Building Resilience: Daily Devotions to Strengthen Your Spirit

WEDNESDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2023

TEXT: Luke 5:17-39

17. One day, while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting near by (they had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem); and the power of the Lord was with him to heal.

18. Just then some men came, carrying a paralyzed man on a bed. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus;

19. but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus.

20. When he saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”

21. Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, “Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

22. When Jesus perceived their questionings, he answered them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts?

23. Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you, ’or to say, “Stand up and walk’?

24. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”-he said to the one who was paralyzed-“I say to you, stand up and take your bed and go to your home.”

25. Immediately he stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went to his home, glorifying God.

26. Amazement seized all of them, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen strange things today.”

27. After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.”

28. And he got up, left everything, and followed him.

29. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him on his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them.

30. The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

31. Jesus answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick;

32. I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

33. Then they said to him, “John’s disciples, like the disciples of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink.”

34. Jesus said to them, “You cannot make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?

35. The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”

36. He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old.

37. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.

38. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

39. And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says, “The old is good.”

(New Revised Standard Version Holy Bible)

TOPIC: JESUS HAS AUTHORITY TO HEAL AND FORGIVE SINNERS

In today’s reading, we see desperate people opposing the obstacles against their paralytic friend receiving healing (vs. 17-20).

Being sure of Jesus’ power and authority to heal, they devised a means to reach Him: “They went upon the housetop, and let him down through the roof with his couch into the midst before Jesus.”

What great faith and determination to get their problems solved. Jesus was moved by such faith and did not only heal him but pronounced forgiveness on the man because He knew that the cause of his ill-health was sin.

We also see that His authority to forgive was questioned for lack of knowledge about His true identity. In response, Jesus said, “That you may know that I have authority and power on earth to forgive, I said to the man, ‘Arise, take up your couch and go’” (vs. 23-25).

Jesus came for sinners because sin is a major cause of man’s problems. He is the new wine that is better for all (vs. 37-39). He cares for our needs as long as we look unto Him.

QUESTION: Do you believe that the authority to heal and forgive belongs to Jesus?

PRAYER: Grant me, Oh Lord, the grace to seek Your face for solutions to the problems of my life this day and always, in Jesus name. Amen.