Jesus the Question Asker

I’ve been studying a couple of the (more than 100) questions that Jesus asked people during His life. I think we can learn from the simple fact that Jesus asked questions, and I think we can learn even more by digging into the individual questions that He asked. Today I want to sort of peel apart His question in Luke 5:22-23:

“When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them,

Why did you question in your hearts? Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’?”

There’s His question.

It's not exactly rhetorical, but there's not a clear answer to it, either. Which is easier? Well, both were impossibilities for a man to say. I wish I could see the expressions on the faces of the men Jesus had asked this.

Jesus asked this question when a paralyzed man’s friends literally pulled apart the roof of the building where He was teaching in order to lower the man's body to Jesus because the crowds around Him were so thick. But rather than heal the man immediately, Jesus made a statement: “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”

The Pharisees and teachers of the law didn't like that at all. They couldn’t believe His audacity, and the heresy of that statement.

And let’s just point out here that they had not voiced their disagreement to Him. He asked them about the question in their hearts when He perceived their thoughts. So He was responding literally to what they were thinking rather than to a comment they make to Him. I would have thought that that detail might get their attention also--make them realize there's something unusual about Jesus' power.

But here’s what Jesus said/did next:

“'But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins'--He said to the man who was paralyzed--'I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.'”

Do you see that? Do you see His purpose in that verse? Do you see His goal?

That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

He was doing this for His skeptics.

That you May Know

Jesus was doing this for their benefit, not His own. He asked them an impossible question and then gave an impossible command: He told a man who couldn't walk to get up and walk home.

And that’s exactly what happened: the paralytic man got up and went home, glorifying God (vs. 25).

Jesus asked the scribes and Pharisees if it was harder to heal a paralytic or to forgive a man’s sins, and then he did both. Each option was an impossibility for a human.

See, I don't really think Jesus was offended that He was underestimated by men. I think He did what He did in this situation for them. The wording seems to say He did this miracle to help the skeptics understand that just like He had healed a paralyzed man by the word of His lips (and now they were eyewitnesses to it), so also He could forgive a man’s sins, something their eyes could not see.

You Can't Do That

His question forced them to recognize His power. It shattered their “He can’t do that” mindset. He revealed to their eyes that He did, in fact, have power to do the impossible. It was a question drawing them to an underlying, unspoken question:

WHO AM I?

And then He showed them.

And their actual question was actually so close to the truth that it almost hurts: “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Um, yes. Exactly His point.

Jesus forgave sins. Only God can forgive sins. I think He wanted them to see that.

They came at Jesus concluding He was not God, so they missed the truth in their own words.