And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, laid upon a bed; and Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, Be of good courage, child; thy sins are forgiven.
Friends carry a paralysed man to Jesus, and the first thing he receives is not the use of his legs but the pardon of his sins. Why does Jesus answer a sick body with a word about sin, and whose faith does He see?
The men carrying him would not be kept outside. One writer sees in their faith a likeness to what Christ Himself was about to do at the cross.
Here was sympathy. Jesus was tearing down every veil between God and sinners; and so was the faith of this happy little company. His blood would soon tear the temple veil from top to bottom. That veil kept God from poor sinners. Now their faith was tearing down what kept them from Jesus. This was truly meeting and welcoming the Son of God as He is, and His spirit deeply owns it: "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven."
Their boldness matched the Saviour they came to. Need is the only credential He asks for.
He came into the world to be used by sick and needy sinners, and the faith that understood and used Him this way was its due answer. We see that answer here in what the faithful little band did. They broke up the roof and let the bed down, with the paralysed man on it, right in front of Jesus. There was no ceremony in this, nothing of the old reserve of the temple, no waiting to be introduced. This little company felt their need, knew how good the Son of God is, and believed that the two matched each other.
Jesus saw "their" faith. One writer asks how far that word reaches, and what the Lord knew of the man's own heart.
The man could not come himself, he depended on others to bring him. In Mark we are told he was carried by four. "When he saw their faith" — his, as well as the faith of those who brought him. He always responds to faith. Why did the Lord say, "Your sins are forgiven"? They had brought him to Jesus so that He would perform a physical cure. This He did, and much more. Could we suppose the Lord would say "Your sins are forgiven" to someone not troubled about them? He knew the man's heart; others only saw his helplessness.
Why paralysis, and not some other illness? One writer reads the disease itself as a picture.
This illness is a fitting picture of how sin destroys a person's power, just as leprosy pictures its unclean taint before God or man. The Lord saw their faith and said to the paralytic "son" — or, better, "child."
So His answer only seems off-target. It reaches further down than what they came asking for.
The Lord sees their faith. He goes beyond the need they can see, down to the root of all the distress in the world: "He said to the paralytic, Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven."
Pardon comes first, then healing. One writer finds that same order in Psalm 103.
In this chapter He acts in the character and the power of Jehovah, as we read in Psalm 103: "Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases." Here we see the grace itself, toward them and for them, in which He came... He presents Himself to Israel as their true Redeemer and Deliverer. He has the title to be this blessing to Israel and to pardon all their iniquities, which raised a barrier between them and their God. To prove that title, He carries out the second half of the verse: He heals the disease.
Who else could say such a thing to another person?
The Lord laid bare the root of the evil and dealt with it at once, at the deepest level. He alone could speak this way. Not even an apostle comes near its force. Such a word belonged to Him who was both Jehovah and Son of Man.
- Carried — The man could not come on his own. Others brought him, and their faith broke through the roof to reach Jesus.
- Seen — Christ answers faith. It was in the four men who carried him, and in the man himself, whose heart the Lord knew.
- Rooted — He looks past the trouble they could see. Sin is the root of all the world's distress, so He deals with sin first.
- Owned — These are the words of Jehovah in Psalm 103, who forgives all iniquities and heals all diseases. The One who spoke them stood among His people.
- Unmatched — Not even an apostle could speak such a word. It belongs to Him who is both Jehovah and Son of Man.
And behold, certain of the scribes said to themselves, This [man] blasphemes.
The healing of the paralysed man began with a word about sins, not about legs. The scribes sitting nearby drew the harshest conclusion they could: this man is speaking against God.
The scribes never opened their mouths. But their silence had a reason.
Such an answer to faith was a challenge, no less, to unbelief. It stirred the scribes sitting watchful there among the rest. They keep it in their hearts without saying it out loud, which shows that they still felt the power of His presence, or that for the time "the world had gone after Him." But there in their hearts it ferments: "Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
These were not untrained bystanders. Their profession was the Scriptures.
But take the people who ought to have known the Scriptures more than anyone else. Their very profession was to know and teach them. What did they think of Jesus?… To their view Jesus was blaspheming when He said, "Your sins are forgiven." Awful delusion of man's evil heart. And these were not ignorant people who said within themselves, "This man is blaspheming."
The Greek word behind the charge once had a plainer meaning.
Blasphemy is one of the New Testament Greek words that gained a wider meaning among the Jews than it had in the classical writers. There it meant only "speaking against" a person. A "blasphemy" was the opposite of a "euphemism."
Their objection rested on a rule that is true. The mistake lay in how they used it.
They were wise in their own eyes. They were judges of law and gospel, and neither doers of the one nor believers of the other… They rejected Christ and His mercy. Their proud reason despised the blessed truth of God. Their proud self-righteousness scorned and hated that grace whose need they never knew… Ah, there was the secret: the glory of Jesus was unknown. They left His divine dignity out of the account altogether. The principle they urged was true, the application fatally false. How often this is the rock on which religious unbelievers split and perish!
One writer turns the charge around.
The scribes say, "This man is blaspheming." They were the real blasphemers, blind to the true glory of the One who was there.
One writer names what the scribes failed to see.
Matthew 9:1-6 marks Jesus out as the Jehovah who now at the close healed all Israel. The more closely we know Scripture, the more simple and clear is the truth that, though Son of Man, Christ is the Jehovah of the Old Testament.
Jesus replied to a charge no one had spoken.
But Jesus was present not only as the One to pardon iniquities and heal diseases (Ps. 103:3). He was also the One who searches the hearts, tests the mind and knows the innermost thoughts… He who saw the faith of the five men perceived the reasonings of the scribes in His own omniscient spirit. He did not do it by a power lent to Him for a time, as might have been the case with a prophet. None but God could see into the secret workings of man's spirit… The Lord gave the Pharisees the proof of the nature of His person by answering their thoughts. Who else could "hear them thinking"?
One writer traces their reasoning back to its root.
They may have spoken no word, but the Searcher of hearts knew it all. He can say, "Why do you question these things in your hearts?" Is not the answer to their reasonings, as to all human reasonings, that where there is no sense of need there is no realization of the glory of the Person of Christ?
- Silent — They never said the charge out loud. It fermented in their hearts, where they thought no one could see it.
- Learned — These men taught the Scriptures for a living. That makes their verdict on Jesus worse, not better.
- True — Their rule was right: only God forgives sins. Their conclusion failed because they left out the glory of the Person standing in front of them.
- Seen — He answered thoughts they never spoke. Only God searches hearts, so the answer was itself the proof.
- Needy — Where no one feels a need, no one sees who Christ is. The paralysed man was forgiven. The scribes only reasoned.
And Jesus, seeing their thoughts, said, Why do *ye* think evil things in your hearts?
Jesus told a paralysed man that his sins were forgiven. Some religious teachers were sitting there, and they condemned Him without saying a word. Jesus answered them anyway. His question exposes what they were thinking and who He is.
No one spoke. The men who objected taught Scripture for a living, and they judged Jesus in silence.
In this chapter we do not see a scribe full of empty self-confidence, claiming to honour Jesus. Here the scribes are judging and condemning Him. In their eyes Jesus was blaspheming when He said, "Your sins are forgiven." Awful delusion of man's evil heart. And these were not ignorant people, who said within themselves, "This man blasphemes."
Their premise was right: forgiving sins belongs to God alone. Their error lay elsewhere.
They were wise in their own eyes. They set themselves up as judges of law and gospel, but they neither obeyed the one nor believed the other... One here below pronouncing the forgiveness of sins to a miserable sinner who had not even sought it! This was in their eyes startling, blasphemous, an encroachment on God's prerogative... Ah! there was the secret; the glory of Jesus was unknown, His divine dignity entirely left out of the account. The principle they urged was true, the application fatally false. How often this is the rock on which religious unbelievers split and perish!
Jesus answered words they never spoke. That says something about who He is.
But Jesus was present not only as the One to pardon iniquities and heal diseases (Ps. 103:3), but also as the One who searches the hearts, tests the inner person and knows the innermost thoughts (Ps. 94:11; Jer. 17:10). He saw the faith of the paralysed man and those who carried him. He also read the reasoning of the scribes in His own all-knowing spirit (compare John 2:24; John 6:61). This was not a power given to Him for a time, as it might have been with a prophet. None but God could penetrate the secret workings of man's spirit, as Solomon confessed in his prayer (1 Kings 8:39)... and the Lord gave the Pharisees the proof of the nature of His person by answering their thoughts. Who else could "hear them thinking"?
Two verses later He uses a very different title for Himself.
Even Satan does not know men's thoughts: only God does. This proves Him to be God: yet immediately after He refers to Himself as "the Son of Man" (v. 6).
Jesus does not call their thinking mistaken. He calls it evil, and He places it in the heart.
In Scripture the heart is the centre of the thoughts, the affections and the will (Matt. 9:4; 12:34; 24:48), that is, the inner "switchboard" of man. This is why the writer of Proverbs had already said, "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life" (Prov. 4:23). This is an important warning!
We tend to assume unspoken thoughts carry no weight. That comfort does not survive the Gospels.
But perhaps we have comforted ourselves with this idea. As long as the things we would not want others to hear stay as thoughts only, no great harm is done. But isn't this argument a delusion? Scripture says, "As he thinks in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7). And how often Scripture records the Lord's knowledge of men's thoughts! Would He have answered them if they did not matter because they were never expressed?
(The wording of Proverbs 23:7 here comes from an older translation.)
Having named their thoughts, He does not argue theology with them. He points them somewhere else.
I would add that in these passages (Matt. 9:6; Mark 2:2; Luke 5:24) the Lord seeks to lead man away from his own reasoning and calculations to Himself and His works. He perceived that the scribes were "reasoning among themselves." Then He set before them what He was doing: "that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins (He said to the paralytic), I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home."
The Lord had exposed their thoughts. That moment was an opportunity: they could have confessed.
It was sad for these men. They did not seek forgiveness there and then for the wicked thoughts of their hearts. Why did they not repent of their sin and ask the Lord to forgive the thought of their heart, as the apostle Peter told Simon Magus to do? (Acts 8:22). The scribes failed to confess their evil purpose. They were not cleansed from their secret faults, and so their bitter, hateful opposition to the Messiah kept growing.
- Silent. The scribes accused Jesus of blasphemy without opening their mouths. Their premise was right: only God forgives. Their application was fatally false.
- Seen. He answered thoughts no one had spoken. None but God can reach the secret workings of a man's spirit, so this showed who He is.
- Sinful. He calls the unspoken reasoning "evil." He places it in the heart, the switchboard from which the whole of life flows.
- Shifted. He does not debate. He turns them from their own reasoning to His works, and the healed man proves the Son of Man's authority to forgive.
- Squandered. They could have confessed the thoughts He exposed and been forgiven. Instead those thoughts hardened into open hostility.
For which is easier to say, Thy sins are forgiven; or to say, Rise up and walk?
Jesus had just told a paralysed man his sins were forgiven, and scribes called it blasphemy in their hearts. His question now sets a word about sins beside a word about legs, and forces the issue of who He is.
Jesus answered reasoning the scribes never spoke aloud. He had already reached past the man's paralysis to its root.
This illness is a fitting picture of what sin does: it destroys power… The Lord uncovered the root of the evil and dealt with it at once, at the deepest level. He alone could speak this way. Not even an apostle comes near its force. It belonged to Him who was both Jehovah and Son of Man. The men learned in the law were shocked. They refused to believe, and reasoned in their hearts to His dishonour. But He is the appointed Judge of the living and the dead. He read their hearts, as He reads the hearts of all, and answered their unspoken, evil reasoning with the question.
Saying the words costs nothing. The test is whether the speaker can back them up.
It is easy for a man to say, "Your sins are forgiven." A wicked man can say it. But where is the proof of his authority for saying it? When they accused Him of blasphemy, He who searches the heart says, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?"… If someone can give the man power to walk, He must be God, and have power to forgive sins also.
Judged by human ability, neither sentence is easier than the other. Judged by divine ability, neither is hard.
He asked them whether it was easier to give forgiveness by a word or to heal a body by a word. Which claim was easier to make? Who but a divine Person, or someone using divine power, could say either one? They were equally easy to God, alike impossible to man.
Onlookers can check one of the two results, but not the other. That is why the healing follows.
The forgiveness of sins is not something visible to the eyes of men; it must be accepted by faith in the Word of God. The instant healing of a severe physical illness is visible to the eyes of men. The Lord went on to perform this miracle. They could no more release the man from the grip of his disease than they could forgive his sins. Jesus could do both with equal ease. He did both, appealing to the miracle in the body as proof of the miracle in the soul. So He puts things in their right order. The spiritual miracle was the primary one; the physical one was only secondary.
Jesus could have started with the legs. He chose the sins first, because that is where the man's real weakness lay.
Nothing keeps a man weaker in spirit than the lack of a sense of forgiveness. If I am to have the power to serve the living God, I must have the assurance that my sins are forgiven… He could have said either. He had a true and gracious spiritual motive for dealing with the real root of the evil first. Man's deepest need was not to rise and walk, but first of all to have his sins forgiven… He did not say, "That you may know that God in heaven will one day forgive sins," but "that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins."
Reading their thoughts showed them who He is. The title He then claims tells how far His pardon reaches — past Israel's borders.
By reading men's thoughts He has proved that He is God. Yet it is as Man that He has authority from God to forgive sins. As Man He has come in pure grace to take man's place in making atonement for sins. More than this, the title "Son of Man" reaches wider than His link with Israel. It speaks of His relationship to all mankind: He can forgive Gentiles too.
The healed man carried the evidence home with him, and that pattern is not limited to him.
The man's walk in front of them testifies to the reality of his forgiveness before God. It ought to be so with every forgiven soul.
- Challenge. The scribes never spoke, yet Jesus answered them — He read the hearts of the men accusing Him of blasphemy.
- Comparison. Both sentences cost nothing to say. Neither one comes true unless God is the speaker.
- Credential. No one can see forgiveness, so He worked the visible miracle to prove the invisible one.
- Claim. He announces the pardon as the Son of Man's own, on earth and now — not left to heaven or to a future day.
- Consequence. The man walked home in front of them all, and a forgiven person's life is still meant to be that evidence.
But that ye may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, (then he says to the paralytic,) Rise up, take up thy bed and go to thy house.
Matthew 9 opens with a paralysed man carried to Jesus, who forgives his sins before He heals his legs — and the teachers of the law standing by call that blasphemy. Verse 6 is the Lord's answer to them: a healing they can see, offered as proof of a pardon they cannot.
"Authority" here means more than raw ability. Jesus asks which is easier to say. The point is not how hard the words are, but who has the right to speak them.
He asked them which was easier: to give forgiveness by a word, or to heal the body. Which claim was easier to make? Who but a Divine person, or one wielding Divine power, could say either one? They were equally easy to God, alike impossible to man… "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority [the right as well as the ability] on earth to forgive sins."
The phrase "on earth" is doing real work in the sentence. The scribes agreed that God forgives. What they would not accept was pardon handed out here, in front of them.
He did not say, "That you may know that God in heaven will forgive sins one day." He said instead, "the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." Jesus is God. But here it is as the rejected Messiah, the Son of Man, that He has authority on earth to forgive sins. He has that authority from God, since He is God. Yet He holds it as Son of Man, and that adds greatly to the grace of His ways.
That changed what a person had to wait for.
They no longer had to wait for the last day, or for a day of judgment, to know where they stood… Pardon had come, in the Person of the Son of Man, who had come down to earth.
One Old Testament promise joins forgiving and healing. Jesus does both in one scene, and commentators see it as a deliberate sign of who He is.
In this case the Lord showed who He was, just as Psalm 103 had said. He dealt with the moral state first — the need of the man's soul before his body. In this He showed He was in full accord with that Psalm: "who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases." These men were right that no one could forgive sins but God. What they did not know was that God was there among them.
He could have claimed the right as Israel's Messiah. He claims it under a title that stretches further than one nation.
This is instructive. He has proved He is God by reading men's thoughts. Still, it is as Man that He has authority from God to forgive sins. As Man He has come in pure grace to take man's place in making atonement for sins. More than this, the title "Son of Man" reaches wider than His link with Israel. It speaks of His relationship to all mankind: He can forgive Gentiles too.
The cure was not the main gift. It was the receipt — something the scribes could check with their own eyes.
He shows that in His person, and by His ministry among Israel now, there was the witness of the power to do both… He healed the disease before their eyes, and that proved the forgiveness was real. The joining of these two things should have struck a scribe with force. In this miracle we have the strongest testimony to the glory of His person.
The order of the two commands is not an accident. It turns the usual religious rule around.
The order of blessing is full of meaning. First, "your sins are forgiven you," and then "rise and walk." The load of unforgiven sin is too heavy for anyone to lift and still find power to walk in a way that pleases God. Once pardon is sure from Him, the soul rises with the strength found in this new joy in Him… The legal principle, "do and live," could never be carried out. It has given way to the gospel principle, "live and do."
The man then walked home in front of them all.
The man's walk before them testifies to the reality of his forgiveness before God. It ought to be so with every forgiven soul.
- Authority. The scribes agreed that God can forgive. The claim here is that this Man holds the right to do it — and both sayings were easy for God, impossible for anyone else.
- On earth. Pardon arrived in a Person, in a room, in daylight; no one had to wait for a day of judgment to learn where he stood.
- God present. Psalm 103 promises both forgiving iniquity and healing diseases. Jesus did both here — soul first, then body.
- Son of Man. He took the title that reaches past Israel to all mankind. So this pardon is not fenced off by nation; Gentiles are included.
- Then the walk. The healed man carried his bed home as the public receipt for an unseen pardon. Every forgiven life is meant to read the same way.
And he rose up and went to his house.
Others had carried the paralysed man to Jesus. The scribes had just accused Jesus of blasphemy for telling him his sins were forgiven. Verse 7 answers that charge. A man who could not move stands up and walks out. No one could see the word about his sins; now the whole room can see its effect.
No one could check whether the man's sins were really forgiven. So the Lord tied that word to something the whole room could see.
God promised Israel both the forgiveness of sins and the healing of bodily diseases, so the Lord does both here. In His own person, and by His work among the people of Israel, He gave evidence that He had power to do both. So that they might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, He says to the paralysed man, "Rise, take up your bed and go home." And he rose and went home. Healing the disease before their eyes proved that the forgiveness was real. Seeing the two joined together should have struck a scribe hard. This miracle is the strongest testimony to the glory of His person.
Telling a paralysed man to stand is cruel — unless the speaker also gives the strength.
Here again the miracle was instantaneous and complete. The man had been completely helpless. Now he got up at once, picked up his bed and walked out in front of them all, and every mouth gave glory to God. The Lord commanded and the man had only to obey, for the enabling went with the command.
Notice which word came first. Jesus dealt with the man's sins before He dealt with his legs.
The order of blessing is full of meaning. First, "your sins are forgiven you," and then "rise and walk." The load of unforgiven sin is too great for anyone to lift and still find power to walk in a way acceptable to God. With pardon assured from Him, the soul rises with the strength found in this new joy in Him. Everything is changed for that soul. The path is a path with Him, not a path to find Him. It is a path given by Him who is now known. So the limbs that a moment ago were paralysed with guilt and fear receive life and energy in an instant. The impossible legal principle, "do and live," has given way to the gospel one, "live and do."
Jesus told him to pick up the very mat that had carried him in. The object that had advertised his ruin left the house under his arm.
Jesus spoke these words in His own authority ("I say to you"), not as a delegate speaking for someone else. The effect on the paralysed man was instant. His useless limbs grew strong, and he got up at once. He was so well that he could pick up the mat that had carried him to Jesus and take it away in front of them all. That was undeniable evidence of his complete recovery. What had previously been a proof of his weakness became a witness to his strength.
Jesus sends him home — to the street where everyone knew his condition. His ordinary walking made a private pardon public.
The man's walk in front of them testifies to the reality of his forgiveness before God. It ought to be so with every forgiven soul. For now it draws out wonder, at least from the watching crowds, that God had given such power to men. They glorified God.
Everyone in that room had the evidence of their eyes. Not everyone does.
The miracle too was undeniable evidence for the claims of the One who was then in the town of Capernaum. Israel will one day see and believe on the evidence of sight. But the Lord said, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29), and this applies to the Christian today.
- Forgiven — the first word Jesus spoke dealt with sin, not with paralysis. Unforgiven sin is too heavy a load for anyone to lift and still walk in a way that pleases God.
- Enabled — the command carried its own strength. The man had only to obey, because the ability came with the word.
- Risen — the healing happened in front of the scribes. The visible cure proved the invisible pardon they had just called blasphemy.
- Carrying — the mat that had proved his helplessness left the room as evidence of his strength.
- Walking home — his public walk testified to his forgiveness before God. Commentators say it should be so with every forgiven person: pardon first, then a life that shows it.
But the crowds seeing [it], were in fear, and glorified God who gave such power to men.
A man who could not move has just walked home carrying his own bed, and the crowd reacts with awe and praise to God. But the applause hides a question. Did the people see who healed him, or only what He did?
The healing answered the scribes who had charged Him with blasphemy. The crowd's praise sounds like the right response. But praising God for a miracle is not the same as trusting the One who did it.
This was the Lord's answer to the scribes who charged Him with blasphemy. The crowds did not know that it was the power of God exercised by One who Himself was God. They saw that He was the vessel of the power of God, and this was all. A man might be this, and not be God. God might even choose to work miracles through a bad man. So while they gave glory to God who had given such power to a man, there was no real faith in the person of Christ.
The difficulty was not that they denied His humanity or denied God's power. It was that they held the two apart and could not put them together in one Person.
The multitude glorify God who had given such power to a man. Jesus accepts this place. He was man. The crowd saw that He was man, and they recognised the power of God. But they did not know how to combine the two ideas in His Person.
Older English Bibles say the crowds "marvelled." Commentators say the better reading is the one the ESV carries: they were afraid. That changes how we hear their praise.
This was not really God-honouring, or honouring to the Lord. They were blind to the true glory of the Lord, as much as were the religious leaders. It should read here, "they were afraid," not "they marvelled," as in our older version.
That puts the crowd and the religious leaders in the same place. One group charged Him with blasphemy, the other praised God, and neither one knew Him.
The title Jesus used of Himself carried the claim they stumbled over. He forgives sins because of who He is.
Notice the Lord's use of the title Son of Man. Not now does He speak of Himself as a homeless stranger but of His divine sovereignty. The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. Why? Because the Son of Man is God.
The crowd's own words said more than they understood. Jesus had taken the title Son of Man, and the crowd spoke of what God had given "to men" — plural, not to one man only.
The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. So the crowd says, "such power to men." Forgiveness was there then, and grace for sinners. He was there in that character. He goes and eats with tax collectors, having called Matthew who was one. It was not the outside which governed His path. God was there and the work was to be the effect of His presence and grace, not dependent on what He found.
Forgiveness was there on earth, among people. Jesus then sat down to eat with tax collectors. What He met in people did not set His path; His grace brought what they needed.
The crowd saw a man walk home. That walk was the outward proof of something no one could see.
"That you may know it," He says to the paralysed man, "rise, take up your bed, and go home." The man's walk in front of them shows that his forgiveness before God is real. It ought to be so with every forgiven soul.
- Sight. The crowds saw everything and understood almost nothing. They watched a man healed, they praised God, and they missed the glory of the Healer.
- Fear. The better reading is that they were afraid, not amazed. Their praise did not honour the Lord. It left them as blind as the religious leaders.
- Person. They admitted God's power and saw a real man. They could not combine the two in one Person. He was the vessel of that power because He was God.
- Gift. Their own phrase, "to men," was truer than they knew. Forgiveness had come to earth, and grace was there for sinners. He showed it by eating with tax collectors.
- Walk. The healed man walking home was public proof of his pardon before God. Every forgiven person should give the same evidence.