We are continuing to study the healing of the paralysed man, who was brought to Jesus through the roof of a house by his four friends. Before the conversation highlighted here, people had seen Jesus as a local wonder worker: sensational, charismatic, but no more than just another healer, and there were many in Jesus' day.
So, we have seen that Jesus attracted the crowds and, inevitably, He has attracted the notice of the official religious leaders of the Jews. They were guardians of Jewish orthodoxy and so were authorised to deal with anyone who was a false prophet. The shock for those observers came when Jesus told the man that his sins were forgiven. Judaism categorically believed that only God could forgive sins and from the lips of any other it was blasphemy and the penalty was death. Even more shocking was that Jesus demonstrated that this man's sins had been forgiven by commanding him to get up and walk home, which he immediately did! Remember that Jews believed that sin and sickness were indissolubly linked: their theological understanding brought them to the point of either accepting that Jesus was God or that their eyes had fooled them and many other onlookers! Men of power do not like to be baffled in public like this and through this incident Jesus' death warrant was signed, and He knew it. Well, what is going on here at the deeper level? Hallelujah that a man has been healed, but what else can we learn from this miracle? Remember that the whole of Jesus' life clearly displayed the attitude of God to men, women and children and that was the very opposite of the way God's attitude had been perceived. The attitude of Jesus was one of perfect love and eager to forgive and He brought God's forgiveness to the world. Jesus could say: ''I forgive'', because in Him God was saying, ''I forgive''. Jesus said in another Gospel: ''I and my Father are one.''