The Forgiveness Of Sins
THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS
MARK 2:1-12
Jesus heals a paralytic … and forgives him too.
From a very early date the ministry of Jesus, whose general character we have now seen, aroused controversy and opposition; the next section of the Gospel (2:1–3:6) brings together a series of incidents which illustrate this conflict.
The present story, therefore, is told not simply to demonstrate the healing power of Jesus (contrast the earlier stories), but rather to demonstrate the deeper issues. It begins by carrying further the lesson on the need for faith which was implicit in 1:40ff. Palestinian houses had a flat roof, used for additional living space, which was reached by an outside stairway. Faith was seen in persistence and determination to reach Jesus by this unusual route.
But with 2:5 the story takes a surprising turn. Instead of healing the man in response to his faith, Jesus declared to him the forgiveness of his sins. Did this imply that the man was a notorious sinner (cf. John 5:14)? Or was this particular disease a consequence of sin? We cannot tell. Jesus explicitly denied that disaster and disease are necessarily caused by sin (Luke 13:1-5; John 9:2f.). But sin and disease are both effects of evil, and Jesus took this opportunity to show God’s opposition to evil in the whole man.
The scribes responded to the declaration perfectly correctly. Only the offended person can forgive the offender, so that only God can forgive sin. A prophet could speak in his name (2 Samuel 12:13), but could Jesus be a prophet in an age when prophecy had died out? Surely he was behaving blasphemously by violating the power and authority of God? Jesus, therefore, sought to give visible proof of his authority and ability to grant the invisible (and therefore unverifiable) act of forgiveness by performing the act of healing that was equally God’s prerogative and impossible for an ordinary man. This would show that he did possess authority, but not simply that of a prophet. He claimed the authority of the Son of man. The Aramaic phrase which Jesus here used could apparently be understood as a substitute for “I” (like “this poor man “in Psalm 34:6) or as a title for a divine being (cf. Daniel 7:13). Jesus chose this ambiguous form of expression so as to leave an air of mystery around his identity.