On one of those days, as he was teaching, there were Pharisees, and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was with him to heal (Luke 5:17).
During my daily Bible reading this morning, this verse made me stop and question, "Did Jesus not always have the power to heal? If not, how did Jesus know when he had the power to heal?" I had always had the view that the power to heal was always with Jesus. Matthew 13 records Jesus' second rejection at Nazareth and says, he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief (v. 58). I think, from a thorough investigation of scripture, the lack of faith on the part of the residents of Nazareth manifested itself in not presenting the sick and disabled to Jesus for healing. Jesus power does not depend on another's faith to heal. John 5:1-15 records the healing of the disabled man by the pool of Bethesda. Jesus picked one from many to heal that day--Jesus can heal whom ever he chooses.
The immediate context of Luke 5:17 includes vs 16, But he withdrew to the wilderness and prayed.
What it means to be fully God and fully human will probably not be completely understood this side of heaven, but we do know that Jesus depended on regular communication with his Father for sustenance. With out that time would he have had that power to heal?
God has adopted those in Christ to be his children. How can we have power to manage our lives without regular communication with our Father? If Jesus couldn't, how much less can we?!?
Our Father's Love,
Tom
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