Morning. Coffee. Communion. Musings.

In Mark 2 there is the account of the paralytic being brought to Jesus by being lowered down on a bed through the roof. Unexpectedly, Jesus, seeing the faith of the man, forgives his sins rather than immediately healing him of his paralysis. Personally, I can understand the questions of the Scribes when they ask, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (2:7). To claim to do what only God himself had the right, prerogative, and ability to do was to blaspheme – unless it was true. (Incidentally, one of the ways we see Jesus’ divinity is not by simply looking at his verbal claims to be God. If we only focus there, we miss much! Over and over again in the Gospels, Jesus is acting out certain qualities and attributes that only apply to Yahweh himself!)

How will Jesus prove to them (and us) that indeed this man's sins can be forgiven at his word?

“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But 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. And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We never saw anything like this!’ (Mark 2:9-12)

It seems strange, but in this account, the ‘easier’ thing for Jesus to say to the paralytic was ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ It’s easier to say because it’s harder to back up. What proof could Jesus offer to a skeptical audience that the man’s sins had in fact been forgiven? If Jesus could do the harder thing – in this case healing the man physically – then there could be little doubt that the ‘easier’ thing also happened. (Physical healing is ‘harder’ in this case because it would have immediately exposed Jesus as a fraud had he told the man to walk, and then the man failed to do so. Then the claim to forgive would also be falsified.)

Jesus did heal the paralytic (who “immediately” got better, Mark tells us), which reminds us that Jesus is indeed God with the authority both to heal and to forgive. Lord, may I not be a skeptic of the overwhelming power of Jesus!

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