Read: Matthew 9:1-8
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” (v. 2 NIV)
Maybe it’s because I grew up in a church where the congregation always confessed their sins as part of the service’s opening liturgy, but I never understood what the big deal was about Jesus pronouncing the paralyzed man’s sins forgiven. Our pastor pronounced the “absolution” over the congregation after we confessed our sins and declared that God had forgiven them. How is Jesus doing anything different?
Granted, the text does not say anyone repented, but it does say that Jesus saw “their faith” (v. 2). Presumably this included both the paralyzed man and those who brought him. Why should Jesus’s proclamation elicit cries of blasphemy from the legal experts? The answer lay in who and where Jesus was.
Temple priests had the authority to pronounce God’s forgiveness of people’s sins after they offered the appropriate sacrifice, just like my childhood pastor declared our sins forgiven in Jesus’s name and by his blood after we confessed them. But Jesus was not a priest—a descendant of Levi, with appropriate “clerical” training. Nor was he in the temple responding to anyone’s sacrifice. Those were the circumstances that were required if Jesus was not blaspheming—unless of course in some way he was God himself. His response wasn’t to say that he is God but to act by healing the man instantaneously. The onlookers could deduce his reply from his miracle.
As you pray, ask God to help you see and join in with his unexpected, challenging work in our world.
Craig L. Blomberg is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Denver Seminary. He has written or edited more than 30 books, including a recently revised and expanded commentary on Matthew. He teaches regularly in churches, including his home church of Centennial Covenant in Littleton, CO. He and his wife Fran have two daughters and three grandchildren.
