17
The Pharisees Come to See
We see Jesus yet again teaching (don’t worry, we’ll encounter lots of its content soon!).
Pharisees and teachers of the law came from all round, obviously so intrigued by this wonder-working Rabbi that at personal expense of time and resources they travel to see him in action. Were they there to test him, to learn, to investigate, to glorify God?
‘Pharisees were a pressure group, not an official body… their particular cause – for which they were from time to time prepared to take drastic action – was the coming kingdom of God; and if someone else appeared on the scene who seemed to be talking about the same thing but getting it all wrong, they wanted to know about it’ (Wright, 59). We’ve already seen violent reaction against Jesus in his home village because they thought his message was wrong.
‘The Pharisees’ kingdom-plan, in line with plenty of earlier Jewish aims and ideals, was to intensify observance of the Jewish law, the Torah. That, they believed, would create the conditions for God to act, as he had promised, to judge the pagans who were oppressing Israel and to liberate his people. In addition, some of the more militant believed that it was their God-given duty to take the law into their own hands, and to use violence to kick-start the process of revolution. Jesus’ kingdom-vision was very different – almost diametrically opposite, in fact. Since he was drawing crowds and becoming well known, they needed to find out what was going on’ (Wright, 59-60)
The Creative Power of the Lord
Luke narrates that ‘the power of the Lord was with him to heal’ (teaching and healing together again – the word and wonders of Jesus)
Note that it was the Lord’s power (both Jesus and God are called ‘Lord’ in the Gospels, without distinction or qualification).
The Greek for ‘power’ is dunamis: this reminds us that God is powerful, energetic, dynamic, active, effective (causes things to happen—agency), creative—the Creator.
Just as God is a speaker, a communicator, and a gracious lover (all of which we’ve seen in Luke so far), he is a doer. God is ‘on the move’. This is often spoken of metaphorically in the Bible as God’s ‘hand’, ‘the hand of the Lord’.
And we see that the Creator exercises his amazing, mighty, creative power for good, for further creation, restoration, making whole, bringing health, wellness—Jesus’ divine power displayed in the Gospels is always creative, constructive (except for the fig tree incident, in which he sought to teach a specific lesson).
Though God’s good power in the Old Testament could often be destructive to sinners due to being closer to his naked holiness and glory in their spiritually unclean state, God en-fleshed in humanity, in Jesus, can safely bring God’s power in a way that will only do us good, not harm. This is how Jesus is the fulfilment of the O.T.: he is himself the temple of God, the high priest of God, the atoning sacrifice of God, and so on. Thus he is the one mediator that can bring us to a holy God in communion. If we come to God through faith in Jesus, this is the relationship to his glorious, holy power we can expect, be assured of. (Without Jesus we cannot expect this.)
It is important to see God as powerful, or otherwise we may admire his love and words, but we will not trust him to be mighty and active enough to make good on his kind intentions and declarations.
The power of the Lord was ‘with him’. Because of his relationship to God—‘My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’, anointed by the Spirit—God’s power is uniquely with him to a degree no other before or after has had. Yet this same power is ‘with’ us, his people, through the ages until he comes again.
18-21
Bringing a friend to Jesus for healing
‘finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd’ – again we have that ‘press’ from 5:1. Imagine this scene and atmosphere and how the friends felt.
An amazing, preposterous scene of amazing, preposterous (obstinate, creative) faith!
‘he saw their faith’ – a person’s faith is something seen (not just professed—it inevitably produces actions based on trust in God, living one’s life on that basis, on that assumption); and our faith apparently can bring someone else at least to the feet of Jesus and bring his blessing on them – our faith.
‘This detail seems to indicate that God honors us as we seek to lead others to the Lord’ (Bock, 104).
‘Jesus saw their resourcefulness, in opening up the roof-tiles and letting him down, as a sign that they really believed God was at work and that all this effort would be worthwhile. Again and again Jesus makes a connection between faith and the power of God’ (Wright, 60).
Faith and Power
We must trust God to receive from him whatever he wants to powerfully and graciously give to us. Our unbelief blocks his mighty generosity. (I’m, of course, not talking about ‘if you’re not healed, you don’t have enough faith’, but receiving salvation and strength from God’s Spirit in any way he chooses to grant it, for grant it, the word tells us, he desires to do.)
Jesus Pulls a Surprise
‘Jesus pulls a surprise’ (Bock, 104): ‘your sins are forgiven you’. ‘No doubt the crowed expected a healing… But instead Jesus talks about sin. And thus again a miracle becomes a parable. This time it pictures the presence of the destructive forces of sin in the world. This man is a painting of the effects of the Fall… Jesus claims to have the authority to reverse those effects’ (Bock, 105).
Identity Crisis
‘Who’ – the Pharisees and lawyers do rightly see this as an identity issue. Who can Jesus be, or think he is, to say such a thing?
‘They make an instant theological assessment and recognized that Jesus is making unique claims—claims that are blasphemous if they are not true’ (Bock, 103).
Blasphemy: who can forgive sins but God alone? Who has the power and authority to do this?
‘They see the stakes correctly. They understand how great Jesus’ claim is. The issue of blasphemy will become a central concern at Jesus’ trial, as Jesus reiterates an authority for himself there that the leadership will question… To blaspheme was to perform and action that violated God’s majesty. Claiming a prerogative that was only God’s would be such a violation. So the issue raised by the act and its proclamation is authority pure and simple. Jesus has implied the same authority in Luke 4:18. In his own eyes, Jesus is more than a teach of ethics’ (Bock, 105).
‘Only God can forgive sins, and the normal way he did it, within their system, was through the Temple and all that went on there – the sacrificial system, the rituals of cleansing, the great festivals, not least the Day of Atonement. If anyone could speak for God, declaring to the people that God had forgiven their sins, it would be the priests, particularly the high priest, once sacrificial atonement had been made.
‘Jesus is slicing through all of that, and declaring on his own authority that this particular man is now right with God – all because of his friends’ faith. It isn’t so much that Jesus is “claiming to be God” (though Luke will soon make it clear that when people met Jesus they were indeed meeting God); he is claiming to speak for God, in a way which undercuts the normal channels of authority. From the Pharisees’ point of view, this is worse than they had feared’ (Wright, 60-61).
22-26
A Heart Issue
Jesus perceived – why do you question in your hearts? Jesus discerns what they’re thinking (perhaps by the looks on their faces and the gasps or clucks from their mouths) and knows this is a heart issue, to do as much with our will as our intelligence, with trusting as much as understanding.
The Conundrum
Which is easier? Which is the greater miracle requiring divine power, ability only God the Creator could have? To make the created body sound again or make the created soul/spirit sound again? To put the body back together or put the heart back together?
‘Jesus poses a conundrum… Now there is irony here. It is easier to say sin is forgiven, since one cannot see it. But actually to forgive sin is the harder thing to do. Still, the healing of a lame man could be corroborated visually; one could see its success immediately… Healing will reveal the authority to forgive—and in the process raise many questions about who Jesus is… God does not help sinners, so what will happen? Jesus has put theological stakes on the event. Will God vindicate him?’ (Bock, 105-06).
His grace is evident to his sceptical hearers—‘that you may know’ (‘be convinced’, Wright). He seeks to spread real and saving knowledge of himself to us, even we who are sceptical, distrustful, proud in our own understanding.
Son of Man
The ‘Son of Man’ – see Daniel 7:13-14. ‘The phrase could simply mean “a human being”; but the way Daniel 7 was read by many Jews in Jesus’ day gave the figure a much more specific meaning. This would be the Messiah, the one through whom God would set up his kingdom at last after Israel’s long suffering’ (Wright, 61).
Authority
Authority (a form of power) on earth to forgive sins – authority is the issue here: one has to be the ‘highest court’ and ‘highest love’ to have this authority to forgive a person’s sins wholesale like this.
‘many would see that he was making a huge claim to authority. His actions and words were God’s real kingdom-work, and God would vindicate him, despite the persecutions that he would suffer. At a stroke, Jesus has summoned up a lively element from contemporary Jewish thought and hope, and has pressed it into service in his own case. The healing of the paralysed man functions, as he intended it to, as a sign that this authority was real. It worked’ (Wright, 61).
‘In sum, Jesus’ claim to have special authority and so to be a unique human being is the issue of the passage. The beauty of Jesus’ use of this idiom alongside his action is that it allows him to raise a question about his identity in terms that honor both his unique authority and his humanity’ (Bock, 106)
The Miracle
Jesus does the lesser or ‘easier’ (which is harder in their eyes) to show them he can do the harder (which is easier in their eyes). A visible testimony that he can do the harder, invisible thing.
‘if Jesus is not who he claims to be, then this man should not walk away healed. The fact that the paralytic walks away healed means that some type of transcendent power operates through Jesus’ (Bock, 103).
The miracle ‘immediately’ occurs – the man walks home ‘glorifying God’, which we’ve seen before is one common and appropriate response to God’s gracious, powerful hand working in history, in our lives. This is what Mary and Zechariah and Elizabeth and Simeon and Anna and the Shepherds were all doing.
What to make of it all!
Seized by amazement, filled with awe, they too glorify God.
‘We have seen extraordinary things today.’ Love that!
‘The combination of healing, authority-claims, and the sharp dispute with the leading pressure group of the time, was beyond anything they’d known before. The word for “extraordinary things” in the last line is paradoxa… Jesus’ whole public career consisted in standing things the other way up from how people had expected. When people come to him today with even a grain of faith, the unexpected still can and does occur’ (Wright, 61).
‘Again Luke ends the passage asking the reader implicitly to ponder what has taken place. What happened? What has been claimed about what happened? Events speak louder than words (7:18-23): the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins… Jesus has just painted a picture that speaks more than a library full of books on Christology… AS the paralytic walks, the question becomes who will walk with him and share the forgiveness of Jesus’ claims’ (Bock, 107).
Will we trust Jesus’ authority to forgive our sins?
Works Cited:
Darrell Bock, Luke
Joel Green, The Gospel of Luke
Tom Wright, Luke for Everyone
0 comments:
Post a Comment