He entered a boat, made the crossing, and came into his own town. And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Courage, child, your sins are forgiven." At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, "Why do you harbor evil thoughts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"– he then said to the paralytic, "Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home." He rose and went home. When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such authority to human beings. (Mt 9:1-8)
The three important words in this passage seem to be authority, faith, and forgiveness. I wonder how the scribes understood the word authority. It is true that the people of authority exert power. And the people who have power use force and at times it ends up as violence. But the authority of Jesus seems to be of a different kind. His authority is seen in his teaching and preaching and healing and over nature (wind and waves). In this story he has authority to forgive sins. Jesus’ authority seems to be for love, freedom and forgiveness.
Faith here means faith in his authority. It is not the faith of the sick that has done the miracle but the faith of those who carried him. It is the faith that reveals that Jesus is able to do something about it because he is a man of authority. Again the authority is with Jesus because he is the Son of God. Authority is a divine authority.
Main issue in this story is that Jesus is able to forgive sins. Forgiveness is not the point of reference in all the healing miracles. Here in this story forgiveness is the issue for dispute. Probably Jesus knew that the sick person needed internal healing and his internal sickness (guilt feelings etc) could have been the cause of his physical sickness. So Jesus heals his internal sickness which in turn heals the person physically as well. Forgiveness was needed to heal the person and Jesus forgave him because he was the Son of God.
