Luke 5

This chapter belongs to the early part of the Gospel of Luke, which covers Jesus' Galilean ministry. Following the sermon at Nazareth and the healings at Capernaum in Luke 4, this chapter records the first disciples beginning to follow Jesus.

Outline

• Verses 1–11 By the lake of Gennesaret, Jesus gets into Simon's boat and teaches the crowd. When he tells Simon to let down the nets in the deep water, so many fish are caught that two boats begin to sink. Simon, James, and John forsake all and follow Jesus.
• Verses 12–16 Jesus touches and heals a man full of leprosy and tells him to show himself to the priest. Jesus then withdraws to a solitary place to pray.
• Verses 17–26 Some men remove part of a roof and let a paralytic down through the opening. When Jesus declares the man's sins forgiven, the scribes and Pharisees object. Jesus makes the sick man rise and walk, showing the authority of the Son of Man.
• Verses 27–32 Jesus calls Levi the tax collector, and at a feast in Levi's house he says that he came to call sinners to repentance.
• Verses 33–39 Asked about fasting, Jesus answers with the parable of the bridegroom, the parable of the patch of new cloth, and the parable of new wine and new wineskins.

Key Verses

• Luke 5:5 "Nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net." This verse is frequently cited as an expression of obedient faith.
• Luke 5:32 "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." This verse summarizes the purpose for which Jesus came into the world.
• Luke 5:38 "But new wine must be put into new bottles." This image conveys that the newness Jesus brought cannot be contained in old forms.

People and Places

• Jesus Christ: He calls himself the Son of Man and speaks of his authority to forgive sins.
• Peter: Simon Peter, a fisherman.
• James (son of Zebedee) and John: The sons of Zebedee and Simon's partners.
• Levi: A tax collector sitting at the tax booth. In Matthew 9, the man in the same scene is named Matthew; for this reason Levi is usually identified with Matthew.
• Pharisees, scribes, and doctors of the law (teachers of the law): They came from Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem.
• Lake of Gennesaret: Another name for the Sea of Galilee.

Points for Reflection

• The calling of the disciples also appears in Mark 1 and Matthew 4, but the miraculous catch of fish appears only in Luke. Scholars differ on its relationship to John 21, which records a similar miracle after the resurrection. This question is also connected to the Synoptic Problem.
• The older Korean term mundungbyeong ("leprosy") used in the Korean Revised Version was changed to nabyeong in the New Korean Revised Version. Many hold that the biblical term refers to a broader range of skin diseases than present-day Hansen's disease.
• The account of the paralytic parallels Mark 2. The objection "Who can forgive sins, but God alone?" is frequently discussed in Christology in connection with the divinity of Jesus.
• The words "then shall they fast in those days" in verse 35 are cited as a basis for the church's practice of fasting.
• Verse 39 appears only in Luke.

In the Korean Church

• "New wine into new wineskins" is widely used as a proverb even outside the church. Within the church, it frequently appears in sermons on the New Year or on renewal.
• "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets" and "at thy word" are commonly used as church mottoes and sermon titles.
• The story of the friends who broke through the roof to bring the paralytic to Jesus often appears in Sunday school lessons. It is also frequently treated in sermons on intercessory prayer and evangelism.