Matthew 9:1-8--Jesus Heals a Paralytic

Matthew 9:1-8 English Standard Version (ESV)
Listen:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Matt.9.1-Matt.9.8
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
9:1 And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. 2 And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” 4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic--“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 7 And he rose and went home. 8 When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

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This is a most interesting story because the first time we see a man healed in the book of Matthew, it was the man's faith that Jesus commended to tell Him that his faith had made him well, then we saw a situation where a father came asking for help for healing for his daughter, and Jesus told him that because of his faith she had been healed, but now we see that the faith of several men--faith that took drastic action--moved the heart of Jesus and seeing their faith, Jesus pronounced that the man's sins were forgiven.  First, how is that even possible?  How can our faith lead to the sins of our friends being forgiven?  Is this just a one-time situation or is there something more at work here that maybe we don't fully grasp?

We are so quick to think that the friends and the man who was paralyzed must have been devastated at these words, but I don't think they were.  Jesus had healed the man's heart in a way that none of his caretakers could help him with.  This is why they knew they had to take Him to Jesus.  But, the religious people in the crowd (specifically the scribes are mentioned here) correctly asked the question to themselves (notice they didn't say it out loud...other gospel accounts are much more clear that they thought it and Jesus perceived what they were thinking and answered them) how this man could forgive sins because only God can do that.  In just a short period of time, Jesus has shown that He is God by being able to look into the heart of the man to see that He needs forgiving the man's sins, perceiving the thoughts of the scribe, and answering their objections.  But wait, there's more!

Here is one of the first recorded "signs" (as John will call them later in his gospel) where Jesus performs a miracle to reinforce that He truly has authority over something and is who He claimed to be.  In this case the scribes had possibly decided that Jesus was just another prophet who God had given the ability to perform some miracles and a message of repentance.  They could live with this idea because this is the way God had operated for a long time past and they knew the Scriptures and we comfortable with a God that operated within these boundaries, but Jesus took them out of their comfort zone by making them deal with the fact that Jesus was God in the flesh and was no mere man, no mere prophet, and no mere teacher or rabbi.  Jesus said, "[So] that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins....”  The miracle He was about to perform was a "sign" to validate everything they were just thinking about Him.

Jesus then did the "harder" thing because no one else could look in the man's heart to see his sins and see if they had been forgiven.  You either believed Jesus told the truth or you didn't, but to command the man to be physically healed....now that was something everyone could see with their own eyes if it was true or not.  Many of them probably knew this man and had passed by him and would be able to say that they knew that this man had been paralyzed and that it is a miracle that he could walk again.  They would ask "How did this happen?" to him, and he would say, "Jesus healed me, but not just my broken body, but He first healed my broken heart and forgave my sins and made all things new."  

Such power made the people afraid because God was in their presence but they knew that the only proper response was worship, and Jesus accepted that worship.. The people in that room that day knew they had come face-to-face with God in the flesh, but not all of them were willing to ask to be transformed such as this man and his friends.  We'll see in the next passage that we study that even though Jesus has made a point of talking about how the old system of the Law is insufficient to save anyone, those who were teachers of the law and the scribes who studied the Law and the Pharisees who made sure that everyone followed the Law, questioned Jesus as to why He didn't make His disciples live under not just the law, but the principles and customs set up by the religious leaders to explain the law and add even more regulation and control (the example coming up is required fasts that are not prescribed in the Law).

We'll see that Jesus' answer to that question ties directly into making all things new when we look at that passage next time.