Luke 5:17-26
“Notice what you notice.” Today we have Luke’s coverage of the healing of the paralytic. Why is it so often the case with me that something jumps out at me in the first verse of the reading for the day??!! Obviously, again today: …Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem (verse 17). Mark had told us that “many” were there; Luke is much more specific. We saw in the past few weeks that Jesus’ fame was spreading throughout Galilee. Now we have Pharisees and scribes coming all the way from Jerusalem (~80 miles) and even further from locations throughout Judea. Clearly Jesus’ fame is spreading.
Pronouns!! I try to stay away from pronouns, especially when two or more people of the same gender are part of the text. Today’s final verse (26) reads And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.” In that one verse there are three unclear pronouns (them, they, we), plus a stand-alone “all”. There are three possible antecedents here – the crowd, the Pharisees and scribes, and the men who brought the paralytic. The pronouns probably refer to the crowd, but might it also include that teachers of the Law? It’s not clear from the text. Matthew offers some clarification – Now when the multitudes saw it… (Matthew 9:8). I’m guessing here that “the multitudes” includes the crowd and rules out the Pharisees and scribes. But then again, it’s not totally clear. And surely, in spite of their rage at Jesus “blasphemy”, inside they also must have been “filled with awe”!! We also should be, at every glory sighting we see!
Glory!!