NOTES for Лк 5:17-39
What distinguishes Jesus’ disciples from His opponents? With Jesus we find sinful, sick and paralysed people (in every sense). By contrast, the scribes and Pharisees “fast often and offer prayers” and, generally speaking, turn out to be the most respectable people of their time (and Jesus never condemns their paths of piety: “Whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do...” ). The disciples have only one hope: that their Teacher will not let them down or abandon them. And here, in front of the screen (or over the pages of the Gospel), we constantly face a choice about where to stand in relation to Christ, for ultimately there are only two possibilities—with Him or without Him.