FORGIVENESS OFFERED

Imagine you have some health systems and you tried to treat yourself without any success. Finally, you go see a physician. After careful analysis of all the facts, your physician reaches a conclusion about what is wrong and prescribes what you need to make you whole again. In this case the physician knew to fully understand what the you needed before trying to deal with how to heal you. Jesus performed a miracle that involved forgiving a paralyzed man of his sins. The miracle reminds us of our greatest need and how much Jesus wants to make us whole. Jesus desires that all people experience His forgiveness and grace. However, just like when we need to go to a physician for help, we must “go” to Jesus for His “healing”.

Read Luke 5:17-20 Jesus Honors Faith

When Jesus began His public ministry, news about Him spread quickly throughout the region. People came from Galilee and Judea to hear Him preach and teach. As they listened, the growing crowd of people got a chance to witness for themselves His power to heal. Religious leaders came to hear Him, but they didn’t come to learn from His instruction. Rather, they showed up so they could investigate Him and His ministry. Verse 17 introduces the Pharisees and teachers of the law that showed up from all over Galilee and Judea, including Jerusalem. While no sinister intent is mentioned, these religious leaders became Jesus’ severest critics. They were separatists who sought to avoid contact with unclean things and unclean people. The Pharisees were more interested in defining and keeping the huge body of religious traditions that had been accumulating for more than 400 years since the Jews’ return from exile. They were so concerned with these man-made traditions that they often lost sight of Scripture. Here these leaders felt threatened because Jesus challenged their sincerity and because the people were flocking to Him.

Among those coming to Jesus were several men (likely 4), carrying a paralyzed man on a bed. (KJV says palsy, which while being serious, it may not have alone caused the man to be paralyzed.) These men could not get through the large crowd so they took the paralyzed man to the roof and lowered him right to where Jesus was standing. In Bible days, houses were built of stone and had roofs of mud and straw with clay tiles layered on top. Normally, there would be an outside stairway to the roof. So the men carried their friend, while he was laying on a mat. To the roof and took apart as much of the roof as was necessary to get access to Jesus. It wasn’t the paralyzed man’s faith that impressed Jesus but the depth of the faith of his friends who carried him. For better or worse, our faith affects others. We can not make another person a Christian, but we can do much through our words, actions and love to another person a chance to respond. The lesson here “screams” out to us to look for any way possible to bring our friends to the living Christ.

Why did Jesus deal with the man’s sins before healing him? (Jesus dealt with the man’s sins first because that was the man’s basic need. Jesus is always concerned about the total person, but at the heart of human need is the problem of sin and guilt.) Remember that the author of this Scripture- Luke- was a physician but he knew that the greater need was for the forgiveness of the man’s sins. See Matthew 9:2 for incite into how Jesus deals with the person’s greater need first. In doing so, Jesus was asserting a prerogative that was God’s alone (v. 21; 7:49). Jesus’ subsequent healing of the man’s condition was proof that He had the authority to forgive sins as well- much to the consternation of the Pharisees.

Read Luke 5:21-26 Jesus Forgives Sin

Jesus’ actions and words led the scribes and Pharisees to accuse Him of blasphemy. He claimed to do something only God can do- forgive sins. This led the Jewish religious present to conclude that Jesus thought He was God, which is punishable by death (Leviticus 24:16). They felt compelled to uphold the law here, even though they were ignoring it in many other cases. They did not understand that Jesus did have the power to heal both body and the soul. Forgiveness was a sign that the messianic age had come (Isaiah 40:2, Jer. 2:32, Micah 7:18, Zechariah 13:1). However, Jesus did not use any of the popular messianic titles. Instead He referred to Himself as Son of man. As we learned before, Jesus used this title more than any other when He was speaking of who He was. He used it to stress two aspects of His redemptive work- death and resurrection (Luke 9:22). On one hand, the Son of man is a humble sufferer who seems weak and powerless; on the other hand, He is vindicated and glorified in divine power (Luke 9:26, also Daniel 7:13).

Jesus’ actions bring to mind an important truth. Sometimes our greatest needs are spiritual in nature. This story of the paralytic doesn’t mean to imply that the cause of physical suffering is necessarily sins that need to be forgiven. (Of course, sometimes our sin causes injury.) Rather, it affirms our foundational spiritual need for an intimate relationship with God through Jesus. Believers are so forgiven that, in God’s eyes, it is as if they had never sinned. Why do you think Jesus asked the question to the religious leaders in verse 23- “Which is easier: to say, ‘your sins are forgiven you’; or to say, ‘Get up and walk”? (Jesus knew the hearts and minds of His accusers. He used His wisdom to counteract their accusations by giving them a paradox.) What He was saying is-if He did not have the authority to forgives sin, then the paralyzed man would not be able to walk. Since the man walked, it was evident that Jesus could forgive sin. Notice that both the paralyzed man and the people in the crowd who witnessed the miracle praised God for what they saw. Luke says they registered complete “awe” and gave “glory to God” for the miracle. It provided an unquestionable demonstration of Jesus’ power to heal and forgive. And of course, glorifying God has a powerful effect on the people who hear us praise Him.

Read Luke 5:29-32 Jesus Seeks Sinners

Luke presents Jesus as the friend of sinners. He freely associated with all kinds of people. This placed Him on a collision course with the Pharisees. The first collision came after Jesus accepted Levi’s dinner invitation. The Pharisees believed in close association only with people who rigidly observed the laws about ritual cleanliness. Neither of the two groups that were guests of Levi’s, met the Pharisees qualifications. Levi was a tax collector and they were outcasts from respectable society. Many tax collectors were collaborators with foreign-dominated governments. (Today they might be called traitors.) They had daily contact with all kinds of other “unclean” people. So most Jewish people thought that tax collectors were “sinners”. In Levi’s case, he seemed eager to leave all behind him because he quickly left a very lucrative business and life-style to follow Jesus as soon as Jesus asked.

Matthew’s (Levi) life was changed in a most profound way that he could not wait to have other tax collectors to meet Jesus. So he arranged a grand banquet in Jesus’ honor at his house. It seems clear that Matthew invited other folks so they would not miss out on the opportunity to know Jesus. Two insights about reaching people for Christ came into view at this point. First, notice Matthew’s method of evangelizing his friends. When we take his example seriously, we search for ways to introduce our lost friends to Christ so they can invite Jesus into their lives. Whether it is in our home and mix some lost friends with dedicated Christians for a social gathering or meal or we invite them to church, sit with them and introduce them to others at church, we are doing the same as Matthew’s example. Second, we need to pay close attention to Jesus’ willingness to associate Himself with social and religious outcasts of His day. His example compels us to see everybody who doesn’t know Him personally. If we treat them like outcasts to be shunned, then we are behaving more like the Pharisees than Christians. Jesus knew that all would not see themselves as sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. However, He showed by His example how to treat all people who have not been saved. Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees, not only showed His compassion for the lost, but showed His authority to save all from their sins and trying to help the Pharisees see that they too needed to repent.

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