to them” (v. 2 NASB). Luke adds, “And the power of the Lord was present to heal them” (Luke 5:17). Here’s a pattern you will notice in almost every confrontation between Jesus and Pharisees: in one way or another, His deity is always at the heart of the conflict. It is as if He deliberately provokes them with claims, statements, or actions that He knows they will object to, and then He uses the resulting conflict to demonstrate that all the authority He claimed did indeed belong to Him. On this occasion,