Matthew 9:1-8

Matthew 9:1-8 Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralytic

(Mk 2:1-12)

1 He got into the boat, crossed the lake and came to his own town.

The encounter with Gentile opposition was followed by conflict on Jewish territory.

2 People brought to him a paralysed man lying on a stretcher.

Jesus saw their faith, and said to the paralysed man,

“Have courage, my son, your sins are forgiven.”

Sin, as it was defined in the culture, served to distance people from the holy God. Matthew gave no indication of the person’s being regarded as a sinner, beyond the general belief that sickness was often understood as God’s punishment of sin. Sinners were avoided by the righteous. The label served to marginalise.

Matthew omitted much of the colourful detail of Mark’s account. His interest was not so much the healing, as the forgiveness it confirmed, and the reactions it occasioned.

Matthew referred to the faith of the bearers as the context of the paralysed man’s forgiveness. Theirs was a faith that trusted the mercy of God and that expressed itself in touching care and love for the paralytic, not unlike the faith of the Gentile centurion. It was a faith that was contagious, and that would have touched the heart of the paralytic.

3 At that, some scribes said to themselves,

”This man is blaspheming.”

Though Jesus had criticised the teaching of scribes [5:20], this was his first encounter with them in the Gospel. Their presence indicated the seriousness of official concern about Jesus’ activity. They accused him of blasphemy – the first of three such accusations that would occur in the Gospel. Blasphemy was understood as anything that took away from the honour due to God.

The “earthquakes” encountered by the community of disciples, due to their involvement with Gentiles [see comments on 8:24], would find their echoes, as well, in the opposition they would encounter from representatives of the Jewish establishment.

The reason for the scribes’ accusation was that forgiveness was something reserved for God, to be enacted by the proper authorities, the priests, and according to the proper rituals, determined by the Torah and interpreted by the scribes. Jesus had trespassed on their territory.

4 Jesus read their thoughts and said to them,

“Why ever are you thinking evil things in your hearts?

5 What is easier – to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’,

or to say, ‘Stand up and walk.’

6 But so that you know that the Son of Man

has authority on earth to forgive sins”,

he said then to the paralysed man,

“Stand up, take your stretcher, and go off home.”

7 He stood up and went off to his home.

Matthew made the point that Jesus, the Son of Man, exercised that authority on earth, and in the present time. Jesus made forgiveness accessible without ritual and without Jewish priesthood or sacrifice. With the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, the issue of forgiveness became very much part of the agenda in Jewish circles.

8 When the crowds saw this, they felt afraid;

and they glorified God who gave such authority to humans.

Who were the humans to whom God had given such authority to forgive sins? The text was not entirely clear:

Jesus had stated that the faith of the people carrying the paralysed man contributed to the outcome.
Jesus clearly claimed and exercised authority to forgive.
Later in the Gospel, Jesus would delegate the unspecified power of binding and loosing, firstly to Peter [16:19], and then to the disciples in general [18:18].

At this stage of the narrative, the reaction of the crowds was benign. They served as a chorus in the background, giving their comments and underlining the meaning and implications of what was happening.

Next >> Matthew 9:9-13