Luke 5 - http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%205&version=NIV1984
How do you respond to God’s grace and goodness
in your life? What do you do when God
interrupts your everyday life and proclaims His salvation to you?
Yes,
we’ve asked this question before, but here we are confronted with it again as
Jesus interrupted the lives of Peter, Andrew, James, and John, along with Levi,
to call them to be disciples. He also
displayed his goodness in some remarkable ways as He healed a leper and a
paralytic – and forgave the paralytic’s sin.
(That caused a stir!)
Can
you relate to the responses in the reading?
Peter felt unworthy: “Depart from
me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” Levi
left everything and followed Jesus. No
questions, just following. The leper,
who knew he was sick, was so grateful for healing that he couldn’t help talking
about what God had done for him. Even
the paralytic, who came to Jesus looking for something (in this case healing,
but for others it might be morality, wisdom, or something else), went away
having received something unexpected; the forgiveness of sins.
In
each of these cases Jesus changed the situation with His words directed to each
person. He said, “Do not be afraid; from
now on you will be catching men.” To the
leper: “I will; be clean.” To the paralytic: “Your sins are forgiven.” And so you can know His forgiveness is
authentic, “Take up your mat and go home.”
And for all to hear, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners
to repentance.”
Jesus’
words change our lives too. He speaks
authoritatively with the same concepts.
Your sins are forgiven. He has
called you, O sinner, to repentance. He
sends you on your way, forgiven and healed from sin’s curse. He still wills, that is desires, to touch and
heal you through the Word and Sacraments.
And He still uses sinful men and women to catch people with the
Gospel.
Lord,
help me hear your Word and change me as You desire. Amen.
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