Day 18

Luke 4-6

One of my favorite historical events of Jesus' life is recorded in Luke 5:17-26. The characters of this event are the paralyzed man, his friends, the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, and Jesus. Lets look at each one of these charaters.

The paralytic man is in a bad place but gets healed. The friends are willing  to go to great lengths to help their friend. Failing to gain entrance to the meeting, the paralytics friends wouldn't quit. Their faith was great so they made their way to the roof. Creating a hole bis enough to lower the man through was no easy task. The Pharisees and teachers of the law included representatives from Jerusalem. These religious leaders were perhaps more influential than some because of where they came from. The Pharisees believed that people like the paralytic were in their predicament because of their sin. Jesus had been confronting the religious leaders about their false righteousness. The Pharisees righteousness was based on their works such as keeping the laws, feasts and etc. Jesus would establish that true righteousness can only come from a personal relationship with Him through faith.

The Pharisees got upset at Jesus because He said the paralytic's sins were forgiven and only God had the authority to forgive sin. This is a double edge sword that Jesus is using here. He know they believed that sicknesses and physical ailments were a result of sin. When Jesus heals the man, He is proving His authority over sin. To make it even more obvious, Jesus tells the man his sins are forgiven. If God can only forgive sin, then Jesus proves He is God by healing paraylisis, which is caused by sin in the Pharisee's minds.

In this historical event, Jesus further confronts the Pharisee's false righteousness and proves He is God. Do you have the correct view of righteousness. What makes you right with God? If it is any thing other than Jesus, you have an improper view of righteousness.