The Gospel of Luke Chapter 5:12-39

Jesus Releases a Man from Leprosy 5:12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came to him who was covered with leprosy. When

he saw Jesus, he bowed down with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing,

you can make me clean."

On another day when Jesus was in a certain town, a man with leprosy saw Jesus and came up to

Him—which was against the Law (Numbers 5:2, Leviticus 13:45). The man fell down on his face

before Jesus Christ and being full of faith that Jesus was able to heal, he doubted only his

willingness, and so cried "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."

5:13 So he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing. Be clean!" And immediately

the leprosy left him.

Jesus settled the issue of his willingness by reaching out His hand and touching the man saying "I am

willing, be cleansed." The leprosy immediately left him and he was completely healed.

5:14 Then he ordered the man to tell no one, but commanded him, "Go and show yourself to a priest,

and bring the offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

Jesus commanded the man to tell no one that he had been healed or that it was Jesus who healed

him. Instead he was to show himself to the priest and make the offering which the law commanded

following his cleansing (Leviticus 14:1-7).

5:15 But the news about him spread even more, and large crowds were gathering together to hear

him and to be healed of their illnesses.

But despite Jesus' instructions the report of His power to heal spread even faster and so the

multitudes that came to hear Him and be healed grew larger.

5:16 Yet Jesus himself frequently withdrew to the wilderness and prayed.

Jesus frequently withdrew from the multitudes into the desert to pray.

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Jesus Releases a Man from Paralysis and Sin 5:17 Now on one of those days, while he was teaching, there were Pharisees and teachers of the law

sitting nearby (who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem), and the

power of the Lord was with him to heal.

On one of those days Pharisees and teachers of the law came from every town from Galilee, Judea

and Jerusalem to hear Jesus’ teaching; and the power of the Lord was present to heal – a phrase

which confirms that the Lord had come to visit his people.

5:18 Just then some men showed up, carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They were trying to

bring him in and place him before Jesus.

Some men came to Him bring a man on a bed who was paralyzed. They tried to think out how they

could get the man to Jesus so that he could be healed.

5:19 But since they found no way to carry him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and

let him down on the stretcher through the roof tiles right in front of Jesus.

Since there was no way through the crowds they took the man to the housetop, removed the tiles

and lowered the man down through the roof at the feet of Jesus.

5:20 When Jesus saw their faith he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."

When Jesus saw the faith that the paralyzed man and his friends he looked beyond the physical need

to the condition of the man's soul. He said to him "Friend, your sins are forgiven you."

5:21 Then the experts in the law and the Pharisees began to think to themselves, "Who is this man

who is uttering blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

The Scribes and Pharisees who were sitting around heard Him say these words and reasoned within

themselves that Jesus was blaspheming, for only God that can forgive sins.

5:22 When Jesus perceived their hostile thoughts, he said to them, "Why are you raising objections

within yourselves?

Jesus read their thoughts and asked them why they reasoned such things in their hearts.

5:23-24 Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Stand up and walk'? But so that

you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" — he said to the paralyzed

man — "I tell you, stand up, take your stretcher and go home."

What is easier to say "your sins are forgiven" or "rise up and walk." Jesus was not expecting an

answer to his question, and so continues. His reasoning makes perfect sense, if his word has power

to heal then surely it may also be relied upon to forgive sins on earth. His all-powerful word

instructed the man to rise up and walk.

5:25 Immediately he stood up before them, picked up the stretcher he had been lying on, and went

home, glorifying God.

The man instantly got up took the bed he was lying on and went home giving glory to God. The

scribes and the Pharisees only saw Jesus as a man, not as the Son of God. "Though He was really a

man, and the son of man, yet He was God as well as man; He was God manifest in the flesh" (Gill).

5:26 Then astonishment seized them all, and they glorified God. They were filled with awe, saying,

"We have seen incredible things today."

All the people were overwhelmed with amazement and magnified the Lord God. Being filled with

fear declaring among themselves that they had seen very strange things happen. The word used for

"strange things" in the original is "paradox" which means something that appears false and absurd,

but is actually true.

Matthew Called 5:27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. "Follow

me," he said to him.

After the healing of the paralysed man Jesus went out from the house and saw one of the despised

tax collectors named Levi the son of Alphaeus also known as Matthew. He was sat at his usual place

near the sea shore ready to collect the tax for the Romans. Jesus turned to him and simply said

"follow me".

5:28 And he got up and followed him, leaving everything behind.

Without any hesitation Matthew completely abandoned his office and everything connected to it

and followed Jesus.

5:29 Then Levi gave a great banquet in his house for Jesus, and there was a large crowd of tax

collectors and others sitting at the table with them.

It would have been sometime after his call, not the same day, that Matthew held a great feast to

which he invited many of his old tax collector acquaintances and many others with them. As Jesus

was also present it can be safely assumed that Matthew had arranged this feast so that his guests

might hear Jesus for themselves.

5:30 But the Pharisees and their experts in the law complained to his disciples, saying, "Why do you

eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"

The scribes and Pharisees reproached the disciples of Jesus for their eating with tax collectors and

sinners.

5:31 Jesus answered them, "Those who are well don't need a physician, but those who are sick do.

But Jesus rebuked them with a well-known proverb. It is the sick, not the well, who need a doctor.

5:32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

In this verse Jesus reveals the purpose for which he came into the world: to call sinners to

repentance. No one is truly righteous in God’s sight, but those who think they are righteous will

reject God’s purpose for themselves. (Romans 3:10, Psalm 14:2-3).

A Question about Fasting 5:33 Then they said to him, "John's disciples frequently fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the

Pharisees, but yours continue to eat and drink."

Since Jesus was eating and drinking freely with Matthew, the scribes and Pharisees turned their

attention to austerity and fasting. They asked why it they and John’s disciples often fasted but his

disciples did not. This sounds to me like a question defending their self-righteousness.

5:34-35 So Jesus said to them, "You cannot make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is

with them, can you? But those days are coming, and when the bridegroom is taken from them, at

that time they will fast."

Jesus replies that the friends of the bridegroom do not fast while celebrating his wedding. The fact

that Jesus had come, the bridegroom, was a cause of celebration and joy. Yet a day would come

when he would be taken from His disciples by His death on the cross and then it would be time for

them to fast.

New is Better than Old 5:36 He also told them a parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old

garment. If he does, he will have torn the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.

Jesus then tells them a parable. If you need to repair an old garment you do not take a new piece of

cloth to patch it up with. There are two reasons for this. First the new piece of cloth will tear away

from the old and secondly the new piece will not match with the old.

5:37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and

will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.

No one with any sense will put new wine into old wineskins for as the new wine ferments it will

burst the old wineskins and be lost.

5:38 Instead new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

New wine must be put into new wineskins for as the wine ferments the new skins will expand.

5:39 No one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is good enough.' "

No one who has ever drunk old wine will want to drink new wine straightaway- one becomes

accustomed to a certain taste. Since the Pharisees want to have a go at Jesus for eating and drinking

wine, Jesus turns their thoughts to what truly matters. The old wine in the parable is the Old

Testament, and the new is the New Testament (Jeremiah 31:31, Hebrews 8:6, Hebrews 9:15, 2

Corinthians 3:6). Some, like Matthew and the other disciples had already accepted the new covenant

whilst the scribes and Pharisees were satisfied with the old covenant since in their self-righteousness

they failed to see its inadequacy to remove their sin. Hence they were not prepared to accept the

new, Jesus Christ.

© Derek Williams & Mathew Bartlett 2013 Bible Studies Online UK www.biblestudiesonline.org.uk You may copy, print or distribute our studies freely in any

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