You know that you are on the road to fame when people come miles out of their way to hear you speak. Jesus was preaching in Capernaum to a full house, and amongst the crowd were some of his enemies who had travelled from near and far to hear him. They were not fans.
They must have been pleased when their mission to condemn was quickly realised. It came when Jesus said to a paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven” (Mk.2:5).
Now, to this point they had said nothing…out loud, that is. Instead, they were all sitting, glaring at Jesus, and thinking in unison: “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mk.2:7).
It was one of those days when you wished you could have been there. Not only would you have gotten to hear the Saviour of the world speak, and see a genuine miracle performed before your own eyes, but you would also have witnessed the public humiliation of the self-righteous religious leaders.
Jesus was not about to let their evil silence rule.
He had not performed the miracle yet, but he knew that that was of no consequence to them; proof of blasphemy was all they sought.
But for their deliberate blindness and the accompanying accusation of blasphemy, their question, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?”—albeit in their heads—would have been an excellent question.
They must have gotten the fright of their lives when Jesus literally read their minds.
Jesus chose to answer their “silent” accusation of blasphemy with simple logic: “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?” (Mark 2:9).
What better way to prove that he is indeed God who can forgive sins.
Everything that Jesus did and said was to one end—That everyone, you and me included, can know that God came in the flesh to assure us: “Your sins are forgiven.”
John Staiger
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