A paralyzed man is healed and forgiven.
Matthew 8:1-2 A paralytic is brought to Jesus.
So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”
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Jesus’ miracles were not primarily calculated for crowd effect. Instead they were primarily done to minister to the humble needs of humble people. For the most part, most Jewish people of that time would have preferred much more spectacular signs – like calling down fire from heaven upon a Roman Legion.
We also note that the presence of so much sickness among Israel was evidence of their unfaithfulness to the covenant and their low spiritual condition. God gave them the opposite of what He promised under Exodus 15:26: If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.
Six reasons why Jesus dealt with the man’s sin first. To paraphrase Poole’s reasons why the sin was dealt with first:
· Because sin is the root from which all our evils come.
· To show that forgiveness is more important than bodily healing.
· To show that the most important thing Jesus came to do was to deal with sin.
· To show that when a man’s sins are forgiven, he becomes a son of God.
· To show that the response to faith is the forgiveness of sin.
· To begin an important conversation with the scribes and Pharisees.
