Matthew 9:1-8
1 So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. 2 Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”
3 And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”
4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 7 And he arose and departed to his house.
8 Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.
We hear in v1 of Jesus' safe arrival after crossing the sea. This is after Jesus calms the waves and winds of the storms. We see that in v2 a paralytic was brought to Him on a bed. It is here interesting to note that although the other gospels go quite in depth about this encounter, we see here that all we know from Matthew about his being brought to Christ, is what it says in verse 2. "Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed…" We must here say that this encounter is in fact, the one in which the man's friends were bringing him to see Jesus, but the house was full, so that there was not enough room to stand inside. So the went on the roof, opened a spot in it, and lowered the paralyzed man down. This seems to be characteristic of Matthew, that, while the other gospel writers seem to go into detail, Matthew leaves out much of the details, making it in some of the encounters to seem like one man, while Luke etc say it is two or more.
This can easily be explained in saying that Matthew is focusing more on the man who the story is about, while the others add that there were possibly more than one man, but that they did not play as significant a part as this man.
In anyway, we see that the first thing Jesus does is the harder of the two. He forgives the man his sin. This out of the two notable things He does, is the hardest. He then goes onto heal his physical needs, but not until his spiritual ones are met. We see here an example of what our ministry should much be like. Yes, we are to give a cup of cold water in Jesus' name, but we must understand that however much a person may need physical help and food, he is in much more need of the gospel. For food lasts a little time, but the eternity we will spend, will last for ever.
Jesus first comforts the man and says to him "Son, be of good cheer…" to have that said to me, especially by the Lord, would seem to be healing enough! But to then go on and say that my sins are forgiven! is most overwhelming to any who's heart is, or is being turned to the right.
Now as we move on to verse three, we see that the scribes started speaking amongst themselves saying that Jesus was blaspheming. The reason for the saying this is that even they knew, that it was only God who could forgive sins, and they did not believe Jesus to be God.
We see then Jesus is truly God, and displays his omniscience, that He, knowing there very thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins"—then He said to the man "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."
Jesus shows his power to save, and heal those who seek him, and also gives us a lesson to be careful of who we have as friends, and to rejoice when we have friends who are in the Way with Christ, and know God. Therefore, since this man had such friends, he was blessed by there knowledge of God, and the Faith they had, to not despair at the full house, but to find a different way.
Then we see that the man arose and departed from the house. Matthew here again leaves out a few things. One that the man immediately arose, and secondly, he picked up his bed and that which he had, and went away amidst everyone who were amazed and said "we've never seen anything like this!" But he does mention, that when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.
And there you have it. A happy day. A day that Jesus, by one small miracle, (small to Him) shows us His Love, Omniscience, Power to Save and Heal, and Sovereignty over every thing in our lives. Praise God for His word that He has given to us.
-James
Stand Fast
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