Thoughts for the Day

Luke 5:17, 21 One day as he [Jesus] was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there … [they] began thinking to themselves “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

We are going to spend a few days looking at Jesus’s interaction with the Pharisees and start with a passage we touched on earlier (Day 15) about the healing of a paralytic.  Pharisees were influential, esteemed and they took their religious observance very seriously.  Let’s imagine the scene.  Jesus is teaching inside a house.  It must have been quite a big space because the text seems to imply it was open house for anyone who wanted to come, and today this large band of ‘worthies’ from all over the place has arrived to investigate what they have heard about him.  Like an immense interview panel, they are sitting there watching, listening, weighing and assessing everything Jesus says.  What an opportunity gently to get this influential group on his side!   But Jesus jumps right in!  He tells a paralytic his sins are forgiven, which has them bristling.  “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” they ask … and they’re correct!  Jesus makes a connection between the authority to forgive and the power to heal, which they evidently understand.  And he heals the paralytic, thereby inviting them to join the dots and realise who he is.  The passage ends telling us that everyone was filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”  But if the visiting Pharisees have made this connection today, they persuade themselves otherwise later … which is very sad.