Bible Questions and Answers

What is the lesson on Luke 5 and how does it apply to life now?

Luke 5:1-11 These verses describe Jesus’ use of the power of the spirit of God to procure an extraordinary catch of fish for Peter, James, and John. At which point they leave their employment and become full-time disciples.

Luke 5:12-14 These verses describe Jesus meeting a leprous man who believes that Jesus can heal him. Jesus heals him with a touch and tells him to go to the priest and make the offering prescribed by the Law for his cleansing. The procedure for cleansing is given in Leviticus 14:1-32. It would be a testimony to the priests that Jesus has the power to heal the plague of leprosy.

Luke 5:15,16 These verses tell us that great multitudes come to Jesus to hear him and be healed of their infirmities, causing him to withdraw into the wilderness for the purpose of prayer.

Luke 5:17-26 record a day when Jesus is healing and teaching in a house. There are many people including Pharisees and Lawyers from Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. Some men bring a paralytic and, going up on the roof, remove tiling, and lower him down on a bed to where Jesus is seated. Jesus heals the man by saying "Man, your sins are forgiven you." The Pharisees take exception to this because they believe that only God himself can forgive sins. Jesus tells them that it is just as easy to say, “Your sins are forgiven you,” as it is to say, “Rise up and walk”, but that he said it to demonstrate that he has the authority from God to forgive sins. The proof of course was that the paralytic was healed and could take up his bed and walk. This healing clearly shows that Jesus exercises the power of God, but more importantly he can forgive sins. The people are astonished and glorify God.

Luke 5:27-32 These verses record the calling of Levi (Matthew), the tax collector, to be a disciple. Levi organises a feast in his own house. Amongst those who attend are tax collectors. The scribes and Pharisees take exception to Jesus “eating with tax collectors and sinners”. Jesus tells them that he came to call sinners to repentance, not those who (mistakenly) considered themselves to be ‘righteous’.

Luke 5:33-35 These verses record the scribes and Pharisees asking Jesus why John Baptist’s disciples practise fasting, and his disciples don’t. Jesus responds with a parable about a bridegroom and his friends, pointing out that the friends won’t fast when the groom is present but will when he is absent.

Luke 5:36-39 In these verses Jesus gives 3 parables:

1. Patching an old garment with a piece from a new garment will not match and will cause the old to tear.
2. Putting new wine (still fermenting) into (fully stretched) old wine skins will cause them to burst. Ergo, new wine is placed in new wineskins.
3. Those accustomed to drinking old wine think it is better than new wine.

The point of these parables is that the New Covenant ratified by Christ cannot be ‘tacked on’ to the Old Covenant made at Sinai because they are not compatible. People like the scribes and Pharisees brought up on the Old Covenant resist the teachings of Jesus which belong to the New. This despite the promise of a New Covenant given through Jeremiah. Jeremiah 31:31-34

How scripture is applied in our lives depends on how well we understand and obey the Gospel and how well we understand the New Covenant ratified by Jesus Christ.

I hope you find this helpful.

God bless,
Glenn