Jewish rabbis loved to sit and teach and ask questions and argue the finer points of the laws. That is how they continued to learn from each other and define the law. And that is how they taught young men – the older taught the younger who taught the younger. As Jesus was teaching, the Pharisees and teachers of the law came from all around to hear him, to approve or disapprove of what he was teaching, and to argue the finer points. That was their custom with any rabbi.
“And the power of the Lord was present for him [Jesus] to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 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.” Luke 5:17b-19 I wonder about many things here. I wonder, was the power of the Lord not always present to heal the sick? And I wonder about the faith of the man’s friends who were interceding for him. And I wonder at the tightness and persistence of the crowd squeezing around Jesus that they couldn’t get the man to him. And I wonder how these men felt free to go up on someone’s roof and dismantle it to get the man down to Jesus.
Jesus, the Son of God, was in a human body for about 33 years. During that time, he dealt with life more the way we as human beings need to deal with life. “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:16 “And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick.” Luke 5:17b It seems that these two verses may be related. We tend to think of Jesus as a superhero with magical powers to heal. And certainly, he was special – not just another man. But he constantly reminds us that his power came from God the Father – his Father and our Father. "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” John 5:19 This is a reminder to me that if I want to see God’s power in my life, I need to keep talking with God, learning what his will is and submitting to it. And it is not beyond my reach because, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” John 1:12 We are children of God and have the same ability Jesus did to come to our Father and ask for help and to come to the Father and be filled with his power to heal if that is what he chooses for us to do. We are our own worst enemies – convincing ourselves that we are not capable of anything because we believe Satan’s lies rather than filling ourselves with God’s truths. He has left us his inspired words recorded in Scripture and his example of withdrawing to a quiet place – away from others – to talk with our Father and listen to him as he encourages and instructs us and then fills us with his power to do his will.
Luke 5 also teaches us about the faith and persistence of intercessors. The man’s friends went to great lengths to get him to Jesus. They were innovative – when they couldn’t get there the normal way, they thought up another way. I guess they had some repair work to do afterwards as well. But they had faith that Jesus could heal their friend and they wanted it so bad that they were willing to do anything to get him there. (They would have been great Georgia Tech, MIT or Southern Cal students!) Sometimes, God asks us to ‘think outside the box’ and not accept that something can’t be done. “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’" Matthew 19:26 Believing this to be true is half or more of the battle. If I truly believe God is able to do anything, if I spend time with him finding out what it is he wants to do in a situation, and if I follow through when he asks me to do something, I will see great things happen because God is full of power and so willing to help and save his children.
Luke goes on to tell us that Jesus began by saying, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” Luke 5:20 And after the Pharisees and teachers of the law were sufficiently rattled, he went on to say, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins… (he turned to the paralytic and said) I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Luke 5:24 And that is just what the man did to the amazement of all who were standing there.
First and foremost, God wants us to know that we are forgiven. He wants healing in our souls. He wants us to spend eternity with him. Sometimes we pray with whatever little faith we can muster up for our friends to have physical healing and what God is saying is, “Hey, I’m doing something here. I will walk with this person and hold them in the palm of my hand while they are on this journey. But I have some other things I need to do here, so soon I will be taking this child of mine home to be with me.” We may never know what all is happening spiritually with this person and others close to them. We may not know how their testimony of faith will change the lives of the doctors and nurses or the person in the next hospital bed or even someone visiting them. We need to trust that God has the big picture and that he is working out his perfect will in us and in the lives of our friends.
Oh God, as I take time to come away to a quiet place with you, please teach me your ways. Fill me with your spirit so that I can be an effective minister of your grace and mercy to others. Teach me to love as you love and to serve as you serve. Teach me to listen for your voice even in the busy day to day activities of my life and to always follow you.
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