09/01/2022

Right after telling us about Jesus’ miraculous healing of a leper (Luke 5:12-16), Luke records the story of how He dealt with a man who was paralyzed. (Luke 5:17-26) Here’s the set up to the story.

Some friends of this paralyzed man couldn’t get him into the house where Jesus was because of the crowd that had gathered. So, they [Luke 5:19] 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.

Luke tells us that Jesus, seeing “their faith” (the faith of the paralyzed man’s friends), spoke to the man lying before Him, saying, [5:20] “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”

Remarkable.

When the Pharisees heard Jesus say this, they thought, “Blasphemy!” They said nothing out loud, but Jesus was aware of what they were thinking.

Remarkable.

Then, He observed – out loud – that it is much easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven” than to say, “Rise and walk,” since forgiveness is an invisible act. So, to prove that He had the power to forgive sins, the Lord said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, and pick up your stretcher, and go home.” And immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.

Again, remarkable.

After the healing, the crowd that witnessed this miracle was struck with astonishment and began glorifying God. They were also filled with fear, saying, “We have seen remarkable things today!”

The Greek word that my version of the Bible translates “remarkable” is paradoxis, which might prompt us to think of a paradox. But paradoxical doesn’t really capture the sense of this word. The idea is more “unexpected.” It’s what someone would say when they see something they never saw coming.

Along those lines…

…it was remarkable that Jesus, staring at a man who was paralyzed, would pronounce forgiveness of sins. The man and the crowd that had gathered would have expected, if anything, a word of healing. But Jesus’ words spoke to a problem more profound than the man’s inability to walk. Jesus addressed His inability to relate to God. In other words, in the face of an obvious need to fix something that was physically broken, Jesus fixed something spiritually broken. Jesus fixed something more central to the man’s well-being than his legs.

…it was remarkable that Jesus responded verbally to the thoughts going through the minds of the Pharisees. They kept their thoughts to themselves – or so they thought. Jesus’ remarkability was that He remarked on the thoughts and intents of their hearts. They discovered that nothing was hidden from this Man.

…it was remarkable that Jesus healed. After He had pronounced forgiveness, the Lord went on to admit that it was an easy thing to say, “Your sins are forgiven.” Anybody can say something like that. Remarkably, though, He validated His ability to forgive sins (an invisible work) by performing a miraculous healing (a very visible work). Speaking to the paralytic, He said, “Rise and walk” – and the lame man rose up and walked! Jesus proved that He was exactly who He claimed to be – Daniel’s Son of Man. (See Daniel 7)

Today, we serve the same remarkable Jesus. He has power to physically heal, the ability to know our innermost thoughts, and the authority to fix the brokenness of our lives and bodies.

When I read stories from Scripture like this one, it prompts me to expect the unexpected from Jesus. He doesn’t work from my script or follow my game plan. I don’t know what He will do next, where He’ll show up next, what “out-of-the-blue” work He’ll perform, or what aspect of remarkable He’ll display.

Taking these Gospel stories seriously demands that we give Him the benefit of the doubt and live with our eyes open to see His creativity.

Let’s pay attention to His life-changing ways, thanking Him when we see Him at work. And let’s ask Him to “astonish” us and those we know by doing the remarkable things that only He can do.

Yours…His,

Dave