5  Jesus’ Power  over Sin (9:1-8)

And getting into a boat, He crossed over, and came to His own city. And behold, they were bringing to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed; and Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, “Take courage, My son, your sins are forgiven.” And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, and walk’? But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic—”Rise, take up your bed, and go home.” And he rose, and went home. But when the multitudes saw this, they were filled with awe, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men. (9:1-8)

The most distinctive message of Christianity is the reality that sin can be forgiven. That is the heart and lifeblood of the gospel, that men can be freed from sin and its consequences. The Christian faith has many truths, values, and virtues, each of which has countless applications in the lives of believers. But its supreme, overarching good news is that sinful man can be fully cleansed and brought into eternal fellowship with holy God. That is the message of Matthew 9:1-8.

Matthew has been focusing on various miracles of the Lord, all of which are meant to demonstrate Jesus’ divinity. Even more specifically, they precisely and completely fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah’s kingdom work. The miracles recorded by Matthew under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit therefore have a uniquely Jewish and Old Testament character and significance.

Concerning the natural realm, the Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would have power over the curse in the physical world. Isaiah predicted there would be in His reign an abundance of rain and crops not known since the Fall (Isa. 30:23-24) and that one day even the wilderness would blossom profusely, as waters break forth and the scorched land and thirsty ground become pools and springs of water (35:1-2, 7; cf. 41:17-18; 51:3; 55:13; Ezek. 36:29-38; Joel 3:18). Animals which had been natural enemies of man and of other animals would no longer destroy or devour, and human longevity would increase so that a person who died at a hundred years of age would be considered to have died young. By the stilling of the storm (Matt. 8:23-27) Jesus gave a foretaste of His eventual taming of the entire natural world.

Concerning the supernatural realm, the Old Testament speaks of Satan and his evil forces who have so long oppressed and persecuted God’s people (Dan. 7:24-27; 8:23-25; 11:36-12:3; Zech. 3:1-2) and who the Messiah would have to conquer before His righteous kingdom could be established on earth. By resisting Satan’s temptations and casting out his demon servants (Matt. 8:28-34) Jesus proved His power was superior to Satan’s.

Concerning the spiritual realm, the Old Testament tells us that Messiah’s kingdom will be marked by forgiveness and redemption (Isa. 33:24; 40:1-2; 44:21-22; Ezek. 36). By His forgiveness of the paralytic recorded in this passage and many others Jesus further demonstrated power that is reserved to God alone and that Scripture had prophesied would characterize the Messiah.

It was Jesus’ specific, complete, and dramatic fulfillment of these and all other messianic prophecies that made His rejection by the Jews—especially that of the scribes and Pharisees, who were students of Scripture—so heinous and inexcusable.

Matthew’s arrangement and presentation of the three sets of miracles in chapters 8 and 9 show progressive development in revealing Jesus’ credentials as the divine Messiah. First we see Him heal a leper with the touch of His hand (8:3), heal a centurion’s servant without having seen the afflicted person (8:13), and then heal Peter’s mother-in-law of a serious fever (8:15). Next He went beyond physical afflictions and demonstrated His authority and power over the spiritual kingdom of Satan by casting out many demons with a word (8:16), by demonstrating His power over the great natural forces by stilling the storm on Galilee (8:26), and by again demonstrating His authority over Satan by casting out a legion of demons from two possessed men of Gadara (8:32).

In the first of the last three miracles in these two chapters Jesus ascends still higher in the drama of supernatural acts as He deals with sin, the root of all man’s physical and spiritual troubles and misery as well as the cause of his separation from his Creator. Christ Jesus demonstrates His power to remove the pollution and guilt of sin in those who trust in Him. The Great Physician not only can heal the sick, still the storm, and cast out demons, but can bring to the human soul the thing that it needs most: forgiveness of sin.

Matthew majors on the authority of Christ. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount he reports that Jesus “was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes” (7:29). Those great teachings demonstrate His moral and theological authority. Throughout the book His miracles demonstrate His authority over both the natural and spirit worlds, and at the end of the book He declares, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth,” and then sends out His disciples to teach and minister in that authority (28:18-20).

In all of those ways Jesus declared and demonstrated His sovereign authority to rule. In the present passage He demonstrates His sovereign authority to redeem.

We do not know how much time elapsed between Jesus’ healing of the two demoniacs and His getting into a boat, by which He crossed over to the west shore of the Sea of Galilee and came to His own city. Matthew’s concern here is not so much with the chronology or full details of Jesus’ ministry as with the significance and progression of His miraculous signs.

Although Nazareth was the city of Jesus’ childhood, He had been rejected by the people there, who would have thrown Him over a cliff to His death had He not passed through their midst unnoticed. From there “He went His way” a few miles east “and He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee” (Luke 4:29-31), as a prophet rejected in His own country (see Matt. 13:57). At this time He probably took up temporary residence with Peter, in whose home He healed Peter’s mother-in-law (8:14-15). Jesus’ own city was therefore now Capernaum (cf. Mark 2:1).

The events and teachings of Matthew 9:2-8 can be represented by six key words: faith, forgiveness, fury, forensic, force, and fear.

FAITH

And behold, they were bringing to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed; and Jesus seeing their faith (9:2a)

Before He went across the Sea of Galilee to the country of the Gadarenes, Jesus had generated massive interest in His ministry, and it was partly to get away from the crowds for a while that He took the trip (8:18). It was natural, therefore, that when He returned, the news quickly spread and the crowds returned.

We learn numerous additional details about this story from Mark and Luke. As already noted, Jesus had now made Capernaum His home city and was staying in Peter’s house, where Jesus “was at home” (Mark 2:1). Two-story houses were common in Palestine and it is likely that the room with the overflow crowd (see v. 2) was on the second floor, where most visiting and socializing were done. Such upper rooms were common, and it was in one of these that the Lord ate the Last Supper with His disciples. The roof of the house was often used as a place for relaxation in the cool of the day, and frequently for sleeping on hot nights. The outside stairs were therefore usually built all the way to the roof.

Because the afflicted man’s friends could not get into the crowded room where Jesus was, they carried the litter up to the top of the house and proceeded to dismantle the roof until they made enough room to lower the man into Jesus’ presence (Mark 2:3-4; Luke 5:19). It is to these four friends or relatives that they refers.

Because the paralytic (paralutikos) had to be brought to Jesus lying on a bed, his paralysis obviously was severe, and he may well have been a quadriplegic. No wheelchairs or other such equipment were available to those who could not walk, and they had to rely on others to carry them around. Cripples have always suffered social stigma and neglect, but in the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day the stigma was made immeasurably worse by the belief of most Jews that all disease and affliction was the direct result of someone’s sin. The idea was common even in the days of Job, who may have lived as early as the time of Abraham. Eliphaz asked Job, “Who ever perished being innocent?” (Job 4:7) and Bildad said to him, “If your sons sinned against Him, then He delivered them into the power of their transgression” (8:4). The same attitude was clearly reflected in the disciples’ question to Jesus as they passed a man who had been blind from birth: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” (John 9:1-2).

Though it is true that affliction, pain, and hardship of every sort are the result of the presence of sin in the world, they are not necessarily brought on by some specific sin of the person who is suffering. Not all sickness is chastening, but all sickness is a graphic demonstration of the destructive power at work in the world because of sin.

Like his fellow Jews, the paralytic no doubt believed his paralysis was direct punishment for his own sin or that of his parents or grandparents, and that thought must have added immensely to his suffering. In his own mind and in the minds of most of the people who saw him his paralysis was a vivid representation of his own sinfulness and of God’s judgment. That belief gave crippled and diseased people even more reason to shun crowds.

But this man was determined to see Jesus at any cost. Because he associated the paralysis with his sin, his first concern was for forgiveness, which to his thinking would have automatically brought healing. And although his theology may have been erroneous, he was right in believing that his first and greatest need was spiritual.

By their persistence, the man and his four friends evidenced their strong conviction that Jesus could help. They had carried the man to the house, and when they could not get into the room with Jesus, they carried the stretcher all the way up to the roof, tore the roof open, and lowered the man on his bed down to Jesus’ feet. Jesus not only saw this outward evidence but also saw their hearts. And seeing their faith by their aggressive approach to Him, the omniscient Lord also read the believing hearts of these five men just as He read the unbelieving hearts of the scribes who thought He was blaspheming (vv. 3-4).

Because the paralytic said nothing to Jesus it is possible to conclude that the paralysis had affected his vocal chords or his tongue. Or the man, despite his faith, may have been overcome with awe as he came face-to-face with the One who had power to heal all kinds of disease. Perhaps he now wondered if He could also heal hearts. In any case, he willingly and silently exposed himself to Jesus and to the whole crowd in all his physical, moral, and spiritual ugliness. He was literally at Jesus’ feet, and in his heart he threw himself on Jesus’ mercy. He approached the Lord in true humility, in the poverty of spirit God requires of the seeking heart (Matt. 5:3).

Jesus sometimes healed people who had little faith and even some who had no faith, but He was especially disposed to heal those with great faith, such as this man and his friends demonstrated. It was the kind of great faith shown by the centurion (8:10) and that would soon be shown by the man whose daughter had died (9:18).

FORGIVENESS

said to the paralytic, “Take courage, My son, your sins are forgiven.” (9:2b)

Jesus’ first words to the paralytic were, Take courage, My son. Knowing the man’s fearful heart from being overwrought with sin and now being thrust into the very presence of incarnate God, Jesus spoke tender words of comfort and encouragement. How thrilling it must have been to hear the holy One who knew his sin, grief, and humiliation to say take courage.

Tharse (take courage) refers to subjective courage, that which is deep and genuine—in contrast to tolma, which refers to outward boldness. Tolma would be characterized by gritting the teeth to help endure pain or whistling in the dark to stave off fear. It is the kind of courage that tries to master fear by sheer will power and determination. But tharse represents the courage that eliminates fear. Jesus was saying, “Don’t be afraid, because you no longer have anything to be afraid of.” It was not that the man’s fears had not been real and well founded. An unrepentant sinner is separated from God and under divine judgment. But when he repents in faith he no longer has reason to fear, because he is no longer under judgment. Knowing the paralytic’s faith, Jesus therefore said to him, take courage.

Addressing the man as My son gave further comfort. Teknon (son) refers to a child of any age or sex. It is here translated son because Jesus was speaking to a man. Son was used in that day as it often is in our own, as a term of friendship and identity—sometimes even with a person just met. Because the paralytic repentantly identified himself with Jesus, Jesus lovingly identified Himself with the paralytic.

But Jesus’ supreme words to him were, your sins are forgiven. Those words represent a divine miracle that is perhaps the greatest of all miracles and certainly the most desirable for the recipient—holy God forgiving the sins of an unholy man. Just as with a word Jesus stilled the storm, with a word He dismissed the paralytic’s sins and gave him His most gracious gift to meet his greatest need.

Aphimi, the verb behind are forgiven, has the basic idea of sending or driving away, of doing away with. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us,” David declared (Ps. 103:12). When God forgives sins He casts them “into the depths of the sea” (Mic. 7:19). Paul rejoiced that, even though he “was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor,” he was yet “shown mercy” (1 Tim. 1:13). “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance,” he goes on to say, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all” (v. 15).

When missionaries in northern Alaska were translating the Bible into the language of the Eskimos, they discovered there was no word in that language for forgiveness. After much patient listening, however, they discovered a word that means, “not being able to think about it anymore.” That word was used throughout the translation to represent forgiveness, because God’s promise to repentant sinners is, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jer. 31:34).

When I was in college I was asked to visit a girl in the hospital who had been accidentally shot in the neck. The bullet severed her spinal cord and she was paralyzed from the neck down. I had never met the girl but was told she was a cheerleader at her school and had been very active and vivacious. When I came into the hospital room she was lying on a sheepskin pad, unable to do anything but speak. After we talked a while she confessed that, if she were able, she would commit suicide, because she did not want to face a future of helplessness. I presented Christ to her and, after some questions and discussion, she received Christ as her Lord and Savior. I went back to visit her several times, and one day she said to me, “I can honestly say now that I’m glad the accident happened. Otherwise I may never have met Christ and had my sins forgiven.”

Forgiveness of sin is God’s greatest gift because it meets man’s greatest need. Sin is a transgression of God’s law (1 John 3:4) and defiles His image in man, staining his soul with Satan’s image (John 6:70; 8:44). Sin is hostility and rebellion against God (Lev 26:27; 1 Tim. 1:9). It is ingratitude toward God (Josh. 2:10-12), is incurable by man himself (Jer. 13:23), affects all men (Rom. 3:23), and affects the total man (Jer. 19:9), body, mind, and spirit. It brings men under the dominion of Satan and the wrath of God (Eph. 2:2-3), and it is so persistent in the heart of man that even the regenerate person needs to continually fight against it (Rom. 7:19). It subjects man to trouble (Job 5:7), emptiness (Rom. 8:20), lack of peace (Isa. 57:21), and to eternal hell if he does not repent (2 Thess. 1:9).

Because of that bleak picture, the best news anyone can receive is the word that his sins are forgiven. When Jesus spoke those words to the paralytic, He must have tasted the bitterness and agony of Calvary, knowing that the words could be effective only because He would take the man’s sins upon Himself. Every time He forgave sin He knew and anticipated the cost.

FURY

And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” (9:3)

Luke tells us that some Pharisees were also present with the scribes and that they thought within themselves Jesus was blaspheming by claiming to forgive sins (5:21; cf. Mark 2:7). They were right that only God can forgive sins (Isa. 43:25; Mic. 7:18-19), but because they refused to recognize Jesus’ divinity, they could only conclude that this fellow blasphemes.

Unlike the paralytic, those men saw no need for forgiveness, because they considered themselves already to be righteous. They resented Jesus’ offering forgiveness, not only because they did not believe He was God but also because they considered it unjust for a person to be forgiven simply by asking for it—instead of by earning it, as they thought they had done. The two great barriers to salvation have always been refusal to recognize the need for it and the belief that it can be earned or deserved.

These scribes had probably seen many miracles of Jesus and heard the testimony of others who had been healed of disease and cleansed of demons. But they refused to recognize His power as coming from God, much less that He Himself was God. Their thinking this fellow blasphemes reflected the pattern of growing rejection and persecution by the Jewish leaders that led ultimately to Jesus’ crucifixion. They accused Him of being immoral because they saw Him “eating with the tax-gatherers and sinners” (Matt. 9:11) and they even declared the greatest blasphemy themselves by accusing Jesus of being satanic, of casting “out the demons by the ruler of the demons” (v. 34).

Their hearts were so hardened against Christ that every miraculous evidence of His divinity and messiahship drove them to deeper unbelief rather than to repentance. Even His most gracious and loving words and acts drove them to greater fury against Him.

FORENSIC

And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, and walk’? But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (9:4-6a)

The word that best describes the fourth aspect of this event is forensic, which refers to discussion, debate, or argument. Because only Jesus’ words were spoken aloud, we know the scribes’ side of the interchange only because the Lord omnisciently revealed to us what was in their thoughts.

Jesus “did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man for He Himself knew what was in man” (John 2:25). “The Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7) and knows the hearts of all men (1 Kings 8:39). He even “searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts” (1 Chron. 28:9; cf. Jer. 17:10; Ezek. 11:5). When Ananias and Sapphira tried to deceive God, Peter told them, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?” (Acts 5:3).

An evil … heart is a heart that plots against God (see Acts 5:3-4,9; 8:20-22), and in saying those words to the scribes and Pharisees Jesus not only laid bare what they were thinking but exposed the wickedness behind the thoughts. In claiming to defend God’s holiness they showed themselves to be utterly against it, because they were thinking evil of the Son of God whom they refused to acknowledge.

Jesus’ first argument was in the form of a rhetorical question: “For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, and walk’?” The scribes and Pharisees had seen irrefutable evidence of Jesus’ power to heal disease. “Why, therefore,” He asked in effect, “do you think it impossible for Me to forgive sins? Is one easier than the other?” Sin and disease are inseparable, just as are sin and demons, sin and death, sin and disaster, and sin and the devil. The One who brought the kingdom would have to deal with sin or else He could not deal with the rest; and the One who could deal with the rest could also deal with sin. If Jesus could not deal with sin by putting it away, He could not deal with anything else related to sin. But He could deal with both sin and its symptoms.

His opponents said nothing, but the answer was obvious: both things are equally impossible for men and both are equally possible for God. The point was that no one but God could either heal disease with a word or could forgive sins, and He can do both with the same divine ease. Even their own distorted theology should have led the scribes and Pharisees to believe in Jesus’ divinity. If, as they believed, sickness and disease were the consequences of sin, then removing disease would be connected to dealing with the sin that caused it. In their thinking, all healing of disease would have to involve at least some forgiveness of sin—which by their own declaration only God can grant. They were trapped in their own theology and logic.

Jesus may have emphasized the word say. If so, His point was that saying something is always easier than doing it. It is also much easier to make a claim that cannot be verified than to make one that can be. The scribes and Pharisees had no visible way to verify the paralytic’s forgiveness, but they were about to receive abundant evidence of his healing, which would force the conclusion that Jesus could and did deal with sin.

“But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” Jesus continued, “I will demonstrate again My power to heal disease. You cannot see the results of My forgiveness,” He implied, “but you can easily see the results of My healing.” So in order that they might know He could forgive sin, which they could not see, He did what they could see—by dealing with sin’s symptoms.

The scribes and Pharisees knew well the Old Testament predictions that miraculous healings would accompany the Messiah when He came to earth, and the Son of Man (the title of His humiliation) was now about to give them a special, front-row view of one of those miracles. If all He said were, “Your sins are forgiven,” no one could verify what happened. But to make the paralyzed man able to walk would give proof for everyone to see—just as seeing the two thousand pigs run off the cliff to their deaths gave proof that the demons had indeed gone from the two possessed men into the animals, just as Jesus gave them permission to do (8:32).

Many individuals and groups through the centuries have claimed the power to absolve sins, but they have had no proof. Any pretender can utter the words, “Your sins are forgiven,” but only God’s divine power can both tell a paralytic to walk and then make it happen.

FORCE

then He said to the paralytic—”Rise, take up your bed, and go home.” And he rose, and went home. (9:6b-7)

As far as we know, no one but Jesus spoke during the whole episode. Neither the believing paralytic and his four friends nor the unbelieving scribes and Pharisees said a word. The scribes and Pharisees may have mumbled among themselves about the matter, and the healed man and his friends may have thanked Jesus, but we have no record of it.

As soon as Jesus said to the paralytic—Rise, take up your bed, and go home, that is exactly what the man did. The command to rise suggests that when Jesus spoke the healing had already taken place. No description of this act of healing is recorded, only the command to the paralytic to take advantage of it.

At Jesus’ word, the man rose, and went home. Mark adds that he “immediately took up the pallet and went out in the sight of all” (Mark 2:12), a living testimony to Jesus’ power both to heal and to forgive sins.

FEAR

But when the multitudes saw this, they were filled with awe, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men. (9:8)

When the multitudes saw this, they realized that such a miracle could only be done by God’s power, and they were filled with awe. Phobe (filled with awe) is the term from which we get phobia and is often translated “fear.” But the most common use of it in the New Testament represents reverential awe, not cringing fright. It expresses the feeling of a person who is in the presence of someone infinitely superior.

Phobe is used to describe the reaction of the disciples when they saw Jesus walking on the water (Matt. 14:26) and to describe the reactions of the people after the raising of the widow’s son at Nain (Luke 7:16) and after the healing of the demoniacs at Gerasa (Luke 8:37). It is used to describe Zacharias’s response to the appearance of the angel (Luke 1:12) and the spectators’ response when he regained his speech (v. 65). It is used of the shepherds when they heard the angels sing (Luke 2:9), of the guards at the garden tomb when the angels rolled the stone away (Matt. 28:2-4), and of the women after they visited the empty tomb (v. 8). It is used to describe the feelings of the people who witnessed the signs and wonders of Pentecost (Acts 2:43) and of men in the midst of the shattering events of the last days (Luke 21:26). It is used of the response of the people to the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:5, 11) and to the demons overpowering the unbelieving sons of Sceva who tried to cast the demons out in Jesus’ name (19:16-17).

In the synoptic gospels and Acts the term is never used to speak of anything other than the feeling in a person’s heart when he is confronted with divine power, and it is declared to be a part of the Christian’s attitude as he seeks to faithfully serve the Lord (Acts 9:31). Reverential awe of God is a part of the truly repentant life (2 Cor. 7:10-11), the chaste life (1 Pet. 3:2), the holy life (2 Cor. 7:1), and the godly life (Phil. 2:12). Mutual ministry, love, and respect, as well as powerful evangelism and proper church discipline, are all grounded in reverential awe of the Lord (see 2 Cor. 5:11; Eph. 5:21; 1 Tim. 5:20). It is the substance out of which all right Christian worship, behavior, and service must come.

The multitudes’ response to the great miracle of healing and forgiveness was commendable: they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. We do not know how much the crowd knew about Jesus, but they knew that what He did had to have been empowered by God and that He had given such authority to men, since Jesus was obviously a man. If they did not realize that He was the God-Man, they at least realized He was an extraordinarily godly man.