Power over Sin
In 1938 a German leader was awarded the title: Time’s person of the year. He took a nation from post-war defeatism and gave it new life. He unified a divided country and turned a broken people into a military super-power. For many Adolf Hilter was considered a hero, most of them were German but still. It didn’t take long for the hero to become the villain even in the eyes of his own people. Hitler may have started off with the right idea, to restore and establish his country but along the way it went terribly wrong.
Look at Luke 5:17 Jesus has been traveling around the Sea of Galilee preaching. As He traveled from town to town He came across a leper. Jesus reached out and touched this leper and he was healed. People start hearing that Jesus heals people without deductibles or co-pay and the crowds start swarming to Him. They want to be entertained, to be wowed; they want to see something amazing.
A few days after healing the leper Jesus went to Capernaum and He began teaching. He is teaching in a home, probably the home of Simon Peter as this was his home town. As word about Jesus has spread people start coming from all over to hear Jesus preach.
Lk 5:17 One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick.
This text is the first time we see official opposition to Jesus. It introduces us to the villains of the story: the Pharisees and teachers of the law. Throughout Jesus ministry we will see them as His antagonists. The Pharisees and teachers of the law represent the religious leaders of Jesus day. They are the pastors, book writers, and Bible college professors. These guys were the most influential people of the Jewish faith.
It is easy when reading through the gospels to see these people as villains. They are after all directly responsible for putting Jesus on a cross. While they may indeed be the villains, they did not intend to end up that way. In fact, like Hitler, they would have been viewed as heroes by their countrymen. These religious leaders started off with a great idea: let’s get people to obey the Bible. So how did they get from there to being opposed to the Son of God? They had the right goal but the wrong method. What they did to help people follow the law of God was to create more laws and regulations to follow. They made following the Bible all about human effort instead of about divine activity. They got so focused on the ‘work’ of following God’s Word that they missed God’s Word when it was right in front of them.
Their main problem is that they did not correctly identify who Jesus was. They thought of Jesus as some: “good moral teacher” and they missed the fact that He was the Son of God. This is an easy mistake to make. We do it all the time. The Christian church comes from the Restoration movement. The idea is that we should be Christians only. No more denominations, no more church divisions but that the church should ever, only, always be about Jesus. In less than 100 years it went from a great idea to just another set of church divisions.
The Pharisees had the right idea. Here is where their perfect plan went astray: the Bible is perfect, but that doesn’t mean your interpretation of it is. When you treat an imperfect interpretation the same as the perfect Word of God you are extending the inerrancy of God to man. Essentially, you are letting yourself believe that an imperfect person is perfect.
Martin Luther said that the default mode of our hearts is religion. We tend to believe that our religious views, our systematic theology, our teachers, our specific set of beliefs are perfect. We have to remember that we are capable of error. We can make mistakes. The Pharisees turned the Bible into a religion. Which is not unlike what we do today: because the Bible gives us principles not methods. The Bible says worship God that is the principle, religion says: worship Him like this…that is the method. The Bible says: be holy, religion says: this is what you have to do in order to be holy. When we treat the method with the same reverence as the principle we become like the Pharisees valuing our interpretation as much as God’s truth.
Religion is when you take the rules of man and treat them as if they were the rules of God. The Pharisees made it about them, when it is all about Jesus. When they learn that Jesus is teaching in Capernaum they come from all over to hear Jesus speak and to see how they feel about it.
Lk 5:18 Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. Lk 5:19 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.
The religious people demand honor and they would have taken all the best seats. Their titles gave them a sense of entitlement. The house is standing room only making it impossible for these men carrying a stretcher to wiggling in to where Jesus was preaching. So these four friends have to get a little more creative if they want to see Jesus.
This is just typical. These guys have a hurting friend who they want to bring to Jesus and they can’t because religious people are in the way. Over and over in Scripture the primary obstacle to getting hurting people to Jesus is the religious people. Their focus on themselves rather than on God actually gets in the way of people who are genuinely seeking to come to God. The same is true today, when you want to get the hurting to Jesus, it is often the religious people who stand in the way.
Now we don’t know much about this paralytic, he could have been this way from birth or been injured later in life. What we do know is that his paralysis made his life difficult. He could not work. He was completely dependent on his friends taking him to a busy gate where he could beg for people’s spare change. There is just something degrading about having to beg strangers for help in order to survive.
The crowd is packed into this house. Maybe a child could squeeze in but not four grown men with a paralytic in tow. So they climb up on the roof. Since it is unlikely their were stairs outside of the house they probably went to the second floor of the house next door and then climbed over to Peter’s roof. Since houses were built pretty close together this would not have been difficult but since the roves were probably open it would have drawn a lot of attention.
Here is a question: why the rush? Why do they have to get to Jesus so quickly? Couldn’t they just have waited until He finished preaching and talked with Him afterwards? Jesus has already built a reputation for disappearing without warning. He is a busy man and it is not like they have His itinerary. They know this may be their only shot.
When they got over to Peter’s house they dug a hole in the awning which was made of mud, grass, sticks, and tiles and created enough space to lower their friend down. I imagine this was awkward for the paralytic but it isn’t like he can do much about it. Certainly he should be mouthing “Sorry” for interrupting the sermon.
Lk 5:20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” Lk 5:21 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?”
When Jesus saw the faith of this man’s friends He was touched. So He forgave the man’s sins. This did not sit well with the Pharisees. When Jesus makes this statement they about fall out of their chairs: “I don’t agree with what you are saying Jesus”, “Who does Jesus think He is to behave like this? Only God can forgive sins. Jesus is acting like God. This is blasphemy.”
Their theology is good God is the only one who can forgive sins. We hear people say Jesus never claimed to be God, yes He did. Right here Jesus is in no uncertain terms claiming that He is God. Blasphemy is to insult. You could blaspheme God by insulting Him, failing to give Him proper praise, or increasing yourself to the level of God-ness. The religious leaders were right in every way but one: their identification of Jesus is wrong. Blasphemy was punishable by death which explains why they were so upset.
Lk 5:22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Lk 5:23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? Lk 5:24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . .” He said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Lk 5:25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Lk 5:26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”
Jesus knows their thoughts. He responds by making a brilliant point. Anyone can say your sins are forgiven just as anyone can say get up and walk. Neither statement contains complicated words. Anyone can say your sins are forgiven but how would they prove it? You can’t see sins being forgiven.
You know what you can see though? You can see a lame man get up and walk. Jesus claims to have the power to forgive sins. Then He says: “watch this” and He heals the paralytic. What better proof that Jesus has the power to forgive sins then the fact that Jesus has the power to perform miraculous healings?
To answer their question: Who can forgive sins besides God? No one. Jesus point; who can perform miracles besides God, again the answer is no one. The logical conclusion is that Jesus is God. By proving He can heal a paralytic Jesus proves He has the power to forgive sins which means: Jesus is God. The miracle is a visible display of Jesus power. Through it we may know that Jesus has power over our sin.
The real miracle is not that a lame man walked but that the man’s sins were forgiven. Physical healing is great, but the power to heal the sinful condition of the soul is far greater. All those who are healed will die. This man would one day lose the ability to walk that Jesus just gave him, but the forgiveness of sins that lasts for eternity.
Jesus is amazing. He doesn’t give this guy a list of things to do to earn forgiveness. He simply says: I forgive you. Just like that. No ritual, no routine, no religious practice, just pure unconditional forgiveness. Jesus shows us He has the power and then He forgives our sins. When Jesus heals the leper he was healed. When Jesus forgives sins, they are forgiven. Jesus has power over sin and He offers all who come to Him the same absolution He gave this man. Just come, and I will forgive you. All Jesus asks is that we come to Him so that He may forgive us.
Here is a question: what are you willing to do to bring your friend to Jesus? These guys climb up on a roof, vandalize a house, and hoist their friend down just to get their friend in the same room as Jesus. What are you willing to do? Non-Christians will make lots of excuses even when you do invite them the church: I don’t know where it is, how to get there, I forgot. What are you willing to do? Are you willing to overcome obstacles? They say I don’t know; pick them up and bring them. These men stopped at nothing to get their friend to Jesus, we should follow their example.
