Grosey's Messages

Luke 5: 12-39  Snake Handling

12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean."

13 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." And immediately the leprosy left him.

14 And he charged him to tell no one, but "go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them."

15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities.

16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.

18 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus,

19 but 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.

20 And when he saw their faith, he said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."

21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, "Why do you question in your hearts?

23 Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?

24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"---he said to the man who was paralyzed---"I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home."

25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God.

26 And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, "We have seen extraordinary things today."

27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, "Follow me."

28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them.

30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"

31 And Jesus answered them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

33 And they said to him, "The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink."

34 And Jesus said to them, "Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?

35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days."

36 He also told them a parable: "No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.

37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.

38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'"

I have entitled this sermon snake handling! If Luke chapter 4 focused on the ministry of our Lord to the masses, chapter 5 begins to focus on the ministry of our Lord with respect to the leadership of Israel. In the two healings recorded in our text (Luke 5:12-26), the Lord discloses Himself to the priests (5:14) and to the teachers of the law (5:17, 21, etc.). In the case of the priests, we do not know of their response to the report of the healed leper, indeed, we do not even know for certain that the leper ever went to the priest (he did not obey the Lord about keeping quiet, you will recall). We do know that the teachers of the law reacted strongly to what they heard from our Lord. The beginning of the opposition of the leaders of the nation can be found here in Luke's gospel. Simultaneously, the commencement of the training of the 12 can be found. As the leaders of Israel draw back from our Lord, He calls men to follow Him, who will later be appointed as His apostles, and the eventual leaders of the church which is to be born after His death, resurrection, and ascension. This is instructive to the disciples of how the Lord handled the problems of Pharasaic religion. Pharasaic religion has always been a problem to the Christian Church. Contributory to the problem is a sense in which we as evangelicals call people to repentance and faith. This can become inwardly experientially focussed. And sometimes this can breed Pharasaic religion. Observe how these Pharisees react to healings, they react to tax collectors getting right with God, they react to Jesus saying He can forgive sins, they react to everything and then at the end of the chapter the Lord explains the problems with Pharisaical religion.

I heard a story about a man who was taking a course in first aid. He attended the classes, read the books and was learning a lot about providing medical aid to those in need. One evening, he told his class he actually had the opportunity to use his first aid training that week. He said, "I heard a terrible crash in my front yard, and when I walked out on my front porch I saw that a car had run into a large tree. I could tell the driver was hurt–it wasn't pretty. But because of my training, I knew exactly what to do. I sat down on the front steps and put my head between my knees so I wouldn't faint."  That reminds me of many Christians. We know the cure but we are only applying it to ourselves. We aren't using our knowledge to help others. The main focus of the passages appears to be about the Pharisees reaction to Jesus. Rather than seeing Jesus for who He is, they were focused on themselves, and saw things through their own selfish lens.

There was the leper and the Priest. Here was a man who needed to be changed, for he was a leper. Among the Jews, several skin diseases were classified as leprosy, including our modern Hansen's disease. In spite of modern medical advances, an estimated ten million people around the world have leprosy. One form of leprosy attacks the nerves so that the victim cannot feel pain. Infection easily sets in, and this leads to degeneration of the tissues. The limb becomes deformed and eventually falls off. It was the task of the Jewish priest to examine people to determine whether they were lepers (Lev. 13). Infected people were isolated and could not return to normal society until declared "cleansed." Leprosy was used by Isaiah as a picture of sin (Isa. 1:4–6), and the detailed instructions in Leviticus 13—14 would suggest that more was involved in the procedure than maintaining public health.  Like sin, leprosy is deeper than the skin (Lev. 13:3) and cannot be helped by mere "surface" measures (see Jer. 6:14). Like sin, leprosy spreads (Lev. 13:7–8), and as it spreads, it defiles (Lev. 13:44–45).  Because of his defilement, a leprous person had to be isolated outside the camp (Lev. 13:46), and lost sinners one day will be isolated in hell. People with leprosy were looked on as "dead" (Num. 12:12), and garments infected with leprosy were fit only for the fire (Lev. 13:52). How important it is for lost sinners to trust Jesus Christ and get rid of their "leprosy"!  This man not only needed to be changed, but he wanted to be changed. Lepers were required to keep their distance, but he was so determined that he broke the law and approached the Lord Jesus personally. Throughout his gospel, Luke makes it clear that Jesus was the Friend of the outcast, and they could come to Him for help. The man humbled himself before the Lord and asked for mercy. By the grace and power of God, this man was changed! In fact, Jesus even touched the man, which meant that He became unclean Himself. This is a beautiful picture of what Jesus has done for lost sinners: He became sin for us that we might be made clean (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24). Jesus is not only willing to save (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9), but He is also able to save (Heb. 7:25), and He can do it now (2 Cor. 6:2).

Jesus encouraged the man to see the priest and to obey the rules for restoration given in Leviticus 14. The ceremony is a picture of the work of Jesus Christ in His incarnation, His death, and His resurrection. All of this was done over running water, a symbol of the Holy Spirit of God. This sacrifice reminds us that Jesus had to die for us in order to deliver us from our sins. Jesus instructed the man not to reveal who had healed him, but the cleansed leper became an enthusiastic witness for the Lord. (Jesus commands us to tell everybody, and we keep quiet!) Because of this witness, great multitudes came to Jesus for help, and He graciously ministered to them. 

Then there is the Paralytic and the Pharisee    I have been to the ruins of Capernaum many times and seen the narrow streets with the little houses side by side sharing common walls like our modern blocks of units. A crowd of only 100 people would have made for a human traffic jam that would fill the little rooms and overflow into the narrow streets.  Keener says about 50 could fit inside Peter's house. I am not so sure that many could.Try to picture Jesus as He was sitting in that small room. Every available place in the room was occupied with people sitting and standing. We are told many of these people were the religious mafia, the official teachers of the Law. Jesus returned to Capernaum, probably to Peter's house, and the crowd gathered to see Him heal and to hear Him teach. But a new element was added: some of the official religious leaders from Jerusalem were present to investigate what He was doing. They had every right to do this since it was the responsibility of the elders to prevent false prophets from leading the people astray (Deut. 13; 18:15–22). They had interrogated John the Baptist (John 1:19–34), and now they would examine Jesus of Nazareth.  Since this is the first time the scribes and Pharisees are mentioned in Luke's gospel, it would be good for us to get acquainted with them. The word Pharisee comes from a Hebrew word that means "to divide, to separate." The scribes and Pharisees probably developed out of the ministry of Ezra, the priest, who taught the Jewish people to obey the law of Moses and be separate from the heathen nations around them (Ezra 9—10; Neh. 8—9). The great desire of the scribes and Pharisees was to understand and magnify God's law and apply it in their daily lives. However, the movement soon became quite legalistic, and its leaders laid many burdens on the people. Some became "ultra orthodox." They were probably linked to the Essene monastic movement and later to John the Baptist. The less ultra became Pharisees. The problem with the less ultra is that they know they are less ultra and so they feel the need to become more ultra. More ultra or less ultra is about one's own righteousness. Instead of being reliant on God's mercy, such often feel deep in their hearts, some sort of superiority over others in righteousnesses. This causes them to look down on others. Furthermore, many of the Pharisees were hypocrites and did not practice what they preached (see Matt. 15:1–20; 23:1–36). In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5—7), Jesus exposed the shallowness of pharisaical religion. He explained that true righteousness is a matter of the heart and not external religious practices alone.  These Pharisees traveled all the way from Jerusalem to check out this renegade preacher. Suddenly, in the midst of His teaching session, pieces of the straw and plaster roof started falling on Jesus and on those seated around him. I'm sure everyone wondered what was going on. They must have watched, as the small hole got larger and larger. Soon they could see the sweating faces of four determined men. When the hole was large enough, these four men used ropes or long pieces of cloth to gently lower their paralyzed friend until he was hanging in midair. Jesus looked up. Moved by the faith of those four friends He said, "Be healed!" Wait, that's not what He says; He says to this paralyzed man, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." The greatest Friend a person can have is Jesus. The greatest blessing a person can have is forgiveness.

Forgiven? Who said anything about needing forgiveness? It seems a strange word to say to a paralytic. Everyone else there thought his greatest need was for physical healing ... but not according to Jesus. I think the Lord Jesus may have deliberately baited the Pharisees. Forgiveness was the biggest need for anyone, including this paralytic. This man wasn't a paralytic because he was a sinner. We are all sinners - and whatever our physical condition, we need forgiveness. The very first word that Jesus spoke from the cross was, "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34) Jesus is going to heal the paralytic physically, but that is a minor miracle compared to the miracle of forgiveness. Divine forgiveness is the greatest miracle that can ever happen to a person. I say that for several reasons. (1) Forgiveness meets the greatest need of a person; (2) Forgiveness demands the highest price–it cost Jesus His life-blood at the cross. (3) Forgiveness lasts the longest time. Physical healing only lasts a few years but forgiveness lasts an eternity.  There are many needy people around us. Some need housing, others need food, and others need clothing. We see poor people who need money. We see sick people who need health. We see confused people who need peace of mind. So many needs surround us, we often feel overwhelmed. But the greatest need everyone possesses is the need for forgiveness. That's why the very best thing you can do for your friends is to bring them to Jesus, because He is the only one who can do anything about their greatest need.

As soon as Jesus spoke those words of forgiveness, some of the religious mafia were offended. I think this was where Jesus baited them. They questioned Jesus' authority to forgive sins. They were sitting there criticizing His statement, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." They were getting bent out of shape thinking that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy.

It's easy to see there were two kinds of people there that day. The stretcher carriers and the sermon critics: Which one are you? Are you actively bringing people to Jesus? Or are you just come to church and sit there and think about all the things you don't like about the church? I have found that people who bring others to Christ are usually the sweetest, most cooperative people in a church. On the other hand, we have too many people who are self-appointed Pharisees who only look for things to criticize. There is a reason.   As they were thinking these thoughts of blasphemy, Jesus read their minds, just like He is reading your mind here today. Jesus' response to these sermon critics was amazing. While He was in the process of forgiving sins and healing a paralyzed man, He also delivered a powerful message to those sermon critics.  Look at verse 22. Jesus asks, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?" He follows that with another question: "Which is easier: to say 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?" Then He makes this awesome statement: "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins..."

Premise A: Only God can forgive sins: The teachers of the law asked this question among themselves: Who can forgive sins but God alone? That was a sound premise on which both the teachers of the law and Jesus agreed. Sin is a spiritual violation of God's commands. Since all sin is against God, He is the only One who has authority to forgive it.

Premise B: Jesus claimed authority to forgive sins : Jesus accepted their premise and followed with a logical argument. He said, "That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . ." He was claiming that He did have the authority to forgive sins. There is really no way to argue with the fact that Jesus said these words. Matthew, Mark and Luke recorded them.  Valid conclusion: Jesus claimed to be God

Some people say Jesus never claimed to be Divine. But this and other passages show us clearly and logically that Jesus claimed to be God. He claimed to be God because He claimed to have the authority to forgive sins. The reason this is so important is because so many people try to say Jesus was merely a good teacher who never claimed to be God. It goes back to the classic argument suggested by C. S. Lewis: You can't just say that Jesus was merely a good man. He was either a LIAR, (He claimed to be God, but knew He wasn't); or a LUNATIC (He claimed to be God and really thought He was, but He wasn't); or the only other option is that He is LORD. In other words, He did claim to be God. It's up to you to believe it or not. Jesus did claim to be God. He demonstrated it not only by forgiving the man's sins (his greatest need) but also by healing the man from his paralysis. Jesus used this healing miracle as a teaching tool to demonstrate to the people present that He was God. In verse 24, Jesus says, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." Get up? That's the one thing this man had been unable to do. He was powerless to get up and walk. We see here that Jesus never gives you a command without also giving you the supernatural power to obey Him.  The paralytic felt strength and health begin to flow into his arms and legs. He jumped up and grabbed his stretcher. Verse 25 says, "he went home praising God." I sure wish I could have been there to see that! The astonishment and love on the face of the man after he realized that his sins were forgiven and his body restored to wholeness. I don't imagine he slowly dragged himself out of the house. I picture him walking and leaping and praising God. I can see the looks of amazement on the faces of the religious mafia who just moments before had been convinced that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy. What made the difference? The paralytic was changed.

In Luke 5:24, we have the first recorded use of the Son of man in Luke's gospel, where it is found twenty-three times. Our Lord's listeners were familiar with this title. It was used of the prophet Ezekiel over eighty times, and Daniel applied it to the Messiah (Dan. 7:13, 18). "Son of man" was our Lord's favorite name for Himself; this title is found at least eighty-two times in the gospel record. Occasionally He used the title "Son of God" (Matt. 27:43; Luke 22:70; John 5:25; 9:35; 10:36; 11:4), but "Son of man" was used more. Certainly the Jewish people caught the messianic character of this title, but it also identified Him with the people He came to save (Luke 19:10). Like Ezekiel, the Old Testament "son of man," Jesus "sat where they sat" (Ezek. 3:15).  The healing was immediate and the people glorified God. But even more than receiving healing, the man experienced forgiveness and the start of a whole new life. Our Lord's miracles not only demonstrated His deity and His compassion for needy people, but they also revealed important spiritual lessons about salvation. They were "object lessons" to teach spiritually blind people what God could do for them if only they would believe in His Son.

Levi and the whinging Pharisees When Jesus called Levi, He accomplished three things: He saved a lost soul; He added a new disciple to His band; and He created an opportunity to explain His ministry to Levi's friends and to the scribes and Pharisees. This event probably took place shortly after Jesus healed the palsied man, for the "official committee" was still there (Luke 5:17). And it is likely that Jesus at this time gave Levi his new name—"Matthew, the gift of God" (Luke 6:15; see also Matt. 9:9).  Matthew sat at the toll booth and levied duty on the merchandise that was brought through. Since the tax rates were not always clear, it was easy for an unscrupulous man to make extra money for himself. But even if a tax collector served honestly, the Jews still despised him for defiling himself by working for the Gentiles. John the Baptist had made it clear that there was nothing innately sinful in collecting taxes (Luke 3:12–13), and we have no evidence that Matthew was a thief. But to the Jews, Levi was a sinner, and Jesus was suspect for having anything to do with him and his sinner friends.  We wonder how much Matthew knew about Jesus. Our Lord's friendship with Peter and his partners would put Him in touch with the businessmen of Capernaum, and certainly Matthew had heard Jesus preach by the seaside. Matthew instantly obeyed the Lord's call, left everything, and followed Jesus. He was so overjoyed at his salvation experience that he invited many of his friends to rejoice with him.

The Talmudical tractate Berakoth (43) expressly states that the disciples of the scribes may have no table communion (W. Manson, in loc.) with the 'Am-ha-'arets ("the people of the land", those who do not know or observe the Law).

Thus, the Pharisees converged upon Jesus' disciples  with this question: "WHY DO YOU EAT AND DRINK WITH THE TAX-GATHERERS AND SINNERS?" (Luke 5:30). Luke has carefully avoided calling the guests at this reception "sinners," but the Pharisees do not hesitate to use this label. There is a curling of the lips as the word "sinners" is spoken by the Pharisees. Why? The issue hinges on the definition of the terms "sinner" and "righteous." These terms have very different definitions in our text, the first the definition of the Pharisees, the second, the definition of Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees criticized Jesus because they did not understand either His message or His ministry. Jesus simply did not fit into their traditional religious life. Later the Lord would tell a parable: And He also told this parable to certain one trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer… (Luke 18:9-14). To the Pharisee the "righteous" were to be distinguished from "sinners" by human assessment. The "righteous" held the right social and racial positions, sinners did not. The "righteous" were better than "sinners," according to the Pharisaic view. The "righteous" were holy because they followed the rules, they did the right things, they kept the Law of Moses, as they interpreted it. The "righteous" were also justified in disdaining the "sinner" and in keeping separate from him. The one "claim to fame" of the Pharisees was their "separation" from sin and "sinners." They saw themselves as holy because of what they would not do, where they would not go, and with whom they did not associate. What a blow to their system it must have been to have Jesus come onto the scene, doing virtually the opposite of all they did, and claiming to be God at the same time.

In order to help them understand, Jesus gave four illustrations of what He was doing.

The Physician (vv. 31–32). The scribes and Pharisees saw Matthew and his friends as condemned sinners, but Jesus saw them as spiritually sick "patients" who needed the help of a physician. In fact, He had illustrated this when He cleansed the leper and healed the paralytic. Sin is like a disease: it starts in a small and hidden way; it grows secretly; it saps our strength; and if it is not cured, it kills. It is tragic when sickness kills the body, but it is even more tragic when sin condemns the soul to hell.  The scribes and Pharisees were quick to diagnose the needs of others, but they were blind to their own needs, for they were sinners like everyone else. They appeared righteous on the outside but were corrupt within (Matt. 23:25–28).  Luke is highlighting the hard attitude of Pharisees compared to the Lord Jesus. What a wonderful Physician Jesus is! He comes to us in love; He calls us; He saves us when we trust Him; His diagnosis is always accurate and His cure is perfect and complete. No wonder Matthew was so happy and wanted to share the good news with his friends!

The Bridegroom (vv. 33–35). The scribes and Pharisees were not only upset at the disciples' friends, but also at their obvious joy as they fellowshipped with Jesus and the guests. We get the impression that the Pharisees experienced little if any joy in the practice of their religion (see Matt. 6:16; Luke 15:25–32). Jesus was "a man of sorrows" (Isa. 53:3), but He was also filled with joy (Luke 10:21; John 15:11; 17:13).  Jewish weddings lasted a week and were times of great joy and celebration. By using this image, Jesus was saying to His critics, "I came to make life a wedding feast, not a funeral. If you know the Bridegroom, then you can share His joy." He said that one day He would be "taken away," which suggested rejection and death; but meanwhile, there was good reason for joy, for sinners were coming to repentance.  Fasting is found often in the Old Testament, but nowhere is it commanded in the New Testament. It appears there was only one prescribed fast day, that around the day of atonement.

The garment (v. 36). Jesus did not come to patch up the old; He came to give the new. The Pharisees would admit that Judaism was not all it could be, and perhaps they hoped that Jesus would work with them in making stricter the old religion. But Jesus showed the foolishness of this approach by contrasting two garments, an old one and a new one. If you take a patch from a new garment and sew it to an old garment, you ruin both of them. The new garment has a hole in it, and the old garment has a patch that doesn't match and that will tear away when the garment is washed. In Scripture, garments are sometimes used to picture character and conduct (Col. 3:8–17). Isaiah wrote about a "robe of righteousness" (Isa. 61:10; see also 2 Cor. 5:21), and he warned against our trusting our own good works for salvation (Isa. 64:6). Many people have a "patchwork" religion of their own making, instead of trusting Christ for the robe of salvation that He gives by grace.

The wineskins (vv. 37–39). We use bottles to hold wine today but in the Jesus' time, wine was most often stored in goatskins. These skins were removed and scraped clean on the inside and then tanned over a fire.

Then the skin was stitched back together, with the neck of the goatskin becoming the neck of the wineskin. A fresh wineskin was soft and supple. When new wine was poured into it, gas was released from the process of fermentation. The new wineskin would stretch to accommodate this expansion. Jesus often employed subtle Jewish humor in his teaching, anything that was silly or foolish was comical. (Like straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.) This parable is funny because Jesus is insinuating only an idiot would put new wine in an old wineskin. Everyone listening probably rolled with laughter because they knew what would happen. An old wineskin already expanded and hardened from its original supply of new wine. It stopped expanding and became rigid. It was hilarious to imagine the result of pouring new wine into an old wineskin. Over a period of just a few days there would be an audible sound as the hardened skin began to crack and split. The wine was expanding but the old skin was too rigid to change its shape. The old skin couldn't stretch because it had become inflexible and soon the stitches would start to pop. You can almost hear the old wineskin stretching and straining until "pop!" the seams burst open and the new wine leaked out and is lost. A thirsty person would be denied drink if they made this mistake.  If unfermented wine is put into brittle old wineskins, the gas will burst the skins, and both the skins and the wine will be lost. The new life of the Spirit could not be forced into the old wineskins of Pharasaic Judaism. Jesus was revealing that the form of Judaism that the Pharisees trusted in was unable to meet the strains of reality. Most of the Jews preferred the old familiar religion and refused the new reality that Jesus was bringing in. They were happy with ceremonies. Jesus was calling for new spiritual reality in the lives. The religious leaders could not handle this new wine Jesus was offering. They were like the inflexible old wineskins. Their attitudes were "If it is new, it can't be true!" Every time Jesus said or did something new you could almost hear the sound of straining and stretching until "pop!"—so they killed the messenger instead of accepting the message.  Life is a feast, not a famine or a funeral, and Jesus Christ is the only one who can make that kind of a difference in our lives.

Are you one who is religious? It is possible to be so committed to theological positions that we have no time for the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our commitment must be to Him above all. The main criticism made of us today as Reformed Calvinistic Christians is that we are mean spirited and cultic in our conservatism.  Could the critics be partly true?

How do you look at others?  How do you look at issues? How do you look at who you fellowship with?

How do you look at sinners? How do you look at dress codes?

TO BE LIKE GOD, MEN MUST BE MERCIFUL, AND TO BE MERCIFUL MEN MUST HAVE COMPASSION ON SINNERS, RATHER THAN SIMPLY TO CONDEMN THEM.

IN ORDER TO CALL SINNERS, ONE MUST HAVE CONTACT WITH THEM.