Luke 5:17 17And it happened on one of those days, he was also teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting, who had come from every village of Galilee, and Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18And behold, men bearing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before him, 19but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. 20And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
News about Jesus had spread all over Israel, even reaching the capital city of Jerusalem. The religious leaders from all these areas had also heard about him and so went to check him out. The is the first mention in Luke of Pharisees and teachers of the law. The Pharisees were a strict sect of Judaism that believed in resurrection, angels and demons, and the oral law. The word for teachers of the law (nomodidaskaloi) is found only here and is a compound of “teachers” and “law.” It is synonymous for the word translated “scribes” (grammateis) in verse 21.
The participle sitting implies that they came to listen to what Jesus was teaching and to watch carefully what he did. They had their suspicions and had chased down Jesus to see if the rumors were correct. This passage begins a section where there are two different responses to Jesus. On the one hand, the people were amazed and put their faith in Jesus. On the other hand, the religious leaders were skeptical and antagonistic to him. The seeds of later confrontation are planted and will grow to the point of trial and crucifixion. Luke does not give the location of this story, but Mark 2 puts it in Capernaum.
Luke gives an abbreviated introduction to the story and does state the location, but Mark 2 puts it in Capernaum in a house. The house was so full of people that no one else could get in. Some men wanted to get their friend into Jesus so he could be healed. The close relationship and concern of these men to the paralytic is implied by their effort to figure out a way to have him healed. They believed that Jesus could do something for their friend, but they needed to get his attention and get close to him. They came up with a brilliant idea of getting on the roof and opening it up.
Verse 20 indicates that Jesus saw the faith of the friends and the man: their (plural) faith. They believed Jesus could do something to help their friend and took great effort to get him to Jesus. Jesus addressed the man, which indicates that the man was seeking something greater than just physical healing. He saw real hope in Jesus, and Jesus responded to his faith with what the man needed the most. The verb are forgiven (apheōntai) is a perfect tense, suggesting that the man’s sins were forgiven at that moment and would be forever gone. As the next verses show, Jesus assumed the authority of God to pronounce the man’s sins forgiven. Jesus perceived the man’s greatest need and offered the spiritual healing the man sought.
For older posts, click here.