There is a crack in everything.
Our text this morning is a familiar one to many of us, I think.
And there's a reason why.
Because this is one of those texts where we get to see down clearly
through the crack in everything down into the heart of what's gone wrong
and what we need to fix it.
In fact, it looks down even into the struggles of our own heart.
So I want to approach this text very simply with two main points.
We see in this text that Jesus reveals your greatest need
and Jesus answers your greatest doubt.
So let's dive in.
First, Jesus reveals your greatest need.
Look with me again at verse 17.
On one of the verses, the teachers of the law were sitting there
who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem
and the power of the church with him to heal.
So here is Jesus.
He's beginning to sort of catch the attention at this early stage of his ministry.
Now the attention is sort of going broader to the religious leaders
and the religious authorities.
And they've gathered around to hear him teach.
Then verse 17.
And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed
and they were seeking 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 midst before Jesus.
And when he saw their faith, he said,
Man, your sins are forgiven you.
What exactly, friends, do you think your greatest need is?
I think we can guess pretty clearly what this man thought his was.
It's obvious to anyone who met him, right?
He was paralyzed.
He couldn't walk.
And think how massively that effect would have affected his whole life.
Economically, in an agricultural society, of course, he couldn't work.
He would have been utterly dependent on others for economic support.
Socially, his paralysis, without a doubt, affected where he could go,
who he could spend time with,
who maybe was even comfortable to spend time with him.
Relationally, it's possible that it meant he would maybe never marry,
never have a family.
And emotionally, psychologically, it must have been a crushing burden.
His disability filling him at times with despair,
at other times angry.
And emotionally,
at other times angry.
Picture yourself standing there with them,
peering down through the hole you just dug
through some guy's roof.
There you are,
standing with them,
peering down through the hole.
You see the crowd jammed into the house.
And Jesus looks up at you,
and he looks at your friend,
and he opens his mouth,
and you know he's going to say it.
Rise and walk.
He's going to say it.
Rise and walk.
Man,
your sins are forgiven you.
And I imagine at that moment,
the house went silent.
And your buddy up on the roof with you,
jabs you in the side and whispers,
did he just say your sins are forgiven?
Now,
what must be going through their minds at this moment?
What's going through your mind
as you stare down at Jesus?
I imagine partially,
it must have been something like this.
Well,
Jesus,
that's quite a nice thing to say.
But we were hoping you might be able to do something about,
well,
you see,
he is paralyzed after all.
Did you notice the bed?
We were thinking you might do something about his legs.
But in this moment,
Jesus is revealing something,
not just to these friends,
but to all of us.
No matter what you face in life,
no matter what trials or troubles you face,
your greatest need,
friends,
is the forgiveness of sins.
Now,
don't get me wrong.
God certainly cares about all of your other problems,
and needs as well.
And one day,
he will make everything right.
Don't we see a picture of that all over Jesus's ministry?
But here,
we're being graciously shown our deepest,
greatest,
most pernicious need.
Imagine going to the doctor because for the last week or two,
you've just had this nasty cough that won't go away.
And it's affecting your work,
and it's affecting your mood,
and it's making everything just miserable.
And so your doctor does a chest x-ray and discovers that sure enough,
you've got a nasty case of pneumonia.
But the images also happen to show something else.
Something you weren't looking for,
but it's clearly there on the screen.
All around your lungs,
your heart,
even your spine.
And the doctor says,
we'll get you something for your cough,
but your greatest need right now,
we're sorry to say,
is that your body is full of cancer,
and we have to act immediately.
And friends,
that is all of our condition,
spiritually speaking.
Now, of course,
we have trouble believing that the forgiveness of sins is our greatest need,
don't we?
Like that persistent,
irritating cough,
all of our other problems are just so much more in our face.
They're just so much more inconvenient.
But if we pause and consider what Jesus is telling us here,
it is true,
is it not?
Why is the forgiveness of sins our greatest need?
Well,
think first.
First,
because sin runs deeper.
If you go back to Genesis 3,
you see that when sin enters the world,
it breaks everything.
It's the problem under all the problems.
Our relationship to one another,
our relationship to the created world around us,
our relationship even to ourselves,
all of these become broken.
All of these are not the way they're supposed to be,
because sin deep down has broken our relationship with God.
Sin runs deeper.
It's the problem under all the problems.
Now,
what are we not saying here?
We're not saying that there's always a one-to-one connection between some specific sin in your life and some specific problem.
Note that this man in Luke chapter 5 is not paralyzed because he committed some particular sin.
That's not how it works.
However,
however,
the reason we live in a world where there are things like paralysis and joblessness and loneliness,
the reason why all these things afflict us is because the world has fallen.
The problem of sin runs deeper.
It's down underneath them all.
And fixing all those other problems won't actually solve this one.
When I was in high school,
I thought that if I could just fix the problem of not having a driver's license,
my life would be radically better.
Just think of the freedom I would know.
No longer waiting for my mom to pick me up with our dopey brown station wagon.
I would drive the dopey brown station wagon.
And I would take out all the seats in the middle and I would pile my friends in.
And sheer unending bliss would be the result.
And of course,
once I got my driver's license,
I realized it wasn't so.
It's a trite example,
I know,
but haven't you seen that to be true in much greater areas of your life?
You get the job,
but you still struggle with a sense of purpose.
You get the spouse,
but you still wrestle with loneliness.
You get the fame,
but it doesn't take away your insecurity.
You get the health,
but your body still deteriorates
and your end will still come.
There's something deeper that's wrong with us.
There's something deeper that needs to be put right.
But the problem of sin not only runs deeper,
it also lasts longer.
I wonder how long this man and Luke had been confined to his bed.
Do you think five years?
Do you think maybe 10 years?
Had his entire adult life been one of paralysis?
And yet friends,
the truth is that the alienation from God
that sin brings
won't last
just 70, 80, or even 90 years.
It will last for eternity.
Sin is a problem
with eternal consequences
because it is an offense against an eternal God.
But third,
sin not only runs deeper
and lasts longer,
sin also costs more.
And here's what I mean by that.
I mean that sin keeps us
from our greatest joy.
You and I were created
not just to have whole bodies
and loving relationships
and meaningful work.
You and I were created friends
to have fellowship with God.
Picture it.
From all eternity,
God the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Spirit
encompassing one another
in perfect love and joy.
Three in one.
One in three.
And like a great symphony
pouring out of the concert hall doors
and into the streets,
God made us to enter into His company.
To have our hearts full of His music.
To know that love and joy
and to reflect it into the world
with our own part to play.
Friends,
God made us to know Him.
To know Him who is perfect in every way.
Without limit and without reserve.
The one who is not just the cause
and the source of all joy,
but the one who is very joy itself.
Do you see why the forgiveness of sins
is our greatest need?
Do you see why Jesus reveals this to us?
Because it's possible to have
every earthly joy
and yet to lose fellowship
with joy itself.
Let me make one application
before moving to our second main point
and the rest of the passage.
Friends, I wonder if you can see yourself
in this man's experience.
If so, do you see how God can use
some difficulty in your life
to get down
to something much deeper?
This man's paralysis
opens the window
to Jesus' forgiveness
in his life.
And not just his life,
but the lives of those around him.
Would his friends
ever have brought him to Jesus
had he been able to walk?
Would he have ever realized
his need?
Of course, his disability
wasn't in itself
a good thing.
The things that are wrong
with our world
aren't in themselves good.
And one day,
God will eradicate
all of them.
But until that day,
God is able to use them.
He's able to take them
and to use them
and to show us
our deepest needs.
And ultimately,
through them,
to bring about
our eternal good.
This week,
Greg was telling me
about a talk he attended
last week
with David Brooks,
the New York Times columnist.
And Brooks was saying
how he's interviewed
a lot of people,
asking them,
what are the major things
in your life
that have really shaped you?
Or what are the events
that have really forged you
in a meaningful way?
And perhaps not surprisingly,
he found
that no one talks about
that wonderful vacation
to Hawaii.
or that delightful getaway
in the mountains.
Those weren't the events
that had a life-shaping,
life-transforming effect.
No, most of the time,
it's the hard things
that change and shape us.
It's difficult things
that open us up
in a way that nothing will.
So friends,
I know this sounds
very strange,
but don't squander
your hardships.
It's so easy
to just get angry
and to just grow bitter
and to just want
to get it over with
as quickly as possible.
And know,
to be sure,
God in his mercy
hears all of your cries,
but also seek
and ask God,
what are you showing me
through this?
What are you teaching me?
What are you forging in me
in and through this experience?
This could be the window
God uses
to open up
a whole new depth
of knowing him,
a whole new depth
of heart change,
a whole new means
of reaching those around you.
You know,
we often think
if this or that problem
were fixed,
then I could get on
with my life
and follow God
and serve Jesus.
But actually,
friends,
this may be your moment
when God is ready
to do his greatest work
through you.
You may not get
the physical healing
this man got,
but God still might be
in the process
of radically transforming
you nonetheless.
So this passage
reveals our greatest need,
the forgiveness of sins.
But second,
it also reveals
our greatest doubt.
Look again at verse 21.
And the scribes
and the Pharisees
began to question,
saying,
who is this
who speaks blasphemies?
Who can forgive sins
but God alone?
When Jesus perceived
their thoughts,
he answered them,
why do you question
in your hearts?
Which is easier,
to say your sins
are forgiven you
or to say rise and walk,
but that you may know
that the Son of Man
has authority on earth
to forgive sins.
He said to the man
who was paralyzed,
I say to you,
rise,
pick up your bed
and go home.
Now the Pharisees,
of course,
are completely correct.
Only God can forgive sins.
Why?
Because sin,
properly speaking,
is vertical.
It is rejecting
and rebelling
against God,
our creator.
Imagine a married couple
sitting down
with a counselor
and they sit down
and they just start
to pour out
their grievances
against each other.
He did this,
she did this,
oh yeah,
he does this,
oh yeah,
well she does this.
And this goes on
for 15 minutes,
20 minutes.
And then finally,
when they begin
to quiet down,
the counselor
looks at the wife
and looks at the husband
and says,
I've heard your complaints
and I want you to know
I forgive you.
They're going to find
another counselor,
right?
Something is fundamentally
wrong with that picture.
Of course,
he or she,
that counselor,
doesn't have the right
to forgive.
They're not the offended party.
And friends,
when it comes to our sin,
our offense against God,
yes,
it might have effects
that go all across horizontally,
but the forgiveness of sin,
only God has the authority,
the right to forgive those.
Which means that Jesus' claim
here in Luke 5
is simply and undeniably radical.
In this moment,
he has closed off from us
so many of the explanations
that we want to
or that we try
to put on him.
A great teacher,
we think.
Perhaps even a great
miracle worker.
But Jesus has just declared
the authority
to forgive sins.
And who can forgive sins
but God alone?
Do you see how Jesus
is driving us
into a corner here,
friends?
He's pushing us up
against the doubt,
the question
that is the most important
one of all.
Does this man,
Jesus,
have the authority
to forgive my sins?
Can he be the answer
to my greatest need?
And if so,
what does that mean
about who this man
truly is?
Of course,
the Pharisees here
dismiss the possibility
immediately.
Only God can forgive sins
and they also happen
to know where
and how God forgives sins.
Thank you very much.
God forgives sins
at the temple
through the sacrificial system.
You see,
the Pharisaical mindset
has everything
under control.
I do my best
to keep the law
and when I mess up,
I take care of things
at the temple.
Who doesn't need
a little forgiveness
every now and then
after all?
No one's perfect.
So I do my duty,
I perform my sacrifices,
and I take care of it.
But you see,
they failed to see
the real point
of the sacrificial system
at the temple.
That whole business
was meant to point
beyond itself.
After all,
how could the sacrifice
of a mere animal
put sinful human beings
right before a holy God?
And doesn't the fact
that those sacrifices
have to be repeated
year after year after year
show that they were
insufficient for the task?
No, friends.
The temple was a signpost
that God set up
of something greater
to come.
It was a signal,
it was a sign,
it was a pointer
that God would come
and do something
in the future
to put us right
once and for all.
But the Pharisees
can't see it.
And so often
we miss it too,
don't we?
We think we have
everything under control.
I'll do my best.
And when I mess up,
I'll go to church
and take care of it.
After all,
no one's perfect.
But we fail to see
how serious
sin actually is.
We don't have it
under control.
It isn't something
we can just handle
with a little
church attendance here
and a few good works there.
It isn't a cough.
It's a cancer.
It's down in your bones
and you need to be rescued.
And only God can forgive.
Well, okay, we think.
So the Pharisees
had it wrong
trying to control God.
But why can't God
just forgive?
I mean, if he is good,
why doesn't he just
say the word
and forgive our sins?
Why is there any need
for Jesus?
But then again, friends,
does anyone just say
the word
when they truly forgive?
Isn't forgiveness
always costly?
If I borrow your copy
of Luther's commentary
on Galatians
because, hey,
it is the 500th anniversary
of the Reformation
after all,
why not catch up
on a little Reformation reading?
If I borrowed
your prized copy
of Luther's commentary
on Galatians
and I carelessly
drop it into the bathtub,
utterly ruining it,
there are really
only two options, right?
Either I pay
to replace the book
or you forgive me
and you absorb the cost.
But either way,
someone pays.
Someone bears
the cost of the wrong.
And that's true
even when the offense
is much more serious.
If a son says hurtful
or untrue things
about his father,
ruins his reputation,
breaks his heart,
what are the options?
Either the father
can make the son pay,
I'll write him
out of my will,
I'll tell everyone
what a selfish ingrate
he is at every
opportunity I get.
Or the father
can absorb
the cost of the wrong.
He can bear the pain
in himself
and he can forgive.
You see, friends,
no one just forgives,
no one just says
the word.
Someone pays the cost.
But now in verses 23
and 24 of our passage,
it looks like Jesus
does just say the word.
Which is easier to say?
Your sins are forgiven
or to say rise and walk?
But that you may know
that the Son of Man
has authority on earth
to forgive sins?
I say to you,
rise, pick up your bed
and go home.
Now, of course,
it's easier to say
your sins are forgiven you
because there's no way
of seeing whether or not
it actually worked, right?
That's Jesus' point here.
The rise and walk,
that one's a little easier
to verify.
So as a sign
of his authority
to say and do the former,
Jesus says and does
the latter.
To prove he has authority
to forgive sins,
he heals the man
of his paralysis.
But we've got to push
a little deeper than that,
don't we?
What gives Jesus
the authority
to speak that word
of forgiveness
with such ease?
Man, I say to you,
your sins are forgiven.
Of course,
Jesus is making a point
about who he is.
Fully human, yes,
but also fully God,
but there's more.
Jesus can speak this word
with such ease.
He can pronounce forgiveness
with just a word,
not just because of who he is,
but because of what
he's come to do.
Forgiveness is
always costly.
And that's exactly
what we see
as Luke's gospel unfolds.
Jesus,
the one who came
proclaiming freedom
for the captives
will himself be bound.
He himself
will be betrayed
and he will give himself up
to be pinned
to death on a cross.
Our sins
will be laid upon him
and he will absorb
their cost in full
once and for all.
Something that no
mere sacrifice
could ever do.
And three days later,
he will rise
and he will appear
to his disciples
and he will give them
no surprise,
this message.
Go into all the nations
and proclaim
the forgiveness
of sins
in my name.
How can Jesus
say the word
of forgiveness
to this man
in Luke 5?
What gives him
the right
to declare
that our sins
are forgiven?
And what gives
the church today
the right
to continue
to speak
this word
of forgiveness
in his name
to all who
put their trust
in him?
It's because
Jesus,
very God
and very man,
has done
what no one else
has
or can do.
he died
for our sins
and rose again
for our justification.
Friends,
Jesus has
the authority
to forgive
your sins.
To speak
the word
of forgiveness
that we need
to hear.
Now,
as we apply
this to our lives,
do you know
what it's like
to hear that word?
Maybe you're not
so sure you need it.
Maybe you're new
to Christian things.
Maybe a friend
invited you along
this morning.
But take a look
here at verse 25.
And immediately
the man rose up
before them,
picked up what
he had been lying on
and went home
glorifying God.
And amazement
seized them all
and they glorified God
and were filled
with all saying,
we have seen
extraordinary things today.
This man's
physical healing
is a window
into what his
spiritual healing
was like.
He could rise.
He could walk.
And most of all,
he could glorify
God.
Something had been
put right with him
and the God
who made him
such that now
his relationship
was one
of wonder
and praise.
Something had
been released.
A key
had been turned.
And now
he knew
real freedom
and real joy.
You see,
friends,
when Jesus
shows us
our need
for the forgiveness
of sins
and when we
see his
rightful authority
to actually
forgive them,
the results
can be surprising.
Of course,
it can feel
differently
for different people.
The English writer
Francis Buford
describes it this way.
He says,
what does it feel like
to feel yourself
forgiven?
In my experience,
he says,
it's like a toothache
stopping
because a tooth
has been removed.
It has the numb
surprisingness
of something
that hurt
not being there
anymore.
For some,
it's a flood
of joy.
For others,
it's the quiet
relief
of a long-standing
ache
finally going away.
One that you
had grown
so accustomed
to,
you thought it
was just part
of life.
the way
things worked
finally
being let go.
But underneath
all of these
experiences,
it's the reality
of being put
right with God.
Have you experienced
this?
Do you know
this joy,
this relief?
Jesus offers
it to everyone
who comes to him
in faith and trust.
You don't need
to dig a hole
through a roof.
You just need
to go to him
in prayer.
The word of
forgiveness
stands ready
for you today
if you will
turn and
trust in him.
But second,
if Jesus has
the authority
to forgive sins,
it means that
we should not
only trust him
for ourselves,
but we should
also eagerly
take others
to him as well.
Look again
at verses 18
and 19.
Look at the
length to which
these friends
will go in
order to
bring their
friend to
Jesus.
They dug a
hole through
a stranger's
roof.
And why did
they do it?
What gave
them the
courage and
the perseverance
and the
somewhat
insanity
to actually
do that?
Because they
knew Jesus
could help.
They had
heard the
reports.
They had
maybe even
met some
of the
people that
Jesus had
healed.
And how
much more,
friends,
can we have
that same
confidence today
because we
know him
not just
to be a
teacher and
not just
to be a
healer,
but we
know him
to be the
risen Lord.
Why don't I
invite my
friends to
lunch and
ask some
spiritual
questions?
Why don't I
give that
Christian book
to my
neighbor who
I've been
spending time
with?
Why don't I
invite my
roommate to
come to
church?
Friends,
if Jesus
does have
the authority
to forgive
sins,
then surely
we can be
confident that
he is exactly
who our
friends need
to meet,
no matter
what it
takes to
get him
there.
And you
might need
to take
the long
road around.
You might
have to
climb a
building or
two.
You might
have to
circumvent
a doubt
or two.
But no
matter how
patient or
how resourceful
we need to
be,
we can be
confident that
Jesus can and
does meet
us in our
need.
He has the
authority to
forgive sins.
So friends,
take this
message with
you.
Our greatest
need has been
met and our
greatest doubt
has been
answered.
Jesus has
the authority
to forgive
sins.
The crack
in everything
is being
mended.
Though we
are sinners,
in Jesus we
can be
declared right
with God.
So like
these people
in this
passage,
glorify him
with all
and let
no crowd
keep you
from coming
to him.
Let's
pray.
Lord Jesus,
we are
thankful
and we
are humbled
by the fact
that you
have come
and you
have declared
the forgiveness
of our
sins.
Help us
to embrace
this deep
down in
our hearts
so that we
too might
glorify you
with all
and know
the freedom
that it
brings.
Amen.