Bible Study series: Matthew 9:1-8. Jesus can forgive sins.
A warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together. I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click on this link:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 9:1-8
1 After Jesus got in the boat, he crossed over to the other side and went to his own town. 2 And look! They brought to him a paralytic laid up on his mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Courage, son! Your sins are forgiven!” 3 Then look! Some teachers of the law said among themselves, “This man blasphemes!” 4 And Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For what is easier? To say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’? Or to say, ‘Rise up and walk!’? 6 So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins”: then he said to the paralytic, “Arise, pick up your mat, and go to your home!” 7 And so he got up and departed for his home. 8 When the crowds saw this, they feared and glorified God who gave such authority to people. (Matt. 9:1-8)
Comments:
From Matt. 8:1 to 9:34, there are three blocks of three miracles each (8:1-17; 8:23-9:8; 9:18-34) broken up by three discipleship sections (8:18-22; 9:9-13; 14-17) (Osborne, p. 280).
Mark 2:1-12 and Luke 5:17-26 cover this miracle, but they show the men digging a hole in the roof and lowering the paralytic. You’ve heard of John the Baptist or the Dipper? We may as well nickname Matthew the Trimmer, because he frequently trims such colorful details from a pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or passage or unit of Scripture, while Mark and / or Luke keeps them. Why? It’s anyone’s guess. We could take the psychological reading and say a tax collector didn’t like an untidy narrative but eliminated the complications just to get to the bottom line. I like that explanation; though standard NT scholars may laugh it out of court, I don’t.
In any case, differences ≠ contradictions, and there is coherence or unity of the Gospels, in the big storyline.
13. Are There Contradictions in the Gospels?
Simple addition:
Including data points in one Gospel
+
Omitting data points in another Gospel
________________________________
= Differences ≠ Contradiction
= Differences ≠ errors
How can there be a contradiction when one Gospel is silent on some minor details which the other Gospel includes? There is no contradiction.
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
Celebrate the massive number of similarities in all four Gospels. The essence or meat of each parallel story is the same. Don’t let the postmodern critics bring down your trust in the Gospels or distract you from the main message, regardless of the minor differences.
This section of Scripture has a longer commentary here:
The Son of Man Claims God’s Authority to Forgive Sins on Earth
1:
The proper name “Jesus” was inserted in this verse for clarity. It is not in Greek.
Notice how Matthew trims away the twelve disciples and focuses just on Jesus who gets in the boat. Once again, he is Matthew the Trimmer. His writing style comes across, to me, as very streamlined and unadorned.
Capernaum is Jesus’s adopted hometown. In Matt. 11:23, he will denounce Capernaum for not repenting even though the people there saw mighty works. Remarkable. Sometimes people, as a whole, are so hardened that they will not receive a message—the message. It makes me wonder whether I too have some hard spots in my soul and spirit.
2:
“look!”: it is an updated translation of “behold!” It means something unexpected or noteworthy is happening. “Observe!” “Pay attention!”
“faith”: the noun is pistis (pronounced peace-teace or pis-tiss), and it is used 243 times. Its basic meaning is the “belief, trust, confidence,” and it can also mean “faithfulness” and “trustworthy” (Mounce p. 232). It is directional, and the best direction is faith in God (Mark 11:22; 1 Thess. 1:8; 1 Pet. 1:21; Heb. 6:1) and faith in Jesus (Acts 3:16; 20:21; 24:24; Gal. 3:26; Eph. 1:15; Col. 1:4; 1 Tim. 3:13). Believing (verb) and faith (noun) is very important to God. It is the language of heaven. We live on earth and by faith see the invisible world where God is. We must believe he exists; then we must exercise our faith to believe he loves us and intends to save us. We must have saving faith by trusting in Jesus and his finished work on the cross.
True acronym:
F-A-I-T-H =
Forsaking All, I Trust Him
In this verse they had faith for their friend to be healed. They directed their faith towards Jesus the healer. They acted before the paralytic was healed. They had such confidence in the healing power of Jesus that they broke through the barriers—now that’s the faith that God likes!
Word Study on Faith and Faithfulness
“Courage!” I love this word of exhortation. The “son” or young person must have been apprehensive. “Would he heal me? Am I worthy to be healed? What if he rejects me?”
“sins”: it comes from the noun hamartia (pronounced hah-mar-tee-ah). A deep study reveals that it means a “departure from either human or divine standards of uprightness” (BDAG, p. 50). It can also mean a “destructive evil power” (ibid., p. 51). In other words, sin has a life of its own. Be careful! In the older Greek of the classical world, it originally meant to “miss the mark” or target. Sin destroys, and that’s why God hates it, and so should we. The good news: God promises us forgiveness when we repent.
Bible Basics about Sin: Word Studies
Human Sin: Original and Our Committed Sin
“forgiven”: BDAG, considered by many to be the authoritative lexicon of the Greek NT, defines it with the basic meaning of letting go: (1) “dismiss or release someone or something from a place or one’s presence, let go, send away”; (2) “to release from legal or moral obligations or consequence, cancel, remit, pardon”; (3) “to move away with implication of causing a separation, leave, depart”; (4) “to leave something continue or remain in its place … let someone have something” (Matt. 4:20; 5:24; 22:22; Mark 1:18; Luke 10:30; John 14:18); (5) “leave it to someone to do something, let, let go, allow, tolerate.” The Shorter Lexicon adds “forgive.” In sum, God lets go, dismisses, releases, sends away, cancels, pardons, and forgives our sins. His work is full and final. Don’t go backwards or dwell on it. Clearly the most significant definition in this context is the second one and the Shorter Lexicon’s. It means to forgive.
Please read these verses for how forgiving God is:
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us. (Ps. 103:10-12)
And these great verses are from Micah:
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
19 He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea. (Mic. 7:18-19, ESV)
It would be over-generalizing to believe that sin always leads to sickness. However, Jesus turns his attention to forgiveness first. The Gospels do not argue that sickness was always a direct personal result of sin (2 Kings 13:14; Jn 9:3), as many people in Jesus’ day, both Jewish … and Gentile … thought. That Jesus did not always pause to forgive sins shows that he did not always connect disease and sin in a causal relationship … but Jesus’s healing of the human body also functions as a dramatic illustration healing for the human character (13:15). The Gospels do, however, suggest that when these problems are intertwined, God wishes to deal with both (Jas. 5:14-16).
But here we see that sin was somehow connected to this young man’s paralysis. Since we don’t know the details, let’s not speculate. Yet in our prayers for the sick today, ask God for special knowledge—a word of knowledge—to know whether the sick person you are praying for has any kind of unconfessed sin in his life. He may not even be saved. Lead him to Christ before you pray.
2. Gifts of the Spirit: Word of Knowledge
I’m no expert in Hebrew, but the Hebrew word for “forgive” that only God can offer is salach (pronounced sah-lahkh) (see Works Cited link, below, and the commentary on the Torah, p. 771). It is found forty-seven times in the Hebrew Bible. Let’s focus on Leviticus, since the temple and the sacrificial system in Jerusalem loomed over Judaism, even up in Galilee; it is in this book and the sacrificial system where forgiveness can be obtained. (In many of the other references, people pray that God would forgive sins [2 Chron. 6:21, 25, 27, 30, 39], or God himself pronounces forgiveness on people: “I will forgive their iniquity” [Jer. 36:3].) In Leviticus, which prescribes specific offerings for sins, the priest pronounces that the offerer is forgiven, but only after the right offering is done. Then the priest uses the “divine passive”; that is, the Torah says repeatedly, “his sin will be forgiven,” implying that God is the one forgiving. Here’s a sample verse: “With the ram of the guilt offering the priest is to make atonement for him before the Lord for the sin he has committed, and his sin will be forgiven” (Lev. 19:22, emphasis added). Note the passive “will be forgiven.” However, the entire context shows that Jesus is not passively declaring sins forgiven, as the priest did, but actually forgiving sin.
Read more about this passage here:
The Son of Man Claims God’s Authority to Forgive Sins on Earth
However, you may not accept that Jesus used the word salach. If so, commentator Keener says that the authority to forgive sins is an “attribute Jewish people did not even associate with the Messiah” (p. 289). This indicates that Jesus the Messiah is still speaking in a new and authoritative way which traditionalist would find blasphemous.
3:
“teachers of the law”: they were also called scribes or legal experts. You may learn about them at this link:
Quick Reference to Jewish Groups in Gospels and Acts
They were the Watchdogs of Theology and Behavior (David E. Garland, Luke: Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament [Zondervan, 2011], p. 243). The problem which Jesus had with them can be summed up in Eccl. 7:16: “Be not overly righteous.” He did not quote that verse, but to him they were much too enamored with the finer points of the law, while neglecting its spirit (Luke 11:37-52; Matt. 23:1-36). Instead, he quoted this verse from Hos. 6:6: “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9:13; 12:7). Overdoing righteousness, believe it or not, can damage one’s relationship with God and others. Too self-focused.
They were probably muttering amongst themselves. In Jewish theology, only God could forgive your own sins and someone else’s sins. You can forgive the sins of someone who sinned against you, but you cannot do this of someone else’s sins who did not sin against you. And you are not permitted to forgive as a third party in a conflict between two persons. Jesus broke the rules, in their theology. This indicates high Christology. He saw himself as God incarnate.
4:
Jesus literally “saw” their thoughts, but we can expand it to “perceive.” He was using the gift of the word of knowledge; that is, by the Spirit he got access to their thoughts. Or he may have overheard them muttering and mumbling.
But in case he did use the Spirit to perceive their thoughts, see my post about the word of knowledge, once again:
2. Gifts of the Spirit: Word of Knowledge
Jesus ministered by the power and anointing of the Spirit, according to the main message of Scripture (Acts 10:38), though some theologians say that he used his divine nature. It is likely that the Father and the Spirit cooperated with his divine nature, so the first and third persons of the Trinity is working together in the Son of God. His entire ministry was about doing what the Father did and in a similar manner. 19 “Jesus then replied and said to them, “I tell you the firm truth: The Son is unable to do anything on his own, unless it is something he sees the Father doing, for the things that he does—the Son also does those things in like manner. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows to him everything that he himself is doing” … (John 5:19). “Unable” should not be over-interpreted, but simply means that in his ministry, the Father empowered him.
Let’s discuss Jesus’s fearless confrontation with these religious leaders.
As I noted in other chapters, first-century Israel was an honor-and-shame society. Verbal and active confrontations happened often. By active is meant actions. Here the confrontation is both verbal and acted out. Jesus won the actual confrontation, and this victory opened the door to his verbal victory with religious leaders who were binding people up with traditions. They needed to be loosed from them. Jesus shamed the leaders to silence. It may seem strange to us that Jesus would confront human opponents, because we are not used to doing this in our own lives, and we have heard that Jesus was meek and silent.
More relevantly, for many years now there has been a teaching going around the Body of Christ that says when Christians are challenged, they are supposed to slink away or not reply. This teaching may come from the time of Jesus’s trial when it is said he was as silent as a sheep (Acts 8:32). No. He spoke up then, as well (Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:32; Luke 23:71; John 18:19-23; 32-38; 19:11). Therefore, “silence” means submission to the will of God without resisting or fighting back physically. But here he replied to the religious leaders and defeated them and their inadequate theology. Get into a discussion and debate with your challengers. Stand toe to toe with them. In short, fight like Jesus! With anointed words!
Of course, caution is needed. The original context is a life-and-death struggle between the kingdom of God and religious traditions. Get the original context, first, before you fight someone in a verbal sparring match. This was a clash of worldviews. Don’t pick fights or be rude to your spouse or baristas or clerks in the service industry. Discuss things with him or her. But here Jesus was justified in replying sharply to these oppressive religious leaders. He ministered to “regular” people, but confronted oppressive leaders.
5-6:
Which is easier? To string words together in a speech without backing them up? Or to speak the same words and back them up with a healing? Jesus just pronounced over the paralytic that his sins were forgiven. That’s easy to do. But now Jesus demonstrates his authority to forgive sins by healing the young man. Miracles confirm the Word.
Some interpreters argue that it is easier to heal the man than to say his sins are forgiven, because Jesus will die on the cross for them, which is much more difficult than to heal the man’s broken body. However, that line of teaching exercises too much interpretive gymnastics, our minds making connections two thousand years later, bundling things up that the people in this section of the Gospel did not focus on. Jesus was not dying on the cross then and there. Instead, the straightforward interpretation is that it is easier to say the man’s sins are forgiven because people cannot see with their own eyes the effects of this pronouncement. In contrast, they are about to see with their own eyes the physical healing of paralysis. By analogy you or I can say an inner work in the soul is done, but it is more difficult to say a leg is lengthened because viewers can measure the leg. It is more difficult to say, “Get up and walk!” than it is to say “your interior sins are forgiven.”
Blomberg is right:
Jesus asks whether it is easier to pronounce a person forgiven or healed. Whichever might be easier to do, it was obviously easier to “say” that someone’s sins were forgiven without fear of contradiction. So to prove his authority for making the easier claim, he performs the harder task (the typically Semitic from-the-lesser-to-the-greater logic). So clear is his reasoning for Matthew’s original audience that the quotation is broken off midsentence. At once Jesus commands the paralytic to walk and carry his mat back home, and the man does so. Jesus’ claim is thus vindicated. (Comment on 9:4-8)
“Son of Man”: it both means the powerful, divine Son of man (Dan. 7:13-14) and the human son of man—Ezekiel himself—in the book of Ezekiel (numerous references). Jesus was and still is in heaven both divine and human.
4. Titles of Jesus: The Son of Man
“authority”: it is the noun exousia (pronounced ex-oo-see-ah), and it means, depending on the context: “right to act,” “freedom of choice,” “power, capability, might, power, authority, absolute power”; “power or authority exercised by rulers by virtue of their offices; official power; domain or jurisdiction, spiritual powers.”
The difference between authority and power is parallel to a policeman’s badge and his gun. The badge symbolizes his right to exercise his power through his gun, if necessary. The gun backs up his authority with power. But the distinction should not be pressed too hard, because exousia can also mean “power.” In any case, God through Jesus can distribute authority to his followers (Matt. 10:1; Luke 10:19; John 1:12). Jesus will give us authority even over the nations, if we overcome trials and persecution (Rev. 2:26). And he is about to distribute his power in Acts 2.
Never forget that you have his authority and power to live a victorious life over your personal flaws and sins and Satan. They no longer have power and authority over you; you have power and authority over them.
What Are Signs and Wonders and Miracles?
7:
The man’s healing was done. When Jesus told him to take courage, the man didn’t need to fear, after all. On the healing proclamation, he did what he was told. Streamlined and straightforward. I like it.
8:
The people’s response is interesting. They showed reverential fear and awe, and they also glorified and praised God. The two are linked. So far so good. But then the other reaction is from the religious leaders who see Jesus’s words as blasphemous. Jesus does not respond gently to them; the false accusations could damage his godly reputation. So he confronted the leaders.
However, the people also concluded that God gave such authority “to men.” It’s not clear that anyone else around the first century could pronounce healing with such decisive results. But evidently they were not convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. Maybe that’s why Capernaum would come under Jesus’s pronouncement of judgment for not believing in him (Matt. 11:23). They could not connect the miracles and his authority to forgive sins with his Messiahship.
“people”: the Greek is often translated as “men,” but in this context the term is generic, so I provide the more inclusive term “people.” However, if you believe women could not have such authority given to them at the time of Jesus, then go back to the traditional “men.”
As to Jesus’s divine authority to forgive sins, C. S. Lewis commented on the parallel passage in Mark’s Gospel, arguing for the deity of Christ. His comments there are relevant here:
Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives offenses against himself. You tread on my toes and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on other men’s toes and stealing other men’s money?
Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did. He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offenses. This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. (Mere Christianity)
The healing was instant, and Matthew makes a point of it. No gradual healing for this man in this circumstance, with this skeptical audience. (Sometimes healings are gradual.) Jesus needed to demonstrate that the Son of Man could forgive sins. Did the paralytic convulse a little as strength and feeling surged through his body? Or did he just get up smoothly without adjustments to his body? Probably the latter thing happened. He just got up and picked up his bedding.
He glorified or praised God on the way home. His friends or relatives had to scurry down from the roof and catch up to him. Did the men look triumphantly at the crowd as they passed by, when the people had refused to let the stretcher go through? No word on their offer to repair the roof! The text is silent, but it is fun to speculate about small things like this.
What was so strange, wonderful, remarkable? First, a paralytic got his complete, instant healing. Second, the ex-paralytic’s sins were forgiven, after all. Third, the Son of man—the Messiah—was standing right in front of them. Fourth, this was an honor-and-shame society, and the people saw the Pharisees and teachers of the law get their comeuppance, and some of the less pious in the crowd must have snickered at their expense. The powerful were shamed, while the paralytic was honored. Fifth, quarreling and quibbling over matters of the law and traditions was cut apart like the Gordian knot was cut through. It is God breaking in and crushing these empty discussions, demonstrating his love and power. Sixth, the Pharisees had strong political views, and Jesus lifted their sights to the kingdom of God. Politics about Israel doesn’t matter, standing in contrast to the soon-to-be global kingdom (Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8).
I really like how Turner summarizes this pericope or section of Scripture:
But the authority to forgive sins is much greater than the authoritative words and actions, since it gets to the root of the problems and illnesses that are symptoms of sin. Teaching against sin does not cause sin to stop, let alone secure its forgiveness. Sick people may be healed, but sooner or later they will get sick again, and ultimately they will die. As great as Jesus’s authority in these domains is, it pales in comparison with his authority to forgive sins. Such authority is at the heart of Jesus’s mission to save people from their sins (1:21) by giving life as a ransom for them (20:28), thereby inaugurating the new covenant (26:28; cf. Jer. 31:31). As God’s beloved Son, Jesus acts with a divine prerogative. He does not blaspheme (Matt. 9:3); he saves. (p. 248)
GrowApp for Matt. 9:1-8
1. Just before praying for the young man, Jesus spoke courage into his heart. Do you need courage while you are sick?
2. Do you have faith to be healed by your loving Father?
RELATED
9. Authoritative Testimony in Matthew’s Gospel
1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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