Matthew 9:6, commentary and pictures

Jesus declares that as Son of man He holds authority on earth to forgive sins. He first meets the paralyzed man's deepest need by pardoning his repentant soul and lifting guilt to give peace and courage before touching his body. He then proves that unseen pardon by visible power, commanding the helpless man to rise, carry his bed, and go home. In this His divinity flashes forth through humanity, exercising a prerogative that belongs to God alone and marking Him as the promised Saviour. The healed man goes home rejoicing and the crowd glorifies God, while hardened leaders refuse the evidence and plot against Him.

Historical Setting and Background

The saying belongs to the healing of a helpless man sick with palsy at Capernaum, brought to Jesus while He was teaching in a crowded house. His friends and relatives could not get through the crowd, so at his own suggestion they brought him to Jesus through the roof, hoping Jesus could relieve his infirmity. They had taken hope from seeing Jesus heal even lepers, believing such power might also relieve this case.

The man's bodily affliction had followed a life of dissipation, transgression and sin, coming upon him as the penalty of his sin, and his suffering was deepened by remorse. Burdened by guilt, he feared his sinful life would keep him from being received and was afraid to approach Jesus. Yet hearing of Jesus' mercy, His power to heal even lepers, to free people from Satan, and to pardon the sinful and helpless revived his hope to place himself in Jesus' hands.

Above physical recovery, his greatest desire and deepest hope was relief from the burden of sin and assurance of forgiveness and peace with God, and he would be content to live or die according to Jesus' will once he had it. The setting exposes the Pharisees' false teaching that sickness and distress always prove God's anger and rejection, which had imposed guilt and hopelessness on the man. Those who so condemned sufferers could themselves be more guilty.

When Jesus said thy sins be forgiven thee, certain scribes said within themselves this is blasphemy, and Jesus knowing their thoughts asked whether it is easier to say thy sins be forgiven or arise and walk. The act belongs to Christ's wider compassionate ministry as physician to the sick, calling sinners to repentance. He went about all cities and villages teaching, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and disease for multitudes scattered as sheep having no shepherd, where the harvest is plenteous and laborers are needed.

Words and Visible Proof

The verse declares that the Son of man has power and authority on earth to forgive sins. That authority was made clear and confirmed when the paralyzed man was told to rise, carry his bed, and go home, and his recovery led onlookers to glorify God. He first forgave the repentant man, lifting his burden and giving him hope, peace, and freedom before healing his body. Forgiveness brought peace to the burdened soul, then the command to rise and walk demonstrated that He could heal as well as forgive. His words and works in this act bring hope, freedom, and courage to those who need Him, and present Him as a sin-pardoning Redeemer who brings comfort to those burdened by guilt and affliction.

The burden of sin weighed on the man more heavily than his bodily suffering. The unseen authority to forgive was proved by the visible healing, so that people might know He could forgive. He commanded the sick of the palsy to arise, take up his bed, and go unto his house, making His power to forgive visible through the healing. The visible restoration of the body is evidence of the same life-giving power that forgives, renews the heart, heals the soul, and delivers from sin and death. Spiritual healing precedes physical restoration, with the peace He gives strengthening the mind and promoting bodily health.

The visible healing gives people confidence in His power to do what cannot be seen, including forgiving sins. Healing in His name continues as evidence of His authority to forgive and to heal the soul. The man believed the word without waiting for further evidence and acted on it in simple faith as new life. As he obeyed and rose, his limbs were quickened, strength returned, and he was healed and went home glorifying God. His quiet joy showed the peace of pardon, and his healing confirmed the forgiveness he had received. God's promised gifts are received by believing His word.

Christ's Authority and Divinity

In this act His divinity was revealed and flashed forth while He lived and stood as the Son of man at the head of the human race, His divinity clothed with humanity. He exercised in that standing a superior power and authority given Him by the Father, using the paralytic's physical healing to demonstrate that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He first forgave the repentant man, lifting his burden and giving him hope, and then His command to rise and go home confirmed that authority.

God had given His Son power to lay hold of the eternal throne. He reflected the honor He had held in the light of the eternal throne when He took away the man's sins and presented him to God as pardoned, then healed his body.

His authority on earth to forgive sins is a prerogative in harmony with His divine nature. It is a power the Pharisees knew belonged to God alone, yet Christ claimed it as His own, and His command to the paralytic to rise and walk gave visible proof of that authority. He first removed the man's burden of sin, then healed his body.

The healing was indisputable and decisive evidence of His Messiahship. It revealed Him as Israel's promised Saviour with authority both to heal sickness and to forgive sins. Even this clear and convincing sign did not persuade hearts hardened by malice and unbelief.

That authority to pardon remained His even while He was being crucified and suffering. His enemies could wound His body but could not take away His power to forgive, which is offered to the humble penitent. His death would bear the sinner's guilt while accomplishing salvation.

The verse shows Christ as a sin-pardoning Redeemer who brings comfort and hope to those burdened by guilt and affliction. He first addressed the paralytic's deepest need by forgiving him, then healed him and sent him home, so that the visible healing demonstrated His authority to forgive. The miracle displays His divine compassion, love, power and merciful care for guilty and suffering people, and confirms the message of salvation and the mercy of the Redeemer.

Healing and Varied Responses

At His word the man's useless limbs were restored at once with the strength and health of youth. He rose in the full vigor of manhood, his lifeless arms quick to obey his will, his shrunken leaden-hued flesh made fresh and ruddy with health, walking with a firm free step. He carried with ease the couch on which he had been slowly borne, and the man who had been carried on a couch returned home walking firmly and carrying it himself, restored to full vigor. The marks of sin and suffering gave way to peace and purity, hope and light. He stood restored to strength, walked freely, and went home praising God and glorifying God.

His recovery brought hope and joy to his family, and hope returned to him and his family. A darkened hopeless home was turned into rejoicing and glad thanksgiving. Through the Son's restoration of the hopeless and stricken, God was glorified through His Son. He went home in unwavering faith and loyalty, with perfect faith and fealty that no doubt could dim and that was ready to lay down life for Christ.

The man's recovery confirms the authority to forgive and to heal, and leads the crowd to glorify God. The multitude marveled at the recovery and glorified God, which had given such power unto men. The healing brings comfort and peace to the man and brings comfort, peace, and glory to God, showing that those who come in faith can receive help. His acting on the word without waiting for further evidence and being healed brings glory to God.

Even this clear and convincing sign did not persuade hearts hardened by malice and unbelief. The miracle revealed decisive evidence of authority both to heal sickness and to forgive sins and of Messiahship as Israel's promised Saviour, yet the religious leaders refused the evidence and hardened in hatred and unbelief. Its evidence did not soften the Pharisees in their prejudice and self-righteousness; they became more firmly entrenched in unbelief and plotted to silence Jesus. Christ healed even deep-seated bodily disease, while bigotry and unbelief became a more terrible disease of the soul. Spiritual blindness and unbelief proved more dangerous than physical illness, for those hardened by unbelief and prejudice could resist even the strongest evidence of miracles.

Faith and Ministry Application

Christ did not turn away those whose sickness came from their own course of life, and when His healing power entered them they were convicted of sin, with many healed of spiritual disease as well as physical illness. His peace strengthens the mind and promotes bodily health, while relief of the body and of bodily pain opens the mind and heart to spiritual help, to conscience, and to religious truth. The paralytic's burden of sin was greater than his bodily suffering, and forgiveness first brought him hope, peace, and joy before his body was healed. That restoration of the body was the outward sign of the same life-giving power that renews the heart and forgives sin, showing that Christ brings healing for both soul and body with spiritual healing preceding physical restoration. As the man obeyed the command to rise and walk his strength returned and his limbs were quickened, and he rose and went home glorifying God.

Preaching truth and healing the sick belong together, for He first gave the paralytic peace of mind by assuring him his sins were forgiven and then healed him and told him to rise and go home, demonstrating by the healing His authority to forgive sins. Those who care for the sick are therefore to address both bodily and spiritual suffering, to point the sin-sick soul to the Saviour, and to let care for the body point people to healing from sin. His words and works bring hope, freedom, and courage to those who need Him, and comfort and peace to those who come to Him in faith. He proves the unseen authority to forgive by the seen healing, commanding the man to rise, take up his bed, and go home, which the man does. His work for the paralytic shows He can still heal both physical and spiritual infirmities, and people are to come to Him in faith, trusting His power and His word.

If churches understood these wonderful things of forgiveness and healing, a history of experience in forgiveness and healing would be opened before them. The converted soul knows this power to forgive personally by rejoicing in the love of Jesus and finding Him very precious, catching the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness as just what the sinner needs and must have in order to be saved. That knowledge gives deep love for all souls out of Christ, enlarges sympathy, and deepens interest toward all sinners. It moves the converted soul to win sinners to Christ with the same interest that was shown to him.