Authority To Forgive
Luke 5:12–26Sunday, April 22, 2018
Pastor Randy Smith
There are several themes stressed in the Bible that we must understand, not only if we wish to understand Scripture, but also if we wish to live a successful Christian life. One of those themes is the concept of authority.
God has clearly set up spheres of authority. He knows we need authority if we wish to live orderly and accomplish responsibilities. But moreover, God has established authority to exalt the lordship of Jesus Christ.
You see, all authority is under Christ as the ultimate authority. When we ignore God’s ordained chains of command, we are often unwittingly, indirectly committing cosmic treason against Him. You do not just disobey the one over you. You also disobey Christ. Employers at work. Teachers at school. Husbands in marriage. Parents over children. Law officers in society Pastors in the church.
And while it is a shame that this model is disintegrating – seen in rebellious students, tyrannical or deadbeat husbands, lawbreaking politicians, dishonest employees and disorderly congregants (not here of course!) – to some degree we all still maintain and respect this necessary system.
As Christians we intuitively know that someone has to call the shots for the church to operate. The Bible frequently speaks of church leaders for example. Decisions need to be made. Chaos needs to be prevented. Direction needs to be charted. Submission, providing instruction is in line with Scripture needs to be implemented if we wish to be unified and the see the mission accomplished.
Yet we also know that church leaders have overstepped their authority. We have no authority to oversee every purchase you make or where you choose to live. We have no authority to ask you to shine our shoes or [SLOW] forgive your sins before God.
Understand this concept and you will have no problem understanding our passage this morning.
Jesus was radical and in the eyes of the religious leaders back then He crossed a very significant line of authority. To them, His teaching was offensive, His popularity was threatening, but when He started to forgive sins against God His ministry entered the domain of (5:21) blasphemy.
So today we ask the all-important question, can Jesus forgive sins and if so what does that tell us about who He is and the authority He bears?
A Little Background
Let’s begin with a little background.
As I have mentioned, our Lord’s primary purpose with His miracles was to teach. Sure He was compassionate, but His ability to perform the impossible was to demonstrate His authority and validate His deity (that He was God). Power over disease, power over infirmities, power over demons; all of it is culminating to show that as God He also has the power and authority to forgive sins.
Forgiving sinners, we see this all over Luke 5. Last week (verses 1-11), informing Peter that repentant sinful people are welcome in His presence. This week (verses 12-16), welcoming and healing a leper that was believed to be accursed by God and spiritually unclean. And next week (27-39), dining with a despised tax collector named Matthew.
Throughout chapter 5 we see three categories of people. The same categories of people we see today. There are those who do not understand who Jesus is. They either ignore Him or in some sense acknowledge Him, but live contrary to His expectations. Not good! Then there are those that recognize His holiness and subsequently their sin, but desire to flee from His presence. Not good! But then there are those who understand His holiness and their sin, but also realize that He is a God of forgiveness. They realize that Jesus came to set us free from our spiritual slavery. They realize that He welcomes repentant sinners in His presence. They understand grace. They receive His forgiveness. They find the ultimate comfort in the One they should ultimately fear the most!
In which of these three categories do you find yourself?
A Couple Conflicts (verses 17–19)
As we move to the second point, the plot will thicken and the drama will now intensify with a couple conflicts.
RELIGIOUS
The first conflict was religious.
Verse 17 makes an interest statement. “One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem.”
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law (the scribes) were the Jewish religious leaders of the day. They were not priests, but they took it upon themselves to make sure the community remained faithful to what they believed were God’s expectations.
Needless to say with Jesus now on the scene, they sensed a very significant “disturbance in the force.” Jesus was performing amazing feats and teaching in a way that opposed theirs. Massive crowds were now following Him as their religious leader. They were concerned. They were jealous. They were deeply angered. Jesus would be watched closely, deeply scrutinized. The conflict with the Jewish religious establishment that will take us all the way to the cross is now underway.
So as verse 17 says a delegation was sent from “every village” in Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem. They came from all over the country. Just the trip from Jerusalem was a 60-mile trek that would have taken at least 3 days to complete.
Here’s a simple yet profound question that Luke sets up for us. At the end of the day, which side is going to win? Is God more into legalistic, outward, religious observance (Pharisees) or spiritual liberation, relationship and heart change (Jesus)?
DOMESTIC
As we read we also see another conflict. This one is domestic.
Verse 18, “And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him [Jesus].” Verse 19, “But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus.”
You get the picture?
You have a paralyzed man. Clearly he’s got some buddies that love Him dearly. Clearly they believe Jesus can miraculously cure this man. Yet when they seek to bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus, they are unable to get near Him because of the sheer size of the crowd (verse 19) in the dwelling.
Determined, they come up with a creative plan. They’ll get their friend on top of the roof, break through the roof, attach ropes to the stretcher and lower him down to be directly in our Lord’s presence.
Could you imagine being there? Jesus is teaching and then all of a sudden the roof starts breaking apart above you. Beams of light shine through the dusty air. The Pharisees and Scribes are shaking the dirt off their robes. You look up and you see four determined friends straining to lower a heavy stretcher. Carefully the body inches closer to Jesus. Everyone’s attention is laser-focused on the same event. All in a state of wonder, that is with the possible exception of the homeowner who just saw his roof ripped open!
On a side note this reminds me of the attitude in many churches. There are many filled with love and faith determined to serve Jesus and there are a few “sitting” on the sidelines like the Pharisees that just want to criticize.
A Radical Statement (verses 21–21)
The homeowner, the crowd, the Pharisees – everyone has to wonder how Jesus is going to respond. Let’s go to the third point.
Verse 20, “Seeing their faith, He said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you.’”
So this is interesting. Based on this verse it seems the friends had faith that Jesus would heal their buddy physically, but it also seems the paralyzed man himself had faith Jesus would heal him spiritually (we’ll see in verse 22 that Jesus can read the heart). We do not see a physical healing, yet. What we see is our Lord initially concerned with the most essential, a spiritual healing, which is the forgiveness of his sins. Again, that was the primary purpose of our Lord’s coming!
The lesson here is that physical health does not make for abundant life. You can have the greatest physical health in the world and still be a miserable person. Moreover, what is physical health for a couple more decades if you are heading for an eternity in hell? It is sad how many people pay so much concern to their physical problems and few pay any attention to their primary problem which is spiritual.
Our primary problem, as all of Luke 5 is teaching us, is that we sin against a holy God and thus will receive His eternal judgment. We don’t need religion. We need Someone to take away our sins and provide us forgiveness. Spiritual health, being declared right with God, gives us hope for eternity and hope that can endure all things including physical distress. Verse 20, Jesus said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”
Now this is all good and wonderful, but there is a significant problem here (seen in verse 20). And leave it to the Pharisees to point it out! Verse 21, “The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?’”
You see, all of our sins are against God. Every sin we commit is a violation of His commandments and His commands are a direct reflection of His character. When we sin, we sin against God and thus we need God’s forgiveness. Any person who says he or she can forgive you of your sins against God is infinitely more treacherous than a guy from out of town (not the homeowner) forgiving the crew that tore the man’s roof apart. Again, it comes down to authority!
No one can forgive sins against God, except God Himself. Therefore if Jesus is forgiving sins of people against God, we are left with only two options. Either He is guilty of high blasphemy (verse 21 – which required the death penalty – Lev. 24) or He is God Himself. The Pharisees strongly advocated the former. Verse 21, “The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘Who is this man who speaks blasphemies?'"
Make sense?
An Amazing Display (verses 22–26)
As we move to the final point we see what the Pharisees were thinking. Their understanding of Jesus was wrong, but their theology was correct. Verse 21, “Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” That’s right! That’s what they were thinking, but it was not uttered publicly. Yet, verse 22, Jesus being God “aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, ‘Why are you reasoning in your hearts?’” He called them out!
Then He reasoned with them. He followed a rabbinic tradition of answering a question with a question. Verse 23, “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk?’” Do you see where He is going?
The point is not which one is harder for God to do. The point is which one is easier, since you think Jesus is a mere man, to accomplish?
For example, I can tell you I have the secret to beat Michael Jordan in a game of 1-on-1. But unless Mr. Jordan is willing to come here, which is extremely doubtful, there is no way you can validate my claims.
Jesus is saying that anyone can say He is God and proclaim God’s forgiveness. Of course it wouldn’t be true, but again, there is no way to validate the claim.
But how many people can look directly at a paralyzed man and tell him to, “Get up and walk?” That can easily be validated. What have we been seeing? Our Lord’s physical miracles of healing were primarily there to validate His moral miracle of forgiveness.
Verses 24 and 25, here is the main point of the section. “But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralytic, ‘I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.’ Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.”
Reponses? The man “went home glorifying God.” The Pharisees? Despite the undeniable evidence they are not convinced and will press Jesus even harder. The crowds? Verse 26, “They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, ‘We have seen remarkable things today.’”
I wrap up this sermon with one general question. What is your response?