"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"

 

 So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city.  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."  And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, "This Man blasphemes!"  But Jesus, knowing their 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 paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."  And he arose and departed to his house.  Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

- Matthew 9:1-8 

 

Yesterday we read that, after Jesus and the disciples passed through a stormy Sea of Galilee, when He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Jesus two demon-possessed men, coming out fo the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way.  And suddenly they cried out, saying, "What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God?  Have you come here to torment us before the time?"  Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding.  So the demons begged Him, saying, "If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine."  And He said to them, "Go."  So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine.  And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water.  Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men.  And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus.  And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region.

 

So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city.  Jesus' own city is Capernaum, to which Jesus returns after crossing the Sea of Galilee and healing the demon-possessed men in yesterday's reading (above).  

 

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."  And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, "This Man blasphemes!"  But Jesus, knowing their 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 paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."  And he arose and departed to his house.  Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.  As shown by this healing of the paralytic, faith is an indispensable condition for salvation, my study Bible notes.  It asks us to note also that faith is collective as well as personal -- as it is the faith of the paralytic's friends that helped in his healing.  There are three signs here in which Jesus' divinity is manifest.  First, He knows the secrets of hearts (see 1 Samuel 16:7; 2 Chronicles 6:30).  Second, He forgives sins, which is a power which belongs to God alone (which the scribes understand in our reading).  Finally, He heals by the power of His word.  

 

While my study Bible duly notes the powers of God manifest in Christ, which testify to His divinity, it's quite interesting that we're told, "Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men."  To my way of thinking, this implies something very special about the Incarnation.  Although clearly the people presume that Jesus is "just" a human being, while the text reveals His divine nature, we understand Jesus to be both divine and human.  In fact, I frequently hear theologians comment on the Incarnation that Jesus was not "half and half" nor any other percentage of human to divine, but rather one hundred percent divine, and one hundred percent human.  That is, in the language of the Church we often hear, fully God and fully human.  So, while in today's reading Jesus displays qualities known to pertain only to God, as the scribes note, the people marvel that such gifts of power have been given to men, to a human being.  In the multitude's marveling, the common people have latched on to a very significant intuition manifest in our understanding of Jesus and His saving mission to us:  it required that He be both fully human and fully God in order for God's work to remain at work in us and in the world.  This is because as His humanity takes on also the qualities of His divinity, so it implies what we human beings are capable of becoming.  It implies, as the people note here, the power that can be at work in us.   This word translated as power, in the Greek (ἐξουσία/exousia), has the implication of "authority."  That means that God has given a human being authority to do such great works, to manifest these powers that are understood to belong to God.  It is a sign of God's grace, that such great works are given to a human being to do; it implies that God shares not just power or energy but authority with humans.  It gives us a sense of God's condescension to us in the Incarnation, God's great love manifest in these actions not merely to heal a paralytic but to enable a human being to share in this divine nature.  It implies to us, and for the rest of us, that through faith, this power can also be at work in us.  None of us, of course, is the Savior.  None of us is the Messiah.  There is only one Jesus Christ.  But nevertheless, through grace, we may also partake of God's authority and power, such as when Jesus sent out the apostles on their first mission, giving them certain power.  In the next chapter,  Matthew writes, "And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease" (Matthew 10:1).  When Jesus "gave them power" to do these things, He shared His own power.  But what makes the people marvel is nevertheless a good intuition, because God's grace can share such power with human beings.  It elevates us to a sense of the things of which we are capable, and this comes only through faith.   When on an occasion the disciples are unable to cast out an unclean spirit, Jesus tells them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting" (Matthew 17:20-21).  We should keep in mind that prayer and fasting are two ways of increasing faith.  When a rich young man cannot bring himself to detach from his wealth in order to follow Jesus, Jesus comments to His disciples, "Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."  And He replies to their astonished question regarding who then can be saved, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (see Matthew 19:21-26).  The Incarnation opens that door for God to work through us by grace, even to share God's power with us, in ways and measures only God knows, but which nevertheless we are assured come through faith.  Christ's Incarnation means that we can understand that reliance upon God -- faith -- can help us through our own difficulties, especially to rise above what we consider our limitations.  We are capable of change and transformation, for this is the heart of repentance and its meaning.  We can break bad habits; a rich person raised in privilege, despite the tremendous difficulty, can detach identity from possessions; a person who's always been told they will amount to nothing is nevertheless blessed in faith by God.  All manner of addictions to which we might find we're slaves can come under the same category of helping grace through faith.  Jesus assures the disciples flatly, in Luke's version of the story of the rich young man, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God" (Luke 18:27).  This is the blessing of shared power, which teaches us that there is so much of which we're capable that we don't know, but that it comes through faith and our seeking of God.  There is more to us in potential than we imagine; let Christ show us the way. Such healing and salvation can come even through the faith of others, as today's reading shows.   Let us not neglect our faith nor the power of the practices that help to shore it up and make it grow in us.  Jesus, as Son of Man, human and divine, has the power to forgive sins.  But through His disciples and His grace, He will even share this in the Church (John 20:21-23).