February 9, 2025
Luke 5:17-26
“Stranger Things”
We are now transitioning from healing a leper to healing a paralytic. The opposition to Jesus will be ramped up. Anticipating that, verse sixteen tells us that Jesus “would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”
Now, on to verses seventeen through twenty-six:
On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
What’s the most important point in these verses? Here’s a hint. It’s the one thing that raises the hackles of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. It’s when Jesus says, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” Here’s a sweet sidenote to that simple statement. The Greek word translated man, can also, colloquially, be rendered friend. I like that. We like that. We like the kindness with which Jesus relates to the man. “Friend, your sins are
forgiven you.”
Here's the first thing you might want to write down:
JESUS IS A FRIEND TO SINNERS.
Forgiveness is the single most important gift God provides. Forgiveness is the blessing far and above any other blessing God provides. Forgiveness is the door to all other blessings. There would be no eternity in the presence of Jesus Christ without forgiveness. Forgiveness is the heart of the Christian gospel. You cannot understand Jesus unless you understand human sin and our need for forgiveness. You cannot even begin to think of an afterlife unless you understand how sin alienates us from God. Human beings are horrible people capable of doing horrible things. Think about how horribly people behave when driven by fear. That dark underbelly of human behavior was exposed when the pandemic of 2020 drove lots of people in fearful directions. Sin alienates us from God. It drives us toward the precipice of hell.
Remember, grace is getting what you don’t deserve and mercy is not getting what you deserve. Verse twenty is a direct statement about who forgives us. It points to the trajectory of God’s salvation history – the means by which we are forgiven. Jesus forgives sinners:
Acts 10:38-39 – “Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.”
Ephesians 1:3-10 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
Grace and mercy. Charles Spurgeon explains grace and mercy in two exquisite ways:
“WHO AMONG US, UPON LOOKING BACK AT HIS PAST LIFE, WOULD DARE TO SAY THAT HE DESERVES SALVATION? NEITHER ARE WE SAVED ON ACCOUNT OF ANY WORKS FORESEEN WHICH ARE YET TO BE PERFORMED BY US.”
That’s grace.
“THE LORD’S MERCY IS A SEA WHICH CANNOT BE FILLED, THOUGH MOUNTAINS OF SIN BE CAST INTO ITS MIDST; IT IS LIKE NOAH’S FLOOD, WHICH COVERS ALL AND DROWNS EVEN THE MOUNTAIN-TOPS OF HEAVEN-DEFYING SINS.”
That’s mercy.
Luke 5:20 lays out what is distinctive about Jesus and his message of salvation. It’s quite simple. God will forgive all your sins, which forever changes your relationship to Him. Instead of your judge, in Jesus Christ, God becomes your friend. Verse twenty signals that, in Christ, God welcomes you to heaven in an act of gracious blessing. That is the gospel. That is the trajectory. Everything else is secondary.
Next, in verse twenty-one, the scribes and the Pharisees ask the questions that Luke has already given us the answers to. “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Well, Luke has already spelled it out for us. We know Jesus is the incarnate
Son of God. We heard it in the testimony of the angels. We heard it in the testimony of Zacharias and Elizabeth. We heard it in the testimony of Joseph and Mary. We heard it in the testimony of Anna and Simeon. We heard it in the praising of the Heavenly Host. We heard it in the testimony of John the Baptist. We heard it at the baptism of Jesus when the holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove. Then there’s the testimony when Jesus vanquishes Satan during his temptations of the desert. All of these things happened before chapter five. Luke has already laid out for us that Jesus is the Divine Son of God. Unmistakable. Unarguable.
So, when we get to the objection of the scribes and the Pharisees, we know to reject their empty protests. We know. But they don’t know. They don’t know…they refuse to see…because, as we read in John 8:39-47:
They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father - even God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
For whatever reason, they are blind to the trajectory of God’s salvation history. There’s nothing worse than someone who refuses to see. At this point, they are so invested in their false narrative, they’ll do anything to protect, defend, and justify it. And as we’ll see, from this moment on,
the anger and opposition to Jesus escalates. It’s going to eventually lead Jesus to the cross.
Here’s the huge point Jesus makes. Jesus as God Incarnate has the right to forgive. And he gives it. I can’t do that. You can’t do that. No person can do that. Nobody but God and God alone. Only God can forgive sin.
Now, here’s the beauty of the second simple thing Jesus says. “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?”
The answer is, it’s easier to say your sins are forgiven you. It’s easier to say because you can’t see if it has happened. There’s no visual evidence. When Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven you,” there’s a transaction between God and the man. It’s out there in the ether, lodged in the mind of God. Within the counsel of the Trinity…Father, Son, and holy Spirit…the divine transaction of forgiveness is run. But we can’t see it. The man gets no halo. There’s no heavenly chorus shouting out praises to God. There was no test to run to see if it worked. Therefore, it’s a far easier thing to say.
So, what role does the physical healing play? We don’t know exactly what
the man’s ailment or disability is. Paralytic is a catchall phrase indicating a
visible physical impediment to the man’s health and mobility. Hence he’s carried on a stretcher and lowered through a roof. Whatever it is, you can see something’s wrong with him.
Why is it harder to say, “Pick up your bed and go home”? Because you have to be absolutely, 100% correctly healed. It is irrefutable visual evidence. So when the paralytic man picks up his bed and walks home, everybody knows Jesus is who he says he is, and not only does he have power to heal, more importantly, it is his life…the gospel…that will make us right with God.
We love, love, love what the healed man does next. He glorifies God. And not only that, everybody who saw it glorifies God. He now knows the full revelation of who Jesus is. It’s exactly where Luke wants us to be. We have now met Jesus Christ in his Divine fullness. He is the forgiver of sins. He is the healer of the broken. He is the bringer of new life.
Here's what Luke leaves us with. What are we going to do with the strange
things we’ve heard today? Knowing that we – wretched sinners that we are – can be forgiven, will we truly repent? And then, how are we going to live each and every day of the rest of our lives? What will be the signs of repentance in our lives? The Apostle Paul gives us a glimpse in Galatians
5:22-23:
“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Those are good places to be in your life. It’s all made possible because Jesus calls you friend and forgives your sin. There’s no greater gift than that.
Last month, North Dakota State University won the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision National Title. Listen to what one of their players said after the game:
“I am nothing without Jesus. He saved me. Not because of what I did, but because of what He did 2,000 years ago on a Roman cross…That is a greater joy than any accolade I’ll ever get.”
And together, we pick up our bed and go home, glorifying God.
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