Any new invention or method brings changes. Any new discovery brings about a revolution in thinking and practice.
We know about the Copernican revolution, for example. The Ptolemaic cosmology understood that the sun and all the planets revolved around the earth. The earth was at the centre. But Copernicus said, no, the Sun was at the centre, and the earth revolved around the sun. And this involved a radical shift in thinking, called the Copernican Revolution.
Technological advances have led to what we might call, ‘revolutions’. Computers and telecommunications and the internet has revolutionised education or research or work. Children need computers for their assignments, and need to access the internet. Hard copy encyclopaedias are now unnecessary. Mum typing up the assignment on a manual typewriter, or handwriting it, is a thing of the past. Now people can work from home and access all their work data over the internet. The internet and computer mean we now have call centres in India dealing with our telephone problems in Sydney.
Now almost every young person has a mobile phone. They text and twitter and facebook and MSN each other, even when they are standing in a circle together. They can listen to music on their phones or watch movies. Now we have not one ABC, but 3. And we all need a digital set top box to access it.
And I haven’t said anything about all of the inventions of the last century. The Aeroplane, the Motor Car, Nuclear Power, Satellites, Hydraulics, digital imaging and camera technology, and Medical advances like anesthetic or key hole surgery.
New things bring about changes. Some good, some bad. In our society, we tend to see these developments in technology as great improvements. And often we are tempted to put our faith in ‘science’ or ‘development’, as if it were a god that can save us. We have been trained to look for the new ‘revolution’ that will save us, that will make our life better.
Jesus also was a revolution when he came. He was such a radical change, such a great leap forward, such a technological advance, that many of the old laws and observations about life had to be suspended, rethought, and thrown out. Because the coming of Jesus revolutionized the human understanding of God and the way to be right with him. Can I come near to the Holy God? Can I sinner, be forgiven, and come near him? How? Can I be made clean before him? Jesus brought in a whole new way of thinking about these things.
Whenever a new innovation comes in, the old technology is resistant. The Beatles and Rock music. Pah… They’ll never amount to anything. This internet and world wide web – it’s just a phase. The old ways are best. A pen and paper and a decent library.
Jesus understandably found this kind of attitude.
The Pharisees and the Scribes were the custodian of the old ways. And they found Jesus’ new attitudes shocking. He eats with those traitorous tax collectors, who take money from our people and give it to the Roman oppressors. He associates with known sinners. He is to be found with notorious prostitutes and demoniacs. He is at table with the sick, the lame, those known to be cursed of God. He doesn’t fast, like we righteous people, who fast twice a week. Instead, he eats with sinners.
And of course this shocked the scribes and Pharisees. For the new liberal ways were scandalous.
But at the very end of Luke Chapter 5, Jesus replies to them with two parables. In the Essential Jesus, at the top of page 22. 4th paragraph down is the first one:
Jesus replied, “Are you able to make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Jesus likens his own coming to a wedding. It is a happy occasion. And he himself is bridegroom. Now, modern Australian weddings are all about the coming of the bride. She chooses the music, she walks down the aisle, and the bridegroom is waiting for her if she is late. But in ancient middle-eastern weddings, it was the bridegroom who was waited for. And the bridesmaids waited for him at the father of the bride’s house. He was the one who had the luxury of being late. And the whole point is, when he comes, it is a time of celebration, not of mourning. It is a time of feasting, not of fasting. Jesus’ presence means party time.
But his words also point to a coming sadness. There will be a time of mourning and fasting. For he will be taken away. Jesus will be taken out and crucified. That is where Luke is heading – and it happens in Chapter 23 of the Essential Jesus. And that will be a time of fasting and mourning for his followers..
The second parable is in the last paragraph of chapter 5. Page 22. He uses lessons from mending clothes and wine storage. We tend not to know about mending clothes. We live in a throw away society. But Jesus reminds us that you don’t cut up a new shirt to repair an old one. Nor do you use new material to patch up an old one. For the new patch would not match.
Similarly with wine storage. Young wine needs to be stored in young wineskins. Otherwise, it will destroy the old wineskins and spill everywhere. Old wine needs to be in old wineskins. And young wine needs to be in young wineskins. And the lover of old wines doesn’t want new wine. They now have the palette for well matured wine. So it is with the Pharisees. They do not have the taste for Jesus’ new ways. They believe their ways are best and will stick to them. And they frown upon Jesus’ association with tax collectors and sinners.
But the very reason Jesus has come is for the sinners. He says on the second paragraph of page 22 that he came for sinners:
And Jesus replied, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to invite the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Jesus has not come for the spiritually healthy, at least, for those who think themselves OK. We know that there is no-one righteous, not even one, and that no-one living is righteous before God (Rom 3:1-12; Psalm 143:1). So those who think themselves righteous before God because of something in them, because of their good works or their holiness, are desparately mistaken. Jesus has come for the spiritually sick. He is the friend of sinner. As Paul would later say, ‘Christ came into the world to save sinners’. (1 Tim 1:15)
Jesus calls us to repent. We must acknowledge our sins. And we must turn away from our sins and to turn to Christ as the saviour of sinners. That is repentance. And that is what Jesus has come to call on us to do.
And this fact explains the four stories contained in Luke chapter 5. Christ came not for the healthy, but for the sick. He came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And these four stories show Jesus’ willingness and ability to save sinners.
The first account was of a miraculous catch of fish. The miraculous catch per se was not the important thing. The miraculous catch was a sign to those who saw it of who Jesus was. Jesus had been teaching from the boat. One imagines he had been teaching about himself. After all, the first sermon Luke records was how Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy. In his teaching, Jesus had been guiding them in how to live in God’s world. And now Jesus is guiding them to where the fish were to be caught. The catch of fish was the sign and seal on Jesus’ teaching. Peter, Andrew, James and John saw all this. And they were gripped with fear. And Peter speaks for all of them when he falls at Jesus’ knees and says: Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
Isaiah sees the glory and holiness of Yahweh and he says, ‘woe to me, I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips’ (Isaiah 6:5ff). David says in the midst of his transgressions: ‘look away from me that I may rejoice again before I depart and am no more (Psalm 39:13 NIV). And Simon Peter sees the Holy God in Jesus, and so says, “Go away from me. I am a sinful man”.
But this is where the mercy and love of Christ for sinners steps in. For with the coming of Christ comes a new way of approaching sinners. Peter is right to confess his sinfulness. And so are we. But he is wrong to bid the Lord Jesus to go away. “Go away from me, Doctor, for I am a sick man”. Is that not why Jesus has come? It is not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick.
Jesus is the Doctor coming to heal the Spiritually sick. Jesus is the Soul Physician who has come not for the righteous but sinners. And so Jesus replies. Don’t be afraid. From now on, you will catch people. From a fisherman, Peter becomes a fisher of men. From a sinner wishing Jesus away, Peter realizes that sinners need to go away and be with Jesus. For Jesus brings in a new situation. And hearing Christ’s invitation to sinners, Peter and Andrew and James and John leave everything and follow Jesus.
And friends, so it is with us. We might be great sinners, as Peter and Paul, and Andrew and James and John. We might rightly fear God’s holiness. But in Christ Jesus we have one who will take us from being great sinners and make us into fishers of men. Jesus brings us a new situation and a fresh start for us sinners. He has work for us to do, despite our sin. For he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And we get to be not just the called, but callers, not just the caught, but catchers, not just fish, but fishers, bidding fellow sinners to come follow the saviour.
The second story tells us Jesus is willing and able to make the unclean clean. The man who asks for help is a leper. This meant he was excluded from society as ritually unclean. Leviticus 13 says that such a person must wear torn clothes, messy hair, cover the lower part of his face, and cry out ‘unclean, unclean’. He also had to live alone (Leviticus 13:45-46 NIV) Not surprisingly, leprosy was often associated with sin.
So this man was very bold to come out to Jesus. Rather than cry out ‘unclean’, he saw Jesus and begged him: ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean”.
And then Jesus does something unheard of. Fully knowing that kneeling before him was a leper, Knowing that one touch would render any other man unclean as well, Jesus stretches out his hand and touches the man. For Jesus’ is not like any other man. One touch from Jesus can make the unclean, clean. And then Jesus speaks. “I am willing. Be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. Jesus is willing and able to make the unclean clean.
And so yet again we see the new situation brought in by Jesus. That Jesus cleanses the unclean, and touches the untouchable.
The third story tells us about four friends and a paralysed man. So desperate are they to get their friend before Jesus, that they started dismantling a roof to lower him down before Jesus. Imagine making the insurance claim. “Look, all I did was I invite Jesus over. “I didn’t think anyone would do this to my house!
Nevertheless, Jesus looks favourably on the partial demolition of the house. So we read: When Jesus saw their faith he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven”.
What? They didn’t do all this for forgiveness. They want their friend to walk again. And in any event, who does Jesus think he is? As the scribes and Pharisees think to themselves: Who is this who speaks such blasphemies? Who is able to forgive sins except God alone?
What is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up and walk’? At one level, it is easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven’. Easy to say. Because only at the Judgment will it be seen whether it is true. Forgiveness is God’s business. He must forgive.
By saying ‘Your sins are forgiven’, Jesus completely reframes the discussion. His coming is not just about healing (as important as that is), but forgiveness. The issue to be worked out is ‘Who is Jesus?’ ‘Does he have the right to forgive sins on behalf of God?’
The Pharisees think Jesus has blasphemed. They believe Jesus has transgressed on God’s territory. Unless, of course, Jesus is God. Then Jesus is playing on his home ground when he forgives sins.
Those sitting around couldn’t see forgiveness. But they could see whether the man was still paralysed or not. And Jesus wanted to show that he could forgive. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins… He said to the paralysed man, “I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go back home.” And the man did.
The man came to Jesus hoping to walk home. The outcome was much better. He walked home forgiven!
And it is still the case. Jesus is God. And as God, Jesus forgives sinners their sins, when they repent and believe. Jesus calls sinners to repentance. And when Jesus sees faith, he forgives. And Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever. Jesus forgives the sins of people who turn and trust in him.
And we have even greater proof than a paralysed man walking away. We have the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification (Romans 4:25). Jesus came for sinners, to justify them, to credit them righteousness. To forgive them their sin. So let us live the life of repenting and faith that he calls us to.
Let’s pray.
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