How Big is Your God?

Bible scholars have observed that Luke, a physician, takes special notice of physical healing. Just as a shepherd would take special notice whenever Jesus spoke about sheep, or a builder gives special attention to the construction metaphors, or a mother increases her attention as Jesus addresses children, Dr. Luke includes several healing stories in his gospel and the book of Acts.

Back in chapter 4 we saw a connection between demons and sickness. In today’s text we have 2 situations. The first situation connects faith with healing and the 2nd connects forgiveness with healing.

My big take-away from the first story is that…

Personal Faith Prompts Compassion (vv.17-20)

Caution, Cowardice & Compassion

1. For a leprous man to come within touching distance of Jesus was a break with all cultural expectations.

2. What was first discussed in Scripture in Lev 13-14 was an act of caution where it was acknowledged that some skin disease was benign (like acne or psoriasis) while other forms (like Hanson’s Disease) were terminal. At the time of the writing of Leviticus the people were living in a tent city and a contagious disease could spread quickly.

3. In Ancient Judaism, laboratory results of microscopic examination of blood test and nasal swabs was not available, so the priests, acting as community health officers, had to evaluate the symptoms. Because of the contagious nature of some skin afflictions, the safe course of action was to isolate the infected and prohibit them from social interaction. It was the original “social distancing” but was highlighted by the expectation that IF a person was in public, he was to cry out, “unclean! Unclean!” so that others could avoid him or her so that they would not be made “socially unclean”. This fear of being deemed “unclean” made many in Jesus’ day shrink back in cowardice regarding leprosy in all its forms.

Willem VanGemeren writes: This generic term was used for a variety of skin afflictions, most of which were benign, with one being malignant in character.

The hygienic regulations concerning leprosy in Lev 13–14 contain obscure terminology. The priest, acting as the community’s medical officer of health, followed a carefully-defined diagnostic procedure in order to separate benign conditions such as acne, psoriasis, and vitiligo from the malignant form known to modern medicine as Hansen’s disease. When a person’s friends discovered in him indications of localized inflammation, he was brought to the priest for diagnosis (13:9). A period of isolation enabled the priest to consider possible diagnostic alternatives. Leprosy was indicated if the suspicious cutaneous spot penetrated the skin and the local hair had turned white.[i]

4. To this man who was afflicted and alienated from the social and religious life of his community, Jesus reached out in compassion.

5. I think every one of us has had experience with medical professionals who represent themselves too clinical and we’ve also encountered clinicians who were filled with compassion.

When I think of Jesus touching this isolated man, I recall Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun of a previous generation, who became world renown for her willing touch of many in the streets of Kolkata whom others considered untouchable.

6. Even in our lifetime we have identified different illnesses that have been treated with sequester in the sanitarium, the hospital or the convalescent center. As I speak, many of us are aware of people that we love who are in quarantine due to an infection or in isolation because of their susceptibility to illness.

7. I am NOT saying that we should throw caution to the wind, to become presumptuous, or to act foolishly. That is NOT how God instructed His people in Leviticus. But, I AM asking us to consider if our reflex is to respond to others more like the cowardice of the 1st Century Jews or the compassion of our Savior during His first coming.

This Man trusted and learned without degrees

1. Individual and relational learning sometimes trumps the academy. I love and am committed to lifelong learning, but I fully recognize that not all learning happens in school.

2. In our next section we will find a group of “experts” who held wrong conclusions. We don’t know how this man came to form his hypothesis. He wouldn’t have been allowed in the synagogues where faith issues were discussed. He would not have been permitted to infiltrate the crowds of Luke 4:40 or those who pressed in to hear his teaching in last week’s text. He surely didn’t watch a YouTube video or Facebook poll.

Much is said in our society about “trusting the science”. But whose science do we trust? The scientific method as defined by Britannica is “is the technique used in the construction and testing of a scientific hypothesis.” But I was told that it was poor practice to use a word in defining the word so I looked further.

Oxford English Dictionary got me closer with “a method… consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.”

3. This man conducted his own scientific experiment. He hypothesized that Jesus could heal him, the tested that hypothesis by expressing his request to Jesus and he verified his findings through inspection by the priest.

Faith seeking Understanding

1. “Faith seeking understanding” (Fides quaerens intellectum) was a method pursued by St. Augustine in the 4th century and later revived by St. Anselm of Canterbury at the beginning of the 2nd millennium. It is the idea that a person commits himself or herself to believing, then explores more deeply how that commitment influences the rest of life.

1. Get involved in a group Bible Study like Sunday School or one of our mid-week groups. This is good not just because it will support what you already believe, but will introduce new perspectives on that same truth.

2. The Holy Spirit is a wonderful teacher as I meditate on God’s Word. However, I realize that the same Spirit who indwells me indwells others and that He may be instructing my brothers and sisters in ways I am not aware. Sometimes I don’t know what I don’t know and learning in community permits my understanding to spread and the ways I trust to increase.

Transition: The leper in vv.12-16 had a belief that needed to be tested and Jesus passed the test. In the next 10 verses we are introduced to some men who had a belief about their friend.

Group Faith Promotes Miracles (vv.17-26)

Men believed Jesus was a Difference-maker (vv.17-20)

1. The pictures in the Sunday School books usually feature 4 men each holding a rope tied to a corner of the cot. We don’t know if this was 2, 4 or more men. (v.18)

2. Some have speculated that they were simple miracle seekers who were curious if Jesus would be able to do anything for their friend. Whether they were motivated by their own curiosity or by their compassion for their friend, they would not be averted! They were so passionate that their friend encounter Jesus that they literally tore the roof off the place!

As a short sidenote: are we that passionate about our friends having an encounter with Jesus? Do we care enough to rip a hole in a roof? Do we care enough to chance an awkward conversation? Do we care enough to go out of our way? Do we make the lost a priority in our thinking and our schedules?

3. V.20a seems to indicate that they were more than curious, but that they had faith that Jesus could heal him.

4. Before Jesus gave a physical healing, Dr. Luke clearly states that Jesus did something more important first. He forgave sins. (v.20b)

Transition: Verse 17 setup the scene so that we know the Pharisees and legal experts are paying close attention. Jesus ratchets up the tension by moving from simple teaching to pronouncing the authority to forgive sin. Jesus knew this was the pitch that they were waiting for and they would drive it to deep outfield.

Pharisees and Law Experts (vv.21-23)

1. These are not the priests who performed sacrifices on behalf of people or attorneys whom one would elicit to mediate in court. The teachers of the law in v.17 are called the Scribes in v.21. These were not the practitioners, but the seminary professors or those who wrote the Law school textbooks.

2. While they wanted to move into theoretic debate, Jesus wanted to bring benefit to a suffering man.

3. In v.21 the book experts want to wander down the path of “What About-isms”. Jesus stayed focused on, “I’m going to help this guy.”

Transition: In this moment Jesus is engaging 3 audiences: the religious leaders are peeved, the friends are passionate, and the man is still paralyzed.

2 Great Needs (vv.24-26)

1. 2 Yous - “You may know” is plural; “I say to you” is singular.

2. All y’all need forgiveness (v.24a)

a. The religious leaders needed forgiveness

b. The friends who brought their friend needed forgiveness

c. Those who had gathered for a healing needed forgiveness.

d. Those sitting in these pews need forgiveness

e. The preacher standing in this pulpit needs forgiveness.

3. You need healing (v.24b)

a. The man before Jesus had legs that would not function.

b. What is the nature of your brokenness this morning?

· Do emotional wounds disable you?

· Is there a physical malady that isn’t quite right?

· Is there a relationship that need to be set straight?

c. What area in your life is marked by paralysis?

I don’t think I’m alone in this experience. When I stand up after sitting or lying too long it takes me a moment to gain my bearings. If you’ve had an arm or leg in a cast, it takes a little time to strengthen that limb after being constrained.

4. This man doesn’t only get up, he doesn’t just leap (as the man healed in Acts 3), he carries his bed as he walks out! I don’t know if he was paraplegic or quadriplegic, but when he leaves Jesus his heart has been forgiven and all four limbs are working as they should and he is glorifying God.

Conclusion:

Where do you find yourself in the characters of today’s stories?

o Do you find yourself in the crowd of people who had alienated the leper? Perhaps your takeaway is that “I need more compassion on those who suffer”.

o Do you find yourself as the wounded leper in need of a miracle? Perhaps your takeaway is that “I need to expect Jesus to intervene in my situation”.

o Maybe you identify with the men in v.18. Today you are asking yourself, “To what extent am I willing to go out of my way to bring other people to Jesus?”

o I don’t doubt that there are some listening right now who are caught in the “What aboutisms”. You’ve got one foot in the faith circle, but the other part of you still has questions that keep you from going all in. Your response this morning may be, “I will finally stop trusting my own logic and accept by faith that Jesus was God as He claimed; that He died, was buried, and rose again so that I could be forgiven and adopted into God’s family apart from good deeds of my own.

o Finally, you may identify with the paralyzed man. Your response today is to allow God to heal that thing that is broken in you (it may be physical, it may be emotional, it may be relational). God want you to experience Him in such a way that when you go home, you are glorifying God!

[i] Willem VanGemeren, ed., New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 846.