I love when this reading comes around, it is one of my favorites you might say. Here Jesus forgives the sins of a paralyzed man. When the so called religious elite question Jesus about His authority to do so, Jesus doubles down and cures the man of his paralysis as well. Jesus is such a rebel lover, boundless love and exuberance.
There is another example of this boundless rebel exuberant love in this passage though. You may have missed it. Right there in the first paragraph is Jesus curing a leper. Can you fathom all the ways this is wrong for Jesus to do? Lepers are unclean, Jesus should have nothing to do with him. Jesus touches the man! Yikes, that would make you ritually unclean at the least. You just didn't go around touching lepers. This 'leprosy' was the sign of impurity and sinfulness of the man. Don't touch him! Jesus puts aside all the bullshite, has compassion, empathy and love, so He reaches out touches the man and cures him. Such rebel love ( by human standards ) is enough to make you sit back and cry. Jesus' love is so unfathomable to us. His love is so outside the norms, He disregards the rules that stand in the way of love and cures. Jesus still tells the man to see the Rabbi's but He cures the man without hesitation and certainly at risk to his own self.
I know people that are vexations to the Spirit. I know people who hate others, hate me. I know there are people who are willfully ignorant, arrogant and the epitome of human hypocrisy. These are the lepers of today. We all judge, in every direction. We judge them, they judge us. We are sinners, they are sinners, everyone truly are sinners. WWJD?
There is no question in my mind that Jesus loves us all, even the ones that we think are lepers, sinners and not worthy by our paltry human standards. Not only does Jesus love us, he does so radically, like a rebel, against and above all and any human judgment.
For Jesus the rebel whom we hope to emulate and celebrate in our own actions, we pray.
Luke 5:12-26
Once, when he was in one of the cities, there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground and begged him, ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.’ Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, ‘I do choose. Be made clean.’ Immediately the leprosy left him. And he ordered him to tell no one. ‘Go’, he said, ‘and show yourself to the priest, and, as Moses commanded, make an offering for your cleansing, for a testimony to them.’ But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases.But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.
One day, while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting nearby (they had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem); and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. Just then some men came, carrying a paralysed man on a bed. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; 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. When he saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you.’ Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, ‘Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ When Jesus perceived their questionings, he answered them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you”, 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 one who was paralysed—‘I say to you, stand up and take your bed and go to your home.’ Immediately he stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went to his home, glorifying God. Amazement seized all of them, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, ‘We have seen strange things today.’
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