The Authority

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

THE AUTHORITY

Luke 5:17-26

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. 18 Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 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. 20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."  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?" 22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? 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."  25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today."

NIV

Several truths that we should learn here, which we surely already know, but it is good to remind ourselves. First we see the effort friends took in order to get this man in front of Jesus. Preachers have used this to illustrate how we should behave toward others in that we should go out of our way to help others find Jesus. We also are abundantly aware that Jesus forgives sins, as we are recipients of such forgiveness. Yet there are times when we feel a sense of guilt or shame for our behaver. This guilt and shame do not come from Jesus, but either from the devil or a close friend or relative. The devil will always try to get us to feel guilty thus proving Jesus has not forgiven us, because he does not have the power to do so, because if he did we would not feel so guilty. The devil would also have us believe, if he has the power, which he does, that he would not forgive us of such sin. The friend or relative is the other source of guilt or shame as they stand, either in judgment, or tell us we have offended or hurt them and should be ashamed of our behavior, or what we said, that we are not acting like much like a Christian. This is something we should never do as well. There is therefore no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Jesus does not condemn, he forgives. Why should we condemn or allow ourselves to be condemned either from the devil or any man, or woman for that matter. The other truth which seems to be another reason we are being told this of this event, this day in the life of Jesus, is the fact there were a whole lot of Pharisees and teachers of the law listening to Jesus. There came from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem. That is really a lot of them. Why so many, why that day? Jesus being in a house, there must have only been enough room for all those Pharisees and teachers of the law. There could not have been room for the normal people that is why the roof entrance of the man on the mat. Here we see men so entrenched in the law, listening to Jesus, presumably to find fault in his teaching. There will always be people so rigid about certain aspects of Christianity they will not see the truth right before their eyes. We have to make sure we are not like them, but remain always open to the truth about our lives, and make those changes needed. The truth we are told here is a simply one, Jesus has both the power and authority to forgive our sin and to heal us. We simply only need to believe, and not allow the devil or anyone else to convince us otherwise. He has the authority.