Luke 5:17-26 — Crowded House (of forgivenessss)
READ THIS: Luke 5:17-26
17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. 20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”
WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY?
This is a classic story. There's an incredibly crowded house listening to Jesus teach, but there was a group of buddies on a mission to get their friend healed by Jesus. When they couldn't get past the group of people listening to Jesus, they yeeted onto a roof and lowered their paralyzed friend down to Jesus instead. Jesus forgives the dude's sins, and the Pharisees start thinking that Jesus thinks He's God. Jesus responds to their THOUGHTS and says that it's easy to tell someone that his/her sins are forgiven, but saying that doesn't prove that it's true. Being able to heal someone's paralyzed body is something that can be proven true or not. So, Jesus heals the guy to show that what Jesus says is full of truth. Not only was the dude forgiven of his sins, but he also was healed from paralysis. And that caused everyone to praise God!
We say a LOT of things throughout the day, and sometimes the truth of them can't be seen right off the bat. Forgiving someone's sins is something that truly cannot physically be seen, but there is a profound difference when someone is truly forgiven.
THINK ABOUT IT:
1. How can you tell if you have truly forgiven someone if it can't physically be seen? What are times that you have truly forgiven someone who has genuinely hurt you?
2. When has someone said they forgave you but it didn't really seem like the truth? Why not?
TRY THIS:
Think over the times that you said you have forgiven someone....is there anyone who you said you forgave but you didn't actually? Pray about that person and ask God to help you truly forgive that person!
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