This is the Bible study page for the Thursday Night Bible Study Group meeting October 29 to study Luke 5:12-26. This account is of two healings, one of leprosy, and the other of a paralyzed man. Both accounts are also found in Matthew and Mark. It may be helpful to look up those parallel accounts and review the differences (which are slight).
Read through the passage a few times. Try and imagine yourself in the action, imagine the smells, the sounds, and the sights. Sometimes the parallel accounts in Mark and Matthew help imagine the setting. If you have a Bible dictionary, or look up leprosy on the Blue Letter Bible site to get a better sense of the social problems associated with the disease in Jesus' day. With that, revisit the encounter between Jesus and the man with leprosy.
The issue in the second healing has to do with the "forgiveness of sins". This opens up a huge discussion on what exactly is is sin, and why is forgiveness so restricted in Jewish religious teaching. There are all sorts of places you can look such disucussions up, but the enormous amount of information can be overwhelming. See what sort of definition you can come up with just from the limited discussion in this passage.
From all this examination on your own, make notes, jot down questions, and see what God may be telling you about these things or related things in your own life. Please bring these notes questions and 'awakenings' to the meeting on Thursday. After you have gone through this passage yourself a few times, go back through with the questions below:
- Why do you think Luke is not giving specifics about where Jesus is doing these healings?
- What sort of details about location can you get from Matthew and Mark?
- The man covered in leprosy says, "If you wish..." or "If you desire..." Why do you think he poses his request that way?
- Consider that Jesus first touches the man with leprosy before he even replies. In that culture, why do you think this would be significant to the leper?
- Jesus says, "I wish..." or "I desire..." and then commands the man to be healed. Think through that, Jesus commands the man to be healed. Why do you think that might be significant?
- Jesus then commands the man to not tell people all over, but just to go to the priests and follow the law of Moses. In Mark we see that the man didn't do that. Why do you think this was important enough for Jesus to command the man, much in the same way he commanded him to be healed? Why do you think the man didn't do it?
- Besides the obvious connection between the news and crowds around Jesus and his 'escape' to the wilderness to pray, why else do you think this might be an important detail for Luke (notice it's not in the other two gospels)?
- In the next account, we see the religious teachers showing up for the first time. Right along with the comment about their presence is the statement about the power of the Lord to heal. How do you think these statements might be related?
- The phrase about the power of the Lord is not only difficult to translate, but also disputed in its arrangement. Essentially the power of the Lord is there for Jesus to heal. It's power with a purpose. This is not a typical way of referring to the power of the Lord, so why do you think it's important here?
- Read the other parallel accounts of the paralyzed man and his friends. What do you think it was about the paralyzed man and his friends that showed remarkable faith?
- Seeing their faith, Jesus says, "Your sins have been forgiven." If the power of the Lord was present to heal, and Jesus sees their faith, why do you think Jesus chose to tell him his sins were forgiven? Why not just start with healing?
- The teachers reason together, so it sounds like they are discussing outloud. In Mark and Matthew, it seems they are reasoning quietly or silently, but thinking the same thing. Either way, Jesus knows what they are saying/thinking. Why do you think he asks them "why" if he already knows "what", wouldn't He also know "why"? Why do you think they need to know why they were thinking that way?
- "What is easier, to say or to do?" What do you think Jesus meant here? For instance, how would anyone know if Jesus was right, that the man's sins had been forgiven? But they would see right away if the man was healed.
- Jesus uses the healing to demonstrate his "authority" to forgive. What sort of statement do you think He is making here? Equality with God, or perception given to Him by God, or something else? What do you think He is saying?
- It says that the people were amazed and glorifying God. Do you think that included the religious teachers present? What do you think they thought?
And now apply the AHA principles to what you read.
AWAKENING: Prayerfully go through looking for the thing that God is using to awaken something in you. Think through your life in relation to the people and teaching involved. Jot down the 'alarm' that God is using with you.
HONESTY: Next be honest about your life in light of this 'alarm'. Think through what God is pointing out to you about your life, like where you have strayed from a direction He gave you before, or about something you've been doing or not doing. What do you see about your life in a new light from this passage?
ACTION: Lastly, what do you need to do about what you discover? What action do you need to take in light of your honest assessment of what God is saying to you? What can you do now, before Thursday? What do you need to do, perhaps long-term?
That should keep us busy for the week. Be sure to bring your notes and any AHA with you Thursday!
