The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Luke 5:17,
"One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick."
I find this fascinating. Here we have the Son of God, in the midst of his public ministry here on earth, teaching the people and Luke makes this comment that "the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick." This very God/man, Jesus Christ, of whom I am entirely convinced was fully man and fully God in one person seems to need this "power of the Lord" present in order to heal the sick. Possibly this isn't the point Luke was making but it sure reads that way to me.
At first brush it doesn't seem to fit my theology. Certainly God has the power to heal anyone of anything. Certainly Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. In John 1:1-5, I read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." Later, in verse 14 we read, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." This makes clear to me that Jesus Christ is God. The one who sat and taught men was God - the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity.
Yet, the way the text reads in Luke 5:17 is that Jesus required "the power of the Lord" to be present in order for him to heal the sick. It certainly sounds as though Jesus Christ was dependant upon the Father in order to do some things. I also note that when he went into the desert for a forty day fast and be tempted by the devil, he did so as he was "led" by the Holy Spirit. We are told in Luke 4:1, "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert..." So Jesus was "filled with the Holy Spirit" and he was "led by the Spirit". He also required "the power of the Lord" to be present in order for him to heal people.
How do I understand this? As God the Son, Jesus Christ had all the attributes and fullness of the Godhead within him. I read in Hebrews 1:3, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." Also in Colossians 2:9, "In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form." Why did he need to be led by the Holy Spirit? Why did he need something present in order to heal?
I find the answer to this in Paul's wonderful explanation of Jesus Christ in Philippians 2:6-8, "[Christ Jesus] being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! " Here I learn that the Son of God set aside those things that attend his existence as God when he took on humanity to come to planet earth. He emptied himself, setting aside his divine power and made himself dependent upon the leading of the Holy Spirit and upon the power of God the Father in order to do those things that must have been a very part of his activity as the Son of God in heaven.
I find these things fascinating in that they help demonstrate something of the nature of the Trinity. This to me is vital to understand what I need to know of those things of Jesus Christ that make him so accessible to me. To know he has been tempted in every way I have (yet, unlike me, was without sin), provides me with understanding when I read things like, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:15-16. To know he placed himself upon dependence of the Holy Spirit to be led helps me in the same endeavor. To know he placed himself dependent upon the power of the Father to heal and carry out other aspects of ministry helps me in the endeavor of whatever minsitry the Lord gives me. Jesus Christ, among so much else, has modeled for us what dependence upon God looks like. He didn't require that dependence except that he "made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness... he humbled himself"
How astonishing! How fascinating! The wonders of the Trinity and the interaction within the Godhead is such a wonder to behold!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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