Luke | Chapter 5 – Scripture Supply

Luke 5:1-3

Every Pulpit is a fishing boat

Introduction
1-3 A boat by the lake

Introduction

As all of you are well aware, the chapter divisions and verse numbering were all added at a much later date and not a part of the writer’s original manuscript. Their purpose in adding the chapter and verse divisions was to make it easier for the future readers to find and remember the texts that we study.

While I have no problem with the division given this chapter as it relates to the previous, I do think that the 44^th verse of the 4^th chapter ought to be read at the start of our study into the 5^th chapter as I believe that it is intended to start this chapter instead of concluding the previous one. So I would prefer this chapter to start with, “And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.” Followed by, “So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the Word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret” (also known as the Sea of Galilee).

Luke is clearly still focused upon the power and authority of the Word of God as taught by Jesus, but there is a clear difference, a contrast, found in chapter five when compared with chapter four. The contrast is not the activity of teaching the Word of God but rather it is found in the location of the teaching both geographically as the 44^th verse states that Jesus did so in synagogues then we find Jesus still engaged in the activity of teaching only now in the 1^st verse He is doing so by the Sea of Galilee. But the contrast is also between the great crowds to that of individuals, from corporate teaching to individuals done personally.

I believe that in the 5^th chapter Luke wants to emphasize that Jesus’ teaching although powerful and authoritative never lacked the personal and specific touch that appealed to individuals. This is important as it relates to the Greek mindset and supernatural power as it is often associated with grand displays, but such grand displays often bypass the individual personal needs of humanity, and Luke wants his readers to understand that this was NOT the case with Christ. We are given this view in the 5^th chapter as Jesus will meet personally with four specific individuals all of which will cause the Pharisees to issue two complaints to Jesus about those that were following Jesus in verses 30-39 and those complaints are indirectly related to the personal nature of His ministry of the Word.

1-11 Jesus and Peter (failure of commitment)
12-16 Jesus and a Leper (hopeless situation)
17-26 Jesus and a Paralytic (lack of personal mobility)
27-29 Jesus and Levi (Matthew) the tax collector (social outcast)
30-39 Scribes and Pharisees two complaints against Jesus’ ministry…you are hanging around the wrong people (too personal) and you aren’t religious enough.

My general observation is how personal Jesus’ teaching was even when it was given to large crowds. We are prone to think in terms of the size and grandeur things and the larger they are the more effective they are. Yet what I see in the 5^th chapter is that Jesus always seemed interested in the individual even when teaching the crowds that gathered. Jesus’ teaching style was such that a person could have been in a crowd but still felt as though they were alone in a quiet room with Him. In the modern church I’m afraid that the teaching is more often than not aimed at the multitude to develop a large following and popularity instead of the individual and perhaps it’s for this reason that most modern teaching reaches neither. Transformational teaching is that quality that causes each and every person that hears it to experience Jesus’ presence and truth in such a way that they think that He was speaking to them individually and personally.

Vs. 1-3 A boat by the lake

Vs. 1 It is always a great moment in a person’s life when they experience the call of God upon their life and these 11 verses record such a call upon Peter’s as well as the two brothers who were the sons of Zebedee, namely James and John. In this case Luke reveals the occasion of this which includes the location as well as the event that surrounded the call. With regards to the location, Luke tells us that it was upon the lake called Gennesaret which is another name for the Sea of Tiberias also the same body of water as the Sea of Galilee. This body of water is not very large as it is around 13 miles long and 8 miles wide. Geographically it lies in a dip in the earth service which places it a 680 feet below sea level and creates both a tropical climate as well as a lake very prone to sudden and extreme weather conditions and storms. We are also told that a great crowd had gathered so much so that they were pressing into Jesus so that He had need to commandeer a boat in which there were two near Him.

I love how J. Vernon McGee refers to this section when He quipped, “Every pulpit is a fishing boat, a place to give out the Word of God and attempt to catch fish (men).” And in this case although Jesus was teaching by the Sea and a great multitude was all about Him, His message was aimed at a fisherman named Peter. Though fisherman were not thought of as a good ground for disciples Jesus viewed them very differently.

These commercial fisherman that fished the Sea of Galilee had to have great courage and daring to navigate the lake.
They needed to great patience and determination to fish along the seashore from a boat.
They need to work together well with others as they used nets to fish with which required multiple fisherman to be successful.
They had to be efficient and faithful in the tasks at hand as fishing wasn’t determined by luck but by faith and skill, faith that the Lord would direct them to the right spot and skill once they were at the right sport to haul in the catch.
According to John 21:1-3 there may have been as many as 7 of the 12 that were commercial fisherman. Peter said to the 7 other disciples gathered by the Sea of Galilee after the resurrection and prior to the ascension when Jesus met them there, “I’m going fishing! They all said we are going with you also.”

Vs. 2-3 Some wrongly assume that this a part of the synoptic gospels and the call of Peter, James and John on the Sea of Galilee is the same encounter that is also found in Matthew 4:20 and Mark 1:16-20. Before I show you why that is not the case in the text let’s go back and trace Jesus’ encounters Peter prior to this event before us as the two of them had met and knew each other well.

Their first meeting is found near the time of Jesus’ baptism in John 1:29-42. It is here that we read that John the Baptist saw Jesus along the Jordan river as he was baptizing and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Then we are told in verse 1:35 that the next day that John the Baptist stood with two of his disciples and again Jesus was near them as John the Baptist said again, “Behold the Lamb of God.” And this must have been understood as an invitation as the two disciples left following John the Baptist and began following Jesus we are told in 1:37. We know the identification of one of those disciples was Andrew, Peter’s brother (1:40), and it is believed that 2^nd disciple present that day was the apostle John. It is either later that day or the next that Andrew finds his brother Simon and tells him that they have “found the Messiah” and when Simon comes to meet Jesus where Jesus says, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas.” Literally verse 42 reads, He looked down into Peter and said, “You are….then He said….You shall be”. Our Lord peers down into what Peter was at that moment and says, “I know who you are, ah but I also know what you shall be.” Jesus saw Simon He said, “I know you; you are shifting sand (Simon) but I also know what you will be, Peter the rock”. Jesus knew that Simon was a person “easily influenced by what others are saying and doing around him.” Ah but Jesus didn’t stop with what Peter was, instead, He saw what he would become, an anchor, a rock, a steadying influence for all around him. From this time forward Peter was part of those numbered among Jesus’ followers, but the early part of their discipleship was not a constant following as later they would become part of the 12.

The second encounter and the one that is often confused with this one before us in Luke 5:1-11 is found in Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20. Both Matthew and Mark record the same encounter as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, and it could be the reason that Luke chooses a different name for the Sea of Galilee calling it the lake called Gennesaret as to distinguish these two encounters. The differences are very evident for the Bible student: Both Matthew and Mark first describe Jesus seeing the activity of the two brothers Simon and Andrew as they were engaged in “casting a net into the sea”. When compared to Luke’s different account, Jesus is by the Sea of Galilee as the above story but in Matthew and Mark there is no mention of a great multitude that Jesus was teaching that pressed into Him. Neither is there any immediate mention of the two brothers engaged in fishing upon the lake and instead Luke says that what Jesus’ saw was two empty boats near the shore, and the fishermen were gone as they were involved elsewhere in washing their nets. This fact in the narrative indicates a different time of day as well as a different day as fishing was done in the evening near the shore and washing nets was done near mid-day to take advantage of the drying sun. Biblical fishing nets were primarily made fromlinen or flax fibers. They had to be carefully cleaned and dried after each use to prevent them from rotting. These are two different stories that have the similarity of location as well as people involved but are nonetheless very different. I have no doubt that the fishermen were close by as Jesus engages Peter in a conversation. And Peter goes back to the boat they had left the night before after fishing without success, verse 5. The washing of nets had followed the night of failure and that is a key part of the story.

The third encounter is one that we noticed in Luke chapter 4:38-39 and clearly this story indicates that Jesus and Peter had a relationship as He went to Simon’s house.

The chronology of Peter and Jesus’ relationship as it relates to Luke 5:1-11 is best understood when you look at Matthew and Mark as the four fishermen are called in which is linked with Jesus first year of ministry whereas the event of Luke 5:1-11 is associated with the 2^ndyear of ministry.

There is no mention of Jesus rebuking Peter for still being employed as a fisherman a year or so after Jesus called in Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20 but clearly this fact changes our understanding of the passage as well as the calling upon Peter. They had left their fishing nets to go when Jesus had first called them a year prior, but they had gone back to those same boats when they ought to have been empty as Jesus had found them that day. They had gone back to their vocation at the expense of their calling and as we note in verse 5 they had “toiled all night and caught nothing!” It is then in the story that Jesus came by engaged in their calling by teaching the multitude by the shore of Galilee, and what does Jesus do? Well He quietly commandeers Peter’s boat and invites him to join Him. There is a great parallel between what Jesus does for Peter and the miracle of the gathering of fish as both required the same three things one with fish and the other with people:

Both must see what others won’t see, fish in the daylight hours in deep water where there shouldn’t be any and a Rock when everyone including Peter only saw shifting sand.
Both require us to continue when others will quit. They had parked their boats near the shore and were washing their nets and letting them dry because they had failed. Peter had quit on himself, but Jesus wasn’t quitting on him.
Both require us to do what others believe is impossible cause that which is unfruitful to become fruitful! Jesus had told Peter to launch out into the deep and let down the nets, plural. But Peter was obedient only partially at Jesus’ word as he went out into the deep but only let out one net. This shows us that the problem from Peter’s perspective wasn’t Jesus but what He had to work with namely Peter and why he responds the way he does in verse 8 saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man”.

We will take up the remainder of these 11 verses next week and you can read ahead from

verse 4-11 where we will notice:

4-7 Nets of obedience
8-11 From failure to follower

Luke 5:4-11

“Fishing with the Shepherd”

Introduction
4-7 Nets of obedience
8-11 From failure to follower

Introduction

As I mentioned last week I believe that the 5^th chapter is a continuation of Luke’s emphasis upon the power and authority of the ministry of the Word of God by Jesus with the notable difference in not only the locations but also the personal and intimate way in which Jesus taught. All four of the examples Luke gives illustrate this fact. As does the two complaints that were lodged against Him by the religious leaders:

1-11 Jesus and Peter
12-16 Jesus and a Leper
17-26 Jesus and a Paralytic
27-29 Jesus and Levi (Matthew) the tax collector
30-39 Scribes and Pharisees two complaints against Jesus’ ministry…you are hanging around the wrong people and you aren’t religious enough.

As this relates specifically with the first 11 verses and Peter we noted that this story I believe is not the same as found in Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20 as those both describe an earlier encounter that appears to have happened during Jesus first year of His ministry in obscurity sometime shortly after His baptism by John and His temptation in the wilderness which Luke writes about in 4:1-13. This is also seen in the stark differences between the two encounters as seen in the activities of Peter and his brother as both Matthew and Mark describe these two brothers casting a net into the sea while Luke says that they were not in the boat but rather a distance away washing and drying the nets after having failed to catch fish the night before. This fact would illustrate a different time of day at very least. Furthermore, neither Matthew nor Mark mention that Jesus was engaged in teaching a large multitude that was pressing into to Him thus the need for the boat where Luke does. The only conclusions you can make in the discrepancies between these two stories if you maintain that they are indeed the same story is that one of the gospel writers is wrong concerning the details which means the bible is not inspired by God or they have left out or added some pertinent details that the other didn’t, but that still doesn’t account for the different time of day based upon the different activity of Peter and Andrew. The other possibility is what I have concluded and that is that these are two different callings as two different times. This is the best answer for me as it fits the context of this passage. It is clear that Jesus had already established a relationship with Peter by the time of this meeting as we have three known encounters:

Their first meeting was soon after Jesus’ baptism in John 1:29-42. It was then that Andrew finds his brother Simon and tells him that they have “found the Messiah” and when Simon comes to meet Jesus where Jesus says, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas.” Literally verse 42 reads, He looked down into Peter and said, “You are….then He said….You shall be”. From this time forward Peter was part of those numbered among Jesus’ followers.
The second encounter and the one that is often confused with this one before us in Luke 5:1-11 is the Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20, and it could be the reason that Luke chooses a different name for the Sea of Galilee calling it the lake called Gennesaret as to distinguish these two encounters.
The third encounter is one that we noticed in Luke chapter 4:38-39 and clearly this story indicates that Jesus and Peter had a relationship as He went to Simon’s house.

There are three parts of this story that are intertwined throughout these 11 verses:

The sermon from the shore and boat
The miracle of the calling forth of a great many fish
The call of Simon

Vs. 4-7 Nets of obedience

Vs. 4 We are not given the amount of time that Jesus had been teaching before He had to stop speaking and commandeered Peter and his boat nor are we given the length of time Jesus taught before He stopped talking and told Peter to “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” There are several things in this story that perfectly illustrate what I believe was going in Peter’s heart with regards to Jesus’ calling him into ministry a year or so prior and what was about to take place on this very day:

First notice the request and then the command in verses 3-4. The request by Jesus was Him asking Peter to get in the boat as he wasn’t in the boat but a short distance away washing nets followed by the request asking him to “put out a little from land” as Jesus sat down and taught the multitude. This was followed by the command in verse 4 to “launch out into the deep.”

Those two different statements fit exactly Peter situation with regards to Jesus calling him into ministry. As recorded for us in Matthew and Mark, Peter had only put out a little from his old life and in such putting out a little had allowed him to continue in the fishing business catching fish but as seen he had been doing this all night and had caught nothing. There is a good number of people that have put out a little from land with regards to God’s call upon their life. They have tried but experienced failure when trying to navigate even shallow water close to shore. Half commitments and superficial promises will never suffice as we will have too much of Jesus to be successful in the world and too much of the world to accomplish God’s purposes.

This is also seen by the two words, THEN in verse 3 speaking of getting into the boat and the WHEN of verse 4 speaking of the timing of Peter being ready to launch out into a deeper commitment. If Peter hadn’t obeyed the easier request he would never have been able to participate in the miraculous life with Jesus in ministry. This was perhaps the first time Peter heard that the instruments of his ordinary life can be turned into being useful for his new calling if he would but just obeyed and gave his time and talent over to the Master. That is often the way of Jesus a request to trust a little where they are new and unsure, followed by a command to launch out into the deep. Our talents and time must find a new Master as left to ourselves we will toil all night in vain. And when we yield our time and talent to the Lord we will be astounded at our Lord’s success where there was once just labor and failure.

Second is the manner of letting down the nets as Luke uses the plural form of the word in the Greek for “nets”. The word is used else where to mean to slacken or to loosen as one would do with the reigns of a horse. Five of the seven times the word is used in the New Testament it is by Luke and was a familiar medical term as it denoted relaxation of the limbs or the loosing of bandages. As such it speaks of a slower more natural motion. When Peter uses the word for “net” in verse 5 it is the general term for net and is in the singular and describes a mechanical approach. I think in some ways this describes Peter’s struggle with commitment and that was he was prone to do so on emotions and self-effort.

Peter had at his first calling left the fishing and nets to go with Jesus when He had asked him too, but he had gone back and was now back at fishing with those same nets and was experiencing failure. Yet with that said, notice that with Jesus there was no personal rebuke, no verbal sign of disappointment. Instead, what follows is a further invitation to come on board and go deeper with the promise and expectation of greater fruitfulness in life as well as ministry. Jesus comes and gets on board in the very area that Peter had gone back to, and He takes command.

Vs. 5 Jesus had finished teaching the multitudes that had gathered on the shore and now it was time for the lesson to continue with Peter. I just love the fact here that after Jesus had called them to leave those boats and nets and that even though they have returned to them Jesus comes and goes fishing with them! He does so by taking possession of the boat and teaches from it and when finished He joins them in their fishing business. Peter understood this based upon his title given to Jesus in verse 5 as he calls Him “Master or captain” not “rabi or teacher”! That is how Peter started his statement back to Jesus’ command and I’ve got to say that Peter was an experienced fisherman who knew well the best time and best location to catch fish, and it wasn’t at noon out in the deep waters. Peter’s brief protest after calling Jesus the Captain of the fishing boat is to tamper down the expectations by saying, “I was out fishing at the best time and in the right spot and didn’t catch anything even after being out all night”. That was Peter’s estimation not just of fishing but of what he thought of Jesus opinion of who he was. It seems to me the perfect illustration of Peter tampering down the expectations as he saw only his failings. We are reminded of that back in John 1:29-42 where Jesus says, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas.” or, He looked down into Peter and said, “You are….then He said….You shall be”.

Vs. 6-7 Oh how surprised we are at what God can do through our lives when we but let Him have control over our hearts! The miracle of the great catch of fish was so much that it was overwhelming not only the nets but both boats! Peter was going to learn a lesson of identity and that it is NOT how we see ourselves that matters but rather how the Lord sees us! I wonder how often Peter would think of this story throughout his life? How the strain of life and the improper view of ourselves can hinder the work God can do in us and through us and the first step is always to believe in how He sees us. As Peter might have remembered this story years later he would remember that it all started with him beginning anew at the Word of Jesus. He would remember as well how he was astonished at the success and how those the nets could handle the blessing, and the boats didn’t sink under the weight of God directions. I’m also blessed to see that Peter wastes no time in calling for others to help in the blessing as he signaled to his partners in the other boat to come help them.

Peter may have told this story by saying that he was never more convinced of the futility of going out fishing at the wrong time of day in deep water and how certain he was that it would have yielded no fish, but “I let the net down anyway doubting it as I cast it out, boy was I wrong!” Such a lesson was one that Peter needed and so do I, that education and experience is no match to obeying the Lord’s prompting. To do so means that we will need to, like Peter, give up on what we in education and experience are most sure of!

Vs. 8-11 From failure to follower

Vs. 8-11 Peter who appears to be a passionate man as well as a bit reckless had already spent time with Jesus and it seems as though those encounters with Jesus made Peter well aware of his failures. He had listened to Jesus teach and had no doubt seen His miracles and each encounter made him feel more like Jesus could do far better than him as a follower. But faced with this miracle Peter was a broken man, it was Jesus’ goodness in spite of Peter’s own estimation of himself that broke him that day as he cried out, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” There are many who well up in self-righteous pride and turn against God as they proclaim their own goodness. Speak to most people and ask them if when they die whether or not they will be in heaven and they will say they are a good person. When you hear a person talk like that you can be certain of one thing, they have never been in the presence of God! Simon Peter knows that he is in the presence of the Son of God and says rightfully and brokenly so, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” “Jesus, I recognize that I am NOT FIT to be associated with You.” Oh how thankful I am that Jesus never sends a soul away when we come to Him like this! And instead of driving Peter away Jesus first words to Peter are “Do not be afraid…” Peter, you’ve got it right, I don’t need you I want you and “from now on you will catch men.” The fact that Peter recognized that he was a sinful man was the very thing that now made him useful for the kingdom. You aren’t going to catch living fish Peter and cause them to die, you are going to be catching dead people and because of Me they will come alive! Jesus has committed the work of reaching lost sinners to people who themselves were lost sinners!

So Jesus revealed Himself to that small group of fishermen that day by the lake in a new and fresh way and we are told that from that day forward, “they forsook all and followed Him.”

Luke 5:12-16

“The Savior of the secluded”

Introduction
12 The faith of the Lepers cry
13 The compassion of Christ’s touch
14-16 The cleansing witness of Jesus’ command

Introduction

We move on to the 2^nd illustration of the personal and intimate work of the Word of God in the healing of the man full of leprosy. Each of these four stories emphasize as I mentioned a few weeks back the most difficult things for people to overcome as they all cause a person to feel alone and separated from society:

1-11 In Peter we are given the difficulty of personal failure
12-16 In the Leper we are given the hopelessness of adverse situations
17-26 In the Paralytic we see the crippling effects of life’s circumstances
27-29 In Levi (Matthew) the tax collector we see how personal choices can cause us to become social outcasts

For the sake of our examination I note three movements to this story:

12 The faith of the Lepers cry
13 The compassion of Christ’s touch
14-16 The cleansing witness of Jesus’ command

Vs. 12 The faith of the Lepers cry

Vs. 12 As Luke retells the story it is interesting to note that according to Matthew 8:1-4 and Mark 1:40-45 this event took place during Jesus’ 2^nd year of ministry after He had relocated to Capernaum. Mark and Luke place it after Jesus had entered Simon Peter’s house and healed his mother-in-law. Mark in 2:1 tells us that after this Jesus went into Capernaum where He encounters the paralytic. Only Matthew places the story before Jesus entered Peter’s house which takes place after Jesus’ sermon on the mount which happened after Jesus’ first calling of the fishermen. The usage of the word when in Matthew, now in Mark and the phrase and it happened when by Luke all call the reader’s attention to the importance of the story and not its chronological order of appearance in the texts.

Only Luke tells us that Jesus was in a certain city which clearly matches both Matthew and Mark’s account. The city is not named but if you took Matthew’s account as the one that is the most chronological of the three and place this story in a city other than Capernaum that clearly Jesus was not yet in, then most likely it would have been the city of Hattin which was right at the foot of the hill on which Jesus had taught the Beatitudes in Matthew chapters 5-7 with this story appearing immediately afterword in chapter 8 verse 1 where we read “When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him”. I think this is a strong possibility as Jesus’ sermon on the mount that day was beautiful, but the question may have been “Great message but does it work?” And right on the heels of that message is the Leper being healed and as such offers a visible illustration of what Jesus had just taught so that the people could witness the demonstration of the principal in power!

Both Matthew and Mark only refer to this man as a leper whereas Dr. Luke gives his full diagnoses saying that this man was not just a leper,he was instead a man full of leprosy. Leprosy was known among physicians under three forms identifiable by their color:

Dull white
Clear white
Black

Today one of the types of leprosy is known as Hansen’s disease that even today as recent W.H.O. reports in 2023 that there were 182,815 new cases of Hansen’s disease with the majority in Southeast Asia, Africa, Brazil, India, and Indonesia reporting the most new cases. In the United States, approximately 150 to 200 new cases are reported annually, with recent trends showing an increase, particularly in Florida.

The use of the words full of indicate that this man was full of leprosy and as bad of a case as there can be. This type of leprosy was far worse than a few patches of very bad skin and was most likely of the variety that once the infection has set in attacks the nervous system which causes the victim to not be able to feel pain on that limb which causes infections to set in and leads to irreversible degeneration of the tissue which leads to the limb becoming disformed and eventually falling of the body. Medically there are four things that make leprosy such a horrible disease:

It affects the whole person
Because of what it does to the persons outward physical appearance it is a repulsive and disgusting illness
It is a highly contagious and infectious disease
As far as human power and medicine was concerned at that time it was completely incurable. Today there is a cure if caught early enough that requires a multi-drug therapy for up to 12 months, but nothing can repair the nerve damage if not caught soon enough.

Again the phrase full of leprosy is a diagnostic term in the Greek and indicates that this man was beyond the reach of medical help at that time and so far gone that according to Leviticus 13 this man was so full of leprosy as to be beyond contagious to others. The other aspect that made leprosy such a horrible illness is what it did to the person afflicted socially and religiously as they were separated from all human contact and social life and when they traveled, they had to cover their face and cry our “unclean, unclean” to let all know of their condition.

It is for this reason that people who treated lepers said that they were as sick of mind as they were of body. There was such a stigma to lepers that because of their appearance it carried great shame and horror as they were often shunned and despised and frequently they became so depressed and desperate to take their own lives. The leper was hated by stranger, family and friend and soon began to hate themselves as well. Though leprosy was not caused by sin it nonetheless became associated with sin and what leprosy is to the body sin is to the soul.

Like sin, leprosy is deeper than skin Lev. 13:3
Like sin, leprosy cannot be helped by mere surface measures
Like sin, leprosy spreads, Lev. 13:7-8
Like sin, leprosy when it spread defiles, Lev. 13:44-45

Because of this the leper was kept outside of the camp of fellowship (Lev. 13:46). According to Numbers 12:12 a person who had leprosy was thought of as dead and even their garments had to be burned outside the camp.

All of that was the burden this leper carried around in his decaying life. Matthew 8:2 tells us that this leper came and worshipped Jesus. And while some may be tempted to criticize him for coming openly towards Jesus while in the crowd I’m inclined to understand his desperation and when I first see that he came and fell on his face to worship Jesus we recognize that this is the first such act recorded in Jesus’ ministry of a person coming to worship Him and we see no rebuff from Jesus.

Also note his appeal as the leper doesn’t doubt Jesus’ ability to heal while he isn’t sure of Jesus’ willingness and gives that over to the sovereignty of God as he said to Jesus, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” He desired cleansing but he didn’t ask for it, instead he linked it up with the sovereignty of the One whom he was asking and new could cleanse him. Furthermore he didn’t asking for healing he only asked to be cleansed which according to Leviticus 13 would allow him human fellowship and contact again.

Vs. 13 The compassion of Christ’s touch

Vs. 13 While I have no doubt that the leper broke the law by not announcing his condition publicly there are some that believe that Jesus willingly broke the law to heal this man and while I personally see no problem with Jesus willingly touching the untouchable, reaching out to a person to whom everyone else turned away from. There is tremendous truth and benefit from seeing this action from Christ this way, but that is not the way it reads in the Greek. Instead, it appears that Jesus’ words and actions were synchronized and that as Jesus stretched forth his hand to touch the leper he said the words, “I am willing; be cleansed” and at the very moment Jesus said that His hand touched the instantly healed leper so that Jesus didn’t break the law. All of this was quicker than the twinkling of an eye Luke says, “immediately the leprosy left him.”

Vs. 14-16 The cleansing witness of Jesus’ command

Vs. 14 We close out this section with Jesus’ command not to tell anyone as Jesus didn’t want people to seek after Him only for temporary change instead, He desired not just a cleansing but a healing which is perfectly illustrated in this leper as we are told NOT that at Jesus words that this man was “cleansed” of his leprosy but that at Jesus’ words and touch that “immediately the leprosy left him.”

Instead Jesus instructed him to go to the priests in accordance with Leviticus 14. What is interesting is that the ceremony found in that chapter is a great picture of the work of Jesus in His incarnation, His death, and His resurrection. It was done with running water which we would recognize of living water. You can search the ancient Jewish writings, and you won’t find that any priest had ever preformed this ritual for hundreds of years and perhaps never. If it had ever happened it had never be recorded as happening and it appears that this would have been the first time a priest would have carried out this ceremony. Oh they weren’t lacking lepers, but they had never had one healed prior to our Lord for hundreds of years. It’s for this reason that the 14^th chapter of Leviticus was most likely the least studied portion of the Torah.

Vs. 15-16 we conclude this story with yet another indication of the priorities of our Lord as the report of this miracle only fueled His growing popularity as more multitudes came together to hear and be healed by Him. Yet with this increased popularity we see Jesus as was His practice withdrawing into the wilderness of the fellowship with His Father in prayer!

Luke 5:17-26

“The Savior of the secluded”

Introduction
17-20 The reward offered to unorthodox faith
21-24 The right logic but wrong conclusion of the Pharisees
25-26 The immediate remedy of a paralyzed life

Introduction

We come now to the third installment that Luke presents that illustrate the personal and intimate work of the Word of God, and in this case, we see the healing of the Paralytic. The story of this healing appears in three of the four gospels:

Matthew 9:1-8
Mark 2:1-12
And here in Luke 5:17-26

As far as differences in the gospel writers as to the event they are minor. Matthew which I’m inclined to believe is the most strict when it comes to the chronology of the gospel records the timing of this event as after the leper in 8:1-4, the healing of the centurion’s servant 8:5-13 and the healing of Peter’s Mother-in-law of 8:14-15 as well as several other recorded events. Mark and Luke both use the same chronology with the difference found in Matthew declaring that this event took place after Jesus “got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city” indicating that the healing of the Leper as we noted happened at another place on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

The city that Matthew calls Jesus’ own would have been what both Mark tells us was Capernaum and in THE HOUSE denoting familiarity with this particular home which Matthew 8:14 identifies as Peter’s house. For the sake of our examination I notice the passage as breaking apart into three connective parts:

17-20 The reward offered to unorthodox faith
21-24 The right logic but wrong conclusion of the Pharisees
25-26 The immediate remedy of a paralyzed life

And based upon this division we will do our examination of the text.

Vs. 17-20 The reward offered to unorthodox faith

Vs. 17 As we read through the gospel records, we note that Jesus never stayed in a place that did not want Him and He did stay in places that did and this is perhaps the reason that He again came to Capernaum and Peter’s house.

So many had come that they spilled out into the street. Mark chapter 1 verse 28 indicates, that Jesus’ fame had spread throughout the region. Yet with that said notice that Jesus’ method had not changed in spite of His fame and popularity as we see Him employed at preaching the word to them. The word preached in the Greek is a different word than a public proclamation, instead it is a word that means a conversation, and it is in the imperfect tense which emphasizes a continuous action. So Jesus taught conversationally for an extended period of time. My point is again to show the focus of our Lord upon preaching the word.

No adapting His method to fit His popularity
No change of direction to accommodate the pressing demand of the needy people

Luke is quick to point out that people that were in need weren’t the only ones present at the home, but that Pharisees and teachers of the Law were sitting by, and they had come out of every town of Galilee, even beyond from Judea and even Jerusalem. They had every right to be there according to Deut. 13 and 18:15-22 it was their responsibility to prevent false teaching that would lead people astray.

This is the first time that the Pharisees are mentioned in Luke’s gospel, and their name comes from a Hebrew word that means to divide or separate. They most likely developed out of the ministry of Ezra, the Priest, who taught the people to obey the law of Moses and be separate from the Gentile nations that surrounded them. The teachers of the law would have been the scribes who also gathered in that house that day and both of these groups who at times didn’t get along were both engaged in understanding the law and applying to their lives. But soon with both groups they became very legalistic and self-righteous, and they began to lay burdens upon the people that made it impossible to serve the Lord with joy. But in the Lord’s timing they were both present that day and the events of the healing of the paralytic was a direct teaching aimed at them, as Luke says that “The power of the Lord was present to heal them.” And I may just add that that would have included the Pharisees and the scribes.

Vs. 18-19 Mark 2:3 informs us that there were four men that entered into this crowded scene determined to reach Jesus with their pressing need despite the crowd. I say their pressing need as it is never just the afflicted that suffer alone; they have family and friends who carry and bear the burden of their friend and loved one. I’m sure they wanted to see their friend healed and mobile, but it doesn’t make them any less of a friend to say that his healing would liberate them as well.

I have no doubt that these five had faith as Jesus tells us that in verse 20. But I can’t help but notice the three unorthodox traits of their faith. This may very well encourage you when you realize that you too possess faith in a different way:

Dares the difficult: The first thing I notice about these men is the degree of difficulty they were willing to go through for just the opportunity for their friend to meet Jesus. We are not told how far they have travelled carrying their friend but if it was any length greater than a few 100 feet the degree of difficulty would increase with each passing step. It is safe to think that this man weighed 150 pounds or better and carrying him on a homemade stretcher even with four men would have been quite a difficult challenge. Yet their faith is visible in the fact that they were willing to undergo such a journey without any real guarantee.

I can only imagine what must have gone through their minds as they drew nearer to Capernaum and witnessed an increased number of people, perhaps they didn’t even know where Jesus was and asked directions only to find out that everybody they asked was going there as well for the same kind of reason. They struggle through the crowds to see a glimpse of the house and in front of it as Mark 1:33 said, months earlier that the “whole city gathered at the door”. Yet, through all those difficulties they didn’t quit but continued to press forward where others would have said, “There are way too many people here, we are never going to be able to even get a glimpse of Jesus, let alone get in front of Him”! Then I’m curious as to whose idea it was to climb up to the 2nd story of the house and start tearing off the roof? The point I’m making is that when we, in spite of the challenges and difficulty continue pressing forward to get to the place and possibility of change we are demonstrating that we have faith!

Does what is demanded: The second orthodox sign of their faith is that they did what was demanded for the situation. They didn’t limit their actions by what was normal or customary, like waiting and going through the front door! The construction of the ancient roofs reveals quite an amount of work to accomplish the task. The Greek word for uncover is a word that means to dig out, and Luke informs us that they let the paralytic down through the removed tiles. Typically these were flat roofs made up of a composition of mortar, tar, ashes and sand spread out on the roof with stone tiles placed on top. They did what was necessary to accomplish the task of getting in front of Jesus in spite of what I can only imagine would have been disapproval by Peter as it was his house that was losing a roof. Amazingly, we see that Jesus never rebuked them, He doesn’t even seem to be disturbed at the interruption. Clearly these men did what was unorthodox, risked criticism and weren’t afraid to do so. Faith is evident when we are doing what is demanded, risking rejection and overcoming obstacles to get to Jesus!

Careless about the cost: The final unorthodox sign of faith is that they must have realized that tearing apart a large hole in a roof and lowering their friend in front of Jesus was going to cost them something. There was no homeowner’s policy for paralytic roof damage. These 5 were careless in the face of the cost and that is another example that you have faith, they had accepted that and realized that even if unsuccessful they were still going to have to pay for the damage. Saints, I think the church could use more people that exhibit this kind of unorthodox faith.

Dares to do what is difficult
Willing to overcome obstacles
Isn’t deterred by the cost

Vs. 20 With all the effort they put into bringing their friend to Jesus, hearing His words to the Paralytic must have been a letdown to them: “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” “Hey Lord, that’s neat, but we didn’t come through all these crowds and roof just to hear some spiritual statement.” They no doubt would have much rather heard the second part of this found in verse 6. “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

There are those that suggest Jesus’ pronouncement was based upon His knowledge that this man’s paralysis was based upon some moral failure. Others go so far as to say that this man’s paralysis was all in his head, and that Jesus removed the moral failing which lifted the paralysis. Though indirectly all disease and the things that cause human suffering are sin related, due to the fall, the context of the passage is in verse 2 where we are told that Jesus was preaching the word to them, and in fact these 5 interrupted that message suggest this as well. But the truth is Forgiveness is the greatest miracle that Jesus ever performs:

It meets the greatest need
It costs the greatest price
It brings the greatest blessing and the most lasting results.

Jesus uses a very interesting word for forgiven. He could have used a word that meant to be gracious to or to overlook. Many people today want God just to overlook their sins. The implication is that the sins are still there and that Jesus just becomes blind to them. Here though, He uses the word which means to send away.

Jesus said, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are sent away from you.” Jesus doesn’t overlook sin in our lives; instead, as we come to Him confessing our sin and trusting Him, He sends it away! What good was it if the man had two whole legs, and walked right into hell with them?

Vs. 21-24 The right logic but wrong conclusion of the Pharisees

Vs. 21-24 The scribe’s logic was correct. They were correct in their internal reasoning, “Only God can forgive sins” and His knowing of this though they said nothing should have revealed to them that God the Son was in front of them.

God spoke to the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 17:9-10 saying, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind…” In Psalm 139:4 we read that “There is not a word on my tongue but behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.”

The scribes observed a rabbi teaching but what they were unable to see was the Son of God standing before them, they were blind as to His identity and Jesus was going to reveal that to them twice:

First, the moment Jesus knew what they were thinking, you would have thought that would have been a clue to these guys that this Jesus was more than just your average person.
Next in verse 23 we have Jesus’ words to their thoughts:“For which is easier, to say, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Arise and walk?”

The key to understanding what Jesus meant by this question is the context. They believed that Jesus was blaspheming God because He, being man, made Himself equal to God, for only God can forgive sins. They are questioning His authority to do what He has said. So, he in turn says, “Which is easier to say? That is the key word. He does not say DO but SAY. That is easy to answer; it is easier to say, your sins have forgiven you, because that does not require any proof. But if I go over to a paralytic, say arise, take up your bed, and walk; that requires the power to heal, which again only comes from God. From man’s perspective both are impossible for us to do. For these scribes who questioned His authority in their minds, if He could heal, then He could forgive sin. Thus, His words in verse 24, “That you may know that the Son of Man has power (ability) on earth to send away sin, take up your bed, go to your house.” The One who could make the paralytic walk was the only One who sent away sin.

It is Jesus that we need; it is Him we must come to, to set us free from the things in our lives that bind us. If you yourself aren’t bound, then you can do what these friends did; you can bring those that are to Him so that He can set them free!

Vs. 25-26 The immediate remedy of a paralyzed life

Vs. 25-26 Notice how the paralytic responded and how those that witnessed this miracle responded.

First the paralytic went forward in obedience and faith.
Second, the multitudes were filled with wonder and awe and glorified God.

Jesus always touched people in such a way that those that witnessed it glorified the Father. All too often, we tend to praise the instrument instead of the author. The outcome of this was that all except the scribes were amazed and rejoiced praising God saying, “We never saw anything like this!” They stood amazed at the authority of the Word even though they didn’t fully comprehend His identity which was the lesson.

The use of the words by Luke in verse 26 where he writes the statement of those who witnessed this miracle as saying, “We have seen strange things today!” The words strange things in the Greek is one word and it is where we get our word in English “paradoxes” from. It simply means things we can’t understand or reconcile or seem to contradict. Yet notice even though they couldn’t make sense of all that they had witnessed, it didn’t stop their worship as they “glorified God”.

Luke 5:27-32

“From the king’s recorder to the King of Kings recorder”

Introduction
27-28 From Levi to Matthew
29 A celebration of transformation
30-32 Known by the company you keep

Introduction

We come now to the fourth installment that Luke presents that illustrated the personal and intimate work of the Word of God, and here we are given the conversion of Levi the tax collector. As in the other examples Luke presented, this one is also recorded in three of the four gospels:

Matthew 9:9-13, which is the only place that the tax collector is called Matthew (verse 9) and neither does he call him a publican. This is significant because the writer is none other than the man in the story and as far as he was concerned, what he once was he was no longer that person as Jesus changed him from the man who taxed his own countrymen to the man who was given the “gift of God” which is what his new name means.

Mark 2:13-17 which is the only place where we are told that this took place by the Sea of Galilee. The significance of this is that this most likely came from Peter as John Mark was very close with Peter and the reference is one that paints the picture that Levi the son of Alphaeus was by the sea to tax the fisherman, and I suppose that Peter was most amazed to see the transformation of Matthew.

Luke 5:27-32 here in this account the tax collector is called Levi but what we are given is that this occasion likely happened the same day as the healing of the Paralytic as Luke uses the connective phrase “after these things” and the fact that the scribes and Pharisees where there to question Jesus indicates that this must have been the same day.

As relating to the context of showing the personal and intimate nature of the Word of God as ministered by Jesus, we note that in the stories in chapter 5 dealt with events that isolated a person from the rest of humanity but this story deals with the direct choice that a person made that has separated a person from others.

Luke records four great controversies about Jesus that happened at this time and location. We know this as they are marked by the religious leaders verbal complaints aimed at both Jesus and His disciples then we are given Jesus’ response to them about their four complaints.

Taking a look at them all even though we will only deal with the first one tonight they are asking very interesting questions:

30:“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners”? They were asking: What to do with the traitorous collaborators of the occupying Romans known as the Tax Collectors? Religious leaders had decided to be exclusionary and treated their treason by having no contact with them.

33: “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers likewise the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?” They were asking: What place does joyous daily living have in religious life, isn’t religion supposed to be serious and solemn business? Here they had decided to be inclusionary as these link with John the Baptists followers which was an opposing groups because they saw religion the same way.

6:2 “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” They were asking: What is the ultimate goal of religion, to liberate humanity or to control humanity? The religious leaders had taken the position as separatists, but such action made them arrogant as they pick and choose history that supported elitism which was an effort to control humanity.

6:7: “They watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath” They were asking: What is the true test of religion? The religious leaders had forgotten the standard that is at the heart of God, to do good to His creation, to save and make whole humanity. This made the religious leaders legalists as they used religion to be heartless towards humanity.

When it comes to Jesus’ responses, in general, we see that He was not a fan of religion, even the one that prophesied about His coming that His Father in heaven placed Him in. And by religion I mean to say the manmade expression that sought to displace intimacy with an institution and grace with the grunts of human activity.

Vs. 27-28 From Levi to Matthew

Vs. 27-28 The calling of Levi can’t be appreciated in its fullest without understanding how his fellow countrymen saw his chosen occupation.

Israel is the land bridge between Europe and Africa and in the ancient world all traffic must go through this land. It was said that Galilee was the road to somewhere!

From the perspective of Christ: It is interesting to note of the first 5 men that took up Jesus’ command to follow Him, (four fishermen and one tax collector) two of them directly wrote a gospel and a third (Peter) influenced Mark. What we glean from this is that Jesus didn’t choose PHD’s to accompany Him, to write His story to the world, instead He chose common men who most of academia would consider unqualified. The great truth is that Jesus and His call upon a life is the “great ordination”.

This gives a great contrast between Jesus and religion as we just read of a man who was afflicted with paralysis that had hindered his progress in life. Here in this story we read of a different type of paralysis that is equally debilitating, this paralysis came from a lifestyle that manifested in an occupational choice!

This choice of Levi hindered his spiritual and social as he had chosen wealth of greater importance in life. Levi too was given a choice to “take up his bed and go out in the presence of all.” But it also emphasizes the paralysis of religion!

Jesus wanted the people no one else wanted, He offered Himself and friendship to people no one else would ever call a friend. Matthew must have been a man with an ache in his heart, he had to have heard Jesus’ message from a distance multiple times as he was from Capernaum. Levi was an outcast on the outskirts, and something must have caused him to have hated what he had chosen in life. Jesus was always looking for opportunities, He was never off duty, if there was only one-man Jesus would find him. What a lesson for us “soul gatherers” if we would look for people as we walk through life as Jesus did.

From the perspective of the religious leaders: The Romans collected their taxes through a system known as Tax Farming, they assessed a district a fixed tax figure and then sold the right to collect to the highest bidder. The buyer had to hand over the assessed sum at the end of the year and was allowed to keep whatever they had gathered above that. The potential exploitation and extortion was compounded because the people had no idea what they actually owed except from the tax collector’s statements. It was a four-tiered system:

Poll tax: All men 14-65 and women 12-65 had to pay because they were alive
Ground tax: 1/10th of all grain and 1/5th of all wine, olive oil and fish produced (hence Peter was most likely knew Levi). The tax collector had the right to demand the amount on the spot of the goods taxed and most opted to pay in coin.
Income tax: One percent of a person’s annual income
Taxes and tolls: Separate taxes or tolls for using roads or harbors, sales tax on certain items for import or export duties. There was even a transportation tax on carts as each wheel was taxed

Most tax collectors made their wealth from the second and fourth category as they had the largest room to extort people. The Tax Collector under the full authority of Rome could stop anyone at any time and make them unpack their carts and force them to pay a tax on the spot. If the person was unable to pay they would sometimes offer them a loan at a high rate of interest gaining them even more money. They were so hated that they were not only excommunicated from the synagogues they were not allowed to serve as a judge or witness in court.

This makes Jesus words to Levi even more amazing as the Greek word for “follow” means to “walk the same road as I am on.” The verb tense is in the imperative mode, present tense which means that it was more than an invitation, it was a command. Jesus was saying, “Start going on the same road as Me and continue on this road”. Matthew understood this command and that the road he was on was a far different road then the one Jesus was walking on, of all the disciples Matthew truly left all he had to follow Jesus. The others could go back to their boats and fish, but Matthew burned his boat having left his tax collectors job he could not go back to it, there would be no turning back for Matthew.

For his decision to follow Jesus, Matthew gained three things:

A chance to look people in the eye: He would not have to look down when asked what he did for a living. He may be poor fiscally, but he was wealthy relationally. Because his hands were clean, his heart was now at rest.
A better job: His tools were still the same, pen and parchment, but now what his ledger recorded wasn’t what had been owed him but what he owed others because his debt had been paid.
A different reputation: Locally everyone knew Levi the hated tax collector, but what the world knows now is far different because of his decision that day to follow Jesus; they now know Matthew the “gift of God” gospel writer. When Peter and John left their nets it cost them all the fish they had caught out of the lake but when Levi left all he left far more behind.

Vs. 29 A celebration of transformation

Vs. 29 What is amazing is that the first thing recorded that Levi does is to invite Jesus to meet his friends by throwing a feast in His honor. Levi’s first inclination was to share his new wealth in Christ with all his friends! John Westly once said, “No person must ever go to heaven alone; they must either find friends are make friends to take with them!” Luke makes it clear that the party was at Matthew’s home and the crowd that gathered were those that were not allowed at the synagogue or near a rabbi, but on this occasion Mathew’s home became the synagogue as the Rabbi Jesus made a house call. What happened after Matthew’s call most likely came about after some time, but Matthew filled his home with people who were just as paralyzed in sin as he had been that they might have the opportunity to be set free. Jesus was not invited to make toasts, He had been invited to make the same offer He had to Levi, “Follow Me”. But the place was not just filled up with guests as there were close by critics who would diagnose the illness but offer no cure! The name “Pharisee” means “separated ones” as they separated themselves from anything and anyone they considered unholy.

The religious leaders wouldn’t even allow their robe to be brushed up next to a tax collector and here Jesus was the guest of honor.

Vs. 30-32 Known by the company you keep

Vs. 30 The religious leader’s observation was correct, Jesus did sit among tax collectors and sinners and He still does! But that doesn’t meant that He entertained the same sinful behavior, Jesus never views people as rejects or outcasts, but He did realize that their sin and separated them from fellowship and that is why He came. Jesus sees them as patients! C.T. Studd who gave up his fortune to serve in the jungles of Africa once said: “Some like to dwell within the sound of church bells, but I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell!”

Vs. 31-32 In Jesus’ reply as to why He ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners he says He was there not to partake; He was there to liberate! It is not a person’s sin that keeps them from coming to Christ; it is their pride that refuses to acknowledge their need before Him. Oh that we would learn that we are in need so that we would have the doctor come to make them whole. Jesus comes to invite the sick to be made well free of charge.

Folks, there’s only one thing necessary for every individual to go to heaven, and that is that they must admit that they don’t ever deserve to be there! Think about it! Jesus’ answer is in two parts:

First a proverb: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick”. Jesus was not implying that the Pharisees were spiritually healthy or were righteous only that they thought of themselves as such. Their problem was twofold: Their blindness to their own condition was seen first in that they weren’t engaged in the spiritual healing of others. Second, since they saw themselves as spiritual, healthy and righteous they remained outside of Jesus as their cure!

Second the application: “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” They had questioned His ethics and Jesus said that they had misdiagnosed His physical presence as condoning sin instead of liberating people from sin. None are more sick than the diseased who think themselves as well and none are more manifesting sin as those who think themselves as holy!

Jesus said, “You’re right on with your diagnosis, these are sick and hurting people, but your remedy of exclusion and isolation isn’t the answer. A doctor needs to be among the sick if they are going to administer the remedy.” That’s the marvelous truth about Jesus, “You would always find Him amongst the hurting.” Jesus spoke as the cure for moral failing and His reply makes two things abundantly clear:

The self-sufficient are the sickest:Jesus indicates that those that see themselves as without a need are in actuality the social outcasts and have the greatest need. There is never a treatment, not even from Jesus, for the person who fails to recognize that they are ill. It is a terrible tragedy for most of humanity that we have to hit bottom before we will look up to Jesus to be healed. Most people have to have the bottom drop out of their dreams of importance and self-reliance before they will even consider Jesus.

People are more important than religious prejudices:We all have prejudices, notions formed either before we have sufficient information or because we have adopted mistaken ideas. Many of these are passed down from our ancestors. Placing people before prejudices doesn’t mean that we accept sinful destructive behavior any more than we accept cancer! No it means that we don’t allow our preconceived views to get in the way of introducing the person to the Great Physician.

Jesus is the perfect doctor to heal us of our sin:

He is always available.
He always makes a perfect diagnosis.
He provides a complete cure.
He even pays the bill!

Luke 5:33-39

“Three Characteristics of Christianity”

Introduction
33-35 A Joyful Celebration
36 A new garment
37-39 An expansive faith

Introduction

As we come to verses 33-39 of Luke chapter 5, the context is that of the personal and intimate nature of the Word of God as ministered by Jesus. We shouldn’t be surprised by the fact that Jesus’ ministry has already gained the attention of the religious elite, and they naturally began to note the differences between Jesus’ practice when compared with theirs. Luke recorded four great controversies about Jesus that happened around this same time and location. The religious leader’s verbal complaints were aimed at both Jesus and His disciples in which Jesus’ response to them about their four complaints which began in verses 30 with Jesus’ reply in verses 31-32 but continue on into chapter 6.

Briefly in verse 30 Jesus didn’t argue or correct the religious leader’s observation of Him as He did sit among tax collectors and sinners and He still does! Instead Jesus corrected their assumption that in sitting among them He entertained the same sinful behavior. What this reveals to us is that Jesus never views people as rejects or outcasts. Instead He realizes that their sin has separated them from fellowship and that is why He came. Jesus simply sees sinful people as patients not prisoners to be punished!

This is why Jesus replied in verses 31-32 as to why He ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners as he says He was there not to partake; He was there to liberate! It is not a person’s sin that keeps them from coming to Christ; it is their pride that refuses to acknowledge their need before Him. There’s only one thing necessary for every individual to go to heaven, and that is that they have to admit that they don’t ever deserve to be there! Jesus’ answer is in two parts:

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick”. He was not implying that the Pharisees were spiritually healthy or were righteous only that they thought of themselves as such. Their problem was twofold: Their blindness to their own condition was seen first in that they weren’t engaged in the spiritual healing of others. Second, since they saw themselves as spiritual, healthy, and righteous so they remained outside of Jesus as their cure!

“I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” The religious leaders had questioned His ethics and Jesus said that they had misdiagnosed His physical presence as condoning sin instead of liberating people from sin. In essence Jesus was saying, “Your diagnosis is correct but, your remedy of exclusion and isolation isn’t the answer. A doctor needs to be among the sick if they are going to treat the patient and administer the remedy.” Jesus even pays the bill!

Vs. 33-35 A Joyous Celebration

Now move into the second of the four questions asked about the purpose of religion that Jesus answered. As I read this section it causes me to believe that if most literate people in the world would just carefully read the Gospels we would probably witness the greatest spiritual revival ever.

I say this for two reasons:

Firstit would clear up the distortions and mischaracterizations that have been unfortunately taught and displayed by Christians and the church that bears His name.
Secondly,people would discover for themselves how absolutely gracious, loving and irresistible Jesus is in the Bible.

Jesus was ever the master illustrator! For Jesus, earth was crammed full of heaven as everything spoke to Him of the Father. In these three illustrations Jesus would have us understand Christianity is not patched up Judaism or a “New Look” religion. You cannot tack Jesus on to rituals or rules; to use the New to fix the Old is a sure-fire way to ruin both! What Jesus offers in these three illustrations describes three characteristics of Christianity that cannot be placed into old tired worn out religion of rules and rituals, for Christianity according to Jesus is:

Joyful
New
Expansive

Vs.33 Pharisees were of the sect of Levi and involved in regulating the service of the temple, this was propped up by added ceremonial and ritualistic observances during the week and with John the Baptist being placed into prison his disciples had not heard their leader when he had called them a “brood of vipers” and instead joined with the Pharisees disciples in their criticism of Jesus and His disciples. The complaint was that not only did Jesus and His disciples eat with the wrong people (verses 27-32) they did so at entirely the wrong time (verses 33)! There are special days in which the law speaks concerning a fast such as Yom Kippur also known as the Day of Atonement. But the Pharisees loved to show how religious they were above others and designated more and more days for fasting as a way of getting both God and man’s attention. They fasted two days a week every Monday and Thursday from 6 AM – 6 PM after which they would have a meal. They would put on clothing of sackcloth or burlap, rub ash on their face, suck in their faces to look as if they hadn’t eaten in weeks and make loud prayers to elicit attention. Jesus wasn’t against fasting and neither is the New Testament as there are many reasons for a person to go through a fast, most importantly to draw nearer the Lord as a person would forgo something and replace the time normally spent doing that activity with the Lord.

But in the case of the Pharisees it was for self-display that they may present themselves as being spiritual. Religious people like rules that make them stand out and outwardly appear better than others, especially if these rules make them nonconformists to the world around them. But inevitably their conformity to the religious rule is designed to be flaunted as a way of demonstrating superiority to the very people they are called to reach. Essentially it is, “Why don’t your religious people keep OUR self-imposed traditions to appear holier-than-thou, like we do.” What is at issue is that one group that is attempting to stand out isn’t standing out as much because others who simply love God are standing out by not standing out!

Vs.34 The word “friends” describes guests not the groomsmen as we must not impose our traditions on the biblical text. After the wedding the Jewish couple didn’t go away on a honeymoon; they stayed at home for a week with their friends and had a party. In the hard life they had during biblical times it was easily the best week of the couple’s life. The closest friends of the newlyweds were called the “children of the bridechamber,” and this is who Jesus likens His disciples to, the chosen friends of the bride and groom. According to the Talmud there was only one time a man was absolved of religious duty and that was at a wedding. The only duty a man had at a wedding was to rejoice! This was such an important time that there was an actual rabbinical ruling that said, “All in attendance on the bridegroom are relieved of all religious observances which would lessen their joy.” Jesus was always pushing the spiritual over the ritualistic elements of religion as he liked the spontaneity of relationship above the confines of ritualistic religion.

Jesus, doesn’t condemn them for “fasting instead of feasting” He doesn’t even question the sincerity as these two groups He only questions the timing of fasting. The problem as Jesus puts it is, “You are questioning why Me and My followers are not fasting? I just want to let you know that you are at a wedding not a funeral!” The problem, as Jesus explained it, was that those two groups didn’t know what kind of gathering they were at even though they were a part of the majority that was fasting instead of feasting. It was the “fasters” and not the “feasters” that were acting inappropriate, albeit ignorantly. From the perspective of these two groups the situation and circumstances that they were living warranted a “fast at a funeral”. And I believe that is in part why Jesus uses illustrations to explain what He and His disciples knew that the Pharisees and John’s disciples were apparently unaware of, namely that THE Bridegroom was at the wedding.

Vs. 35 Jesus went on to explain that as far as His present disciples were concerned there would be a time for their mourning and fasting when He would temporarily be taken from them. Jesus would further explain this time in John’s gospel in chapter 16 verses 16-24. He said in a little while they wouldn’t see Him as He was going to the Father. He told them that it would be natural for them to weep, lament and be sorrowful even as the world rejoiced. But He said their sorrow will be turned into joy. He promised that they would see Him again and they would have joy that “no one will take from them.” Jesus had already told them in John chapter 16 verse 7 that it was better that He go away because if He didn’t the Helper would not come and that His departure meant that Jesus would send the Holy Spirit to them.

Hey saints, Jesus has died and rose again, the Holy Spirit has come and indwelt us as Christ abides in His disciples, the Holy Spirit is available to fully immerse and empower our lives. So are you “feasting at a wedding,” because we have “Joy, that no one will take from us”? Or are we the church acting like we are “fasting at a funeral”? It is clear that the relationship we now enjoy with Christ is what ought to change not just our outlook on life but our entire disposition from fasting to feasting, from sobbing to a song. Saints, the life lived in Christ cannot be lived any other way than joy! Jesus said something that ought to be understood and repeated each time we gather. The truest character of Christianity is that it is a wedding not a funeral, a feast not a fast, a song not a sob!

Vs. 36 A new garment

Vs.36 It takes no imagination to see that Jesus speaking first of a piece of clothing that had been patched by an unshrunk piece of cloth, then a new wine skin ,both to illustrate what having the bride groom meant relating to fasting turned to feasting. Jesus’ illustration is common sense and natural! The word “old” in the Greek is a word that describes its age, not in reference to time but usefulness. The garment wasn’t merely “out of date or fashion” rather it had “used up its purpose” and patching it up with the new cloth would only make the differences more noticeable. The “new cloth” is a reference to Jesus and His ministry which by definition in this illustration wasn’t meant for the purpose of mending but a “new garment” all together. Jesus hadn’t come to reform Judaism, to “patch it up” or “pour new wine into old wineskins”. Countless people try to do with the “Royal Righteous Robes” of Jesus as they try to sew them onto the rags of either their former life or some belief system that never fully covered them!

Listen, you do not add Jesus to your life, you must not try as you will only make your attempt obvious and the holes in your life more visible. To “Put on Jesus” you must “Put off” your former life! It has become popular to purchase clothes that by design look like they should have been tossed years ago. I can’t find a better illustration of our modern society than people preferring to identify more with what is the worn-out rags of self-worship and yet its continual appeal to a society that is so trapped and obsessed by it that they will pay 10 times more for something that has already not only been proven but by designed to: Not last, not cover and be more expensive!

Vs. 37-39 An expansive faith

Vs. 37-39 Again the word for old is the same as above, “worn out for its original purpose” and the Greek word for “New” is a word that means “in point of use”. This 2nd illustration takes a little more understanding as the ancient world didn’t use glass, it used animal skins or bladders for the fermentation process. New wine would be early in that process and would give off more gas that would require the flexible characteristics of a new wine skin otherwise the old wine skin would have been too brittle for the process. Wine is always used of joy symbolically in the bible and to try to contain joy in the brittle inflexible nature of the religion of the time would have ruined the wine and destroyed the religion.

The principal Jesus is using is that: “Religious tradition must never trump relational triumph”! These stories speak of how the Son of God came to initiate an entirely new order of spiritual life and experience which of necessity made necessary new expressions which were best understood in feasting instead of fasting. Our attitudes ought to reflect a wedding not a funeral, feasting and not fasting. The presence of Jesus is not at our gatherings if joy isn’t visible. Psalm 144:15 says, “Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!”