Or, Answering Questions about the Son of Man
Scripture: Luke 5:17-26
Date: August 30, 2026
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Here begins a series of what some have called controversy stories. It starts with the paralytic, ends with the man with the withered hand (6:6-11), and in between are questions about how Jesus could tolerate a tax-collector (5:27-32), why He didn’t make His disciples fast (5:33-39), and even why He let them pluck grain on the Sabbath (6:1-5).
In each interaction Jesus reveals more of His identity, calls more disciples to Himself, and provokes more of the Top Men who thought they were in charge.
As Jesus reveals Himself, He shows His power over and knowledge of nature, as with the huge catch of fish. He shows His power over un-healable disease, as with leprosy. He shows His power over sin, His authority to forgive sin, and to cause the lame to walk. He shows that He came for the sick and sinners.
As He ministered, Jesus called Simon Peter, with James and John, blue-collar fishermen, to follow Him. He called Levi, a despised tax-collector, to follow Him. Right after these controversy stories is the list of His twelve disciples-become-apostles (6:12-16).
So much of this is unexpected. The carpenter knew better than the fishermen. The clean touched the unclean. The crippled started to walk, but only as the second most important thing. A man announces forgiveness of another man, who didn’t ask for it. In the final verse of the story for today, the people say, “We have seen extraordinary things.” They were “remarkable” (LBS), “strange” (Tyndale).
Jesus did things contrary to expectations. This caused controversy.
In Luke 5:17-26 Jesus forgives, then heals, a paralytic man, in front of the lawyer class, in order to show His authority as the Son of Man.
Joining the audience for the first time are the Pharisees and teachers of the law. We’re at least a few months into Jesus’ itinerant teaching, and He’s gotten the attention of the Together for the Law guys.
What groups could we liken the Pharisees to? They were a self-determined group, as in, not belonging to priestly families. They were laymen, but they were also lawmen. The label itself refers to being separatists (maybe like the Amish, but more bossy?). They cared so much about the Mosaic Law that they made supporting laws to make sure that the covenant rules were obeyed. They were the sect of the strict, the guardians of godliness, the official officials. Your Homeowners Association Board can’t hold a candle to these rule-followers.
The teachers of the law are also called the scribes (see verse 21). They read and studied and interpreted the law, clarifying meaning and providing current application. The scribes and Pharisees went together like a defense attorney and prosecutor, unlike Pharisees and Sadducees who usually opposed each other.
A group of these Top Men have come from all around ( from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem), and they are in the audience. Luke introduces them first, and he focuses on their response (starting in verse 21).
There’s one more piece of info that sets the stage: And the power of the Lord was with him to heal (verse 17). It’s foreshadowing, but with a twist.
The movement happens in verses 18-19. A group of guys (four according to Mark 2:3) bring their buddy who can’t walk to Jesus. Or they try to.
The man was paralyzed, lame, weak, disabled, handicapped. We don’t know how long he’d been in this condition, how it happened, or how far the friends had to bring him.
Jesus was in a house, the house was full of people, and it apparently made more sense to the men to go up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles. It’s agency, for sure. It’s also industry. Maybe there were steps on the outside of the house leading up to the roof, but then they had to make a temporary skylight big enough for a stretcher. And they had to rig some way of lowering the stretcher.
We can assume that they removed the roof pieces without debris falling on heads inside the house. We’ll have to find out in heaven if they paid to have the hole patched. But the key is, Jesus saw their faith (verse 20). It would have been faith to send a representative in to get Jesus’ attention. It would have been faith to wait until the Bible study was over and Jesus was leaving. But this is faith as evidenced by high agency roof-removal.
We anticipate, if anything, that Jesus will heal the man. But instead, Jesus said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” This seems out of context, except when we realize that the context is the audience. It pushes the controversy bus down the hill.
No one said anything about sin, no one has asked for forgiveness. The point is not that this man is paralyzed as a punishment for his sin. The argument that Jesus is about to make in response to the Pharisees is about what Jesus has authority to do, not about the kind of diagnosis Jesus can make. Jesus has as much audacity as the men had agency.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases, (Psalm 103:2–3 ESV)
The scribes and Pharisees are repeated by name because it is they who are paralyzed by their belief in their self-righteous and law-protecting state. They were able to walk, but not willing to bow.
They began to question, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” The second question explains the first question. They knew enough to know forgiveness is solus Deus. First this is because sin offends God, so His perspective matters, and second this is because God is righteous, so His power matters.
Blasphemers of the Lord, per Moses, were to be stoned to death (Leviticus 24:16). The possible need to kill Jesus was already on their radar.
Their error, of course, was accusing Jesus of being a blasphemer. Their calling Jesus a blasphemer was, in a way, making them blasphemers. They were the ones speaking false things about God, who was standing right in front of them.
Whether or not He could hear them, He knew what they were thinking. Did Jesus just have great social radar, or was this part of His divine ability?
He’s still teaching, and asks them a couple questions. “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” (verse 23) They are both impossible without the right kind of authority. Anyone can say either, though the second one would be easier to see in real time. Jesus will show that He can do both.
That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, is the first time we see the title “Son of Man” in Luke. It’s arguably Jesus’ favorite self-reference, at least based on how many times He uses it. It’s used multiple times in the Old Testament, most frequently in Ezekiel as the Lord refers to Ezekiel in his role as prophet. But the most significant use comes in Daniel 7:13 when the Son of Man gets authority from the Ancient of Days.
“I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him. (Daniel 7:13 ESV)
No one follows up in the moment about the Son of Man piece, because Jesus told the paralyzed man to rise, pick up your bed and go home, which he did, immediately.
He was glorifying God (doxazon), and then the crowd glorified God (edoxazon), saying that they had seen the extraordinary (paradoxa).
As I observed, no one followed up the “Son of Man” comment in that moment. In Daniel 7:14 the Ancient of Days gives the Son of Man “dominion and glory and a kingdom.” The glory on display that day was just a glimpse of His worldwide and everlasting authority.
Jesus had the power to heal the paralytic, He forgave first. In other words, the visible need was not the deepest one, nor was healing the greatest authority Jesus had. The paralytic got the second thing (his legs) after the first thing (his forgiveness).
As Christians, we long for all peoples, nations, and languages to serve the Son of Man. We want them to acknowledge His authority as Lord and serve Him. And it starts with forgiveness of sins. Are you asking deep enough from Jesus?
Self-righteousness kept the Pharisees paralyzed; they could walk, but wouldn’t bow. Faith tore through a roof to reach Jesus.
You are completely forgiven in Christ, what can man do to you? You have faith in the Son of Man, is there anything else God won’t give you that you need? You believe true and extraordinary things. So I say to you, rise, pick up your Bible, and go home, glorifying God. Ridē fidē!
[May] our God make you worthy of his calling and fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 ESV)