Luke 5:17-26 - "Now It Happened on a Certain Day"

17 Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. 18 Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. Today we will begin looking at the next section of verses in Luke 5:17-26 as Jesus and His disciples continue to minister in the dark region of Galilee. From the other Gospels, it appears that on this particular occasion that Jesus in in the little town of Capernaum. This was Peter’s hometown and most likely they were at Peter’s house. And on this “certain day, the crowd gathered to see Jesus heal and to hear Him teach.   But a new element was added: some of the official religious leaders from Jerusalem were present to investigate what He was doing. They had every right to do this since it was the responsibility of the elders to prevent false prophets from leading the people astray (Deut. 13; 18:15-22). They had interrogated John the Baptist (John 1:19-34) and now they would examine Jesus of Nazareth.   The rulers in Jerusalem had already been in conflict with the Lord. John's gospel shows an early developing hostility toward Him. The time had come for them to confront this country preacher on His own ground. Members of the religious elite arrived from all parts of the country. Especially visible were the Pharisees, who took the lead throughout the Gospels in opposing Christ. Their very presence and the presence of learned doctors of the Law from Jerusalem itself would, it was hoped, intimidate this man from Nazareth. Nazareth! "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46).   Since this is the first time the scribes, the teachers of the law, and the Pharisees are mentioned in Luke's Gospel, it would be good for us to get acquainted with them. The word Pharisee comes from a Hebrew word that means "to divide, to separate." The scribes and Pharisees probably developed out of the ministry of Ezra, the priest, who taught the Jewish people to obey the Law of Moses and be separate from the heathen nations around them (Ezra 9-10; Neh. 8-9). The great desire of the scribes and Pharisees was to understand and magnify God's Law and apply it in their daily lives.   However, the movement soon became quite legalistic, and its leaders laid so many burdens on the people that it was impossible to "serve the Lord with gladness" (Ps. 100:2). Furthermore, many of the Pharisees were proud arrogant hypocrites and did not practice what they preached (see Matt. 15:1-20; 23:1-36). In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7), Jesus exposed the shallowness of Pharisaical religion. He explained that true righteousness is a matter of the heart and not external religious practices alone.   The scribes and Pharisees picked a good time to attend one of our Lord's meetings, because God's power was present in a special way and Jesus would heal a man who had the palsy, meaning he was paralyzed. If leprosy illustrates the corruption and defilement of sin, then palsy is a picture of the paralysis that sin produces in a life. But Jesus would do more than heal the man; He would also forgive his sins and teach the crowd a lesson in forgiveness.   The first thing I notice from this passage is that it says, “Now it happened on a certain day”. Remember the healing of the leper in the previous verses happened “in a certain city”. This reminds me that God is always at work in certain places and certain days!   Today, wherever you might be, is that special certain day for you to trust the Lord and find forgiveness of your sins and to have your life forever changed!   God bless!