Luke was a genius when it came to structuring this Gospel. Chapter 5 is framed on two sides by calling of disciples, with two miraculous healings in between them.
The chapter starts with Jesus calling Peter, James, and John, and as part of the calling provides them with a huge catch of fish. The payload was so big that several other boats were brought in, yet they all started to sink because they were so full. When Peter expressed his unworthiness, Jesus simply told him to follow, and Jesus would make him fish for people.
This miracle foreshadowed the role Peter would play in the early Church. On the first day of Pentecost in Acts, Peter's preaching converts several thousand souls in one day, and tradition holds that they returned home and began their own local Churches in their communities. But the question remains, what are all of these conversions for?
The next two sections in Luke 5 gives us a clue as to the answer. First Jesus heals a leper, and next he heals a paralytic. The point of the Christian life and the work of the Church is to heal the world. The world has been damaged and set off-balance because of sin, and Jesus is setting things right. Both the leper and the paralytic show us two people whose bodies are not functioning the way they are designed. With a word, Jesus is able to heal them and they can live an entirely new life.
But it's important not to get lost in the miracle of the healing, and assume that the healing is only to make them like everyone else. The healings provide a glimpse of the total healing that's happening in the world.
The next section is the calling of Levi, the tax collector. Levi later became Matthew, the author of that Gospel. Tax collectors were about as well thought of as today's IRS agents. Nobody wanted a visit from them. Yet Jesus not only called Levi to be a follower, but ate at his house with other tax collectors. Those who considered themselves holy took offense, but Jesus's response was brilliant, "It's not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick." Again demonstrating that he's transforming the world.
The final section serves as a kind of epilogue or summary of what came before it. Jesus talks about not putting new wine into old wineskins, but putting new wine into new wineskins. He was doing something completely new. Whereas before the people may have had knowledge of God's will and God's ways, but now Jesus was providing the healing so that people could wholeheartedly live that way. It truly is a beautiful thing.
Tomorrow brings Luke Chapter 6!
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