Luke 5:17-26
17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick.18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus.19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?24 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.
26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”
Luke 5:17-26 WHERE DO WE SEE LOVE?
Springford Baptist Church: February 5, 2023.
As we examine these accounts of the activities of Jesus, God’s Son while He was on earth, we gain a clearer picture of who Jesus is, what He is like, and certainly how much He loves us!
In this description of Jesus healing a paralyzed man, we are told that “the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick.” (vs. 17b) or “the healing power of God was on Him”. Jesus’ miraculous ability to heal various illnesses and infirmities was evidence that He was empowered by our loving God.
Only God can enable miracles like this and God has placed this power on Jesus, sent from God and as we know, Jesus is God!
Now I want us to notice in this event that the friends of this man who couldn’t walk were absolutely determined for Him to encounter Jesus. They wanted him to be healed and they were convinced that Jesus had the power to heal. Their choice to bring this man to Jesus was an act of love.
They are so determined for this to happen that they go to extraordinary measures. They remove tiles from the roof and lower him down right in front of Jesus. Houses at this time usually had flat roofs, often with external staircases leading up to them.
This is what all of us needs-direct access to Jesus God’s Son.
We too want to be brought right into His Presence so that we can hear what He says to us and experience what He has for us! Most importantly, we too want to experience how much He loves us.
Jesus is impressed by the faith of those who brought this man to Jesus, but His response is not what they would have expected.
These men had brought the man who couldn’t walk to be healed of His physical limitation, his paralysis.
Jesus chooses to begin by healing him of his spiritual ailment.
So often we focus on physical illness, but miss the significance of spiritual need.
Sin separates us from the God who loves us unconditionally. Here Jesus immediately determines that forgiveness of sin and restoration to relationship with God is the priority.
Knowing the Pharisees and Teachers of the law as we do, we are not surprised by their reaction to what Jesus says. They are outraged… “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (vs. 21)
The Pharisees took their religion very seriously. They were so anxious not to break God’s commandments that they “put a fence around the law”. For example, when the law said “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”, they made sure they did not break it by refusing to pronounce the name at all. The result of this approach of externalizing religion was that people then put a lot of effort into the outward without necessarily coming to love God in their hearts.
Our faith in God and love relationship with Him is so much more than a list of rules, of dos and don’ts.
Lists of rules generally lead to resentment and frustration. Loving God and wanting to please Him because we love Him so much is an entirely different thing. This is our BECOMING!
The Pharisees are right in thinking that God alone can forgive sins, but they miss the point that Jesus is in fact God!
His ability to forgive sins is further confirmation of this truth.
When you think about it, Jesus’ power to heal was a visible affirmation of His power and authority to forgive sins.
Speaking of thinking, did you notice that Jesus knew what they were thinking? His ability to know thoughts, to know what they were thinking in their hearts also points to Him being none other than God!
Jesus knows our every thought as well, not just the things that we speak aloud. Jesus knows our best and our worst thoughts and He loves us no matter what.
Then as a demonstration that Jesus is sent from God and has authority on earth to forgive sins- He does heal this man!
Jesus does not just say that He has authority to forgive sins, he proves it.
The people who were witnessing this had conclusions to make.
They, like the man who was healed gave praise to God.
They concluded that God was the Source of this miracle.
They did not try to explain it in any other way.
What conclusions do we make based on our experiences of Jesus?
The man who could not walk would have heard about Jesus.
He would certainly have heard about the healing miracles that Jesus was able to perform.
As he lay there on his mat day after day, he may have longed to find a way to get himself to Jesus so that there was the possibility that he too could be healed. But what could he do since he could not walk?
Sometimes in our lives we too may recognize a need that we have and yet sense that Jesus is not accessible to us. Yes, others can make their way to Jesus but what can we do? How can we get ourselves right into His Presence and receive the incredible gift of His love and forgiveness?
At the end of this Scripture, when Jesus heals this man, Jesus tells him to “take up your mat and walk”. (vs.24)
This man is set free from his paralysis and is now able to move about freely.
This morning, I believe that Jesus is saying to each of us, “Take up your mat and walk.”
In our cases, not walk away, but walk to me! Don’t let anything prevent you from coming to me and recognizing me and my love for you and what I have to offer.
Jesus does welcome us to find our rest in Him.
Come to me. Get up off of your mat. Move your stiff and tired joints and come right to me.
Do not let other people, even a crowd of people, prevent you from coming to me.
Jesus does not want any of us to stay laying on a mat of discouragement, crippled by life’s circumstances and misunderstandings.
As we hear this story of Jesus today, we are hearing a love story, a powerful story of how much God loves us and the extent to which God is willing to go to bring us to this place of encounter with Him!
God makes it possible for any of us to stretch our limbs and get to our feet and come right into His very Presence. This is where He can show us how much He loves us and we, we can receive that love!
We can expect that God will then inspire us to find ways to share His love!
We can be part of others seeing the love of God demonstrated through us in our words and actions.