Matthew 9:1–8

 ¹ So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. ² Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” ³ And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!” 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 you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? ⁶ But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” ⁷ And he arose and departed to his house. ⁸ Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

Commentary

Vs. 1 “So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city.”

The Lord Jesus now leaves the country of the Gergesenes and crosses over the Sea of Galilee and comes to His own city Capernaum, which became His primary dwelling place, and “base of operations” after the people of Nazareth; the city where He grew up; tried to kill Him (see Luke 4:29-31).

Vs. 2 “Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”

The Lord Jesus with the disciples having then returned to Capernaum was staying in a house. And so when the people heard He was there soon multitudes came to the house wanting see and hear Jesus, and or have Him heal their sick etc. Now while all this is going on some men also seek to bring to Jesus a paralyzed man, but since there is no way for them to get him near Jesus in the house, because of the crowds, they bring him up on the roof and lower him down in the midst of house before Jesus (see Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26). And so when Jesus sees their faith, He says to the paralyzed man, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” Notice then that Lord Jesus had mercy on the man and healed him because of those men’s faith that brought him before Him. Now I’m not saying that the paralyzed man did not have faith, but it was his compatriots’ most desperate faith in doing what they did to bring him to Jesus that moved the Savior to immediately have mercy on him and heal him. The lesson for us then might be when we pray in desperation for someone God just maybe moved to have mercy on them as well. But our faith is not enough if the person we pray for is unwilling to repent and believe, for ultimately each and every one of us will decide our own fate. Also notice (but not in terms of importance) is that the Lord Jesus links this man’s healing with having His sins forgiven. Now in stating that, no one should ever think that forgiveness of sins is universally linked with having all of one’s bodily aliments or disabilities immediately healed or cured by the Lord for that only comes to us all when we receive our heavenly bodies. And so though that occurs here, the Lord Jesus clearly was revealing not just to the crowds, but more specifically to the ever Scripturally astute Scribes who were there, that the Son of Man has both God’s Authority and the Power to forgive and heal sins. Something which they will now demonstrate having a real problem with, that the Lord Jesus Christ can both say and do just that.

Vs. 3 “And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”

Now with the Lord Jesus’ declaration that the paralyzed man’s sins are forgiven the response of the scribes is only to say within themselves that Jesus is blaspheming. When in fact it is they who are blaspheming by denying the Person and Power of God being the Lord Jesus Christ’s Person!

Vs. 4-7 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 you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? ⁶ But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” ⁷ And he arose and departed to his house. 

Now the scribe’s thoughts that Jesus blasphemed by saying such did not go unnoticed by our Lord. And so He rebukes them asking them why they were thinking evil in their hearts, which itself should have revealed something to them that He could have immediately known their thoughts. Now the Lord Jesus could have said to the man simply, ‘Arise and walk.’ And that would have been that, the man would’ve been healed and went his way and the scribes would’ve found some way to dismiss Jesus’ healing the man. And so the Lord Jesus didn’t just say that, though that would be easier than saying, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ for as the Lord Jesus reveals He wanted them to know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. For it is to earth that the Son of Man came, and it is on earth where He will die for all our sins and transgressions on the Cross to make the Atonement for us all. Therefore as the Son of Man the Lord Jesus Christ will now invoke God’s Authority and Power to not only heal the man, but also to forgive the man, something which the scribes rightly note belongs to God alone, and thus Christ alone on earth. And so with that the Lord Jesus says to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” Then the man arose and departed to his house (vs.7).

Vs. 8 “Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.”

 Now when the multitudes saw the paralyzed man get up and walk at the Word of Jesus they all marveled and glorified God who had given such power to men. What the religious scribes did at this point is not recorded for us though that is totally irrelevant because the Lord Jesus just used their own unbelief to reveal to us all that He has power on earth to forgive sins! For He alone is the One to whom we all must turn to in faith to have remission of all our sins and everlasting life (Acts 4:12), something which I now encourage you to do, to seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon while He is near (Isaiah 55:6), for it is those who diligently seek Him, like the men here, who will find Him and have for themselves remission of all their sins and everlasting life. Therefore don’t delay receive the Lord Jesus Christ today!

Scripture Quotations

The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.