Monday 6 Dec 2021

December 6: Luke 5:17-21

Key Verse: Luke 5:20
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven.’

Devotion:
Can you imagine the commotion as Jesus was teaching the Pharisees and teachers of the law; in amongst this all, there were people bringing the sick for Jesus to heal. This story is about a group of men who were carrying their paralysed friend to come and get healed by Jesus. This man must have been able to convince the others how amazing Jesus was and how he would be able to walk again – if only they could get him to see Jesus face to face.

But there was a bit of a problem – there were simply too many people crowding around and trying to get a glimpse of Jesus as He taught. We would presume this would be like a sold-out performance; absolutely no more room! Maybe one of them was an engineer and they planned to get to Jesus via the roof. First they would have had to remove enough tiles to make enough space for their friend to be lowered down, then they would have had to organise rope and somehow lower him down without making too much mess otherwise everyone would have probably run out of the house they were in!

When they finally managed their task, Jesus turned to them and said “Friend, your sins are forgiven!” Now, we don’t know what had happened to this man or how he was paralysed, but between them they had enough faith to make this all happen – not to show off and say how adept they were, but simply to get their friend to be face to face with Jesus!

Of course the Pharisees and teachers all revolted about this because Jesus dared to say his sins were forgiven! This was the task of the chief priest after people had brought their sacrifices and done everything which was written down in the law books… What they were not seeing was this was their Messiah who had come to change the world and change the way they sacrificed, just as it was foretold! Don’t close your eyes just because you see something as not humanly possible...

Points to Ponder:
Do you limit your faith according to science and technology?

Will you allow God to work with the freedom He requires of us?