'Authority to Forgive' (Luke 5:17-26)

Luke 5:17–26 

¹⁷ Jesus is teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law from all around Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. We are told ‘the power of the Lord was present for Jesus to heal the sick’. For Luke, Jesus is the “Lord’s Anointed’ who was full of God’s Spirit. He was anointed by the Spirit at his baptism, led by the Spirit into the wilderness and he returned in the power of the Spirit (Luke 3:21-21, 4:1, 14). The ‘power of God’ to heal was present; and Jesus’ critics were present as well. ¹⁸ The crowd kept some men from carrying their paralyzed friend on a mat before Jesus. ¹⁹ Determined they get to the roof and lower the man down through the roof tiles into the crowd, right before Jesus. These Pharisees and teachers of the law from all across Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem, are sitting there. They appear skeptical of Jesus and more concerned that Jesus was misleading the people away from their own ‘kingdom of God’ agenda. They weren’t there to help or to learn but in a sense they were just taking up space!

These men took this as their chance to get their paralyzed friend in front of Jesus to be healed. Yet the Pharisees were part of the crowd keeping the paralyzed man from Jesus. They don’t seem to be moved by compassion for the common hurting people. The men take to the roof and lower their friend down in front of Jesus. ²⁰ Jesus sees their actions as a demonstration of their faith that Jesus could heal the man. After calling the man his friend, Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven”. We don’t know how this man who hoped to be healed reacted to Jesus’ statement, but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law found it troubling. They questioned Jesus and thought he was speaking blasphemy because forgiving sins was the prerogative of God alone. Not that Jesus, at this point in Luke’s gospel, was claiming to be divine but that Jesus was sidestepping the God ordains means of forgiveness as stated in the Levitical priestly and Mosaic sacrificial system. Jesus knows their thoughts and asks, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?

²³ Now Jesus responds to their questioning of him with a question. Jesus asks what is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Get up and walk’. The first statement can be stated as a claim, but the second statement would have to be physically verified. ²⁴ So they would know that the Son of Man had authority on earth to forgive sins Jesus tells the paralyzed man to get up, take his mat and go home. The man got up and everyone who saw this were amazed. They were filled with awe, and they praised God saying, “We have seen remarkable things.”

Note that the Pharisees were an influential Jewish sect that had their set ideas about what was needed to restore God’s reign over Israel. They would have heard about Jesus and they were checking him out. For them the coming of the ‘kingdom of God’ would require strict observance of the Jewish law, the Torah, as interpreted by their oral tradition. Torah observance would move God to liberate Israel and judge their pagan oppressors. Jesus’ kingdom-vision was very different and these Pharisees had a critical eye on Jesus!

Others were there because Jesus taught with authority and God’s power to heal was at work through Jesus. The crowd kept those carrying their paralyzed friend from getting anywhere near Jesus. So they got up to the rooftop, altered the roof tiles and lowered their friend down. Jesus sees how much they loved their paralyzed friend and their faith in Jesus’ ability to heal. So Jesus says, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven’. How could Jesus bypass the normal way of receiving forgiveness? There was the Temple, the Mosaic sacrificial system, the Levitical priesthood, the festivals and the ‘Day of Atonement’. If anyone it was the priests, and especially the high priest, who could exercise this authority. What was Jesus was claiming?

Jesus, on his own authority, declares the man was forgiven and challenges the whole God-given system. Then Jesus used a calculated phrase and claimed the ‘the son of man’ had authority on earth to forgive sins. The phrase could simply mean ‘a human being’; but in Daniel 7 the ‘son of man’ was a used of the Messiah. The phrase is intentionally vague, but Jesus’ healing of the paralyzed man was proof of his authority to speak for God regarding the forgiveness of sins. Jesus didn’t just claim the man was forgiven, he enable the man to take up his mat and walk to evidence that Jesus had authority on earth to forgive sins!