5:17 Jesus’ ministry, as Luke has noted a couple of times (4:14; 5:15), attracts wide attention. The Pharisees and scribes from all over Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, having heard about Jesus, come to investigate his message. The Pharisees were a popular lay movement in Israel, though some priests were also Pharisees (cf. 5:30; 6:7; 7:30; 11:53; 14:3; 15:2). The Pharisees wanted the Torah to be kept so that the Lord would fulfill his covenant promises for Israel. They wanted obedience not to be more difficult but to be more accessible for the ordinary Israelite. They taught that all of Israel should be pure and devoted to the Lord. The “teachers of the law” were not radically distinct from the Pharisees; they gave regulations on what living under the law looked like, instructing the people on what pleased the Lord. While they were present, Luke remarks, power to heal was present in the person of Jesus (cf. 6:19; 8:46).

5:18–19 While Jesus is teaching, a most unusual event occurs. Four men arrive, carrying a paralyzed man on a pallet. They desire to bring him to Jesus so that the man can be healed, but the crowds are so large that they cannot get near Jesus. Thus they go up on the roof, remove some tiles, and lower the man down to Jesus’ feet.

5:20–21 Jesus does not respond in the way the four men expected, or in the way the crowd anticipated either. Instead of healing the man, he proclaims that his sins are forgiven. He does so in response to the faith of the four men who have carried him, and it is probable that the paralytic exercises faith himself (included in the pronoun “their”), though Luke does not emphasize that point. Jesus will later declare a sinful woman to be forgiven as well (7:48). We see from this declaration that forgiveness of sins is the greatest need for human beings, even more important than being healed.

The scribes and Pharisees immediately object to what Jesus has said. “Scribes” is another way of speaking of the “teachers of the law” (5:17).71 They think Jesus is guilty of blasphemy, arrogating to himself what belongs to God alone. We see in Leviticus 24:10–16, 23 that those who blaspheme the name are to be put to death. In particular, they believe Jesus’ claim that he could forgive sins constitutes blasphemy (cf. Luke 7:49). The OT emphasizes that forgiveness of sins is a divine prerogative (Isa. 43:25; 44:22; 55:7). It is one thing to declare a person forgiven based on the Lord’s promise to forgive; it is another thing to claim that one has the intrinsic authority to forgive sins—and they believe Jesus is doing the latter.

5:22–23 Jesus does not need to be told about the thoughts of the Pharisees or the scribes. He knows their thoughts, and the word used for thoughts (Gk. dialogismous) is always used for evil thoughts in Luke (2:35; 6:8; 9:46, 47; 24:38). We could say that Jesus’ ability to discern what they are thinking indicates his prophetic status, but in a text that points to his divine identity, the ability points to his divine stature (cf. 6:8; 9:47; 11:17). In asking the Pharisees and scribes a question, Jesus asks them to reflect on their motives and intentions. He then proceeds to ask another question to bring them to deeper reflection. Is it easier to say that one’s sins are forgiven or to say “Rise and walk” (5:23)? Both are equally easy to say, of course, and thus Jesus means which of the two is easier to do. The answer is that both are equally difficult to do; both are divine activities. We read in Psalm 103:3 that the Lord “forgives all your iniquity” and “heals all your diseases.” Both healing and forgiveness are the prerogative of God alone. God can delegate such authority to human beings, but ultimately God heals and God forgives.

5:24 Jesus does not dismiss the Pharisees and scribes as critics and doubters. He provides evidence to buttress his claims. He wants them to know that he has an intrinsic authority to forgive sins. Incidentally, Jesus could have explained at this juncture that the Pharisees and scribes were misunderstanding him, that he was simply saying that people who repent and believe are forgiven of their sins. The apostles, after all, declare that people who turn from their sin to God in Christ are forgiven (John 20:23; Acts 2:38; 8:22; 10:43; 2 Cor. 2:10), but there is no sense that apostles or other Christians have inherent authority to forgive. When forgiveness is pronounced, it is done so in Christ’s name. Jesus, however, is claiming here that he has authority as the Son of Man to forgive sins, that he has intrinsic divine authority to forgive.

The reference to the Son of Man reverts to Daniel 7:13–14, where the “son of man” comes “with the clouds of heaven” to the “Ancient of Days” and a kingdom is given to him, one that will never pass away. This is the first time we find “Son of Man” in reference to Jesus in the Gospel; in sum it appears twenty-five times, so frequent it proves to be Jesus’ preferred term in reference to himself.72 We see here that the Son of Man is divine, since he has “authority on earth to forgive sins.” Jesus demonstrates his authority by asking the paralyzed man to pick up his mattress and to go home. We have already seen that both healing and forgiving sins are equally impossible for human beings, that they are divine activities, and thus in healing the man it is evident that Jesus has intrinsic divine authority both to heal and to forgive sins (cf. comment on 5:22–23).

5:25–26 Jesus’ word, like the word of God in creation (cf. Gen. 1:3; Ps. 33:6), is immediately effective. The man picks up his mattress and goes to his house, giving praise to God (cf. Luke 2:20; 13:13; 17:15; 18:43). The room buzzes with astonishment, and people give glory to God (cf. 7:16). The fear associated with the supernatural strikes them all (cf. 1:65). They know they are in the presence of the holy. They knew they have not seen an ordinary occurrence. We saw in our discussion of 2:11–12 that “today” is an important term in Luke, signifying that the day of fulfillment has come, that the Lord is fulfilling his promises to his people.