Pt-3 “The Context” (Luke 5:17-19)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/30/2026 10:52 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                Focus:  Pt-3 “The Context”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                 Reference:  Luke 5:17-19

            Message of the verses:  ““17 One day He was teaching, and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the Law sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. 18And some men were carrying a man on a stretcher who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. 19But when they did not find any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus.”

            John MacArthur writes:  “That scribes and Pharisees there that day had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem testifies to the level of concern the Jewish authorities had about Jesus.  His first act in His Judean ministry had been to disrupt the Sadducees’ temple business operations by driving out the money changers and merchants (John 2:14-16).”

(John 2:14-16)

“14  In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15  And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16  And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.’”

“They, along with the Pharisees, had watched in growing alarm (and jealousy; cf. Matt. 27:18) as His ministry of teaching and healing had drawn huge crowds, both in Judea and Galilee (cf. 5:15).  Now they dogged His steps, looking for something for which they could indict Him.  The incident that was about to unfold would provide these hostile visitors with an unforgettable, undeniable (John 11:47) experience—and formidable challenge to their aberrant theology.”

            Now Luke’s note that the power of the Lord was present for Jesus to perform healing reminds his readers of the truth that he had mentioned earlier.  It was in His incarnation, when He “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant” (Phil. 2:7), Jesus set aside the independent  use of His divine power.

(Phil. 2:7)

“7  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

Jesus set aside the independent use of His divine power, as He ministered in submission to the Father, and in the power of the Holy Spirit is how these miracles were done.  Now I have written about this in earlier SD’s as this all took place, at the baptism of Jesus Christ. That event, His baptism, was the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, and as mentioned it was done in the power of the Holy Spirit that He did these miracles.  I realize that when a person accepts the Lord Jesus Christ in the Church age, that they too have the Holy Spirit come into their lives in order for Him, (the Spirit) to show each believer what their ministry is and that is what is needed in order for believers to do the things that they are to do for the cause of Christ.  Now when the judgment seat of Christ happens after the rapture when all true believers in the Church age are in heaven that they will receive rewards from the Lord for how they did the things that they were called to do in the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is also at that time that believers who receive these rewards will lay them down at the feet of Jesus, for with Him, and His sacrifice for them that none of this will be possible. 

            John MacArthur writes:  “While the Lord was teaching, some men arrived (Mark 2:3 notes that there were four of them), carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed.  He was one of the countless others with physical problems who sought out Jesus wherever He went.  Unable to come to Jesus on his own, he was fortunate enough to have loyal and determined friends available to help him.  How he became paralyzed, whether through a birth defect, spinal cord or brain injury, or a degenerative disease, is not stated.  Unlike lepers, the paralyzed were not ostracized from society.  They were stigmatized by their condition, however, since many would see all such disabilities as God’s punishment for their sin (cf. John 9:2).”

(cf. John 9:2)

“2  And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’”

            “Having arrived at the house where Jesus was ‘speaking the word’ (Mark, 2:2), the paralyzed man’s friends were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him.  But they could not find any way to bring him in because of the overflow crowd (cf. Mark 2:2).  No one would move aside to allow the men to carry him in; the crowd formed a barrier both with their bodies and their hearts.  Fortunately for the paralyzed man, his friends were both determined and resourceful.  Unable to gain access to the house, they went up on the roof.  Most houses in Israel were single story houses.  The beams spanning the walls and supporting the roof were set below the tops of the walls to form and enclosed patio, which was accessible by a stairway.  The larger houses had tiles between the beams, as this one did.  After moving aside some of the tiles and digging through the underlying roof (Mark 2:4), the four men lowered their paralyzed friend with his stretcher into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus.”

Spiritual Meaning for My life today.  I want to focus in on the friends of this paralyzed man and their desire to help their friend to receive healing from Jesus.  As mentioned his friends were surely loyal to this man, but they did not know that their friend would not only receive physical healing from Jesus, but also spiritual healing from Jesus.  To me this pictures what I can do to help friends of mine come to Jesus to receive spiritual healing through the new birth that can only come from the Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Yes this man had wonderful friends who wanted their friend to receive healing from the Lord.  This is one of the goals of the Spiritual Diaries that I have, and that is to be used by the Holy Spirit to call unbelievers to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust that the Holy Spirit of God will use these Spiritual Diaries that I write to bring many people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ so that they can receive salvation from the Lord Jesus Christ as He suffered and died for them on the cross, and was then buried for three days to be then resurrected from the dead in order to pay for their sins as God was pleased with what His Son did in dying for them.

5/30/2026 11:59 AM

 

 

 

 

Pt-2 “The Context” (Luke 5:17-19)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/29/2026 9:52 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                Focus:  Pt-2 “The Context”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                 Reference:  Luke 5:17-19

            Message of the verses:  ““17 One day He was teaching, and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the Law sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. 18And some men were carrying a man on a stretcher who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. 19But when they did not find any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus.”

            I continue looking at these verses from the fifth chapter of the gospel of Luke this evening.  It was a long day today, and I say the highlight of this day is that my wife had her first treatment from what is called homeopathic treatment, something different than normal treatment for her cancer which she had for a very long time and it helped actually nothing, and so after much prayer we decided to go a different route, and my hope in the Lord is that He will use that treatment to first of all  bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, who we owe all things to because of His death on the cross to take away our sins.  Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane to His Father, “Not my will by Thine be done, and because of that prayer the Lord Jesus then went out to pay for our sins as He suffered and died on the cross, along with being raised from the dead three days later, spending time on planet earth before He was resurrected into heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father’s throne.  My point in all of this is that my prayer for my wife is that it is my desire for God’s will to be done, and yet I still pray that these treatments will be successful and that my wife through the prayers of the saints that God will bring glory to His name by allowing this treatment to be successful.

            John MacArthur continues to write “With the disappearance of the Sadducees after the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 and the Zealots after the Bar Kochba revolt (A.D. 132-35) was crushed, the Pharisees became the dominant force in Judaism.  With the completion of the Mishnah (the written compilation of the oral, law, rituals, and traditions) in A.D. 200, and the Talmud (the combination of the Mishna and the Gemara [three centuries of rabbis’ commentary on the Mishnah]) in about A.D. 500, the Pharisees’ teaching became virtually synonymous with Judaism.

            “The Pharisees’ theology was in many respects faithful to the teaching of Scripture.  They believed in the resurrection (Acts  23:6-8), angels (Acts 23:8), demons, predestination, and human responsibility.  The looked for Messiah to come and establish an earthly kingdom, and were devoted to protecting and teaching the law of God.  Ironically, it was their zeal for the law that caused the Pharisees to become focused on rituals and externally keeping the law.  They abandoned true religion of the heart for mere outward behavior modification and ritual (cf. Matt. 15:3-6), leading Jesus to scathingly denounce their pseudospirituality: ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others’ (Matt. 23:23; cf. 6:1-5; 9:14; 12:2; Luke 11:38-39).  Even worse, the wide gap between their teaching and their practice led to gross hypocrisy, which both Jesus (e.g., Matt. 23:2-3) and, surprisingly, the Talmud (which lists seven classes of Pharisees, six of which were ‘blind guides of the blind’ (Matt. 15:14), who made their proselytes doubly worthy of the hell to which they themselves were headed (Matt. 23:15).  The complex set of man-made rules and regulations was a crushing, unbearable burden (Matt. 23:4; Acts 15:10).  In any case, keeping the law could never save anyone, ‘because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified’ (Rom. 3:20; cf. 3:28; Gal. 2:16; 3:11, 24; 5:4)—a truth that the zealous Pharisee
Saul of Tarsus eventually realized (Phil. 3:4-11).

            “Luke also notes the presence of teachers of the law. Also called lawyers (7:30; 10:25; 11:45, 46, 52; 14:3; Matt. 22:35) and most commonly scribes (sixty-three times in the New Testament), they were professional scholars specializing in the interpretation and application of the law.  They were commonly, but not exclusively, Pharisees (though distinguished from them by being mentioned separately; 5:21, 30; 6:7; 11:53; 15:2; Matt. 5:20; 12:38; 15:1; 23:2, 13, 14, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29; Mark 7:1, 5; John 8:3; Mark 2:16 refers to ‘the scribes of the Pharisees,’ and Acts 23:9 to ‘the scribes of the Pharisaic party’).  Such scribes were also honored by being called rabbis (‘great ones’), though others who taught the Word of God might also receive that title (cf. John 1:38, 49; 3:2; 6:25, where it is given to Jesus).”

5/29/2026 10:32 PM

 

 

“The Context” Luke 5:17-19)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/29/2026 11:22 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                        Focus:  “The Context”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                 Reference:  Luke 5:17-19

            Message of the verses:  ““17 One day He was teaching, and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the Law sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. 18And some men were carrying a man on a stretcher who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. 19But when they did not find any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus.”

            This will be some verses that we will be looking at for a few days, and these verses will set the context of what Jesus will be doing, that is the healing of this paralyzed man, and how Jesus first saw him as his friends will put this man right in front of Jesus as He was teaching, as they take the tiles off the roof and send him down right in front of Jesus. 

            MacArthur writes “In keeping with the constant pattern of His ministry, the opening of this section finds Jesus teaching.  He was not in a synagogue, but in a house, undoubtedly a big one since it accommodated the large crowd that had gathered (cf. Mark 2:2).”

(cf. Mark 2:2)

“2  And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.”

            “Luke focused his attention in particular on the “Pharisees and teachers of the Law” who were sitting there in the crowd.  This is the first reference in Luke’s gospel to the Pharisees, one of the four main Jewish sects along with their archrivals the Sadducees (the wealth, elite priests), the Zealots (political revolutionaries who sought independence from Rome), and the Essenes (ascetic monastics).  Their name likely derives from a Hebrew verb meaning ‘to separate.’  The pharisees were the ‘separated ones’ in terms of their zeal for the Mosaic law (and their own traditions, which they added to it [cf. Matt. 15:2-6; Mark 7:8-13]).”

(cf. Matt. 15:2-6; Mark 7:8-13”

2  “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3  He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4  For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5  But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6  he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.

Mark 7:8-13

“8  You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men." 9  And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10  For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11  But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban’” (that is, given to God)— 12  then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13  thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.’”

            “The Pharisees originated during the intertestamental period, likely as an offshoot of the Hasidim (the ‘pious ones,’ who opposed the Hellenizing of Jewish culture under the notoriously evil Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes).  Unlike the Sadducees, who tended to be wealthy priest or Levites, the Pharisees generally came from the middle class.  Therefore, although few in number (there were about 6,000 at the time of Herod the Great, according the first-century Jewish historian Josephus), their theology and tradition had great influence with the common people (who, ironically, the Pharisees often viewed with proud, self-righteous contempt [cf. John 7:49]).  Despite being the minority party in the Sanhedrin, their popularity with the people gave them significant influence (cf. Acts 5:34-40).”  Ok that is as far as I will go this morning, and Lord willing will pick up this evening to continue to look at this section.

(cf. John 7:49)

“49  But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed."”

(cf. Acts 5:34-40)

“34  But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. 35  And he said to them, "Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. 36  For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. 37  After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. 38  So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; 39  but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!" So they took his advice, 40  and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.”

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  It is my desire not to be like these sects that I am going over this morning, but trust the Lord to cause me to continue to grow in grace so that I can learn and grow.

My Steps of Faith for Today: “¹⁶ Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. A prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought about, can accomplish much.” (James 5:16 NASB)

5/29/2026 12:21 PM

 

 

 

           

“Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man: His Authority to Forgive Sin” (Luke 5:17-26)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/28/2026 7:07 PM

My Worship Time Focus:              “Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man: His Authority to Forgive Sin”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                 Reference:  Luke 5:17-26

            Message of the verses: “ Man Lowered Through a Roof”

 “17 One day He was teaching, and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the Law sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. 18And some men were carrying a man on a stretcher who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. 19But when they did not find any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. 20And seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” 21The scribes and the Pharisees began thinking of the implications, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, except God alone?” 22But Jesus,  aware of their thoughts, responded and said to them, “Why are you thinking this way in your hearts? 23Which is easier, to say: ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24But so 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, get up, and pick up your stretcher, and go home.” 25And immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. 26And they were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God. They were also filled with fear, saying, “We have seen remarkable things today!”

            Now what I am about to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary is an introduction to the verses from above, and then, Lord willing I will begin to look at these verses in small numbers to better understand what they have to say. 

            “As was the case with the account of Christ’s healing of the leper, the time of this event is not known.  Luke merely notes that it happened one day when He was teaching.  It most likely took place after one of the Lord’s journeys around the lake area (Mark 1:39) when He was able to return to return to Capernaum (Matt. 9:1).”

(Mark 1:39)

“39  And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.”

(Matt. 9:1)

1 ¶  And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city.”

“The Lord’s healing of the paralyzed man once again demonstrated His supernatural power over disease.  But even more significantly, it revealed His authority to forgive sin—which is the prerogative of God alone, and the greatest need of man, so as to escape eternal judgment.  Luke’s account of this event explains the context, the claim, the confrontation, and the consequences.”

            These highlighted words are the outline for what we will be looking at, Lord willing, in the next days.

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  I have written in an earlier SD what a friend of mine told me one day when I was a very young believer and kind of struggling with trying to understand about what some people in the Church had to say about healing.  My friend who was mentoring me when I was a young believer told me that God heals you every time except the last time.  Knowing that set me free from what some believers believe and that is God is obligated to heal every sickness that His children have. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I am trusting the Lord to help my wife get through the experience that she’s going through with cancer, helping her to get through some treatment that she is to begin tomorrow afternoon.

5/28/2026 7:29 PM

           

 

“The Divine Compassion” (Luke 5:13-16)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/28/2026 9:17 AM

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  “The Divine Compassion”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                 Reference:  Luke 5:13-16

            Message of the verses:  “And He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.”  And immediately the leprosy left him.  And He ordered him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”  But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.  But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.”

            “41  Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” This is from Mark’s gospel 1:41 and shows us that Jesus was moved with compassion, or pity as it is translated in this verse, and this leper was a very helpless man as his plight was desperate.  Jesus, disregarding the prescription of Leviticus 5:3 which says “3  or if he touches human uncleanness, of whatever sort the uncleanness may be with which one becomes unclean, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, and realizes his guilt;” stretched out His hand and touched him.  The gospels tell us that Jesus would frequently heal with a touch (cf. 4:40; 7:14; 13:13; 22:51; Mark 6:5), but to touch a leper was really shocking and unprecedented, but this was not the case for the Son of God.  No one in Israel—least of all a rabbi—would have defiled himself by touching a leper.  But sovereign love responded with sovereign power.  Jesus said, “I am willing; be cleansed,” and immediately the leprosy left him.”  As was the case with all of Jesus’ healings, the leper was healed instantly, and completely.  There was no lingering recovery period while the leprosy gradually got better.  This was seen earlier in the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, as after the healing she got up and waited on the people who were in her house.  MacArthur writes “Modern medical treatment can cure leprosy, but cannot completely reverse the disfigurement and damage the disease causes to the human body.  But the disfigurement caused by this man’s leprosy was also healed by Jesus’ creative power, leaving no trace of the disease or its effects on his body.  He was healed restored, and physically fit to take immediately a long journey from Galilee to Jerusalem.”  I have to believe that this long journey he took did not feel that long to him as he would have been rejoicing in the fact that his leprosy was not completely gone.

            Now after Jesus healed this man He ordered him to tell no one, for the moment.  There was something that now cleansed leper needed to do at once, so the Lord commanded him, “Go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded.”  MacArthur says “The process by which a cleansed leper was readmitted to society involved going to the temple for an examination by a priest, shaving, bathing, washing his clothes, offering multiple animal sacrifices, along with and offering of grain and oil (Lev. 14:1-20).  The entire procedure lasted for eight days (Lev. 14:10).  If he obeyed and went to recount to the priests how Jesus had healed him, it would be a powerful testimony to them that Jesus was indeed the Messiah and Son of God.  This testimony would be either convincing to the priests so that they would acknowledge the claims of Christ, or if they rejected Him self-indicting, since they had personally examined the miraculously healed leper.  Further, it would buy time for Jesus, since a miracle of that magnitude would surely swell the already large crowds that followed Him—crowds so huge that they had forced Him off the shore of the Sea of Galilee and into Peter’s boat.

            “But selfishly overjoyed at his remarkable, miraculous healing, the man ignored Jesus’ command and instead ‘went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around’ (Mark 1:45), forfeiting the opportunity for such a powerful testimony.  As a result, the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.  So vast were the crowds that Jesus ‘could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere’ (Mark 1:45).  The disobedience of the cleansed leper had put limitations on Jesus’ ministry and forced Him into the countryside away from the populated towns.  The ones who could find Him in the wilderness dis do, but surely many of the most disabled in the towns were not able to experience His healing word and touch.  To maintain His focus on preaching the word and sustain the power of His ministry Jesus, in His humanity, needed communion with the Father.  Therefore, even in the unpopulated areas He would often slip away deeper into the wilderness and pray (cf. Luke 4:42).  Prayer was an integral and essential aspect of Jesus’ life and ministry.”  I wrote about this when studying Luke 3:21 in an earlier SD.

5/28/2026 10:08 AM

 

“The Desperate Victim” (Luke 5:12c)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/27/2026 8:13 AM

My Worship Time                                                                         Focus:  “The Desperate Victim”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                    Reference:  Luke 5:12c

Message of the verse: “and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

            We are talking this evening about a man who had leprosy and the Bible has much to say about this disease.  Moses wrote about rules to follow for someone who has leprosy way back when Israel was coming out of Egypt, so we can assume that this disease was in Egypt, but where it started the Bible does not tell us.  People with this disease had no hope, humanly speaking.  This man’s disease was incurable, socially stigmatizing, and viewed as God’s punishment for his sins.  Having heard about Jesus, he came looking for Him (cf. Matt. 8:2) where Matthew talks about this too.  So when he saw Jesus, he approached Him.  That was inappropriate behavior on his part, because lepers were strictly forbidden to come near other people.  “12  And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance” (Luke 17:12).  Lepers were not to interact with anyone except other lepers.  So great was the fear of contagion that lepers were barred from Jerusalem or any other walled city (cf. 2 Kings 7:3).  They were forbidden to come within six feet of a healthy person (one hundred and fifty feet if the wind was blowing from the direction of the leper) and were restricted to a special compartment in the synagogue.  One rabbi refused to eat and egg bought on a street where there was a leper.  Another advocated throwing stones at lepers to force them to keep their distance.  “(cf. Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974], 1:494, 95).”

            John MacArthur then writes: “It is not known that leprosy (Hansen’s disease) is not highly contagious, since 90-95 percent of the human race is immune to it.  Exactly how the disease is transmitted is not known for certain, but people living in close contact with those with untreated leprosy had a higher risk of becoming infected.  But lepers in biblical times were isolated not only due to fear of infection, but also because they were ceremonially unclean (Lev. 13:45-46).  In rabbinic teaching, leprosy was second only to contact with a dead body in terms of defilement.  ‘Not merely actual contact with the leper, but even his entrance defiled a habitation, and everything in it, to the beams of the roof….If he even put his head into a place, it became unclean.’ (Edersheim, Life and Times, 1:494, 95).

            “That the leper approached Jesus in violation of rabbinic law reveals his desperation.  He was past fear, past shame, and heedless of the danger to himself or others; he literally had nothing to lose.

            “Coming to Jesus, the leper fell on his face in a posture of reverent worship.  Matthew 8:2 says he ‘bowed down’ (proskuneo; better translated ‘worship.’  This term is usually used in the New Testament of worshiping God.)  Whatever his understanding of Jesus was, he was convinced that He was sent by God and called Him Lord.

            “That he implored or begged Jesus for help reveals the leper’s sense of urgency.  He was a sinful outcast, wretched and miserable, with nowhere else to turn. 

            “The leper also approached the Lord in complete humility.  He did not doubt Jesus’ ability to heal him, but acutely aware of his own unworthiness, he wondered if He was willing to do so, thus acknowledging the Lord’s prerogative.

            “Finally, he approached Jesus in faith, affirming his confidence that Jesus had clearly displayed many times the power to heal him and make him clean.

            “The leper’s approach to Jesus graphically illustrates penitent sinners’ approach to Him.  They come in desperation, casting aside their self-righteous efforts to save themselves as the filthy garments that they are (Isa. 64:6).  They come in reverence, affirming Jesus as Lord (Rom. 10:9), God (John 8:24), and the only Savior (Acts 4:12).  They come with a sense of urgency, knowing  that ‘now is the acceptable time…now is the day of salvation’ (2 Cor. 6:2).  They come in humility, poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3), deserving nothing from the sovereign and knowing they have nothing to commend themselves.  Finally, they come in faith, because ‘to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness’ (Rom. 4:5).  Now if you are not a true believer in Jesus Christ and desire to be then reread this paragraph.

5/27/2026 9:12 PM

“The Dreaded Disease” (Luke 5:12b)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/27/2026 10:42 AM

My Worship Time                                                                         Focus:  “The Dreaded Disease”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                     Reference:  Luke 5:12b

            Message of the verse:  “behold, there was a man covered with leprosy”

            MacArthur writes “Like its Old Testament counterpart lepras (leprosy) is a general term for a number of skin conditions.  The most severe of these was Hansen’s disease, which is leprosy as it is known today.  Luke’s description of the man as being covered with leprosy suggests that he in fact had leprosy in the most extreme sense of the term.  His desire for cleansing connects it to the familiar diseas because it reflects the designation o the leper as unclean in Leviticus 13:45-46.

            “Leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, is known from ancient writings (c. 600 B.C.) from China, India, and Egypt, and from mummified remains from Egypt.  It was common enough in Israel to warrant extensive regulation in the Mosaic law of those suffering from it and related skin diseases (Lev. 13-14).  The disease is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, discovered by the Norwegian scientist G. H. A Hansen in 1873 (It was the first bacterium to be identified as the cause of a human disease).  The bacterium was communicable through touch and breath.

            “Leprosy attacks the skin, peripheral nerves (especially near the wrists, elbows, and knees), and mucus membrane.  It forms lesions on the skin, and can disfigure the face by collapsing the nose and causing folding of the skin (Leading some to call it ‘lion’s disease’ due to the resulting lionlike appearance of the face).  Contrary to popular belief, leprosy does not eat away the flesh.  Due to the loss of feeling (especially in the hands and feet), people with the disease wear away their extremities and faces unknowingly.  The horrible disfigurement called by leprosy made it greatly feared, and caused lepers to be outcasts, cut off from all healthy society, for protection.

            And God had cursed people by giving them leprosy, such as Gehazi (2 Kings 5:25-27) and Uzziah (2 Chron. 26:16-23).  Thus, people with this disease were viewed as cursed by God—a familiar notion in ancient concepts of sin (cf. Lob 4:7-9; John 9:1-3).  The man likely saw his won disease in this way.”  Now if you want further details about leprosy, see Matthew 8-15 in the MacArthur New Testament Commentary.  I have written commentaries on Matthew earlier as it took me five years to get through that great gospel.

5/27/2026 11:11 AM