12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy.1 And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 13 And Jesus2 stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and 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 Lord was with him to heal.318 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, 19 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. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 24 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.” 25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. 26 And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
Jesus Calls Levi
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Footnotes
[1] 5:12 Leprosy was a term for several skin diseases; see Leviticus 13 [2] 5:13 Greek he [3] 5:17 Some manuscripts was present to heal them
12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy.1 And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 13 And Jesus2 stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and 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 Lord was with him to heal.318 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, 19 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. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 24 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.” 25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. 26 And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
Jesus Calls Levi
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Footnotes
[1]5:12 Leprosy was a term for several skin diseases; see Leviticus 13 [2]5:13 Greek he [3]5:17 Some manuscripts was present to heal them
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Collin Hansen:
How's everybody doing? Yes. Very good. Excellent. On the podcast, that will just be me saying, how's everybody doing?
Collin Hansen:
And silence. So fantastic. If you would, in your Bibles, if you would turn to Luke, we're gonna be in chapter 5 tonight. We also have it in your, worship guide, printed out there in ESV, which is what I'm gonna be reading from tonight. So we're actually gonna be looking at, some pretty maybe for some of you familiar stories.
Collin Hansen:
For others of you, this might be the first time you've you've ever heard these. I would imagine for many of you, this is the first time you'll hear these 3 together. We're gonna be looking at 3, different stories in Luke chapter 5. And because of that, we're we're gonna dig in pretty fast and and hopefully, we're really going to listen to these stories with fresh ears. We're gonna be looking at the story of Jesus healing the leper, Jesus healing the paralytic, and then Jesus calling the disciple Levi.
Collin Hansen:
And so we're going to be looking at all 3 of these together because I believe that Luke is trying to give us a picture here. He's trying to show us something. And so if you have a notebook and a pen, there are a couple of questions I'm gonna throw out as we progress on. And if you wanna write those questions down, some of them we will answer as we as we look at the text. Others, I would really encourage you to think about these things after tonight.
Collin Hansen:
Sometimes we just take a sermon and we just we listen through like for that 20 to hour and a half, however long the sermon might go. We we listen to that sermon and then we just kind of let it let it lie. Like a good song, we just kind of listen to it and then we we move on to the next thing and and I'd really like to encourage you to take some of these things in, to ask these questions, to dig in deeply to this, and and to ask the tough questions. And if we do that, if we are here and we listen and we ask these questions, and if we are honest with ourselves, some of us might leave tonight grumbling. And so look with me in chapter 5 of Luke beginning with verse 12 and let's listen very carefully.
Collin Hansen:
This is the word of god. While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus stretched out his hand and he touched him saying, I will be clean. And immediately, the leprosy left him.
Collin Hansen:
And he charged him to tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as Moses commanded for a proof to them. But now even more the report about him went abroad and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities, but he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. On one of those days, as he was teaching Pharisees and 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 Lord was with him to heal. 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.
Collin Hansen:
They went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when they, when he saw their faith, he said, man, your son, your sins are forgiven you. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question saying, who is this who speaks blasphemies, who can forgive sin, 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.
Collin Hansen:
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, Bring and pick up your bed, and go home. And immediately, he rose before them and 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 awe, saying, we have seen extraordinary things today. And after this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth and he said to him, follow me and leaving everything.
Collin Hansen:
He rose and followed him and Levi made him a great feast in his house. And there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at the table with him and the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Pray with me, please.
Collin Hansen:
Father. We thank you for your word and we thank you for your spirit and we just ask that your spirit would teach us in this time that you would bring life into this place, that your truth would grow so deep in our hearts. Father, give us eyes to see and ears to hear you tonight. And we beg these things in the name of Christ and it's for his name among the nations that we ask. Amen.
Collin Hansen:
So, the challenge that I think Luke is presenting here is first and foremost actually something that we looked at a couple of weeks ago when Jesus was at the temple, boy Jesus at the temple, and that is this amazing thing that Jesus is probably different than we think he is. Now so often, I hear people, and I even hear myself, describing what Christianity is and what it's not. Who Jesus is and who he is not. We'll we'll talk about, what Jesus would do or buy, and all of these things that is trying to characterize who this Jesus is. And very often, it has very little to do with with what scripture tells us about Jesus.
Collin Hansen:
Has more to do with morality or our feelings or what we want Jesus to be like. And so when I asked you, who do you think this Jesus is? Something something is in your mind. You have some opinion as to who this Jesus is. And the challenge that Luke is giving us and the challenge that I wanna extend to you tonight is who do you think this Jesus is?
Collin Hansen:
And if we dive into this substantial amount of scripture here that that we would hopefully begin to see who he is and maybe that would challenge what you think now. And so that first question, who do you think Jesus is? And first, the first scene that I want us to look at is the scene of the, the leper. Something that we need to know about lepers, leper, or leprosy in scripture, it can mean a a lot of different diseases. It could it could mean various skin diseases, but one thing was true for people that were considered lepers.
Collin Hansen:
They were unclean. They were unclean. And there's this very tragic, description of lepers in Leviticus 5 that says that they would let their hang their hair hang low, that they would have to grow out their their facial hair long, that they would wear rags, They had to live away from society, and when someone would accidentally come close to them, they had to had to let out this yell. Unclean. I mean, think about the life of this person as they are set aside from society and they have to call this out.
Collin Hansen:
Anytime someone dared come near them, just so they wouldn't they wouldn't pass that disease on and and that life of being quarantined. And so that is the life that this man has lived. No job, begging, and no touching. And that makes sense. Right?
Collin Hansen:
No one needs to touch a leper because they're unclean, and then they would become unclean. But here is this man, he hears that Jesus is coming through and he makes his way into a crowd, which is rare. You're supposed to stay away from the crowds, and yet here he is rushing the crowd, rushing to where Jesus is, and he calls out. He fell on his face, it says. He fell on his face and he begged him.
Collin Hansen:
The word for beg there is the same as prayed. He prayed to this man, Jesus, and he said, if you will, you can make me clean. Look at that in verse 12. If you will, you can. You see, he is, he's acknowledging the fact that Jesus has the power to heal him.
Collin Hansen:
He's not questioning that. What he is questioning in this sentence is whether or not he will. Whether or not he desires to heal him. So the very first thing that he does is he falls on his face as he acknowledges the power, the power of Jesus. The word there in the Greek, the only reason I'll even say it is because you might even relate it to something that you've heard before, and that would be, dunamis.
Collin Hansen:
Dynamite might be a word. This power, that's that's where we get this word dynamite. He recognizes that he can, he is able, he has the power to do this healing, but will he? And so he calls out, if you desire, I know that you can. And this is the first time he's met this.
Collin Hansen:
See, priests didn't have, they they weren't known as healers of the lepers. They would they would recognize healing, they would attest to it, they would look upon it, and then they would go through the ceremony of cleansing the person. But as far as healing them, that that wasn't that wasn't common. And so here this interaction happens, of healing the leper. And Jesus responds, verse 13.
Collin Hansen:
And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, I will be clean. And immediately, the leprosy left him. I mean, this is an amazing scene. He then tells him to go and present himself to the priest, to go through what Moses had commanded. Let me just read to you, briefly what Moses commanded.
Collin Hansen:
Leviticus 14, and this shall be the law of the purse of the leprous person on the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall look. And then the most bizarre ritual takes place. If you if you've ever thought that communion was kind of a weird thing or baptism was a weird thing, person gets into water, goes underwater, comes out, if you thought that was odd in any way, what the what a leprous person had to do on a day of cleansing is insanity. He has to take 2 birds and cedarwood and scarlet yarn and hyssop.
Collin Hansen:
1 bird cut, blood drained, then the other bird has to be sprinkled with the blood of the one that was just killed. And then that blood then has to be sprinkled on the leprous man 7 times with the hyssop. And then he takes that now bloodied but alive bird into the wilderness and releases it in a very magical moment. But that signifies the fact that he is being released from this leprosy. He is clean.
Collin Hansen:
And then he also has to shave all the hair off of his body. Shave his head. It even says in Leviticus, shave your eyebrows. He has to shave every bit of hair off of his body. He goes through this ritual, and then he's able to go back into the camp, but not into his tent to sleep.
Collin Hansen:
He has to sleep outside of the tent for 7 days. And so for a week, he sleeps outside the tent. Then after that, the 8th day, he gets 2 male lambs and then a female lamb. He has to take them and some flour, and he has to take that before, then they sacrifice the lambs, and then this is where it gets really strange. The blood has to go on his right earlobe, his right big toe, didn't know that big toe was in the Old Testament, big toe is referenced, the blood has to go on that, and and then on his forehead.
Collin Hansen:
And then the oil. He has to take oil, big thumb, big toe, and then his earlobe, right earlobe. He has to go through all this, and then shave all the hair off his body again. Just in case 8 days ago that wasn't enough, shave it again, take a bath, now you're clean. All of this has to be done for him to be pronounced clean and to go back to living this normal life with everyone, to go back into society.
Collin Hansen:
And all this begins with this simple exchange of him recognizing the power of Jesus. If you will, I know you can. And Jesus says, I will be clean. And all of this that he had to do, imagine every every time he had to shave his head or his eyebrows or or or get the the birds or whatever it might be in there, he probably was poor, so he had there there were other rules for that as far as what could be substituted. Lesser animals.
Collin Hansen:
But how much joy he did this with. How joyful he was when he rushed back and he knew that he could shave his head and he could get these birds and he could have the blood put on him. As the blood is being put on him, imagine the happiest person possible. He's clean. Jesus has done this for him.
Collin Hansen:
He recognized the power of Jesus. But also keep in mind what Jesus did as he healed him. Probably for the first time in a very, very long time, someone touched him. How many years had it been since someone reached out and touched him? And with this touch came healing.
Collin Hansen:
See, even to touch someone that was unclean, I mean, it was considered sinful. I mean, Jesus here go he breaks through this Mosaic command not to even touch someone that's unclean. And he places his hand on him, and brings that healing. The power of Jesus demonstrated to the leper, The one who is unclean. Now, if you would look at the next scene that Luke gives us, starting with verse 17.
Collin Hansen:
In this, we get the story of these friends. Jesus has continued to heal people. And even from this last story, this last scene of the leper being healed, this story has gone out because if that was you, if you had spent years as a leper and no one talking to you, touching you, being near you, if this changed, you would tell this story. And so the story began to grow and grow of what Jesus was doing. And so now, it says in verse 17, people from every village in Galilee, in Judea, and Jerusalem start making their way to Jesus.
Collin Hansen:
And these men wanted to bring their friend. They wanted to bring their friend to Jesus. And once they got to where Jesus was, they saw there's no way that they could get in there. If you've heard this story before, this is people love to tell this one to little kids. Maybe because of action of them, like, cutting the roof or doing something like that.
Collin Hansen:
But it's this wonderful visual of someone bringing someone else to Jesus. This desperate hope in Jesus. And they lower him down, and this process probably took a while. I'm sure that they were interrupted pretty early on before he actually landed there in front of them. This process began where they're working to get him down, and then the friends, they're up there, but they don't they're not the ones coming down.
Collin Hansen:
It's just this guy riding a bed down, lowered in the midst. And these friends not letting anything stand in the way of getting their friend in front of this Jesus. They were desperate. And when he came down, I don't know if we can think of him being all that happy. I think that he was probably embarrassed.
Collin Hansen:
The spectacle that was having to to to come about interrupting all these important people and their important meeting where Jesus is teaching important things and he shows up. But his friends are determined. And it says that when Jesus saw their faith, he then says to the man, your sins are forgiven. That's great. That's great.
Collin Hansen:
Still on the bed. Not actually what I came here for. I came here for healing. That's not the most important thing right now. And you're That's not the most important thing right now.
Collin Hansen:
And Jesus says, no it is. This is the most pressing thing right now. See, more than any circumstance that might be going on, more than any anything that you might be experiencing right now in your life, Jesus is saying, no, That's actually not the most important thing. And I know for for many of you, that's probably very hard to hear. That you would lift up some area of your life and so say, no.
Collin Hansen:
This this actually is the most important thing going on right now. This is consuming my attention, this is consuming my time, this is the most important thing. And Jesus says, I understand why you would think that, but it's not. And Jesus gives the attention to the most pressing thing in this man's life, and he extends to him forgiveness. And this throws everybody off.
Collin Hansen:
You see, healing is not that offensive. Healing healing benefits everybody. Even the friends were like, hey, we we can benefit from this. I mean, we've been carrying our friend around. Now now he will he will walk.
Collin Hansen:
I mean, if he if he is healed, then then this is beneficial to all of us. But forgiveness, that's that's a lot trickier. That's a lot more offensive. And so these men, these scribes, these leaders, they start wondering in their hearts, who is this man? Who is this Jesus that extends forgiveness to someone?
Collin Hansen:
Side note, someone that didn't even ask for it. That's tricky. That's tricky. And he sees faith, not not necessarily from this man, but even from his friends. This is tricky.
Collin Hansen:
And Jesus extends forgiveness to show his authority. So we have seen his power with the leper, and now we are seeing his authority with the paralyzed man. His authority on earth displayed to forgive sins. And then he says, why do you think these things in your hearts? Why why do you turn these things over in your hearts that that you would think that I am being blasphemous?
Collin Hansen:
They say, who can forgive sins but God? And he says, you're right. Who can forgive sins but God? Which is easier, to say that you are healed and walk, or is it easier to say your sins are forgiven? Well, one of them is a lot easier to recognize.
Collin Hansen:
It's a lot easier to prove that someone can walk, that someone's been healed, because you can look at them and say they have been healed. But to say that they have been forgiven, that that's a lot more difficult. And so Jesus says, to prove this, to prove that he has been forgiven of his sins, to prove my authority, I will say, and he turns to the man and says, take up your bed and go walk. And it says that the men there, the men that are watching this happen, they are seized by amazement. They are taken by wonder at who this Jesus is.
Collin Hansen:
They are taken aback, even it says that they are fearful. Phobos, phobia, fear came to them as they saw who this Jesus is. It was great when he was a prophet, and he was saying all these good things. It it was even good when he was coming around and healing people. That was that was fine but now, he is stepping into a divine role, something god alone does.
Collin Hansen:
That is a lot more complicated. And so we continue with the call of Levi verse 27. After this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me. And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
Collin Hansen:
Now, the tax collectors, they worked for Rome. So here's a Jewish man working for Rome. That that's the worst possibility. There's a phrase for this, it's called turncoat. Whatever the situation comes up, whatever whatever is best for them, they'd go for that way.
Collin Hansen:
You see that the tax collectors were very wealthy. They'd skim off the top a little bit, and if you if you follow in this text, it says that he goes and prepares this big feast at his house, and all of his friends were there. And his friends were tax collectors. You know who the only person that's a tax collector's friend is a tax collector. That's that's all you can get.
Collin Hansen:
That's the community that you have, because you're gonna be shunned by everybody else. Here's this Jewish person. Here's a Hebrew that's working for Rome, stealing from us. And this is in Galilee. This is, one thought is that this is happening near the Sea of Galilee, and he was probably working the port where the boats would come in.
Collin Hansen:
He was taxing the fishermen. Earlier in 5, we just found out that Jesus just called some disciples. They were all fishermen. The people that probably hated Levi the most were just called to be disciples of Jesus. And here, Jesus calls him out and says, follow me.
Collin Hansen:
Can you imagine the tension within the disciples when this guy is called? It's got to be something like the scribes who are saying, how dare you? First, you're going to start healing people. That was fine. That was beneficial to our whole community.
Collin Hansen:
Then you start giving forgiveness out. Well, you gave it to the paralyzed man, and that was kind of a nice scene. It freaked us out, but it was still nice. But now now you're going to start issuing forgiveness out. You're you're going to enter into a relationship with a tax collector.
Collin Hansen:
This is incredible. There is this progression. 1st it was healing, then healing and forgiveness, and now this this relationship and forgiveness with Levi of all people, why him? This is a very dangerous progression. And now they have gone from being amazed at his power and authority to being angered by it.
Collin Hansen:
This is a turning point in the story. There is a retelling of this in Matthew, which Matthew is Levi. He was the one experiencing this phenomenal following of Jesus. And when he tells it, he he adds this phrase that I think might unlock this progression that we've been seeing in Luke, where Jesus says to the scribes and the Pharisees, when they say, who who do you think you are giving forgiveness, giving entering into relationship? Because if you ate at a table with somebody, that that was signifying friendship.
Collin Hansen:
How would you eat with these people? How would you be friends with these people? And when Jesus says that he came not to call the righteous, but the unrighteous, the sinners to repentance. There's another phrase that's actually used in Matthew, and let me read it to you. He says to them, go Go scribes and Pharisees, you leaders.
Collin Hansen:
Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Here are these men, these unclean men, the leper, the the paralyzed men, Levi, these sinners. And he says, I desire compassion, not sacrifice.
Collin Hansen:
These are words from Hosea where god says, I desire compassion, not sacrifice. See, this is where we, as Christian people, as the church, this is where we get bound up real tightly. So tight that we would we would not show mercy because we're so busy being religious. We are so good at being Christians that we forsake Christ himself. We are so good at this.
Collin Hansen:
I am so good at this. I can lead people on for a long time. On your worship guide, there is this, perhaps if you didn't know the song, a very bizarre line from a Sufjan Stevens song called John Wayne Gacy junior. John Wayne Gacy junior, not John Wayne, but John Wayne Gacy junior was a serial killer. Awful.
Collin Hansen:
I read what I'm believing to be true on Wikipedia. I'm guessing it to be true. I got a hunch that it might be right. And don't don't don't go home and do that. Don't.
Collin Hansen:
If you want to sleep at night, don't read it. It's horrible. It's horrible, but he he killed a lot of people, and they're actually buried underneath his floorboards. And Sufjan says this line, of on my best behavior, on my best day, and me performing at the very best of my ability, I'm I'm really still a lot like him. Look beneath the floorboards of the secrets I have hid.
Collin Hansen:
You see, if we start to see the unclean people all around us, and we are so afraid of becoming unclean ourselves that we won't even touch them. Who is this Christ you claim to be your savior? Who is that Jesus? Is this the Jesus of the scriptures? If we are so burdened by staying clean, That we would not come up against the sinners of our world.
Collin Hansen:
See, this is why I said this is a very complicated bit of scripture here. Because we have to challenge who we think this Jesus is. See, we, these people as Christians, we often are so unwilling to participate in the great mercy of God Because just like the Pharisees, we are wrapped up, we are bound up by this religious trivia, as John Piper likes to call it. Religious trivia. These these things that we must do.
Collin Hansen:
This obsessive compulsive behavior that really has no purpose, but we have to do it. I'm just going to focus on doing all these right things in church and be a good Christian in these things, but we will not step beyond and touch the unclean. We are far too busy, busied up with boycotting Disney because of parades than to make friends with a homosexual person. We are far too wrapped up in these things. Maybe even social justice.
Collin Hansen:
Too wrapped up in social justice to see the gospel of Jesus. See, this is mercy that is much, much greater. And it's a challenge. It's been, it's been a challenge to walk in these three scenes the past couple of days in preparation because this means this Jesus is much, much, much too different than the one I have in my mind. The one that wants to keep me clean and separate and pure and insular and safe.
Collin Hansen:
See, we grumble, we grumble with these Pharisees. When Jesus would cross that line, to dine with sinners, Just like me. See, that's that's the trick. That's the trick that this whole clean unclean thing plays on us. And really the the question that Jesus puts to these Pharisees, I came not not for the healthy, but for the sick.
Collin Hansen:
I didn't come for the righteous, I came for the unrighteous. And so to walk away from that and be like, oh, well, good. Jesus is gonna be over there with the unrighteous people. Let's get all the righteous people together, we'll put a steeple on top, and we'll just hang out until the end comes. Right?
Collin Hansen:
And everybody else can be left behind with Kirk Cameron, and we're just gonna we're gonna head on our own way, and we're just gonna we're gonna one glad morning when this life is over, we're just I'll fly away. Just get me out of here as soon as possible. If we could do that now, get me out. But where is Jesus in this? Where is the Jesus that Luke is telling us to look at?
Collin Hansen:
He's forcing us to see the one that steps beyond to touch the unclean because he knows his cleanliness is not at stake. That's not what's at stake. We know that entering into these conversations with people very different than ourselves, it's it's not a fearful venture. That's not that's not what we're getting into here. We're gonna blur the lines and lose our salvation and lose ourselves.
Collin Hansen:
That's that's not what we're talking about. But it's going into those places, knowing our cleanliness comes from Christ alone, and living with love amongst the unclean. To touch those that have not been touched in years, to love them despite the grumbling we might hear. And when we do that, we have seen Jesus in his full power, his full authority, and his full compassion. Go and learn what this means.
Collin Hansen:
I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Pray with me. Father, every time we come to your word, we, we should recognize just how different you are, how other you are, how holy you are and how we are not holy father. Challenge us to step out of our safe communities and to go to those that have been marginalized, those that have been pushed aside to love them with such a fierce and holy love that we would cause the self righteous to grumble. That we would cause them to say, why would they dine with sinners?
Collin Hansen:
And that keeping the gospel central, we would see people move from sinner to repentance. We thank you again for your word and we just ask that you would continue to turn the truths over from your word in our hearts, that your spirit would teach us as we go from this place, that that we would respond to who you are. Challenge and change us to be more like your son. We pray this in the strong name of Christ. Amen.