17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, 19 but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. 26 And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
Once again, before He does something, Jesus says something; He says: your sins are forgiven you. That did not sit well with these other religious teachers. Why not? Because they saw themselves as the ones with the authority to judge who was a sinner and who was not, and whether or not the person was good enough or had done enough good to be forgiven. They exercised that self-given authority when they criticized Jesus' words and accused Him of sin against God. They chose to disbelieve what Jesus said. We then have another phrase we will see again: Jesus perceived their thoughts. He knew what they were thinking, as well as the motivation behind it. In a sense He asked: "Which do you find easier to do: heal or forgive?" Of course, they could not do either one, but He could, and He proved it how? With His words. He spoke forgiveness: then He spoke healing without any observable action. The proof that what Jesus was doing was good and not blasphemy is seen in the response of the man and the crowd: They glorified God. The question for us is: Will we choose to believe or disbelieve? To be forgiven or be self-righteous?
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