Yesterday we saw Jesus cure the leper. The next story in Luke is one of my favorites.

Luke 5:17-26

17 One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.

Look at the audience. The Pharisees were the ones who had taken God, and put Him into a tiny little box. They had taken the law, and expanded it to thousands of rules and regulations. For instance, the Ten Commandments says to do no work on the Sabbath. The Pharisees had taken that simple statement, and developed it into 39 different sets of rules they called “The Fathers of Work.” Each of these was divided into different subsets and specific rules. As an example, one of the 39 was that you could not carry a burden on the Sabbath. The rules defined a burden as food equal to a fig in weight, milk enough for one swallow, ink enough to write two letters, a stone big enough to throw at a bird, and countless others. Their concept of “good” was following the rules. That was the little box that they put God in. Now in come the friends.

18 And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him.

19 But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus.

20 Seeing their faith, He said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you."

21 The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?"

They are actually correct! Only God can forgive sins. But that’s exactly who Jesus was, the Son of God. To the scribes and Pharisees, this is something Jesus could easily have faked. Anyone can say, “your sins are forgiven.” But Jesus actually has the authority to say that, so He proves it to them.

22 But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts?

23 "Which is easier, to say, "Your sins have been forgiven you,' or to say, "Get up and walk'?

24 "But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins," -- He said to the paralytic -- "I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home."

To prove that I have the authority to give sins, I’ll show you something else! “Watch this!”

25 Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.

26 They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen remarkable things today."

They were seized with astonishment and an awesome fear. They were struck with the realization that God was really there. When was the last time you had that awesome realization? Take a look at your life today. Take God out of the little box you have for Him, and realize that you too have seen remarkable things today.

I pray that you will see something in your life today that will make you say, “Only God could have done that!”