Luke 5:17 - Meaning and Application

Here we have a general account of Christ’s preaching and miracles in Luke 5:17. He was teaching on an ordinary day, not on the Sabbath. That reminds us that six days belong not only to our work for the world, but also to the good of our souls. Preaching and hearing God’s word are good works any day of the week, if they are done well, just as on the Sabbath.

He was not in the synagogue, but in a private house. Even in the ordinary places where we spend time with friends, it is fitting to give and receive good instruction. There he taught and healed, as before in Luke 5:15. “The power of the Lord was with him to heal” means that God’s power was actively present to heal them. It could mean healing their souls, curing their spiritual sickness, and giving them new life and a new nature.

Those who receive Christ’s word in faith will find divine power going with that word to heal them. Christ came with comfort to heal the brokenhearted (Luke 4:18). That power is present with the word, especially to those who pray for it and submit to it. It is present to heal. The words may also refer to healing bodily diseases, since people came to him for cures. Whenever there was need, Christ did not have to go looking for power. It was already there to heal.

Some important people were present, and more than usual: Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting by. They were not sitting at his feet to learn from him. If they had been, we might have thought the next words meant them, that the Lord’s power was present to heal them. But Luke soon shows that they were not healed, but instead criticized Christ. So these men were there as watchers, critics, and spies, looking for something to use against him.

How many people in Christian gatherings are like that. The gospel is preached, but they do not sit under the word. They sit by it. It is to them only a story being told, not a message sent to them. They are willing for us to preach in front of them, but not to them. These Pharisees and scribes came from every town in Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. They seem to have arranged to meet there and watch Christ together, like people who plot against a prophet and agree to attack him with words (Jeremiah 18:18; Jeremiah 20:10). Still, Christ went on preaching and healing, even though he saw these men sitting there, men who despised him and watched to trap him.

The healing of the man with palsy, or paralysis, teaches us several important things. First, sin is the root of all sickness, and forgiveness is the only sure foundation for a recovery we can truly rest on. They brought the sick man to Christ, and Christ said, “Man, your sins are forgiven” (Luke 5:20). That was the greater blessing, the one most worth seeking. If his sins were forgiven, even if the sickness stayed, it was mercy. If the sins were not forgiven, even if the sickness went away, it would still be judgment. The cords of our sin are the bands of our suffering.

Second, Jesus Christ has authority on earth to forgive sins, and his healing of diseases proved it beyond dispute. That was the point he was making in Luke 5:24, so that they would know and believe that the Son of Man, though then in a humble human state on earth, had power to forgive sins and to release sinners on the terms of the gospel from sin’s eternal punishment. He said to the paralytic, “Rise, and walk,” and the man was healed at once.

Christ claimed one of the rights that belong to the King of kings when he forgave sin, and he rightly should give clear proof of that claim. So he put the matter to the test. Here was a man struck with palsy because of sin. If Christ could not cure him instantly with a word, a cure no nature or human skill could produce, then he should not be accepted as the one who forgives sins, or as the Messiah, or as the Son of God and King of Israel. But if he did heal him, then they must admit that he had authority to forgive sins. The trial was fair, and one word from Christ settled it. He simply said, “Rise, take up your bed,” and the long-term disease was cured at once. The man stood up before them all.

No one could doubt there was no trick or deception in it. Those who had brought him in could testify how helpless he had been. Those who saw him could testify how completely well he now was, strong enough to pick up the bed he had been lying on and carry it away. It is a great mercy that this comforting gospel truth, that Jesus Christ our Redeemer and Savior has power to forgive sins, has such strong proof.

Third, this story also teaches us that Jesus Christ is God. He shows this, first, by knowing what the scribes and Pharisees were thinking (Luke 5:22). That is God’s prerogative. These men knew how to hide their thoughts and keep a serious face as well as most people, and they were probably trying hard to do so then, since they were secretly watching for a way to accuse him.

He also shows he is God by doing what their own thoughts admitted no one but God could do (Luke 5:21). They asked, “Who can forgive sins except God alone?” Christ answered, in effect, “I will show that I can forgive sins.” And if he can do that, then he is God. How terrible was the wickedness of those who accused him of blasphemy when he spoke the best of blessings, “Your sins are forgiven.”

This story also teaches us our duty. When we come to Christ, we should be earnest and urgent. That is a sign of faith, and it is very pleasing to Christ. It also has power with him. The friends of this sick man looked for ways to bring him before Christ (Luke 5:18). When that failed, they did not give up. Since they could not get in through the crowded doorway, they uncovered the roof and lowered the poor man down through it, right in front of Jesus (Luke 5:19). In that, Jesus saw their faith (Luke 5:20).

Here Christ teaches us, and it would be good if we learned it, to put the best possible meaning on words and actions, as far as they will allow. When the centurion, a Roman officer, and the woman of Canaan showed no concern to bring the people they were asking for into Jesus’ presence, because they believed he could heal from a distance, he praised their faith. But here, even though they seemed to think the sick man needed to be brought to Jesus, Christ did not criticize or condemn their weakness. He did not say, “Why are you causing such a disturbance? Do you think I could not have healed him even if he had stayed outside?” Instead, he took their actions in the kindest way and still saw faith in them. It is a comfort to us that we serve a Master who is willing to make the best of us.

When we are sick, we should be more concerned to have our sins forgiven than to have our sickness taken away. In what Jesus said to this man, he taught us that when we ask God for health, we should begin by asking for pardon, that is, forgiveness. The mercies we receive from God should lead us to praise him. The man went to his own house glorifying God (Luke 5:25). Since God is the one who rescues us from death, he should also receive the glory for those rescues.

The miracles Christ performed amazed everyone who saw them, and we should glorify God for them too (Luke 5:26). They said, “We have seen unusual things today, things we never saw before, and our fathers never saw them either.” They saw these things as completely new. Yet they glorified God, who had sent such a great helper into their country. They were also filled with fear, a reverent sense of God, and perhaps a troubled thought that this was the Messiah, and that their nation was not treating him as it should. If so, they may have feared that this would bring ruin on their state, and they may also have been concerned for themselves.