From Matthew 9:1-8 / “Your sins are forgiven” – Matthew, Mark and Luke all record this event. It is not hard to discern why this is so. What can be more important than to know that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins? This is the obvious emphasis of the passage. Yes, the man leaves healed of his paralysis as well, but that is shown to be secondary. Yet, I wonder if we were in the paralyzed man’s condition, which one we would think more important in the moment?

Now there are several things to note here.

1 – Note that forgiveness of sins and physical healing are not so interconnected as to assume they must always go together. How many people did Jesus heal, who left without such a pronouncement regarding their sin? And how sad that is. Imagine, it is possible that we might be miraculously touched by the hand of God, and yet leave still dead in our trespasses and sins. Simply seeing or even personally experiencing a miracle says nothing about our reconciliation to God. And yet how many seek Christ only for what they might receive in the physical or natural?

2 – Note Jesus’ rhetorical question to the scribes? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven, or rise and walk? They could do neither. He could do both. And He says that He did this this way so that they might know something. That He could heal? No. That He had the authority to forgive sins. In the grand scheme of things, this is what is eternally and spiritually important. This is what He is after in communicating.

3 – Note how fixated we are on the temporal versus the eternal. I don’t know about you, but if I was that man, I would probably have thought I’d been shortchanged at first. Carried to where Jesus was by friends. Dramatically let down through the roof of Jesus’ own house. There, in front of a huge crowd, displayed in all my weakness, only to hear Him say: “Your sins are forgiven.” Did it dawn on him that moment? Would it have dawned on me, that the greater miracle, the greater need was met in His first act? I fear not. I fear that I, that we are so focused on our perceived need, that we are blind to our real and greatest need. That in our unregenerate state, we are paralyzed from following Christ, working for Him in any way. And left that way, we enter eternity only to step into judgment. Beloved, our greatest need is what He can do, HAS done regarding our sin.

4 – Note that Jesus could forgive sins, but not like the “ollie, ollie oxen free” of hide and seek. He knew full well that this power would rest solely in His own impending death on the Cross. Forgiveness isn’t a simple wave of the hand. Justice must be done. Sin must actually be atoned for. When Jesus said to the man “your sins are forgiven” – He was saying “I will die for you, taking the just wrath of God you deserve upon myself, so that you can be reconciled to God and have eternal life.” Now, His question takes on real teeth – which is easier to say?

5 – We are to carry all of our needs to Him. Every one. No matter how great or how small. But we are to do so, knowing His wisdom, power and love will first and foremost meet our greatest need. For if He can and will do that, everything else is truly secondary – as blessed as it might be. As Jesus will say in another context later (though the principle still holds) “it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.” (Mt 18:8.) Praise God, He does the lesser often, the but the greater – for all who call upon Him in faith.