15.01-04)! Lack of
forgiveness can be a cause so weighty upon mans heart, that when that burden is
lifted, your soul is set free.
Sin is the cause of all misery, sickness, and death in the
world. By removing the cause, the consequences were, in effect, taken away. The
sick man’s faith knew this; he knew that the greatest earthly gift became his
by these comforting words of Jesus. (Paul E. Kretzmann, The
Popular Commentary, Luke 5)
Forgiveness is God’s greatest
gift for man’s greatest need. This is why Jesus came to “save His people from their sins.”
(Matthew
01.21) and “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness
to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by
faith in Me.’” (Acts 26.18). Forgiveness is always paired with
a sacrifice of redemption. When Adam and Eve sinned, Moses records for us that “YHWH God made
garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” (Genesis 03.21)
The killing of animals throughout the Old Testament, especially the offerings
in the Temple, were all foreshadowing the ultimate sacrifice made by Jesus, the
Messiah (HaMashiach).
David declared, “Iniquities
prevail against me; As for our transgressions, You forgive them.” (Psalm 65.03)
and “Who
pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; But there is
forgiveness with You, That You may be feared.” (Psalm 103.03-04) and that “As far as the
east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
(Psalm
103.12)
In Nehemiah 09.17, Nehemiah said
that God is “a
God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger and abounding in
lovingkindness” The Old Testament, the one that many think is filled
with an angry God describes His forgiveness as casting “all my sins behind Your back.”
(Isaiah
38.17) that He is “the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own
sake, And I will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah 43.25) that “He will tread
our iniquities under foot.” And “will cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea.”
(Micah 07.19)
As John the Baptist declared about Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world!” (John 01.29)
You know all of this would cause
a stir, as Dr. Luke now tells us that “The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason,”
(Luke 05.21).
The Greek word for “reason” (G1260 dialogizomai) means to reckon thoroughly or to deliberate by discussion.
The statement by Jesus of the forgiveness of the paralytic caused the scribes
and the Pharisees to be disgusted, “saying, “Who is this man
who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” (Luke 05.21)
They were absolutely right, for it is only God who can forgive sins. We can’t
even forgive ourselves because we don’t have that power and authority. Only God can forgive sins because when mankind
sins, it is ultimately against God that we sin against (Psalm 51.01-04). Now today, we
can tell someone that their sins are forgiven based off of the Word of God, but
as a created being we have no power to declare on our own authority that sins
are forgiven (John
20.23) If Jesus was not God, He could not forgive sins in His own
power, and thus He would be blaspheming like the scribes and Pharisees said.
But because Jesus is God, they were wrong in saying that He was blaspheming,
because in their mind He was just a man, not the Son of God.
Blasphemy was the most scandalous crime in the Jewish mind
because it was a disrespectful act by a person towards God and its punishment
was death according to the Law of Moses (Leviticus 24.16). You were considered a
blasphemer if you spoke evil of God’s Law as Stephen (Acts 06.13) and Paul (Acts 21.27-28)
was falsely accused of doing. It was even worse to speak evil of God or curse
Him (Exodus
20.07; Leviticus 24.10-16). But the penultimate form
of blasphemy was to claim that you were God, which is what we see the scribes
and Pharisees accusing Jesus of doing here.
Luke 05.22 “But Jesus, aware of their
reasonings,” because He was God omniscient.
Jesus would not have known what they were thinking unless He is God. Luke 05.22 “answered and said to them, “Why
are you reasoning in your hearts?” Scripture
tells us that only God knows the heart of man in 1Samuel 16.07 and 1Kings 08.39.
Luke 05.23 “23 “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins
have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?”
In one way it is just as easy to
say one as the other, but it is entirely different to do either one since they
both are impossible from a human point of view. It seems to be easier to say ‘Your sins have
been forgiven you,’ (Luke 05.23) because there is no way of knowing
that the sins really are forgiven. If
you say ‘Get up
and walk’ (Luke 05.23) then it is easy to see if the man gets
up and walks! Pronouncing the forgiveness of sins and telling a man to get up
and walk are just as easy to God who is all-powerful. The Pharisees could not
see that the sins of the man were forgiven, so they would not believe. Jesus
then performed a miracle in healing the man so he could walk so that they could
see that Jesus had truly forgiven the sins of the man.
Luke 05.24 “But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority
on earth to forgive sins,” He was God
manifest in the flesh. Son of Man is a description of Jesus as a Man according
to God, the One who is morally perfect, One who would suffer, bleed, and die,
and One to whom universal headship has been given (Daniel 07.13). Luke 05.24 “--He said to the
paralytic--“I say to you, get up, and pick up
your stretcher and go home.” In
healing the paralyzed man, Jesus showed that He is the remedy for the cause of
all disease, which is sin. We need forgiveness of sins more than
physical healing!
03. The Paralytic Healed (Luke 05.25-26)
This is amazing! The man now was carrying the stretcher
that carried him! When this man got up,
the paralyzed man needed no physical therapy, he was able to get up and
immediately walk! All right in
front of the scribes, the Pharisees and all the people! As he got up to leave, Dr. Luke tells us that
he “went
home glorifying God.” (Luke 05.25) He was glorifying God not only
because he was healed but more importantly that his sins were forgiven. Seeing
this, all the people “were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, “We
have seen remarkable things today.”” (Luke 05.26) The crowd recognized that they had
seen amazing things, but not all of them would acknowledge Jesus as God.
The healing of the paralytic man again shows us that Jesus
has the power over disease, as well that He has the authority to forgive sin
and save mankind from eternity in Hell, which only God can do.
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