Luke 5:17-32
The Gracious Healer

It happened on one of those days, that he was teaching; and there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every village of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was with him to heal them. Behold, men brought a paralyzed man on a cot, and they sought to bring him in to lay before Jesus. Not finding a way to bring him in because of the multitude, they went up to the housetop, and let him down through the tiles with his cot into the midst before Jesus. Seeing their faith, he said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."

The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?"

But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, answered them, "Why are you reasoning so in your hearts? Which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you;' or to say, 'Arise and walk?' But 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, arise, and take up your cot, and go to your house."

Immediately he rose up before them, and took up that which he was laying on, and departed to his house, glorifying God. Amazement took hold on all, and they glorified God. They were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen strange things today."

After these things he went out, and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and said to him, "Follow me!"

He left everything, and rose up and followed him. Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them. Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus answered them, "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

World English Bible

Both of the stories in the passage above stand powerfully by themselves. The paralyzed man was restored both spiritually and physically in what was a demonstration of both grace and of power. The outcast tax collector was not only brought into the new community of believers but was asked to be one of the twelve disciples of this outspoken rabbi. In both stories, Jesus' actions confounded and frustrated the powerful religious leaders. Their consuming devotion to preserving a fragile holiness did not allow for acceptance of obvious sinners like the tax collector, or implied sinners like the paralytic, for surely his physical condition was the punishment for sins either he or his parents had committed. Jesus contradicted their theology and challenged their authority so that everyone would see that God loves sinners.

Another thread connecting these two stories is the idea of spiritual healing, and Jesus in both stories draws a parallel with physical healing so that people would understand His mission. I find three principles related to spiritual healing illustrated in these two stories.

The first principle is that Jesus makes us whole. The physical results are obvious in both stories, as the paralyzed man walks and Levi abandons his previous career to follow Jesus. Jesus went so far as to heal the paralyzed man's soul first as a reminder of what is most important, but He healed both soul and body so there could be no question in the minds of those observing what Jesus came to do.

The rhetorical question Jesus asked the scribes and Pharisees—"Which is easier to say?"—should give us pause. On the one hand, Jesus' rejoinder to His critics noted that it took the same exertion to speak words of pardon as it did words of healing, and both sets of words showed God's miraculous power in the life of this man. On the other hand, we know from the rest of Jesus' life just how profound a sacrifice He made to grant us forgiveness. These are not mere words intended to mystify the masses and bewilder the arrogant—these are precious words of eternal life.

The second principle is that Jesus heals everyone. It might appear from the first story that it took an unusual demonstration of faith and creativity by the man's friends to evoke Jesus' healing, but the second story dispels any ideas of prerequisite actions. The friends found Jesus, but Jesus sought out Levi. People were curious and eager to see Jesus, but no one would have willingly made eye contact with a tax collector, for not only were tax collectors traitors and sinners, but they were opportunistic in collecting money from people. Still, in the commonly understood theology of that era, neither man had done what was required to get back into "good standing" with God. The paralytic might have tried to offer the sacrifices he could from the money he begged, but his continued immobility was thought to be evidence that he had not yet given a sufficient offering to counteract the evil in his past. Levi might have still participated in Jewish worship despite the hostility of the other worshippers, but he more likely had stopped even trying to placate a judgmental God. None of that mattered to Jesus.

The third principle is that we have to know that we are sick to be healed. It is obvious, even so early in the biography recounted by Luke, that the scribes and Pharisees did not get along with Jesus. In this selection, Jesus chastised their fixation on a legalistic religion in the face of the truth of God's Love, so Jesus did not mean in the allegory that these religious leaders were "those who are healthy". However, it was the religious leaders' own assessments that held consequences—if they believed themselves to be healthy, they would not seek out a physician, and their illnesses would prove fatal. Jesus' metaphor is a warning that while He is always near, we have to reach out to Him in faith.

I may be stretching, but in the last sentence of this passage, Jesus uses a word translated here as "call" that also could be translated as "invite". The choice of this word could be intentional, given that the context of the story was at the party Levi threw for his friends to introduce them to Jesus. In the upper class society of this era, hosts would invite well-statused people to a party hoping for a reciprocating invitation, for the host's standing and reputation would be enhanced by being seen at the right parties. No upwardly-mobile host would invite poor people to a party, because it would lower his standing in the opinions of others. Jesus is not inviting people for social purposes, and those who believe they can give back to Jesus as equals do not recognize Him as God. Jesus can only invite those who recognize that they can offer nothing of value in return—this is a pure expression of Grace.

Jesus offers to all of us a wholeness beyond what we can comprehend. To accept this offer, we must give up our delusions of self-sufficiency and independence. We cannot recognize His true Holy character without accepting our own desperate, sinful nature and accepting the Grace that can make us truly complete—the creatures that God has always intended us to be.