Day 9: Luke 5:12-39

Listen to God’s word…

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.”

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

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.”

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. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

In Jesus’ time, lepers were shunned by society, often forced to live on the outskirts of town, banned from religious practice and physically, spiritually and emotionally isolated from others. It was a lonely and painful existence. Perhaps you can relate to the man with leprosy. We have all experienced the pain of separation from family, friends, and community, and the past few years have certainly made that a nearly continuous experience for many. Take a moment to talk to Jesus about the ways you are currently experiencing physical, spiritual, or emotional isolation.

Listen again to the interaction that took place when the man approached Jesus:

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.”

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

The man with leprosy never doubted Jesus’ ability to heal him, but he was uncertain about Jesus’ willingness to heal him. Do you doubt Jesus’ willingness to heal an area of your life? Take a moment to talk to Jesus about that.

The Scripture continues…

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. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man 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, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

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?”

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 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.” 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.”

“We have seen remarkable things today.”

Jesus’ healing of a paralytic and his forgiveness of his sins was certainly the most remarkable event in this story, but don’t miss the other remarkable moment that took place that day: A group of men cared so deeply for their paralyzed friend that they went to extreme, extraordinary lengths to bring him to the feet of Jesus. Without the courageous care of the friends, the paralyzed man would not have been able to get to Jesus and would have remained paralyzed. 

Who are the friends in your life you can count on to do whatever it takes to get you to Jesus, especially when you are unable to get there by yourself?

When Jesus looked at the friends, he saw their faith, corporately, and their faith moved him to forgive the sins of the paralyzed man. These men brought their friend to Jesus and Jesus forgave his sins. Who are the friends in your life who are “paralyzed” and in need of Jesus’ healing? How can you faithfully bring them to Jesus, the only one with authority to forgive sins and bring true healing?

The Scripture continues…

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 the 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 friends 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 piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they 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 wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

Throughout the gospels, Jesus regularly enjoyed food and fellowship around a table, but Jesus’ table was a problem for the Pharisees. Rather than courting the religious leaders of his time, Jesus chose to share a table with those in need of repentance and salvation, the outcasts and marginalized, the tax collectors and sinners.

Jesus’ banquet table is different because God’s Kingdom is different – it requires a new way of seeing and a new way of treating people, but the Pharisees were stuck in old patterns; they preferred their old wine.

The Pharisees aren’t alone. How often do you play the Pharisee, limiting who you will associate with, who you will extend friendship and fellowship to? Who are you willing to invite to your table? How about the relative with different political views? The neighbor who is abrasive and difficult to get along with? The acquaintance from work who drinks heavily and frequents bars? Ask Jesus to show you who he wants around your table, and ask him to help you share the new wine of his Kingdom.