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Sunday, 25 August 2013

Luke 5:12-26 - Healing and forgiveness

Leprosy as well as being a terrible disease, rendered a man unclean. The man knew that Jesus could heal him, but was not sure that He would be willing to do so. This mirrors to some extent how we can often feel. We know that God can do stuff, but we do not believe He is willing to do so. Jesus not only declared that He was willing , but touched him as well, showing that He was willing as well. Touching a leper was something that simply was not done. The man was immediately healed. Jesus told him to go to the  priest.  This was not simply to confirm his healing, but also to allow him to be reintegrated into society. He also had to follow the law of Moses. Luke is showing that Jesius wwas not against the Law.
This resulted in even more crowds following Jesus. However, Jesus made sure that He had times of solitude with God.
"On one of those days"  shows that Luke is explaining more of what was happening and what it all meant, it's significance. This is why the presence of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law is noted here. This was about much more than just healings. Moreover, as Jesus would say later, physical illness is not the biggest problem.
People had come from all around, even from Jerusalem. Luke makes it clear that it is the power of the Lord that enabled Jesus to heal. One
group of friends were very enterprising and made a hole in the roof so that they could get their friend to Jesus. Jesus saw their faith and declared the man's sins forgiven. Now why did He do this? Their faith was for the man to be healed. Maybe it was because of the connection between sickness and sin, so Jesus is assuring the man that He is accepted by God.

This created a great problem, for only God can forgive sin. Jesus knew the scribes were thinking this, so to demonstrate His authority Jesus heals the man physically as well. Not surprisingly everyone was amazed by all this.

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