Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man
Here is the passage from Matthew 9:1-8:
Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts 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, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.
Think with me what it would be like if you had the authority to forgive the debts of anyone who came to you. Everyone wants their debts forgiven. Just think of what it would be like if you had the power to forgive all kinds of debts—from a car loan to a home loan, credit card debts, business loans, medical bills, or even mortgages. Wouldn’t you be very popular and have great authority?
Well, we can forgive debts, but only the debts that are owed to us personally. And that would only be because we are willing and able to assume the cost of the debt ourselves. It would be horribly presumptuous for us to forgive the debts that are owed to someone else. Only a creditor who is willing to bear the debt himself has the power and authority to declare a debt “forgiven.” All these debts are temporary and will end with the world. If a temporary debt is such a big burden, think of the eternal debts we owe, not to other men, banks, or governments, but to our Creator and Judge, whose justice will demand every single penny.
The Bible tells us that we are all born into this world in a condition of debt—and it’s a debt that we cannot pay off. It is the debt of sin. Every one of us is born with the debt of Adam’s sin charged to our account. God is our great Creditor, and every day we compound that debt further before him with our own sins. We increase our debt by squandering our lives and time on vanities. When it comes to the debt of sins, no man can forgive another man’s sins. It’s not even in our power to remove ourselves from our condition of “sin-debt.” And so, it would be the greatest possible presumption to announce that we “forgave” someone of the sins they had committed against God. Only the one to whom we owe can say our sins are forgiven. The good news for us eternal debtors is that God’s Son had no personal debt himself. He paid the debt for us. He has all authority from God himself to announce our debt to God “forgiven.” Colossians beautifully says that he took the list of all our sins, the handwriting of the law, and nailed it to the cross and paid it in full. Today’s wonderful passage from Matthew shows that as the Son of Man in human flesh, Jesus Christ has the authority to forgive the sins committed against God for anyone who comes to him.
The Gospel of Matthew is the Gospel of the Kingdom and of the King. Matthew, in writing his Gospel, is not concerned with chronology, but his theme is presenting Jesus Christ as the Messiah King with all exclusive, lone authority. As a king, he has all royal prerogatives and lone authority. He is presenting the miraculous power of Jesus Christ, and there is a climatic and orderly kind of arrangement. He presents nine miracles, and we have seen five already. They show a flow from lesser to greater. It started with cleansing a leper, and then he healed a centurion’s servant, and then he banished the fever of Peter’s wife’s mother, all physical miracles. Then he went beyond the physical miracles and began to deal with nature, and he stilled the winds and the waves. Then he showed not only his power over visible nature but his power over invisible supernatural forces—demons—when he cast them out. And now he goes even beyond that, in the ascending drama of the miracles, and he shows that he has power over the root of all man’s misery, which is sin. He deals with human guilt, the evil that separates man from his maker. And so the great physician cannot only heal the sick, still the storm, and deal with demons, but he can bring to the human soul the thing that it needs the most, the forgiveness of sin. It is his exclusive right.
Let’s look at the verses. Matthew 9:1 says, “Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town.” His town refers to Capernaum. Now you might think at the beginning that Nazareth was his city, and it was at one time. But if you go back to chapter 4, verse 13, it says, “And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the seacoast, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah.” Jesus left Nazareth. If you were to also read in Luke 4:30-31, you would know that he left Nazareth because they rejected him. He was a prophet without honor in his own country, and his town now was just a few miles away in the little town of Capernaum. It is also very likely that he had taken up residence in the house of Peter. He even healed Peter’s mother-in-law and stayed there.
Now he comes back after healing the man with the legion of demons and being chased away by those pig lovers. You remember that before he crossed the Lake of Galilee, the whole town had come outside Peter’s house, and he healed them of various diseases and cast out demons. They were all waiting for him. Massive crowds of people were increasing, and the crowd was swelling. And now when he comes back, it’s only natural to assume that another monstrous crowd is going to come to the place that he stays. And as he comes back to Peter’s house, that is precisely what happens.
Now we can fill in some of the details because Mark, chapter 2, and Luke 5:17-26 give us the same account and provide other details. And so as we put them together with this, we see the whole picture. He went into the house, very likely Peter’s house. It is also likely that they were upstairs. It was common in those days to build a two-story house. On the first floor was a large room or hall where social gatherings occurred. In fact, you remember, the Lord, the night in which he broke bread with his disciples, went into an upper room. That was common in most homes. The kitchen, bedrooms, and other things were downstairs, and upstairs was this great meeting area. And on top of that was the roof, and they would spend much time on the rooftops as well. The climate being what it is in that part of the world, the rooftop was a pleasant place. And every home had an outside staircase going up the side to the roof; there were no duplex houses in those days.
Well, on this occasion, the Lord is in Peter’s house, and the people have literally jammed that house. Everybody is jammed in there, perhaps some of them leaking out the doors, standing around on the porch and listening. The Lord is there and speaking. All the healed men and women came to hear him happily. How interesting his preaching must have been. There was not any room for any more people. There was no place even to put a foot. The stairs and doors were stuffed with people. And with all these people packed tightly into the house, it was a true “houseful.” And then, all of a sudden, a marvelous thing takes place, and that’s what we see beginning in verse 2.
Let us look at these verses. There are two messages I want to give on this passage, or broadly one message: how some people can be happy in life whatever happens to them. But some people can never be happy in life, no matter what they have. Let’s see.
Verse 2: “And, behold, [and again that’s an exclamation point in the Greek, ‘Get this, this is unusual, unique, marvelous, wonderful.’] they brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; ‘Son, be of good cheer.'” This gives us as much as Matthew has intended because Matthew’s purpose is different, but as we fill in with Mark and Luke, this becomes a marvelous thing. First of all, notice: “They brought to Him a man.” Who is “they”? Matthew’s purpose doesn’t require an antecedent, but Mark and Luke provide one, and we find out that they refers to four friends or relatives, four dear friends, dear relatives who cared about this man. They had all heard that Jesus was in town and they wanted their friend to come to Jesus. They brought their friend. Why do they need to bring him? Because he was “a man sick of the palsy”; he had, in the Greek word, paralutikos. He was a paralytic, meaning he had a loss of motor function, the mechanical function of the body, and sometimes a loss of sensory ability, the inability to move or feel to one degree or another.
This kind of paralysis can come about in a lot of ways. It can come from an accident, a neck or back injury, a birth defect, polio, or various other things that can cause paralysis. It’s apparent in this man’s case that it was a severe paralysis. It may well have been that he was quadriplegic, a person affected by paralysis of all four limbs. From the description, we know he could not walk or move. At least we know that he was lying on a bed. He was flat on his back, apparently unable to move himself in any way, unable even to assist those who moved him, so that it took four men to carry him. We don’t know how this man became like that.
Do we realize how difficult it is to live like this? You can only see, think, and feel every pain in your mind and heart, but your whole body is dead. It is a very, very sad state. In those times, it would have been doubly difficult to be paralyzed. It is difficult enough now, but in those times, it would have been doubly difficult because there was no equipment, no ability to assist, no medicine. Nothing could be done. The person would be in grave distress, having to be cared for in all the very basic necessities of life. If they were thirsty, they could not drink water. If they were hungry, they could not eat. If they needed to use the toilet, they could not go. Others had to feed, clean, and do everything for him. He could not move even a finger. Realize the frustration. Sometimes, when we are sick and others have to do things for us in the hospital after an operation, we feel like running away from the hospital. What a sad condition, what frustration he would have had, and also the people who saw him. I’m sure there was much more of a social stigma then than there is now. People would ask, “What sin did he commit?” This would add to the man’s own anguish, disappointment, and frustration. In his heart, he felt deeply that he was sick because he was sinful because that was the common feeling of the time: that his disease and his illness were the result of his sin. That was the thinking in those days. Remember, they asked about the man born blind, “Did he or his parents sin?” So people would have thought that this man had sinned and that was why he suffered so much. And so the man not only suffered from the disease and the incapacitation and disability and the stigma that went with it, but he suffered from an overwhelming fact that he was sinful—guilt. Now, sickness may not always be related to sin. In other words, you may be ill because God has other purposes, through which he will reveal his glory. It is not necessarily because you’ve sinned. Not all sickness is a chastening, but all sickness is a graphic demonstration of the destructive power that’s at work in the world because of sin, right? The Bible says he was lying on a pallet or a bed, which was a thick quilt, a well-padded quilt, or a very thin mattress that could be rolled up and carried about. They would lie it on the floor and simply sleep on it. But the man had been paralyzed, and he was lying on a bed.
It would not be uncommon for such people to seek to be alone and to shun the crowds. But this man wanted to come to Jesus, and I think that the reason he wanted to come to Jesus was because of his sin, not his sickness. The Holy Spirit had worked in his heart and had given him a burden of sin. The grace of God was working in his heart and making him poor in spirit and mourning for his sin. I believe the man came to Jesus for a spiritual problem, not a physical one.
Why? First, see his faith. It says, “And Jesus seeing their faith…”. Well, what do you mean, seeing their faith? How do you know they had faith? Well, they must have had faith. They came to the house, according to the Mark and Luke account, but they couldn’t get in. Mark, in his gospel, tells us a little more of the details of what happened. He said, “Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying” (Mark 2:3-4).
This man, with his friends, carrying him with great difficulty, came near Peter’s house, and it was full of people, with no one moving. And it would have been tough to push and try to work your way through the crowd when you have four guys carrying a bed. Imagine their scene. Most of us would ask, “What to do?” Either we would wait and see if the crowd decreased and then go, or maybe come some other time. This man was paralyzed in body, but he was very far from being paralyzed in mind. He had great faith in Christ. He would appear to have been earnest, resolute, and persevering to come to Christ. He wanted to see Christ. He wanted to see him now. He was earnestly urgent. We can only guess, but if he was not so earnest, his friends would not have done this for him. Because of what Christ told him, he must have been active in faith. He was something more than passive under such heroic treatment! You must be energetic yourself if you are to make other people energetic on your behalf. This man must have inspired them by his eagerness, by his importunity. He pleaded with them to aid him—”Come what may, I must see Jesus!” Whatever way, somehow or other, and because of his personal eagerness and pressing importunity, his friends made up their minds to help him. That is what happens when you are burdened with sin: you want to see Jesus, and you are ready to overcome any difficulty in the world.
A soul burdened with sin, weighed down, and oppressed in conscience, seeks the Savior. “I must see the Christ,” he begs. His passionate earnestness extracts a promise from his neighbors that they will take him to Jesus. He begs them to do it now. He says, “I must see Jesus.” His friends reply, “You cannot even move or rise from your bed.” “Carry me upon it,” he cries. They come and see a houseful crowd. “But we cannot get in.” “Try,” he says. They reached the door, and they cried, “Make room. Here is a man sick of the palsy who must see Jesus.” They are gruffly answered, “Plenty of other poor men want to see him. There are more sick inside also. Why should everybody give place to you? What is the use of pushing? There is no room for men standing, let alone for bringing a man sleeping on a bed. What folly to drag a sick man into all this pressure and heat! Stop talking; the master is talking, and we are listening. The Prophet is speaking; you will interrupt him. Away with you!” The bearers cannot enter. They plead and they push, but all in vain.
The four friends see him. “Shall we wait or go back and come some other day?” “No,” cries the resolute man, “take me up the back stairs. Get me to the top of the roof, and make a hole. What? Yes, make a hole and let down the bed through the ceiling.” “What? Are you mad?” Peter would have taken out a loan and built a house and put in molding and tiles. “Break the molding? Who will rebuild it?” “I will pay. Let’s take that risk. What if stones fall on people’s heads? Something happens. That is okay. Break the molding. I want to see Jesus.” “Run any risk, for I must get to Jesus, even if it means breaking the molding.”
The friends tell him again about the difficulty. “Why,” says one, “you will be hanging over the people’s heads, for there will be no room for you when we let you down.” “Try it,” he cries. “If I am let down from the top, there will be no fear of my not reaching the ground! They cannot push me up again or keep me on their heads! They must make room for me.” His earnestness and importunity, having been wondrous and ingenious, now become infectious! His bearers smile at his eagerness and enter into it with zest. He will give them no rest until his desire is accomplished. So they climbed that external staircase, went up on the rooftop, and tile by tile they began to tear the roof apart.
And you can imagine everybody inside, and they’re listening intently. He is talking about important points. “What’s next, what’s next?” What it must have been like to be stuffed into the house with the crowd, listening to Jesus as he taught. The people would have been taking in all that Jesus was saying when suddenly some “dum dum” sound came from the roof. They might have ignored it, thinking it was just construction, but then some of them felt a little bit of plaster falling onto their shoulder. And then, as they brushed it off, someone might have felt a big chunk of plaster “ping” off the top of their head.
Slowly, it became difficult to concentrate. Their eyes all went up. They looked up and gasped to see a hole in the roof with an eyeball looking through it! Then, they saw a finger poke through the hole to tear off bigger chunks. Soon, strong and determined hands were prying large chunks of tiles off the roof, as the surprised people below moved away from the falling debris. Tile by tile disappeared, and they saw the clear blue sky of Palestine with a big hole. And as if closing that hole, a cot was put in, and a cot was lowered down by ropes—right in front of Jesus—with a paralyzed man lying on it.
The paralytic man was sleeping and looking. How they would all have felt! It doesn’t say so in the Bible, of course, but I strongly suspect that Jesus looked up to the men on the roof and laughed. The Bible says that He saw their faith. So determined, earnest, and persevering. They certainly meant business, didn’t they? This is what it says: Jesus saw their faith.
The Unspoken Need
Jesus’s response to the paralytic man was completely unexpected. While his friends brought him for a physical healing, Jesus knew that the man’s deepest and most painful burden was his sense of guilt and shame. The man’s silent, heartfelt expression of faith and sorrow was enough for Jesus to see that his primary need was spiritual healing before physical. The Lord’s words, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you,” addressed the root of the man’s sadness and fear, bringing him immediate, unspeakable joy.
The Significance of the Words
Jesus’s words were filled with profound meaning:
- “Son”: This is a term of immense tenderness and compassion. For a man who felt alienated and unworthy, this word of endearment from Jesus was the ultimate comfort, showing him that he was not an outcast but a beloved child of God.
- “Be of good cheer”: This phrase means there is nothing to fear. Jesus wasn’t telling the man to muster up courage, but assuring him that the cause of all his fear—his sin—was gone. This gave him a profound sense of peace and joy that transcended his physical condition.
- “Your sins are forgiven”: This is the greatest gift and the most profound need for any person. It means that all sins, past, present, and future, are completely dismissed, as if they never happened. Forgiveness is the mother of all blessings, providing a solid foundation for true, lasting happiness that is not dependent on circumstances.
The Application for Us
The story’s application is clear for both believers and non-believers.
- For the Unbeliever: The greatest problem in your life is not a physical ailment, financial struggle, or a bad habit; it is your sin. Jesus offers the same profound forgiveness to anyone who comes to Him with true repentance and faith. Your greatest need is to be reconciled with God, and He is the only one who can grant it.
- For the Believer: If you are feeling down or without joy, you may have forgotten the incredible gift you have received. You must return to the joy of your salvation and abide in the assurance that your sins are completely forgiven. No matter your circumstance, the knowledge that your Creator has accepted you and pardoned you is a reason to rejoice. As the scripture says, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven.”
Last week, we saw the faith of the paralytic man. He could not move himself from the neck down, nor could he even shake his finger. But he was convicted of sin; his spirit was heavy and oppressed with the conviction of sin. He had a burden heavier than his paralysis. He believed that Jesus was the savior of sinners. Nobody but Christ could see that need. All others, who read this superficially, thought that he was only worried about his paralysis, but his heart’s burden was sin.
Even though he could not move, he did not stop. He made his friends carry him to where Christ was. There was a big crowd, and he may have told them to try to get through. The crowd did not move and would not allow them to pass, perhaps rebuking them for bringing a sick man on a cot. “You should wait or come later,” they might have said, but he was urgent. He wanted to see Christ, and he wanted to see him now. So he told them to carry him to the roof and break it open. “What? How? Who will pay the expenses?” his friends might have asked. “The house owner, the next house, they broke our awning. We fought. Now break the roof? What will he say?” “No, that’s okay. I will pay. If we drop you down, how will that crowd react? What will happen? What are the possibilities?” he asked. “Drop a cot inside a house filled with a crowd? What will not happen? I will not fall to the ground. The people will hold me on their heads. They cannot push me out or hold me for long. They will have to make some room for me. Somehow, I will be before Jesus’s feet.” What incredible importunity! They broke the roof and lowered him, and there he was, before Jesus, who saw their faith and spoke those wonderful words: “Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven.”
Jesus’s words tell us what had happened in the man’s heart. The Bible nowhere says that any man is forgiven without faith and repentance. So Christ saw the true work of God in this man that led him to repent and have faith. His deepest need was not his palsy, but the burden of sin. I see motions of deep repentance and faith. “Be of good cheer, son; your sins are forgiven. I know your heart.” The signs of true faith are not just a crowd meeting with Jesus. True faith will seek a personal relationship and words from Christ. Men come to Jesus for many reasons, but true faith primarily seeks the Savior for the forgiveness of sins, knowing that when he meets our greatest need, he will also meet all other needs. We see the practical actions of faith: faith makes us carry others to their needs, and it is importunate, not stopping for anything.
We saw last week how wonderful those words are, how we need these words said to us every morning. What comfort these words bring us! I told you that whatever our circumstances in life, even if our hands and feet are paralyzed, we can rejoice if our sins are forgiven. That is our greatest and most basic need. You can never experience true happiness without forgiveness. One preacher said, “If there is a joy outside of heaven that is higher than all others, it is the joy of a sinful soul when divine forgiveness is granted.” I think that men would readily give up all the pleasures of this world and count them as nothing if they could but know the bliss of forgiven sin. Oh, if any man who says that he loves a merry laugh, did but once know what it is to be reconciled to God, he would count that he never, before, enjoyed real merriment, or understood true mirth! David says it like this: “Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven.” That is the greatest and most basic need of mankind.
We saw that last week: you can never experience true happiness without forgiveness. Today we will see that you can never experience that with wrong and low thoughts of Christ. You will experience that only when you believe in the glory and authority of Christ to forgive all sins. Only when you grasp the authority of Christ to forgive all sins. Let us see that in today’s passage. Let us continue that passage from verse 3, after Jesus, seeing their faith, says, “My son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven.”
In that crowd, there were scribes who had come to see the excitement. Now, we see the reaction of the religious scribes. “Why does this fellow speak this way?” It is not just “man,” but very cruelly, “fellow.” In verse 3, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” Matthew says he is blaspheming. The Gospel of Mark explains their concern when it has them saying, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
These were scribes, the learned trustees of the law of God that was contained in the Old Testament scriptures. They reason that only God can forgive sins. You know, they are right about the first half; only God can forgive sin. They were right about that. Like I said, only a creditor has the authority to forgive debts. Isaiah 43:25 says, “I, even I, [says God] am he that blotteth out Thy transgression.” God can forgive transgression and he alone. They were right about that, but they were wrong about Christ, because he was God. For them, he was just a man. The ultimate blasphemy would be to claim to be God, to say you’re God. If you are forgiving sins, you are claiming to be God, and that is blasphemy. That is what they are reasoning.
No one but God can forgive the sins that are committed against God. And if it would be very blasphemous for a mere man (as they thought Jesus to be) to presume to do what God alone had the right to do, then what Jesus was doing was horribly blasphemous! Their error was in their belief that Jesus was simply a mere man. He had been proving over and over that he was not just a mere man. His works had been testifying that he had authority over the wind and the waves, and that even the evil spirits obeyed his command, crying out and calling him “Son of God.” But they were not willing to believe it.
It’s sad. The paralyzed man believed he was the Savior who could forgive sins. These learned experts of the law knew every word in the law. They read the Bible so much. The paralyzed man did not have that much knowledge, but these people, knowing so much, after hearing all his preaching and seeing all his works, concluded he was a blasphemer. Why? What is the difference? Because they never realized their greatest real need. They knew so much of the Bible, and the Bible mainly reveals how sinful we are, but they never read the Bible correctly. They were never poor in spirit, never mourning for sin. Sin had blinded them. They felt other needs, but not their greatest one. So they had very low and evil thoughts about Christ. Even today, when we preach forgiveness of sin, very few accept it. Others are not interested. Not because they don’t need it, but because they never realized their greatest need. They don’t recognize the problem. When convicted by the Holy Spirit, instead of realizing, “Oh, here is one who can forgive sins,” their greatest pressure is guilt. “The wrongs I have done… oh, the pressure of the guilt of my own heart, the pollution of my own soul, oh, to know that forgiveness.” They don’t realize it, so they have low thoughts of Christ and say he is a “blasphemer.”
Notice verse 3: “They said within themselves.” Mark says, “They said it in their hearts.” They didn’t even speak. Jesus read their thoughts. This is another mark of the omniscience of Christ. He knew what was in the heart of the sick man; they all thought he needed healing, but Jesus knew his burden of sin. He knew what was in the mind and thinking of these others as well. He could read minds. He’s God. Notice that he did not hear their words with his ears, but he perceived their spirits. Mark 2:8 says, “And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?” Jesus read their very thoughts. He asks a question: “Why do you reason these things?” You are asking why I speak this way. I ask you why you think that way. Not only did he know what was in their thoughts, but he called them evil thoughts. He said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” They thought that their thoughts of him were reasonable. But he said that they were “evil” thoughts. The worst, most devilish thoughts that can send them to hell. They were thoughts of sinful unbelief. He had been showing them who he was, but they still would not believe.
Then he asks, “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?” Which is easier? Well, they’re stuck. You notice they don’t give any answer. There is no answer because neither is easier. Both are impossible for men; both are possible for God. He can do either with the same divine ease. They’re both just as easy for him. Only God can heal. Only God can forgive. The Lord is saying, “If I can do them, if I can do one, I can do the other. And if I can do the other, I’m not a blasphemer; I’m God.” They were trapped.
Mark that Jesus does not ask, “Which is the easier, to forgive sin, or to heal the palsy?” No, not to do, but to say. He said, “Which is easier to say: ‘Your sins are forgiven you’ or to say, ‘Arise, and walk’?”
Comparatively, anyone can say, “Your sins are forgiven,” and it is easier because you cannot see whether the sins are forgiven or not. So many false prophets and priests say, after they have heard the penitent’s confession, “Your sins are forgiven.” But how do we know if the sins are forgiven? In the courtroom of God and in the spiritual world, there is a mountain of sins that weighs on the soul. Have you thought about how great the count of one man’s sin is? He is born with the guilt of original sin, and all his life, he has negative sins by disobeying the law in his thoughts, words, and deeds, and positive sins by not doing the good that the law commands. He lives every moment without loving God with his whole heart. That mountain of sins lies in the unseen spiritual realm. It is easy to say “forgiven” because you cannot check or verify whether the mountain of sins has left the soul of that man and whether God in his courtroom has dismissed all his sins. Who can see the mountain of sins removed? What sight can perceive that? What eyes can see and confirm? Humanly, we cannot, so it is easy to say.
But it is difficult to say, “Rise up and walk.” If you say, “Arise, and walk,” what then if they do not rise and walk? We will know that what you are saying about sins is not true. Both require divine power. Many false prophets will not say, “Arise and walk,” but keep saying, “Sins forgiven.” Thus, Christ said to the scribes, “I will prove to you that I am God and I have the ability to forgive sins by doing a miracle that you can see. With the same authority that I told your sins are forgiven, I will, with the same authority of God, tell him to arise and walk. You can see whether or not that word comes to pass.”
That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive. When I said to this man, “Your sins are forgiven,” his sins were truly forgiven. You cannot see the mountain of sin rolled off his soul, but it indeed rolled off. All his sins were forgiven in God’s courtroom. That you may know that I have such authority, he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”
So, watch verse 6: “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth…” Why do they need to know that? Because if all he said was, “Your sins be forgiven,” they would never know that he did it. But when he says, “Rise up and walk,” and the guy rises up and walks, and he has the power to do that, the only thing they can conclude is that he must have forgiven his sins because the two are inseparably linked. He is healing the man as proof of his power to forgive. If he could do one, he could do the other. By doing the visible, he manifests the power to do the invisible.
He gives three commands: “Arise, take your mat, and go to your house.”
What was the paralytic’s response? In verse 7, it says, “Then the man got up and went home.” Mark 2:12 adds, “And immediately he rose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all.”
Can you imagine? His four friends are there, their heads through the hole in the roof. They’re watching. The people are listening. The Pharisees have not said a word. Nobody has talked except Jesus. This is a dramatic scene, but he has read their hearts and he has nailed them to the wall with his argument, and now he says, “Get up and go home, fellow.” The guy gets up, rolls up his little bed under his arm, and picks up the little wooden frame, and you can believe that an aisle was instantly created as that guy walked out of that place. And when he got outside, can you imagine what went on when his four friends came tripping down the stairs on the outside? I’m telling you, they had some kind of trip home. What power! Jesus has the power to forgive your sin.
The Unmistakable Miracle and Its Purpose
Jesus meticulously performed a physical miracle to prove His spiritual authority. By commanding the paralytic to “Arise,” “take up your mat,” and “go home,” Jesus provided undeniable evidence that His power was both creative and absolute.
- The man, who was completely paralyzed, instantly stood up.
- He then rolled up his mat, an act that required complex motor skills.
- Finally, he walked home, not just limping but completely healed.
Every detail of this miraculous healing served a clear purpose: to demonstrate that the same divine authority that could restore a paralyzed body could also forgive sin. This physical miracle validated His spiritual power.
The Reaction of the Crowd and the Scribes
The people’s reaction to this event varied. The crowd was utterly amazed and filled with fear, praising God for giving such power to a man. They had never seen anything like it. However, their astonishment was a superficial, fleshly wonder that lacked true spiritual understanding. They glorified God in a general sense but failed to recognize the true identity of Jesus as the Savior who could forgive their own sins.
The scribes, on the other hand, were not amazed but angry. Filled with jealousy, they accused Jesus of blasphemy in their hearts. They could not accept that He, a man, had the authority to forgive sins. This incident only solidified their hatred and opposition to Him.
Jesus, the Reader of Hearts
This story reveals a crucial truth: Jesus knows the hearts of all men. While the crowd and the scribes reacted outwardly, Jesus saw their true inner state.
- He saw the sincere faith in the paralytic’s heart, which was the true reason for his healing.
- He read the evil, contemptuous thoughts of the scribes, who silently accused Him of blasphemy. He knew their hearts were filled with low thoughts of Him, even if their lips were silent.
This serves as a powerful reminder that Jesus is not just a historical figure but the ever-present Lord who searches the minds and hearts. He knows our deepest thoughts, our secret sins, and our true feelings about Him. We cannot hide our thoughts from Him.
Your Deepest Need is Forgiveness
The greatest lesson from this story is that the deepest need of every human being is not physical healing, wealth, or worldly success, but the forgiveness of sin. Jesus addressed this first in the paralytic, showing that sin is a worse malady than any physical ailment. When sin is forgiven, true peace and lasting joy are possible, regardless of our circumstances.
This is the central message of the Gospel. It is an act of grace that removes the heaviest sorrow a person can feel. When we truly understand that Jesus, the Son of Man, has the authority to forgive sins on Earth, it should fill us with a joy that cannot be shaken.
So, where do you stand in this story? Are you like the crowd, amazed by Jesus’s power but failing to seek His forgiveness? Or are you like the paralytic, coming to Him in faith, knowing that your greatest need is for your sins to be forgiven?
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 