Rev Gav

Pharisee

Luke 5:20-21

²⁰ Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.”

²¹ But the Pharisees and teachers of religious law said to themselves, “Who does he think he is? That’s blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”

Reflect

Jesus had just done something even more outrageous than ever before. He had just said to a paralysed man that his sins were forgiven. Now, Jesus was not forgiving the man for something bad that he had done to Jesus. Jesus was saying that all the man’s sins were forgiven. All of them. Everything he had ever thought, said, or done wrong, and there was no-one on earth that could do that, except, perhaps, God.

Now the Pharisees — the unofficial religious law police — were watching all this. In fact, they were there to check Jesus out. There is probably nothing Jesus could have said that was more provocative than telling a guy his sins were forgiven, and so, the Pharisees began to question the validity of what Jesus was saying.

Firstly, Jesus had immediately broken the religious law. a\According to the Pharisees, no-one could forgive sins apart from God, and to have your sins forgiven meant obeying a whole bunch of laws and rituals. In doing so, Jesus must have been claiming to speak on behalf of God, bypassing the need for the religious law. Secondly, worse than that, by making this claim, Jesus was guilty of blasphemy — a crime against God — and a line had definitely been crossed.

Christians do not follow a set of rules or regulations that need to be obeyed. They start by following Jesus. Now, of course, following Jesus means trying to live like Jesus — listening to Jesus and living what he taught — but it is not the obedience to rules themselves that help us get close to God, it is faith — trusting, adhering to, and relying on Jesus. I heard a vicar once say, “There’s nothing you can do to make God love you more, and nothing you can do to make God love you less.” It’s a phrase worth remembering.

Do

Today, know there is nothing you can do to make God love you more and nothing you can do to make God love you less. Have faith in Jesus and admit that you are accepted by God.

Pray

Holy God
Thank you that you love me
and accept me for who I am.
Help me to trust in your Son, Jesus Christ,
to follow him and rely on him.
This day and for ever.
Amen.

Think

Why do you think the Pharisees and experts in the religious law did not accept who Jesus was?