One of One (Memorial Day 2026)
Description
In Luke 5:17–26, Russ Brasher unpacks why Jesus—the one-of-one Son of Man—chose to forgive sins before healing a paralyzed man, revealing the deeper miracle beneath the miracle. If you're asking who Jesus really is, this message will challenge you to bust through every excuse and give him your heart.
Summary & Application
The One of One: Who Is Jesus to You?
What if the most valuable thing you could ever find isn't a rare sports card or a million-dollar artifact — but a person? That's the question at the heart of Russ Brasher's Memorial Day weekend message, drawn from Luke 5:17–26. Using the story of a paralyzed man lowered through a roof to reach Jesus, Russ invites us to confront one of the most important questions we can ask: Who really is Jesus to me?
Jesus Is the One-of-One Son of Man
The scene in Luke 5 is crowded and charged. Jesus is teaching in a packed house when a group of men, unable to get through the door, tear open the roof to lower their paralyzed friend directly in front of him. What happens next surprises everyone — including, perhaps, the man's friends. Jesus doesn't immediately heal the paralyzed man's body. Instead, he looks at him and says, "Friend, your sins are forgiven" (Luke 5:20).
The Pharisees erupt. "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" they demand (Luke 5:21). And Jesus meets their challenge head-on with a question of his own: "Which is easier to say: 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?" (Luke 5:23).
As Russ explains, it's a question designed to prove something — not just to the Pharisees, but to everyone in the room, and to everyone who reads it since:
"If Jesus said, 'Your sins are forgiven,' what evidence would anyone have to prove it actually happened? None. You could still look at Jesus, doubt him, question him, and dismiss him as just another lying lunatic claiming to be God."
So Jesus does both. He heals the man's body as visible proof that his authority to forgive sins is real. The man stands up, grabs his mat, and walks out. Everyone is filled with awe. "We have seen remarkable things today" (Luke 5:26).
For Russ, this was the passage that first moved his heart toward faith: "Luke 5 proved to me that I still had many questions, but at least I could say with full confidence: Jesus is the one-of-one Son of Man. He is God in the flesh."
Jesus Is the One-of-One Sacrifice
The healing in Luke 5 answers the question of who Jesus is — but Russ points out it leaves another question open: Why did Jesus forgive the man's sins first, before healing his body?
The answer unfolds across the Gospels. Jesus isn't just a miracle worker. He is the only one qualified to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. Scripture makes the cost of that forgiveness clear:
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." — Romans 5:8
"The death he died, he died to sin once for all." — Romans 6:10
"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God." — 1 Peter 3:18
When Jesus said "Friend, your sins are forgiven" in that crowded house, he already knew what those words would ultimately cost him. As Russ puts it: "In that moment, only Jesus knew that saying those words was going to cost him his life." Isaiah 53:5 anticipated it centuries earlier: "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed."
The one-of-one Son of Man became the one-of-one sacrifice — so that the forgiveness he spoke over a paralyzed man in a crowded house could be spoken over every one of us.
So What Do We Do with This?
Russ closes with a direct call to action, shaped by two different audiences.
For those not yet following Jesus: Don't let the crowd of excuses keep you from him. "Bust through the crowd of excuses," Russ urges. "If you can't get through the front door to Jesus, make a hole in the roof of your life to make space to get to know this man who knows your heart better than you do."
For those already following Jesus: Two images frame the challenge. First, keep playing the game, even when you strike out. Following Jesus is hard. We fail. We stumble. But you are following the one who looks at you in your worst and says, "Friend, your sins are forgiven. Follow me." Second, live one thumb up. Even when life throws hard things your way, the follower of Jesus can say: "I don't always know what you're doing — but I know what you've done. I am fighting a battle you have already won."
Jesus knows what is going on in your heart. He knows exactly what your heart needs. The question he leaves us with is the same one Russ has been sitting with for years: Do you trust him? Will you give him your heart?
Reflect and Respond
When you honestly answer the question "Who really is Jesus to me?" — where do you land? Is he someone you've heard about, someone you're beginning to trust, or someone you're actively following? What would it look like to take one step further?
Russ describes both the paralyzed man's friends tearing through a roof and Jesus willingly going to the cross as acts of radical effort and sacrifice. Who in your life might need you to "make a hole in the roof" to bring them closer to Jesus — and what is one concrete thing you could do this week to do that?
This post was developed with the assistance of Claude AI by Anthropic.
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Good morning, Orchard Hill. I want to start this morning by drawing your attention to the screens. What you see before you is a one-of-one rookie Paul Skeens MLB debut patch autograph card.
The story behind the origin of this card is quite fascinating. On May 11, 2024, Paul Skeens made his MLB debut as the starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who drafted him number one overall. This was his first-ever professional game. Topps, a sports card manufacturing company, knew that this moment would be significant—and they capitalized on it.
That small patch above the Pirates logo on the card says “MLB Debut.” After the game, they took Paul Skeens’ game-worn jersey, cut that patch off, placed it in this card, and had Paul Skeens autograph it—creating an extremely rare, one-of-a-kind item that can never be replicated in history, because you only get one debut.
Topps put that card into one of their upcoming 2024 Topps Chrome Baseball hobby boxes and said, “If you want this card, go find it.” A couple of months later, an 11-year-old boy woke up on Christmas morning and found one of these boxes under the Christmas tree. When he opened it, he found the one-of-one Paul Skeens rookie MLB debut patch autograph card inside—and that card would forever change that boy’s life and transform his future. He went on to sell that card for $1.1 million.
Dick’s Sporting Goods bought that card and placed it in one of their House of Sport locations—right here in Pittsburgh at the Ross Park Mall. If you want to get as close as you legally can to $1.1 million, you can go see this card in the store today.
The moral behind this story is: if you can find a rare one of one, it can transform your life and change your future. That’s important to understand, because we are going to look at a story today in Luke 5 that carries the same meaning.
Opening Prayer
Father, thank you—first for those whom you put on their hearts to serve in the United States Armed Forces, and thank you that you put on the hearts of some of them to sacrifice in ways we will never be able to truly appreciate, as they gave their lives so that we could have the freedoms we enjoy: the freedom to gather, to worship, to freely open your Word, to read it, to teach it, and to contemplate what it says. We thank you for them. We thank you for your Son. We thank you for your Word in this church today. In your name we pray. Amen.
Scripture Reading – Luke 5:17–26
“One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven.’
“The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, ‘Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, ‘Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say: “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up and walk”? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.’ So he said to the paralyzed man, ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’ Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, ‘We have seen remarkable things today.’”
—Luke 5:17–26 (NIV)
Who Really Is Jesus to Me?
I picked this story because as I have spent time reflecting on my own personal faith journey, I can look back and see that it was stories just like this one—maybe even this one—that when I first heard it, made my heart begin to ask a very important question: Who really is Jesus to me?
In verses 17 through 19, Jesus is in a house teaching, and there is a large crowd gathered in and around it. Some of those in the crowd are Pharisees and teachers of the law. The house is so crowded that when a group of men arrive trying to bring their friend—a paralyzed man—to Jesus, they cannot get through the front door. So they go through the roof: they make an opening and lower their friend down, right in front of Jesus, placing him at his feet.
As you hear this story, questions immediately begin to surface: Why is this taking place? Why is this house so crowded? Why are so many people interested in what this Jesus has to say? What did this group of men think they knew about him? So many questions—but no time for answers. We have to keep listening.
In verse 20, after the man is lowered down, the story says Jesus saw their faith, looked at the paralyzed man, and called him “friend.” He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” And we have to pause, because more questions arise: Was that what the friends were hoping Jesus would do? Why didn’t Jesus heal the paralyzed man’s physical body? Why was Jesus focused on this man’s sin problem? Again, more questions—but we have no choice but to keep listening.
In verses 21 through 22, the Pharisees and teachers of the law who heard Jesus say “your sins are forgiven” began asking questions too—questions very similar to what was forming in my own heart. “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” To speak blasphemy meant someone was claiming to be God. If falsely accused and found guilty, it was punishable by death. So the real question being asked was: Did this man named Jesus really just claim, in front of all of us, to be God?
They concluded he definitely did—because he told that man his sins were forgiven. And nobody but God has the power and authority to forgive sins. The story tells us that Jesus knew what was happening in their hearts. So Jesus said: “I know you have questions, but before I answer them, let me ask you a question of my own. And if you can understand the answer to my question, maybe you will start to get the answers to yours.”
Which Is Easier to Say?
In verse 23, Jesus asks: “Which is easier to say—‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Get up and walk’?” In other words: which is easier for me to say to prove to you that I am not a liar and not a lunatic—that what I am saying is true and can be trusted, and that I am the long-awaited, one-of-one Son of Man?
If Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven,” what evidence would anyone have to prove it actually happened? None. You could still look at Jesus, doubt him, question him, and dismiss him as just another lying lunatic claiming to be God.
But Jesus continued: if he claimed to be God—and by the way, that is exactly what he was doing—and instead said to this man, “Get up and walk,” and the man got up and walked, then there would be no reason anyone could ever doubt that what he said was true. He is the Son of Man. The one of one.
“So now that you can trust in who I am and what I say—watch. Friend, get up, take your mat, walk out the front door in full view of everyone, and go home. Live your life differently.”
And the man immediately stood up, was fully healed, grabbed his mat, and went home. Everyone in the room was in full awe as something remarkable had just taken place. And for me, the first time I heard this story, that was it. That was all I needed. Luke 5 was what my heart needed to hear to begin answering the question: Who really is Jesus to me?
Luke 5 proved to me that I still had many questions, but at least I could say with full confidence: Jesus is the one-of-one Son of Man. He is God in the flesh. And now that that is true, I should probably spend a lot more time getting to know this man—because he has my attention.
Why Did Jesus Forgive First?
I still had an unanswered question: Why did Jesus choose to heal the man’s heart and forgive his sins first, instead of his physical body? But the Bible doesn’t leave you waiting long for answers. The very next story in Luke 5—verses 27 through 32—is the story of Levi and the sinner’s dinner.
Right after this story, Jesus is walking in the streets and runs into a man named Levi. He invites Levi to follow him, and Levi immediately drops everything and does so. Soon after, Levi hosts a dinner party at his house, inviting all his friends—including Jesus. The Pharisees and teachers of the law show up again and challenge Jesus: “What are you doing? Why are you eating and hanging out with these people? Don’t you know who they are? These are tax collectors and sinners—the worst of the worst. No one in this room deserves this. No one in this room has earned this.”
And Jesus looks at them and says in verses 31 and 32: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
As I continued to lean in and learn more about who Jesus is, more questions followed—maybe just like yours. What does Jesus mean by why he actually came to earth? Am I somehow sick? If Jesus came to call sinners to repentance, does that mean I’m a sinner? Is that why he focused first on healing the paralyzed man’s heart—on his sin problem? Do I need forgiveness? And if I do—and I was starting to think I might—would Jesus forgive me too? If Jesus ran into me in the streets, knowing everything that is true of me, would he invite me to follow him?
I hoped the answer was yes. But how could I know for sure? And even if it was yes—would I say yes back?
The more I read, the more I leaned in, the more I dove deep into the Scriptures and the Gospels, the more my heart became drawn toward Jesus. I could no longer deny the truth right in front of me. This man, Jesus—he was and is the greatest man I had ever heard of and met. There is truly no one else like him.
The One of One Sacrifice
As I got to the end of the Gospels, Jesus becomes the greatest. You learn that not only is Jesus the one-of-one Son of Man, God in the flesh—you learn that Jesus Christ says: yes, I do love you. Yes, I want you to follow me. Yes, I would invite you to follow me. Yes, I want to forgive you of your sin. Yes, I desire more than anything to heal your broken heart too.
You learn the answer to all of these is yes—because you read in the Gospels that Jesus becomes the one-of-one sacrifice. Already being the one-of-one Son of Man, God in the flesh, he is the only one qualified and able to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. Jesus pays the price of our sin by sacrificing himself on the cross, allowing his death and his blood to wash away our sin. It is what makes him able to say to you and to me: “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 6:10: “The death he died, he died to sin once for all.”
1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”
Looking back now at Luke 5, I wonder if when Jesus asked, “Which is easier to say?”—only he truly knew that both answers were in some way correct, but for different reasons. The first time he said it, it was to prove he was the Son of Man. But now we can also see it was to prove he would be the ultimate sacrifice.
The Bible is clear: the wages of sin is death, and in order to receive forgiveness, there must be sacrifice. So in that moment in Luke 5, it actually would have been easier for Jesus to say, “Get up and walk.” People would have said, “Wow, that man’s life in this life will be changed forever.” But for Jesus to say, “Friend, your sins are forgiven,” changes all of our lives and changes our futures for eternity.
In that moment, only Jesus knew that saying those words was going to cost him his life. Even his closest followers couldn’t put the puzzle together yet and see the full picture. Isaiah 53:5 says: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
This is who Jesus Christ really is to me. And it’s who he is to each of us. Jesus Christ is the one-of-one Son of Man who becomes the one-of-one sacrifice—so rare that whoever finds him and believes in him will have their lives transformed and their futures eternally changed. This is why Luke 5 is such a powerful story.
So What Do We Do with This?
With the time we have left, the question is: what do we do with such a story and such a person? There is a lot we could do, but let me offer a couple of suggestions. First, no matter where you are, you need to ask yourself the same question: Who really is Jesus to me?
For Those Not Yet Believing:
If your answer to “Who really is Jesus to me?” is what mine was at first—someone I think I can trust, but I should probably spend more time getting to know—my suggestion is this: board the USS Midway.
The USS Midway is a retired aircraft carrier turned into the largest ship museum in the world, located in San Diego, California. I thought I had an appropriate amount of reverence, appreciation, and thankfulness for the men and women who have served and sacrificed in the U.S. Armed Forces—until I actually visited that ship with my family. As I began to experience what it was like for those who served, heard their stories, and walked along the ship, my heart was taken to a deeper level of appreciation and awe that I didn’t know I needed. I kept saying in my heart: I could have never done what these people did. But I am so grateful that there were those who did—for me—what I could never do for myself.
In the same way, go get to know Jesus on a personal level—and watch your heart be taken to a depth of appreciation, reverence, awe, and love that you didn’t know existed and didn’t know you needed. Bust through the crowd of excuses. If you can’t get through the front door to Jesus, make a hole in the roof of your life to make space to get to know this man who knows your heart better than you do and knows exactly what your heart needs. Don’t waste another minute. Get to know him now.
For Those Already Following Jesus:
If the answer to “Who really is Jesus to me?” is someone you believe in and trust, someone you are following—here are two suggestions based on this text.
First: Keep playing the game that you love.
Mickey Mantle is considered arguably the greatest baseball player to ever play the game. He once said that in 18 seasons of professional baseball, he struck out 1,700 times and was walked 1,800 times. That’s 3,500 plate appearances—the equivalent of seven full seasons at bat—where he didn’t hit the ball. Arguably the greatest to ever do it spent seven whole seasons not hitting a baseball.
If it’s that hard for the best to ever do it, I am here to tell you that following Jesus is sometimes just as hard. It is not easy. We are going to strike out sometimes. We are going to feel walked and like we’re not contributing. We will be tempted, drawn away, make mistakes, have regrets. But you need to remember who you are following. You are following the one-of-one Son of Man who looks at you in your worst—while you were yet still a sinner—and says, “Friend, your sins are forgiven. Follow me.” Keep playing the game that you love. Keep following Jesus, even when it gets hard, even when you feel like you have screwed up, even when you think no one could possibly understand and forgive you. Yes, there is one. He is the Son of Man, and he is who you follow.
Second: Live one thumb up.
Life can throw some pretty nasty curveballs. In the movie Terminator 2, there is an iconic scene where the T-800, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, knows that in order to save humanity, he must sacrifice himself. As he descends, he gives a thumbs up—a moment the director intended to say: because of my sacrifice and my death, the future of humanity is secure.
Sometimes as followers of Jesus, we look around and say, “God, I don’t know what you’re doing. If I could rate what I’m experiencing right now, I would give it a thumbs down.” But here is the truth: God, I don’t always know what you’re doing—but I know what you’ve done. I am fighting a battle you have already won. I know how this story ends. As you follow Jesus and it gets hard, when you get hard news, remember: you follow the one-of-one sacrifice who says, “Whatever you may face in this life, I’ve got it. I’ve got you. Live your life differently, because your future is secure.”
Closing
There are many more suggestions I could give, but even if you don’t take any of them, remember this: Jesus knows what is going on in your heart. He knows exactly what your heart needs today. Do you trust him? Will you give him your heart?
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for who you are. Thank you for your Son. Thank you for the one-of-one Son of Man and sacrifice. Lord, I pray that we are drawn to you and that each of us gives our hearts to you. And each day, we remember to give our hearts to you. We ask this in your precious name. Amen.
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