Of Healing
and Fasting
[Luke chapter
5, verses 17-39]
Last week
when we left off at verse 16, we got down to details about the
calling of Jesus' first disciples as well as one of the earliest
healings of his 3 ½ year ministry. Today we will be moving on to the
second half of chapter 5, where we will explore the reasons Jesus
needed no justification or validation for his ministry in the eyes of
the religious establishment of that time. Jesus then makes a
comparison between the Law of Moses (the first 5 books of the Old
Testament) and himself as the fulfillment of that Law, as we studied
back in chapter 4. Interestingly enough, he uses “wine skins” as
a way to compare them to each other, but I'm going to try and use a
more modern example. Bearing that in mind, let's do the second half
of chapter 5 of Luke's gospel beginning at verse 17.
“One
day when he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had
come from every village in Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were
sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal
the sick. Some men came there carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried
to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 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. When Jesus saw their faith, he
said to him, 'Friend, your sins are forgiven'. The Pharisees and
teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, 'Who is this fellow
who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?' Jesus knew
what they were thinking and asked, 'Why are you thinking these things
in your hearts? Which is easier to say, 'your sins are forgiven', or
to say, 'get up and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man
has authority to forgive sins – ', he said to the paralyzed man, 'I
tell you, get up, take up your mat and go home.' Immediately he stood
up in front of them, took what he had been lying on, and went home
praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were
filled with awe and said, 'We have seen remarkable things today.'”
(Luke 5, verses 17-26)
“
And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick.”
Let's read in between the lines here. The supernatural power of
healing is real within the realms of Christianity, but it is not
present all the time unless God allows it. Even Jesus had to wait for
an appropriate time to use this power, so even the Son of God was no
exception to this Spiritual rule of thumb. This is exactly the reason
why I have always maintained that so-called “faith healers” who
profess the ability to heal anyone, anytime, anywhere is dubious at
best and fraudulent at its absolute worst. I would advise a great
deal of caution when encountering one of these individuals.
Moving
right along, we should also note here that if there's a second thing
Jesus appreciates (both past and present tense) right behind faith,
it is determination. The men who carried the paralyzed man could not
gain entry into the private home where Jesus was teaching. It was
evidently 'standing room only' inside that house, so they scaled the
side of the house and climbed onto the roof before creating a
makeshift hole in the roof. As you can see, people in those days were
a bit smarter and more creative than they're sometimes given credit
for. Jesus, noting this at the time, said to the man, “Friend,
your sins are forgiven”. Immediately those from the religious
establishment took issue with our Lord and Savior, as if to say to
Jesus, 'You can't forgive sins! Who do you think you are?'. Jesus
gives his classic response to them as he says, 'I tell you, get
up, take up your mat and go home'.
Whether
Jesus could forgive sins or not, he said to the synagogue leaders and
the equivalent to seminary professors of today, is besides the point
if you will only believe in the healing I just performed. So the
newly healed former paralytic gets up and takes his mat and starts
heading for home while the Pharisees and teachers are still sitting
there grumbling among themselves. “Immediately he stood up in
front of them, took what he had been lying on, and went home praising
God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God.” 'Don't tell
me', Jesus was saying to the leaders of organized religion, 'how to
do my job!' Only Jesus never came right out and said he was the Son
of God because he didn't need to. He knew the Pharisees and teachers
of the law would never have believed him anyway. Let's hold that
thought as we continue forward to the second half of today's study,
beginning at verse 27.
“After
this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi
sitting at his tax booth. 'Follow me', Jesus said to him, and Levi
got up, left everything, and followed him. Then Levi held a great
banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and teachers of
the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, 'Why
do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?' Jesus answered
them, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have
not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' They said
to him, 'John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the
disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.
Jesus answered, 'Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while
he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be
taken from them; in those days they will fast.' He told them this
parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it onto
the old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the
patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine
into old wine skins. If he does, the new wine will burst the old
skins, the wine will run out and the wine skins will be ruined. No,
new wine must be poured into new wine skins. And no one drinking old
wine wants the new, for he says, 'The older is better'”. (Luke 5,
verses 27-49)
When
Jesus told Levi, “Come, follow me”, the Bible reads, “Levi
got up, left everything, and followed him”.
Levi didn't hesitate, and so neither should we when the calling of
God is on our lives. All of us are called to be witnesses and
ambassadors for Christ. How this is accomplished varies from person
to person. Sometimes all we can manage is one person at a time, but
there is no shame in that at all. Not everyone can fill stadiums or
establish mega-churches anyway. Since I am disabled and currently
without a car, getting out and witnessing is a bit harder for me than
most, so I do so on the Web instead. Let's all pause and ask
ourselves, what have we been doing lately for the cause of Christ?
This is what Jesus was talking about when he taught, and I'm
paraphrasing, “Those who wish to follow me must take up their own
cross”. Are we taking up our cross for Christ? Reading our Bibles
and attending church every Sunday (or Saturday for some) doesn't
count. There is still that something extra that all believers are
called to take part in. Make Jesus your cause in life! I can't think
of anything or anyone more worth living for!
“But
the Pharisees and teachers of the law who belonged to their sect
complained to his disciples, 'Why do you eat and drink with tax
collectors and sinners?' Jesus answered them, 'It is not the healthy
who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance'.”
To say the least, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were accusing
Jesus of a conflict of interest. At worst, they accused him of
hypocrisy. The religious establishment of that time envisioned the
Jewish messiah to be a conquering hero who would retake Jerusalem and
all of Judea from the Roman Empire and reestablish the Jewish
homeland as God had promised Abraham and Moses. As we have already
seen, the Jewish Messiah was exactly the opposite. He was born of a
peasant woman, and as an infant Jesus had only a manger filled with
hay to sleep in. The religious leadership of Jesus' time simply
couldn't wrap their heads around that.
But
it goes even deeper than that. These leaders of organized religion
fancied themselves as being the first in line to inherit the
blessings of God. In short, these people were elitists. They thought
they were better than most others because they viewed their religious
beliefs as being superior in some twisted and self-centered sort of
way. They were very similar to the religious snobs of today, the
self-righteous who look down their noses and talk in a condescending
manner to everyone else except for their peers. So, they were greatly
offended when Jesus chose to associate with people that the Pharisees
thought were inferior to themselves. 'I'm not here for jerks like you
guys', Jesus was saying to them at the time. Jesus disdained the high
and mighty folks in favor of those from the humblest of
circumstances. We would all do well to consider ourselves as such so
that we might be closer to the Lord in spirit and in truth.
“....no
one pours new wine into old wine skins. If he does, the new wine will
burst the old skins, the wine will run out and the wine skins will be
ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wine skins.”
Bottles as we know them today hadn't been invented yet, so people
used mainly the skin of goats and sheep, but the skins of an ox or a
camel have also used to store liquids in. Once the contents were
consumed, the skins would dry out, becoming brittle and unusable. One
modern example would be the tires on your car or truck. If you're
driving down the freeway and you suddenly have a blowout, would you
try to put more air back into the blown out tire? Of course not, you
would buy a replacement and put the air in the new tire instead! Our
faith and trust in Jesus Christ is a lot like that. The difference is
that, with human beings, the entry into our hearts and minds of our
Lord Jesus Christ transforms the old self into the new. We don't have
to kill off our old selves in order to be filled with Jesus. He has
already allowed himself to be killed in our place, only to rise again
on the morning of the 3rd
day! We are the new wine skins and the blood of Jesus is the new
wine! On that note, let us all focus on the new wine that is within
us all. And next time we'll move on to chapter six.
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