Luke 5 (4)

Pray Psalm 85.1-3.
LORD, You have been favorable to Your land;
You have brought back the captivity of Jacob.
You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people;
You have covered all their sin.
Selah
You have taken away all Your wrath;
You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger.

Sing Psalm 85.1-3.
(Lyons: O Worship the King)
O Lord, You Your favor showed to Your land;
Your people You saved by Your mighty hand.
Their sins You forgave, all Your wrath You withdrew;
You turned back the anger which to them was due.

Read Luke 5.1-26; meditate on verses 17-26.

Preparation
1. What did Jesus see that prompted Him to act?

2. How did He respond to those who grumbled?

Meditation
The operative phrase of this vignette is “When He saw their faith” (v. 20). An entire theology of belief is packed into that one subordinate clause! Let’s unpack it.

First, Jesus saw their faith. That is, faith gives evidence of its being active in a person’s soul (cf. Heb. 11.1). So active, in fact, that a believing mind and a believing heart and a believing conscience mesh together with holy spiritual power to move the body to actions others can see. Faith is visible or it’s not true faith. Jesus saw their faith.

And notice, their faith, not just one man’s faith. Jesus saw the paralytic’s faith, but He also saw the faith of his friends. Their faith together got that man in front of Jesus. They were literally “through the roof” with faith. Faith foments in communities of like-minded believers whose united belief moves the Spirit of God to great things and mysteries we’ve never known before (cf. Jer. 33.3; Acts 4.23-31). Note also how persistent their faith was. They could not get to the Lord one way, so they invented another and pursued it in faith.

Finally, we see that the salvation Jesus accomplishes is both bodily and spiritual. Salvation brings forgiveness of sins and the renewal of our inner life. But it also brings transforming grace to our bodies, so that we are healed from the sins and unbelief that kept us back from serving the Lord, and “born again” into a new life, under a new regime, where, increasingly, the members of our bodies are made to serve King Jesus, and ultimately will be made entirely new and sinless (cf. Rom. 6.5-13; 1 Cor. 15.35-44).

Jesus saw their faith, and the people saw the power of their faith at work as Jesus responded to them (v. 26). The grumblers, status-quo-preservers, and Who-does-He-think-He-is? crowd might fail to see the miracle of grace working through faith. But not all of them. Not all the time (v. 26).

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
Who were the people in this neighborhood? The people who were so crowded around Jesus that no one else could get in? Those “Tick Tock the game is locked and nobody else can play” people?

Well, they were the Pharisees and teachers of the law and scribes. All the religious.

And please note that all those religious folks could not find a way to move aside so that the friends of the paralytic could get into the place where Jesus was teaching. And that is a tragic loss of manners, civility, and kindness.

How often do you think people experience this phenomenon at church? So many friendly people being friendly to their friends and not taking the time to notice another that might be left out? Or any type of gathering of believers that is focused on the message, or the music, or the lighting, or the happiness level of themselves and missing all those who feel misplaced, out of place, or poorly placed.

The program is never more important than the people. It certainly never was for Jesus. He was always looking out for the disenfranchised. In fact, right in the middle of this service He stopped His sermon (Lk. 5.17, 20) to forgive and heal this man of faith, dropped in by his friends of faith. Can you imagine how many well-positioned elders would swoop in to remove this disruption today?

Forgiveness is always available to anyone who seeks it and asks for it. If we are guilty of this in any way, we too can turn from our misguided love, to love like Jesus exuded. When He was teaching the religious, the text says that “the power of the Lord was present to heal them” (Lk. 5.17). That is, the religious. That very busy and inattentive crowd of super holy people (Lk. 5.19). But after the miracle of forgiveness and healing, even this crowd “were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, ‘We have seen strange things today!’” (Lk. 5.26)

Right up there in the realms of the miraculous, right beside the paralytic’s healing, is the change of heart experienced by the Pharisees, teachers, and scribes. “All” of them (v. 26). No one is without hope. No one is too religious to be changed by the power of God’s love and forgiveness. “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness” (Lam. 3.22, 23).

Indeed, it is true, “that the salvation Jesus accomplishes is both bodily and spiritual. Salvation brings forgiveness of sins and the renewal of our inner life.” Though we be physically or spiritually paralyzed.

For reflection
1. In what sense does the salvation of the Lord bring healing and renewal to our soul?

2. In what sense does the salvation of the Lord bring healing and renewal to our body?

3. What evidence of true, lively, saving faith do you expect people to see in you today?

As God, [Jesus] saw their faith as he saw the thoughts of the scribes, and as a man, he saw their faith by their works. He saw the faith of the porters in bringing and of the paralyzed man in allowing himself to be brought in such a manner; and therefore Christ, the “consolation of Israel,” affords him comfort instantly both in word and in deed. John Boys (1571-1625), The NineteenthSunday After Trinity.3

Pray Psalm 85.4-13.
Pray for revival for the Church of God over all the earth. That we may rise from our listlessness and fear, be filled with His Spirit, and live as His witnesses each day.

Sing Psalm 85.413.
(Lyons: O Worship the King)
Restore us, O God, renew us in peace,
and cause all Your wrath against us to cease.
Will You evermore all Your wrath to us show?
Revive us that we may Your joy again know.

Lord, show us Your love; restore us, we pray!
And help us to hear the words that You say.
Speak peace to Your people; in truth let us stand.
We fear You; let glory and grace fill our land.

In Jesus God’s grace and truth are combined;
both goodness and peace in Him do we find.
Truth springs from the earth as He walks in our midst,
and righteousness flows from the heav’ns as a gift.

The Lord by His grace will give what is good;
our land will produce abundance of food.
And righteousness will go before the Lord’s face,
and make of His footsteps a way in this place.

T. M. and Susie Moore

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available by clicking here.