Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving through Luke’s gospel, we come to an event, specifically a miracle, where it appears as though Jesus uses this event to prove a point. However, this event does more than simply prove a point that most Christians currently believe today. In this event, we discover just how powerful faith in Jesus is and we discover something amazing about who Jesus was.

Our event and passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 5, and we will read it using the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 17, Luke tells us that:

¹⁷ One day some Pharisees and experts in the Law of Moses sat listening to Jesus teach. They had come from every village in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem.

God had given Jesus the power to heal the sick, ¹⁸ and some people came carrying a crippled man on a mat. They tried to take him inside the house and put him in front of Jesus. ¹⁹ But because of the crowd, they could not get him to Jesus. So they went up on the roof, where they removed some tiles and let the mat down in the middle of the room.

²⁰ When Jesus saw how much faith they had, he said to the crippled man, “My friend, your sins are forgiven.”

²¹ The Pharisees and the experts began arguing, “Jesus must think he is God! Only God can forgive sins.”

²² Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he said, “Why are you thinking that? ²³ Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and walk? ²⁴ But now you will see that the Son of Man has the right to forgive sins here on earth.” Jesus then said to the man, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk home.”

²⁵ At once the man stood up in front of everyone. He picked up his mat and went home, giving thanks to God. ²⁶ Everyone was amazed and praised God. What they saw surprised them, and they said, “We have seen a great miracle today!”

In this event, three big ideas jump off the page at me.

First, it is amazing in my mind how Luke describes Jesus meeting this crippled man. Verse 20 describes this moment for us by saying, “When Jesus saw how much faith they [referring to this man’s friends] had, he said to the crippled man…”

While we are quick to jump to the message Jesus shared with the crippled man regarding this man’s forgiveness, it is very easy to skip over the detail that Luke alludes to. This man didn’t have significant faith in Jesus. Instead, this man’s friends had the unstoppable faith that, one way or another, they would get their friend in front of Jesus.

This is significant for us to pay attention to because it tells us that our faith can impact the lives of unbelievers around us. This man’s friends, while they were not receiving much of any personal benefit from carrying their crippled friend to Jesus, made a huge impact on the crippled man’s life. This miracle happened entirely because this man’s friends had faith in Jesus!

Second, when we look at Jesus’ message, the reaction of the religious leaders, and then at the miracle that happened, we are left to conclude something powerful. If Jesus had spoken outside of God’s will, God would not have allowed the man to be healed. Because of this, Jesus’ teaching was validated by God regardless of whether the religious leaders believed Jesus had the power or authority that He claimed to have.

This detail is significant for us to pay attention to because sometimes God will validate a message He sends with a miracle. However, don’t expect this to be God’s default method. In the gospels, this might be the only time Jesus uses a miracle to prove a spiritual point. In every other case I can think of right now, the miracles were given to help people and to cause people to pay attention. Once people were paying attention, Jesus then teaches a message that stood on its own.

Regardless of whether you believe Jesus’ message here, I don’t believe God would have let this man be healed if this teaching negatively impacted the impression those present had of God.

The third big idea I see in this passage comes in what Jesus’ key idea is. While Jesus does ultimately claim the right to forgive sins, this is not the key piece of His message. The key part of Jesus’ message is that this man’s sins were forgiven. Luke writes Jesus’ words in verse 20, saying, “My friend, your sins are forgiven.”

Looking at the details of what is said and what isn’t said here, Jesus does not say, “My friend, I forgive your sins” even though Jesus potentially could have said this. While the way the Pharisees and religious leaders respond seems to appear that they heard Jesus directly forgiving sins, Jesus’ message to this crippled man was one that assured him that his sins were forgiven.

From the earlier details that Luke includes, Jesus saw faith in the actions of this man’s friends. Luke does not indicate this crippled man had any faith. From the context of the message of forgiveness Jesus shared with this man, part of me wonders and could logically conclude this man believed God was punishing him for some sin in his past, and because of this sin, there was no hope that God loved him enough to heal him. The man’s friends had faith in Jesus’ healing ability, but this man doubted that God even wanted him to be healed. If God was punishing this man for a sin in his past, there would have been no way for Jesus to heal him against God’s will!

Jesus’ message to this man was not, “I forgive your sins”; Jesus’ message to this man was that his sins were forgiven. God was not holding a grudge against this man and punishing him by keeping him crippled. Instead, God loved this man enough that He led four friends to carry this man to Jesus, and to not be discouraged or give up when a crowd was not interested in letting them through.

Jesus ultimately does challenge those present regarding His authority to forgive sins, but the bigger message here is that Jesus came to assure us that our sins have already been forgiven and that God is not angry with us. God loves us and that is the entire reason why Jesus came to this world! God loves you and me and Jesus came to help us understand just how much God loves humanity!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to accept that He has forgiven you of your sins. Accept this truth through what Jesus came to this world to accomplish. Choose to place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and His sacrifice for you and me on our behalf.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God. Through prayer and Bible study, discover just how much God loves you and I and discover what He was willing to give to redeem us from being trapped in sin. Don’t let your relationship with God be based on the opinions of others. Study out God’s truth for yourself from the Bible to discover what God wants you to learn from His Word.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or doubt yourself out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Picking back up where we left off in our last episode, Jesus continues sharing during His famous Sermon on the Mount about the importance of doing things privately for God rather than publicly for the praise of others.

But before Jesus picks back up with this focus, He has a short, challenging message for all of His followers. Of all the challenging messages and difficult ideas Jesus shares, this one is one of the most challenging and difficult, if for no other reason than because of its subject matter.

Let’s pick up reading where we ended off last week in Jesus’ sermon. Continuing in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 6, using the New International Reader’s Version, immediately following Jesus finishing the model prayer, He tells us starting in verse 14 that we should:

¹⁴ Forgive other people when they sin against you. If you do, your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive the sins of other people, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Pausing briefly, I want to emphasize this huge, challenging idea. If we do not forgive other people, God will not forgive us. This makes forgiveness one of the most significant characteristics of God’s people, and some might say that this is the most significant.

If you struggle with forgiving others, then perhaps this challenge from Jesus is a wakeup call for you to ask God for His help to forgive others, to forgive a specific situation, or to simply let go of a past issue that keeps coming to mind. If we hold on to the past, this unforgiving spirit hurts us more than we realize and it ultimately damages our relationships with others and our relationship with God.

After challenging those present with this message of forgiveness, Jesus continues preaching. Picking back up in verse 16, Jesus told the crowd:

¹⁶ “When you go without eating, do not look gloomy like those who only pretend to be holy. They make their faces look very sad. They want to show people they are fasting. What I’m about to tell you is true. They have received their complete reward. ¹⁷ But when you go without eating, put olive oil on your head. Wash your face. ¹⁸ Then others will not know that you are fasting. Only your Father, who can’t be seen, will know it. Your Father will reward you, because he sees what you do secretly.

¹⁹ “Do not gather for yourselves riches on earth. Moths and rats can destroy them. Thieves can break in and steal them. ²⁰ Instead, gather for yourselves riches in heaven. There, moths and rats do not destroy them. There, thieves do not break in and steal them. ²¹ Your heart will be where your riches are.

²² “The eye is like a lamp for the body. Suppose your eyes are healthy. Then your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But suppose your eyes can’t see well. Then your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light inside you is darkness, then it is very dark!

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters at the same time. You will hate one of them and love the other. Or you will be faithful to one and dislike the other. You can’t serve God and money at the same time.

We’ll stop reading here. In this section of Jesus’ sermon, He reemphasizes the importance of doing things for God in secret, and in a way that only God will see what you are doing. He extends the living, giving, helping, and praying in private to also fasting in private. When we do things secretly for God, we trust that He will reward us.

Jesus compares our doing good for others and doing things secretly for God like making deposits in a heavenly bank account, or like gathering riches in heaven. While we understand the importance of saving and earning money in an earthly sense, Jesus tells us that all the money in the earth is not as safe as a single penny in heaven.

Money on earth can erode, it can decompose, or in our highly digital society, a seemingly insignificant computer glitch can take our money from abundant to absent. While this isn’t a statement for or against a cashless society, Jesus does make the challenge that money acquired here on earth is temporary at best. Instead, we should focus on growing money in heaven.

While this sounds great on the surface, growing money in heaven works differently than growing money on earth. Giving all your money away here on earth can earn some riches in heaven, but heavenly wealth is measured in different terms than earthly wealth, and there is no guarantee that giving money on earth will earn treasure in heaven.

Some might wonder how we earn treasure in heaven, since Jesus appears to place great emphasis on this here in His message. The answer has been what we have been subtly focusing on over the past couple of episodes. We earn treasure in heaven when we do things privately for God, when we give in secret, when we help anonymously, and when we pray privately. When we live for God in a way that gives God the glory, and when we do things for God in ways that cannot be praised or rewarded by others, then we earn treasure in heaven, and treasure in heaven cannot decay, treasure in heaven cannot be stolen, and treasure in heaven does not disappear over time.

Treasure in heaven gains heavenly interest, and while treasure in heaven doesn’t earn us a place in heaven, we can only earn treasure in heaven when we are living for God and have accepted His sacrifice on our behalf.

Ultimately, Jesus tells us that the most valuable part of our treasure in heaven is our hearts, because when our hearts are focused on our heavenly treasure, we live for God in more significant ways than if our hearts are focused on the things of this world.

Jesus finishes by challenging us that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot be looking for and seeking after things in this life while also being 100% dedicated to God in heaven. The challenge Jesus ends with is deciding whether you will serve God, or whether you will chase money or wealth here on earth. We cannot do both, and while society tells us we should choose wealth, Jesus has already framed wealth as not lasting past this life.

God wants us to be rich in heavenly riches, and this comes through focusing on God, serving Him, and living our lives in ways that secretly and publicly honor Him!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, continue seeking God first and choose to place Him first in your life. Choose to grow riches in heaven by serving God in secret ways while also publicly acknowledging Him. Help others anonymously, give secretly, live subtly, pray privately, and when growing close to God through other spiritual disciplines, do so in a way that others won’t be able to tell. What we do for God in secret is what God will reward us for when we reach heaven!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and move closer to God. While learning from others is good, always take what you learn and filter it through your personal, private time in prayer and in the Bible. It is through this personal prayer and Bible study where God wants to grow a personal relationship with you and He will teach you what is worth focusing on when we bring what we learn to Him in prayer and study!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or stop moving towards where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!