Sunday
Sunday
The Debate over Forgiveness
The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
Mark 2:10
Mark tells the touching story of the paralytic who was both healed and forgiven. He was carried in by four of his friends, but the crowds made it impossible for them to reach Jesus. So the friends made a hole in the flat roof of the house and lowered the man on his stretcher through it. To everybody’s surprise, instead of pronouncing him healed, Jesus pronounced him forgiven, for healing and forgiveness were twin blessings of the messianic kingdom.
At once the teachers of the law, who were sitting there, were indignant, saying, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (v. 7). In reply Jesus drew a parallel between the two blessings, but he added that he had first pronounced the paralytic forgiven because he wanted people to know that he had authority to forgive sins. Then he healed the paralytic, who got up and walked out in full view of them all, to everyone’s amazement.
Some time later Luke records a similar incident. Jesus allowed a prostitute to anoint him with perfume, to wet his feet with her tears, and to cover them with kisses. When Jesus declared her forgiven, the guests at dinner said among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” (Luke 7:49).
So on two separate occasions Jesus forgave people’s sins, saying, “Your sins are forgiven.” In both cases the bystanders recognized Jesus’s words as more than a declaration; they understood them as an absolution. And in both cases the witnesses were scandalized, for they knew that nobody can forgive sins except God alone.
For further reading: Mark 2:1–12