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Matthew 9:1-8

Jesus had crossed the Sea of Galilee in order to make the first incursion of His ministry into Gentile
territory - into a region known as Decapolis. There Jesus had cast out a legion of demons from two men,
who had been possessed for a long time.

The demons were compelled to obey Jesus as He commanded them to come out; they had no choice but to
submit to His superior authority, over them. The result was that the men were instantly freed of these
powerful demons - and became witnesses to Jesus throughout their region.

Jesus then sailed back across the lake.

9:1-2 It is Capernaum that Matthew is calling Jesus’ “own city”; this is the city which Jesus had chosen as
the base of His ministry. Matthew then proceeds to describe an account concerning another paralyzed man;
we remember Matthew had already recorded the healing of the centurion’s paralyzed servant, in chapter 8.

Now if you’ve had the opportunity to look at the corresponding passages in Mark and Luke (Mark 2:1-12;
Luke 5:17-26), you may have noticed that they provide more information concerning this account, some of
which we will be looking at in a moment.

But Matthew only communicates the essential details. In fact, his primary focus is not on the healing, at
all. Matthew’s primary focus is on the statement that Jesus makes in verse 2 - concerning the forgiving of
the man’s sins.

As the account unfolds, we’ll see why Matthew is highlighting this particular aspect. But for now, let’s
consider more of the details.

None of the gospel writers say much about the people who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus, except that
there were four men (Mk 2:3). Their level of concern for the paralyzed man and their effort in bringing him
suggest that these men were either related to him, or that they were his friends; he was their loved one.

The bed of such a person was more on the order of a mat or pallet. We can envision each man taking a
corner of it, to carry him.

Word had spread that Jesus was back in Capernaum, and people flocked to the house to see Him. What
house? Well, Matthew doesn’t even mention a house; but both Mark and Luke mention it (Mk 2:1, Lk
5:19).

And because they both also mention that a crowd is present in the house, we have the sense that this would
have to be a spacious house; the house of someone quite well-to-do. This makes it unlikely that it was the
home of Peter and Andrew, who would have had a smaller home, as fishermen.

Luke also mentions that Pharisees and scribes were seated in the house - and that they had come out from
every town of Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem (Lk 5:17). These religious rulers must have gotten there early,
in order to get seats - or managed to secure them based on their prestigious positions, in society.

Jesus began to teach the crowd, preaching the Word to them. Despite the size of the house, the crowd was
so large that they spilled out of the doorway; no one could squeeze past to get inside.
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These wealthy larger homes were generally built squarely around a central courtyard, according to the
Roman style of architecture of the day.

A gallery or covered walkway surrounded the courtyard on all four sides, with doorways off of it that
accessed various rooms of the house. The rooms and gallery were covered over by a flat roof, while the
courtyard was open to the air. This open courtyard was at times covered with some kind of awning, usually
cloth, when protection was needed from the sun or other elements.

Based on such a house, it would seem from the accounts in Mark and Luke that when the four men saw that
they could not get into the house where Jesus was teaching, they gained access to the roof of this house,
probably by going through an adjoining house. Then the four men would have removed a section of the
protective railing on the roof over the courtyard, unfastened a section of the covering, and lowered their
friend into the midst of the courtyard.

Can you just picture this scene? There are the religious rulers, seated around the courtyard, and the crowds
pressed all around, as Jesus is teaching.

All of a sudden, there’s this racket and commotion above, a section of the railing and covering is being
removed, and four men are trying to lower this pallet, with the paralyzed man on it, down to the floor! A
little distracting! I’m thinking the religious rulers were probably annoyed, to say the least. But not Jesus.

In every account, it says Jesus saw their faith. He saw the faith of these four men, who were so determined
to get their loved one to Jesus that they came up with the only solution they could think of - disruptive
though it was - and they went with it.

Their loved one was confined to a bed, by his paralysis - he couldn’t stand or walk at all. But the four men
were absolutely certain that Jesus would be able to heal him; and they were just as certain that Jesus would
be willing to heal him. So their faith found a way, to come to Jesus.

But what about the paralyzed man? All the accounts say that Jesus saw “their faith”. The visible action of
the four men is what Jesus had seen. Was there something to see in this paralyzed man, as well?
Something only Jesus could see?

This is likely, from the wording of the account. Jesus didn’t immediately pronounce his physical healing,
did He? It seems there was a more immediate need. So instead, Jesus indicated to the paralyzed man,
“your sins are forgiven you”.

And the way that Jesus said it revealed His intention of coming alongside of this man; of reassuring him.
Jesus used an informal way of addressing him, calling him “son”; and then, “be of good cheer”, which
means “take heart”: “Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven you”. The words of Jesus suggest that He was
encouraging the man’s faith.

Perhaps, like his friends, this man believed that Jesus was capable of healing him - think of all of the
reports he must have heard, including the healing of the centurion’s paralyzed servant!

But perhaps, unlike his friends, this man did not think that Jesus would be willing to heal him. After all, the
man was a sinner; perhaps he had that sense of the separation that sin causes, from God. Why would
someone like Jesus, who was clearly of God, desire to heal someone like him?
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The answer to that is because God is love; and Love delights to meet the needs, of the object of His love -
the world of men. Here was a man, poor in spirit, who regretted his sin. Jesus had said, “blessed are those
who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Mt 5:4). So Jesus comforted this man, encouraging his faith.
And in trusting all to Jesus, the man was forgiven all his sins.

The term “forgiveness” in the Greek means remission. It is the loosing of a person - the releasing of him -
from that which binds him. Now, there are two kinds of forgiveness that we see in the Scriptures, for which
this Greek word is used: there’s human forgiveness - that is, man’s forgiveness of his fellow man - and
there’s Divine forgiveness - God’s forgiveness, of man.

Now, when you, a human being, think of forgiving someone, it is based on an offense they committed
against you; and you make the choice not to hold the offense against them; you choose to let it go; to forget
about it, in essence. Man’s forgiveness is a purely personal, subjective decision.

But God’s forgiveness is very different. God cannot simply let sin go, because God is holy and righteous.
Justice must be served. God forgives based on the penalty for the offense being paid. So God’s forgiveness
is an objective judicial decision, with personal ramifications.

What kind of forgiveness was Jesus extending to this paralyzed man? Was it human forgiveness, or Divine
forgiveness? It was Divine forgiveness - and the way we can surmise this is that Jesus did not speak about
forgiving the man for a single offense, but for his sins - plural.

At the very time that Jesus was speaking to this man, He was indicating the man’s sins were being forgiven
- all of them. Jesus was extending God’s forgiveness, to the man; he was being given a full pardon; a
heavenly pardon.

Now of course, there must have been an expectation on the part of the crowd that Jesus would heal this
paralyzed man; and when He didn’t immediately do so, no doubt the crowd was disappointed. And perhaps
this even extended to the four men who had gone through such heroics to bring the paralyzed man to Jesus;
even they were expecting their loved one’s healing.

Well, Jesus did heal the man, didn’t he? He healed the man of the greatest sickness of all - sin-sickness,
which always carries the death penalty. This man, having been quite conscious of his sins, may have
sensed in the words of Jesus the lifting of that death sentence - even though he remained paralyzed, at the
moment.

But there were others in the courtyard that had quite a different reaction to the words of Jesus. They were
in fact enraged by the statement Jesus made, to the paralyzed man.

v. 3-4 To blaspheme means to smite with words; to speak with impious irreverence, here, concerning God.
In this context, the irreverence would be attempting to do something which only God can do.

The other gospels record the thoughts of the scribes as “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mk 2:7, Lk
5:21). The idea is that only God has the authority - the right - to forgive sins, for only God can decide
when and how His justice is satisfied, concerning sin.

There had been no sacrifice offered - no atonement made - as the LORD God had laid out for Israel in the
Law (Lev 4:20, 26, 31, 35; 5:10, 13, 16, 18; 6:7); which had to be done, over and over again anyway, for
each sin (Heb 10:11).
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And yet Jesus, just by His word, indicated the man was completely forgiven at that very moment - for all of
his sins. These legal teachers recognized in the statement made to the man that Jesus was claiming God’s
authority, to forgive sins; a claim to Deity.

And the scribes were right; Jesus was making a claim to Deity. And they were also right that this would
have been blasphemy - for anyone other than God. Only God can forgive sins; only He can erase the guilt
of the offender, for his sins; only He can remit the judgment and the punishment due the sinner. As the
Creator of mankind, holy and just, only God can do that.

But Jesus is God; God who came in a flesh body, in order to be the Sin Bearer, for mankind. The Sin
Bearer would enable God to loose men from their sins, by binding their sins to Jesus, on the cross - and
thereby taking away the sins of the world.

Through the Sin Bearer, God could erase the guilt of the offender; remit the judgment and punishment due
men, for their sin - and forgive them, once and for all. Above all on earth, Jesus had the authority to
forgive sins. It is the absolute right of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8) - a
timeless work of God - that any man can enter into, by faith.

The scribes, in thinking Jesus guilty of blasphemy, did not recognize Him to be God, but thought Him to be
a fraud. The word Matthew chose for “thoughts” reflects agitation of spirit; even wrath. Matthew was
showing the beginning of opposition to Jesus and His ministry - and it began with the scribes; the religious
establishment.

Jesus was aware of what the scribes were thinking. This may have been something His Father revealed to
Him through the Spirit, or He may have simply observed their reaction. And Jesus called out the scribes,
on it - theirs was an evil thought, concerning Him. So Jesus would now give the scribes, and all who were
present that day, irrefutable proof, as to who He is.

v. 5-7 Once again Jesus refers to Himself by the title, Son of Man; the name He uses for Himself more than
any other. This is a title for Messiah from a prophecy of Daniel that emphasizes Messiah’s humanity - Son
of Man - but the prophecy also reveals Messiah’s authority over the everlasting kingdom of God (Dan 7:13,
14). The scribes would instantly recognize this title, and note that Jesus was applying it to Himself.

Jesus said that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. The Greek word for power, exousia,
speaks strongly of authority; it combines the ideas of right - authority - and might - power; exousia is right
and might.

Jesus had both the right to forgive sins, as well as the power to do so - so that a man is genuinely and
completely forgiven. In saying the Son of Man had the authority and power to do this, Jesus was making a
claim to being both Messiah and God. Jesus was now about to give a demonstrable proof, that this was so.

Notice precisely what Jesus said, in verse 5. He did not just say, “which is easier” - referring to the doing
of the two things which follow. Jesus said, “which is easier to say” - referring just to the words themselves.

Which of the two things is easier to say? If you say to someone, “Your sins are forgiven you”, can anyone
verify that what you said is true? No. But what about if you say to a paralyzed man, “Arise and walk”?
Can that be verified? Yes; you can observe if he gets up and starts using his legs. That is verifiable. So it
is easier to say the first thing, since no one can prove it, one way or another.
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What Jesus is doing is showing the scribes that He will now do the thing harder to say - commanding the
paralyzed man to get up and walk - as a means of proving that He did indeed do the thing easier to say - He
forgave the man’s sins. The healing could only be done by the power of God; and this would then serve as
a confirmation from God that the forgiving had also been done - by the authority and power of God.

So Jesus spoke, and it was so; the man was immediately and completely healed; walked right out from the
midst of them; and went home. The man was made completely well - spirit, soul and body. You can just
imagine his joy - and that of the four men who loved him.

No doubt the crowds were once again wowed by the healing - an emotional reaction. But what about the
scribes? Jesus had given them proof that He had forgiven the paralyzed man, by then healing him. And
there were countless other healings that could be added to that; many infallible proofs (Acts 1:3). Were the
scribes convinced?

They certainly could have been - if they took Jesus at His word. But that was the problem, in the first
place; they didn’t believe what He said.

Jesus pronounced the man forgiven of his sins - and they didn’t believe Him. And if they chose to continue
in their unbelief, they could just explain away what Jesus had done. It was just coincidence. Or the whole
thing had been a set-up. Or the man really wasn’t all that paralyzed. After all, they couldn’t “see”
forgiveness, could they? Even though Jesus had given them proof they could see.

Seeing isn’t believing. Seeing can help one who is seeking to find the truth to then believe it; but for the
one whose mind is already made up, seeing remains just seeing.

Believing is seeing. The paralyzed man believed Jesus at His word, and was both forgiven - and healed.
He put all of his trust in Jesus - and he was not in any way disappointed.

All three of the gospel accounts then mention the final reaction of the crowd - once the ahhh-moment had
passed.

v. 8 So the crowd marveled; they were astonished by what they saw. The oldest manuscripts say that they
were afraid, which Luke also brought out (Lk 5:26).

What caused them to fear? They had seen the power of God, in the healing - but Jesus did it as proof that
He had the authority and power to forgive sin - that He was God.

So did the crowd believe Him? It would seem they didn’t, because Matthew says they glorified God, who
had given such authority and power - to men. The crowd continued to see Jesus as a mere man - and not as
God Himself. Their seeing remained just seeing.

As the account continues, we notice that Matthew is once again presenting an interlude, in his record of
miracles. In fact, the next section includes Matthew’s own personal testimony - brief though it is.

We’ve observed that this is the pattern in chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew’s gospel - that Matthew groups
together a few miracles, then has an interlude in which he records the reaction of various people to Jesus.

Each of these groups of miracles have commonality - through their power, they reflect an aspect of the
Deity of Jesus. You may remember that the first three miracles revealed Jesus as Jehovah rophe - a title for
God that means, the LORD heals.
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Now we have just studied a second group of three miracles, in Matthew’s account: the calming of the
tempest and the casting out of the legion of demons were the first two.

We may consider the third miracle to be the healing of the paralyzed man, right? But that is not Matthew’s
emphasis, in the account; what ability of Jesus was Matthew emphasizing? You can find it in verse 6. The
power to forgive sins. This is the last in the second set of miracles.

All three of these miracles reflect the exousia of Jesus - His authority and power, as God. Jesus has the right
to do these things, and He has the might - the capability - of doing them.

Matthew is presenting Jesus here as Elohim - a title for God as the Creator - with unlimited power, and
absolute authority over His creation. Elohim is thought to be a compounding of the title for God El, which
speaks of strength, greatness, and glory.

We find the word Elohim in the first verse of the Bible: In the beginning, God - Elohim - created the
heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1).

Elohim is a plural word - reflecting the triune nature of the Godhead. But the verbs that are used with
Elohim are in the singular - like “created”, in Genesis 1:1 - reflecting the perfect unity, the oneness of the
members of the Godhead. They are three personal beings - Father, Son and Holy Spirit; but also one Spirit
being of Deity - God.

The apostle Paul spoke of Jesus in His capacity of Creator God. Turn to Colossians chapter 1.

Paul wrote to the Colossian believers concerning some false teaching that was attracting many members in
the assemblies there - teaching that suggested Jesus was not fully God, and that His work on behalf of men
was insufficient. So Paul began by writing of just what Jesus accomplished, through His sacrifice on the
cross.

[Colossians 1:13-20]

v. 13 Who would be the “He”, here; who has delivered us, speaking of believers, from the power of
darkness? That’s the Father. The power of darkness was what we lived in, as part of the creation in Adam -
where sin and death ruled over us, constantly overpowering us.

The Father delivered us from that the moment we believed into Jesus, and conveyed us into His Beloved
Son’s kingdom. We are now partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light (v. 12).

Paul continues, indicating what made all of this possible.

v. 14 In whom - who is that, from verse 13? In the Beloved Son, Jesus. When we believed into Jesus, we
were delivered from our sins - Jesus washed away our sins, with His own blood (Rev 1:5). Having been
freed from sin, now the Father could forgive us - so that we were reconciled to Him, and became part of
His heavenly family as born-again children of God.

As Paul continues, He points out to the Colossians the preeminence of the Son - so that they could
understand the Jesus was indeed fully God.

v. 15-17 Looking back at verse 15, it is the Son who is the image of the invisible God; Jesus makes the
invisible God seen.
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To say the Son is the firstborn over all creation is not actually a statement about birth, but about
preeminence, the position of honor - and in verse 16, Paul explains the reason for this preeminence.

All things in the universe were created by Him; He is their Creator. This includes things seen - things in the
natural realm - like the wind and the waves in that tempest; and also things that are unseen.

What are the four terms that Paul uses to describe the unseen, in verse 16? Thrones, dominions,
principalities, powers - together these refer to angelic beings - the spiritual realm - which would include
those demons, that possessed the two men.

The Son is preeminent over all creation, because as Creator, He transcends His creation; He is greater than
it. Here we see His authority; His right, over the creation.

Paul continues, all things were created through the Son - meaning He was the agent, in their creation -
revealing the Son’s omnipotence. And all things were created for the Son - He is the rightful owner of
them; He is the heir of all things (Heb 1:2). This shows the sovereignty of the Son.

And Paul says, the Son is before all things - He existed before they ever came to be - what does that make
Him? Preexistent; an eternal being; God.

And what the Son created, He also maintains - in Him all things consist. Since its inception, the Son has
been sustaining the entire universe. Here we see another manifestation of the Son’s omnipotence, over His
creation.

Paul then goes on to show that the Son’s authority is not limited to what He created, in the beginning.

v. 18 So the Son is preeminent over the new creation, as well - the sons of God, being the first one to rise
from the dead in a glorified body. This makes the Son preeminent over all.

Paul now shows that the preeminence of the Son was always what the Father intended.

v. 19-20 The idea here is that through the sacrifice of the Son, God has begun establishing His kingdom of
righteousness and peace throughout His creation. In the end, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess,
that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil 2:10-11); all will submit to the King.

Through the cross, the Son has the right and might over all His creation; and through the cross, the Son has
the authority and power to extend His forgiveness to every man.

Reading: Matthew 9:9-17; Luke 7:36-50; Hosea 6