12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man 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 I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So 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.”
In the previous posting we saw how Jesus was perceived as authoritative in his teaching and authoritative in his power over sickness and demons. In part of today’s passage (vv. 21-26) we add Jesus’ authority to forgive sins. This—as his Pharisee opponents correctly claimed (v. 21)—was something only God had the right and ability to do.
In vv. 12-16 we read how one day Jesus was approached by a man afflicted with “leprosy,” asking him to cure him miraculously. What the Bible calls “leprosy” is not what bears that name in today’s medicine (also called Hansen’s Disease). Biblical “leprosy” did not normally result in the loss of arms or legs. But it was a serious and remarkably persistent form of skin disease that not only was unpleasant to see, but in its scaliness of skin surface and the constant loss of the skin surface had the appearance of something dangerous and infectious. In the Old Testament laws there were provisions for the total isolation of persons with the disease, which kept them from normal spousal, family and wider social contact, and even kept them from sacrifice and corporate worship. It was not always lifelong. And because it might have an end (a “cure,” if you will), laws were given for examination of the “cured” person by priests to validate the cure. And this was followed by sacrifice to thank God and renew fellowship with him after the period of isolation. In the Old Testament prophets were sometimes given power by God either to inflict leprosy on a sinner (compare Gehazi, the wicked servant of the prophet Elisha) or cure someone (compare the curing of Naaman by the same prophet).
The man afflicted with leprosy in today’s passage knew that Jesus was a miracle-worker and a prophet. It stood to reason that he would cure him of his leprosy, if he was willing. Naaman had brought many expensive gifts from Damascus to pay Elisha for curing him, and Elisha had refused them. But Gehazi, Elisha’s wicked servant, had pursued Naaman after he left the prophet and demanded payment falsely. This unnamed leper offer Jesus no payment: he merely begs him for healing and acknowledges Jesus’ right to refuse (“if you are willing”). And, like Elisha, Jesus simply consented, “I will! … Be clean!” No abracadabra, no special magical gestures—just Jesus’ word or command. And immediately the leprosy left him! This was remarkable, but we have already seen these immediate healing before in Luke. What is being said here that is new?
Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
Under the law of Moses, given by God on Mt. Sinai, priests in Israel could attest that an Israelite who had sinned had confessed that sin, vowed to desist, and offered the prescribed animal or vegetable sacrifice in the tabernacle or temple, and thus could offer to the sinner a kind of “assurance of forgiveness.” In that sense alone could a human being forgive sins. But Jesus was not a priest—at least, not in the ordinary sense of the word. He was descended through his mother genetically and his foster father Joseph legally from the tribe of Judah. All Jewish priests were descended from the tribe of Levi, the tribe to which Moses himself and his brother Aaron (the first High Priest) belonged. And Jesus never ventured to ask a penitent sinner to offer a sacrifice in his presence, but sometimes advised a person cleansed of disease to go to the temple, show himself to a real priest, and offer t he prescribed sacrifices.
So in this first of two healing miracles in today’s passage Jesus shows that he is not trying—yet—to abolish any of the laws that God put in place in Israel through Moses. Jesus is the messiah, the son of God, with power to heal in body and soul. But he also honors the ordinances of God from the Old Covenant: temple and priests.
In his parting words to the man healed of leprosy, Jesus also told him not to tell anyone. Why do you suppose he did that? Some think that he was afraid of being accused falsely of illegal actions. But elsewhere in the gospels Jesus never seemed to worry about that. But we have seen that he sometimes took steps to avoid unduly large crowds which could hinter his reaching the truly needy. He wanted no P.R. men! Ironically, even without the healed man’s testimony, the news spread, and the unwelcome spectators multiplied (v. 15-16).
The second of the two healing miracles (vv. 17-26) shows the other side of the coin, in the question of Jesus’ authority to forgive sins. In the first (vv. 12-16), he showed his regard for the law of God, the temple and the priests, in acknowledging and validating a cure of leprosy. But in this second one, he defends his own right to announce the penitent, cured person’s forgiveness before he went to the temple to sacrifice. So, in a sense, he wanted to caution those who heard him that, although God had given earthly priests and a temple, ultimately the only real “Priest” humans would have before God was himself, the Son of God, the Savior and the Sinless Sacrifice for the World’s Sin. This gave him the unique right to declare forgiveness of sins before or even without a physical animal sacrifice at the Jerusalem temple. In v. 20 the only seeming condition on which Jesus declared the sins forgiven was the faith in himself evidenced by the indigent man and his friends who lowered him down through an opening in the roof of the house.
In today’s passage we even read that he did it, while the Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there (v. 17)! This was courting trouble! For them, such a statement by Jesus was blasphemy (v. 21). Indeed, if you or I were to have made such a statement would be blasphemy! But Jesus was God, and had the very right that his critics assumed he was falsely claiming. Jesus had an answer for them. Prophets had occasionally done miracles at God’s command to them. But he needed no special command from God. Since he was God, he could himself simply decide to show mercy to the sufferer and perform the requested miracle. And since to them it was easier to save “your sins are forgiven” than “take up your bed and walk,” he would do the more difficult act in order to persuade him that he could do the other. So he commanded the paralyzed man to get up and walk, and he did.
What does this mean for us? For modern skeptics too it seems easier for you or me to say to a new believer “Your sins are forgiven” than for us to command a physically paralyzed person to walk again. But that is because the skeptic doesn’t believe in the reality of punishable guilt before a holy God, and therefore minimizes the miracle of forgiveness by God as you or I understand it. For us, both are miracles. And for you and me, the analogy of the removal of the paralysis is the transformation of life in a new believer. That too is a miracle that we cannot perform, but God can work through our words and testimony and our encouragement. Conversion is not complete, when someone announces that he or she has decided to trust Jesus as Savior and follow him as Lord. As thrilling and exhilarating to hear as that is, it is the first step only. The next step is equally important: setting out to learn how to walk, day by day. You and I still need to do that ourselves too, even if we have been following Jesus for decades. We never cease needing him to teach us daily how to walk for him. May your lesson in walking today be rewarding!
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