Luke 5

When Jesus comes to save, He shows many signs of His divine power. In Luke 5, His disciples witness His authority over all of His creatures as He brings large quantities of fish into their nets. They had been fishing all night but with no yield. Yet at His command they let down the nets. But it was not only the disciples who obeyed His Word. A persuasive man may be able to convince another person to do something, if he is asking for something that is within the power of the one who is listening. But who can make fish obey in large numbers, at just the right time, and at just the right place? We live in an age of scarcity. If we do not feel it at the moment, we know that we can feel it at any time. There is an age coming when we will trust perfectly in the bountiful provision of the Son of God to sustain us. The disciples were given an opportunity to glance at that age in this amazing miracle of Jesus.

We might imagine that the disciples would be dancing for joy at the prosperity of the sea that was theirs according to the provision of Jesus. They were not. They were overcome by this display of heavenly power. Peter was filled with a great sense of his own sin, and asked Jesus to depart from him. James and John were astonished. What is amazing is that Jesus then said something that caused them to leave all those fish behind; even their boats, their nets, everything was abandoned. “From now on you will be catching men.” The power of the voice of the Son of God is the power that spoke the world into being. He is irresistible in His glorious might. They followed Him, and we follow Him, because His people are still catching people with the net of the Word.

This great Son of God is able to heal all of your infirmities. He overturned the leprosy of a man who begged Him for help. He touched Him and spoke, and the man was cleansed. He was willing to do this. It is with full hearts that we say to God through Christ, “Thy will be done.” His ways are very good. We want things in our lives to be cleansed, fixed, restored, and whole, and Jesus can do this as He displays the signs of the Kingdom. At His return there will be a complete overturning of all of the effects of the curse. While we wait and look for that day, one of the main things that we are to do is something that He was passionate to do. He prayed. We know that heaven rules, and we ask for every deliverance on earth through the power of our God in heaven.

Not only do we want the gifts of heaven for ourselves, but we also seek the gifts of God for others. Like those who carried the paralyzed man to Jesus, and lowered him down through the roof in order to bring him to this Healer, we long for these blessings upon many people. We believe that God wants us to approach Him in faith, not only for ourselves, but for those in need all around us. Jesus, in helping this man, first declared his sins to be forgiven. Some of the scribes and the Pharisees thought that such a statement was overreaching, but the Lord proved them wrong by following it with another few words: “Rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”

In this important incident, Jesus is drawing our attention to the connection between sin and suffering. We instinctively feel that there must be a connection between these two things. Because of our tendency toward inadequate theological thinking, we seem to only consider our individual sin versus others around us, and we are puzzled why we would face such trouble, since we are such uncommonly good folks. The fuller picture that Jesus paints for us, is a canvas of creation that has been fatally marred by the madness of the fall, with our own sins adding to the desecration. The only way to restore beauty and permanence to what has been so badly hurt is to bring about the true forgiveness of sin, and the elimination of its deadly consequences. This can only happen through the cross and the resurrection. It is in anticipation of these events that these great healings are being done, and that these great words of forgiveness are announced.

There are those who are setting themselves up as strange enemies of this great work of loving restoration. They grumble at things that should make them dance. They are unable to see the beauty of a lame man restored in his ability to move, or of those outside of the protection and blessing of covenantal life having table fellowship with One who came to heal and to forgive. They miss the joy and the victory that is there for us in this difficult life, because they do not receive the word of an acceptable physician in their midst who is powerful enough to overturn the effects of the fall.

This great Teacher, Healer, Savior, and Friend still invites us with the simple words, “Follow Me.” His is not a ministry of gloom and doom, though there are many reasons for both. He comes with rejoicing and peace for all who will receive Him and follow. For such people there are many treasures in the Word of God. He is the Bridegroom. He will be taken away for a time, but He is coming back for His bride. It is because of the assurance that we have of the power of His Word that we are able to rejoice even now as we wait for the coming of the fullness of our salvation. It is our delight to be caught up in His net. We have no desire to fill our lives with foolish wriggling as those who would search with all their might for some way out of His love. He has caught us not to judge us, but to save us. By His willingness to face the debt of our sins, we have been forgiven and we are healed.