47 Why Jesus Forgave Sins Before Healing the Paralytic (Matthew 9:1-8)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today we're going to study Matthew chapter 9, verses 1 through 8. This is the 47th talk in my series on the Gospel of Matthew. The lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below this podcast, or you can find them by going directly to wednesdayintheword.com slash Matthew47. I'm glad you joined us. We're still in a section where Matthew is describing a number of miracles that Jesus performed, and we have seen that authority is a key theme throughout these miracles. We're going to see that theme again today. In fact, Matthew leaves out many of the details of this story that Mark gives us in order, I think, to focus on this issue of authority. And we have talked about how this kind of authority requires a response. These miracles are not just historical events. They are historical events, but they call on us to respond. Jesus does things that only God can do because God has given him the authority. The miracles are evidence that God is behind what Jesus teaches. And after the miracle happens, we're called to recognize his authority and humble ourselves before him. We also see faith before the miracle happens. The seekers have already wrestled with the question of who Jesus is. They have reached the conclusion that his words are true, and so they come to him in faith and ask for a miracle. And in the miracle we're going to look at today, we're going to see both of these themes, both the faith of the person healed and the evidentiary power of the miracle. Let me read Matthew nine verses one through eight. And getting into a boat, he crossed over and came to his own city, and behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven. And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, This man is blaspheming. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? For 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, and then he said to the paralytic, Rise, pick up your bed and go home. And he rose and went home. When the crowd saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God who had given such authority to men. Let me start with a few observations about the story itself. Both Mark and Luke put this story early, chronologically speaking, in the ministry of Jesus. In Mark 2 1, we're told that Jesus was at home in Capernaum and that he had been there for a few days. I suspect this event probably did come earlier. From my limited study, and based on what I've read, Luke takes great care to put things in order. The first part of Luke is very chronologically accurate. And then Luke says something like, Oh, and these other things happened, and he tells several stories that lack the kind of dating details that his earlier stories have. So Luke seems to put everything in order that he can, and then the stories that he has that he can't fit into the timeline, he sticks all in one place. And then he moves on to the Passion Week. Matthew, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be concerned with chronology at all. He seems much more concerned with whatever theme he's developing than he does in putting things in chronological order. And I think that's what's going on here. Matthew tells us that Jesus came to his own city, and that would be Capernaum. Capernaum is Jesus' home base at this point in his ministry. We know that Jesus grew up in Nazareth. Capernaum and Nazareth are not that far from each other. And Luke tells us that Jesus returned to his hometown to Nazareth after his baptism and temptation in the wilderness. And then Matthew tells us that Jesus left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum. So piecing together all the details, it appears that Jesus was so thoroughly rejected by the people with whom he grew up that he left Nazareth and made Capernaum, which was a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee, his home base for the three years of his public ministry. Commentators aren't exactly certain what the notion of Jesus' being at home means. Perhaps his mother and his brothers had also moved to Capernaum and it was their home in which he had a room. Or others have speculated that Jesus may have used the home of Simon Peter's family or one of the other disciples from Capernaum. Or he may have had his own place, maybe not one he owned, but one that was made available to him for use as needed. Whatever the case, note that Jesus is at home and he's not on the road. He's been at home for several days and it appears he is not getting ready to leave. The paralytic is also from Capernaum. In 9, 6, and 7, Jesus tells the paralytic to take his mat and go home, and he does, and that suggests that the paralytic is also from Capernaum or someplace very close by. I suspect first century Capernaum was not an easy place to navigate if you were disabled. The roads were not paved smoothly, there were lots of stairs and vertical rises, and that would all make it difficult to get around. If you weren't ambulatory in those days, you would have to rely on your friends to help you travel, so it's not likely that he came from very far away, given that he's paralyzed and he has to rely on others to help him move around. Now Matthew omits some of the details that we find in Mark chapter 2 and Luke chapter 5. Jesus' ministry is causing both excitement and controversy. Jesus has been on a preaching tour through Galilee and now he's back home in Capernaum. His popularity is spreading like wildfire through Galilee and making waves as far away as Jerusalem. But what excited the people of Galilee was provoking controversy in Jerusalem, and it appears that as a result, a delegation of scribes was sent from the capital to discredit this threat. Luke tells us a bit more. This is Luke 5.17. On one of those days as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. Now it's been a while since we talked about who the Pharisees are. This will be review if you've been listening to this series. The Pharisees were the intellectual elite of the day. They built an oral tradition around the law that they considered to be just as authoritative as the written law of Moses. They were organized into groups or brotherhoods, and they encouraged each other to maintain a strict observance, both of the written law of Moses and all their oral traditions, which of course were later written down. Each brotherhood had at least one scribe or a teacher of the law. The scribes taught in the synagogues. All the scribes were Pharisees, but not all Pharisees were scribes. So Luke tells us that both Pharisees and scribes from all over the land are here. There are representatives from Jerusalem, from Judea, and from Galilee. And they're sitting here in the room to see what Jesus has to say. And the question of his authority is a big issue. And Jesus is going to confront them on that issue head on. Luke also adds the interesting phrase, and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. As you might imagine, scholars have a field day with that verse. It raises a lot of questions. Does that mean that sometimes the power was not present for Jesus to heal? Could he feel the power coming and going? Are we to understand that sometimes God endowed him with power like a superhero and sometimes he didn't? Or does this mean that God somehow communicated that he is about to act miraculously and Jesus knew that God was about to act? Those are all possibilities, but I tend to think this is just a simple statement that God had granted Jesus a certain kind of authority. Now we could spend a whole podcast talking about the different theories, and honestly, I haven't made up my mind on everything this verse implies or doesn't imply. But since we're not teaching through Luke, we're going to skip that for now. One thing I think is certain, Luke is saying that God had given Jesus the authority to heal. Is there anything more than that? I'm not sure. I'd be hesitant to build a whole theology on this one verse, or on any one verse for that matter. But at least Luke is saying many representatives of the religious elite of the day had traveled to Capernaum to see this man Jesus, and Jesus is about to prove to them that he has the authority of God to heal. Now Matthew tells us they brought to Jesus a paralytic line on a bed. Mark tells us the house was so crowded that they lowered the man through a hole in the roof. This is Mark two, verses one through four. And when he returned to Cumpernum after some days, it was reported that he was at home, and many were gathered together so that there was no more room, not even at the door, and he was preaching the word to them, and they came, bringing him a paralytic carried by four men, and when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. That's a pretty vivid scene, but let me just review what's going on here. The homes were small in that day. The crowd filling this home might have numbered fifty, maybe at most a hundred, and they're spilling out into the street. The walls were usually made of stone, but the roofs had beams across them, and between the beams they packed together straw and thatch with clay. Most homes had stairways leading up to the rooftops so that people could ascend up there on hot evenings and enjoy the breeze, so they used their roofs as a sort of porch or patio. Apparently what these men did was climb up an exterior stairway to the roof, which most houses had, dig out the clay and the thatch from between the beams enough so that they could open a hole in the roof and lower their friend down to Jesus. Well that raises some questions. One, how did the paralyzed man's situation become such an emergency? Jesus was at home. He's been traveling, but he's home now, and there's no indication that he's going anywhere anytime soon. The paralytic evidently also lived in Capernaum, which was not a very big town. Given his condition, he's not likely to be traveling anywhere either. And sadly, the condition of being paralyzed is the exact opposite of an emergency. The very physical condition means that his circumstances aren't changing, which was one of the things that made it so awful. He doesn't seem to have a fever or a broken bone, he's not bleeding to death, he's not violently ill, he doesn't need an operation, as far as we know, he hasn't been in an accident. The circumstances for this man are going to be the same the next day and the next day and the next. So what made his friends decide that this is so important that we can't wait a moment longer? Why couldn't they wait for Jesus to end his teaching, wait for the crowd to disperse, and then ask Jesus to look at their friend? Well, I think the urgency in this case was not the man's physical condition, it was his spiritual condition. The clue is that when Jesus reacts to him, he speaks to the man of his faith. In fact, all three gospel writers say when Jesus saw their faith, he immediately says, Your sins are forgiven. Well, how does Jesus know they have faith? Matthew doesn't give us much to go on, but Mark and Luke help us out with some details. I think this man is having a crisis of faith. He has become convinced that Jesus comes with the authority of God for healing. He's become convinced that this man is the Messiah and he has begged his friends to take him to Jesus. He can't wait and he can't rest until he sees Jesus and finds out if he will be accepted. So his friends carry his pallet to the house, but it's so crowded they can't get in. And the man must have begged, please help me find a way to see him. I can't wait any longer. I have to know what Jesus will say to me. Perhaps his despair, his depression, his bitterness, maybe the years of blaming God for his paralysis or the way people around him treated him, all of that had become such a burden that he realized he couldn't go on anymore without seeking forgiveness from the man of God. And his friends agree this man's in spiritual crisis and they have to get him to Jesus. Another peculiarity about the story is that nobody seems to talk about the obvious. I mean, think about it. Today, if I'm sitting next to a wiggly child in church, I can easily be distracted. And here are these people listening to Jesus' lecture when a hole opened in the roof. I mean, imagine the noise and the dust and debris that would be falling down from the ceiling, and not one person asked, Why in the world are you putting a hole in the roof? Who do you think you are? There's no indignation, there's no anger, there's no question, there's no order, get off the roof. It's like nobody even noticed. Another thing that's peculiar is that no one seems to notice that this man is paralyzed. His friends lower him down, and being immobilized, all he can do is hang there and stare at Jesus. He can't take one step forward. He just has to hang in his ropes. Perhaps he spoke, but if he did, it's not recorded in any of the gospels. And there's no record of a response from the crowd. Apparently nobody said, Oh, this poor man, what a horrible life he must have lived, or no expression of sympathy or compassion or even indignation of him interrupting the lecture. The two most obvious things in the story are completely ignored. And now that's odd, but I think it's odd on purpose. I think the missing elements tell us something. Jesus doesn't react to the hole in his roof, but he reacts to the faith of the paralyzed man and his friends. The need this man had was for his sins to be forgiven. The paralysis doesn't seem to be the main point, and the hole in the roof is not something that concerned Jesus. Jesus' focus then and now is on what's important, not on these curiosities of the moment. So how does Jesus know that this man has faith? Well, imagine you're going to visit a famous rabbi who has a large following. He possesses some degree of fame and popularity. You would want to treat that rabbi respectfully, as Jews were taught to do. And in addition, you have a request. You need this rabbi to do you a favor. You want him to heal your friend. Well, you would certainly try to make a good impression on him by treating him well. The last thing you're going to do is tear up his house. It's completely counterintuitive that you would destroy this rabbi's roof and then ask him for a favor. Why would you expect him to treat you well after you've put a hole in his roof? Especially when it's not even a physical emergency. I think it's that exact counterintuitiveness that Jesus reads as faith. These men evidently had heard Jesus speak. Jesus said He's the Son of Man, He's come to seek and save that which is lost. He said he's the shepherd that would leave the ninety-nine in the pen and go out and find the one who was still lost and desperate. He has said he's the physician who's come for the sick rather than the healthy. And I'm sure that throughout his teaching in these opening days of the ministry, Jesus repeatedly made the point that the needy, the broken, the hurting, the desperate, those people are the very ones he has come for and on whom his ministry is focused, and that he is God's Messiah and He is there to meet their needs. And these men are audacious enough to believe him. They're boldly saying, If you say so, we're going to trust that you came to save the lost. We're going to trust that you care more about people than buildings, and we're going to tear a hole in your roof and put before you one of the very kinds of lost souls that you have said you came to help. They believed the things that Jesus said about himself, and they acted on their belief, and they were willing to go to great lengths that other people would find silly or downright disrespectful. To do that, they must have been deeply convinced that Jesus came with the authority of God to heal in order to take such ridiculously bold actions. Mark 9 2 says, And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, my sons, your sins are forgiven. Some people have suggested that this is not what the paralytic was expecting, but I think perhaps he was. As I said earlier, I think the urgency was not his physical situation, but his spiritual situation, and that he is in a crisis of faith and he's seeking some assurance of forgiveness. Now it's difficult to be dogmatic on this point. We don't really know what either the paralytic or Jesus was thinking. I am speculating based on the details. But it seems likely that when Jesus says take heart, your sins are forgiven. Why does he need to take heart? What does he need to be courageous about? Well, he's just done something disrespectful and counterintuitive and put a hole in this man's roof and interrupted his teaching. And Jesus is saying, don't worry about that. That's not important. Your sins are forgiven. It seems likely that this man has become convinced that Jesus is the Messiah. He has the authority of God to heal, and also he had the authority of God to forgive sins, and that's his immediate crisis. That crisis of faith prompts his friends to act so boldly and quickly and to lower him down to Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell us that when Jesus sees their faith, he responds, Your sins are forgiven. Matthew adds this phrase, take heart or have courage. Now the entire Bible talks about the connection between having faith and receiving forgiveness from God. It seems to me this situation was primarily a crisis of faith, and the physical healing was icing on the cake. Jesus sees the faith expressed by this man and his friends who are so eager and so desperate in their desire to get to them, and he responds with compassion and says, Take heart, your sins are forgiven. Even if the man did come primarily for physical healing, Jesus speaks to the really important issue first, which is his faith. And this theme of faith has been running throughout the stories we've looked at so far. The leper came to Jesus in faith. The centurion came to Jesus in faith, asking that his servant be healed. The disciples responded to the storm at sea with a small faith. The people of the city where the demons were cast into the pigs lacked faith and begged Jesus to leave. And now we see the friends of the paralytic tear up the roof because of their faith. Now some people see these miracle stories as teaching us how to get what you want from God. They say that if you just believe hard enough that you will get your miracle, then in the end you will get it. But if you don't believe hard enough, then you won't get a miracle. I would argue that is not what Jesus means here by faith, and it is not the connection Matthew is making. In fact, I would argue that none of the biblical authors teach that point. That's just not the biblical picture of faith. In this immediate context, we've seen faith. The centurion did not just close his eyes and say, Oh, I believe my servant will be healed and believe hard enough. The leper did not make a wish or pray really hard. They had a certain set of beliefs and convictions and they acted on those beliefs and convictions. They made choices based on what they knew to be true. They sought Jesus and they humbly, or in this case quite boldly, made their requests because they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, and he had the authority from God to do what they asked. That's most clearly spelled out with the centurion. He believed God existed, he believed God would be merciful and use his power to heal. He believed God had given his authority to Jesus, and Jesus had the power to heal, and he had faith in God, and he acted on it. And Jesus sees that same kind of faith in the paralytic and his friends. By contrast, what does he see in the scribes? This is Matthew 9, 3 and 4. And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, This man is blaspheming, but Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? Mark gives us a little bit more detail. This is Mark 2, 6 and 7. Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, Why does this man speak like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus had forgiven the paralytic sins and relieved both his spiritual and physical suffering. The hole in the roof was no consequence to him. He looked at the man and called him my son or my child. A term of endearment tells him to take heart. The crisis is over, he's forgiven and healed. And now he turns to the scribes and he asks them two questions. First, he says, Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? Now, what are we supposed to learn from this? I suspect that Jesus is not asking this question because he wants information. I suspect he already knows what they're thinking and why they're thinking it. They're thinking this man is a blasphemer. He's claiming to do what only God can do. No one but God can forgive sins. How dare he? So Jesus asks them, why are you thinking these things? Why are you reaching that kind of conclusion? These miracle stories are calling on you to respond, but the response is not blasphemer. The response should be faith. I think what he's really asking is, what kind of God do you serve? What the teachers of the law ought to have asked him, even if they could not yet believe he was the Messiah, is things like, what do you mean? How can these things be? What new thing might God be doing from which we can learn? But they're not asking those things because they've already concluded that God does not forgive sins so easily. If God does forgive, it has to be in Jerusalem, not Capernaum. If God does forgive, it has to be in a temple, not in someone's home. And forgiveness must be given by a priest, not a carpenter from Galilee. And forgiveness must be based on an act of sacrifice, not a mere word about faith. Besides, let's just assume for the sake of argument that this guy has kept the law today. Well, there's always tomorrow. You can't say he's forgiven until he's kept the law all the way to the end of his life. He could blow it tomorrow. So the scribes know how and when, and under exactly what circumstances, God would meet out forgiveness, and this is not it. And if that's not enough, why should the paralytic be forgiven? He's an ordinary sinner. He can't keep the law, he's paralyzed. He can't make an offering in the temple because he can't even move. He can't keep himself ritually clean. I mean, he is unclean by definition. So how could an ordinary sinner who so obviously cannot keep the law like we Pharisees keep the law? How could he possibly be forgiven? We Pharisees know what it takes to have your sins forgiven, and this man does not qualify. The paralytic didn't earn forgiveness through his obedience to the law, he didn't confess, he didn't even say a word that we know of, he didn't get on his knees, he didn't make a sacrifice, he didn't make reparations, he didn't keep himself ritually clean, he didn't do anything to show that he was worthy of God's forgiveness. So how could this man possibly be forgiven? By their theology, this man is among the least qualified to be forgiven. Who does this Jesus think he is to say that this man is forgiven? Now their charge of blasphemy is quite orthodox. Only God can forgive sins. Isaiah 43, 25, for example, tells us that God is the one who wipes out transgressions. Their theology of sacrifices is according to the law, and only God has the power to forgive sins. The penalty for blasphemy from Leviticus 24 is stoning, so they ought to be running outside for rocks, but they probably lack the courage. Instead, they carry on secretly in their hearts. Well, it's a dangerous thing to reason in your hearts in the presence of Jesus. He brings their controversy right out into the open and he says, Why are you thinking these things? What kind of God do you serve? Do you serve a God who delights in forgiveness or one who withholds forgiveness? And that's the kind of problem religious people often have. The more we study, the more knowledge we gain, the more we're involved in church activities and Bible studies and Christian ministries and groups and so on, the more we learn to hide sin rather than see it forgiven. The more involved we are in religious activities, sometimes the more we learn to try to impress God with our actions, the more acquainted we are with religious hypocrisy, the more certain we are that God does not want sin out in the open, that He does not want sins forgiven, and He does not want to relieve people of burdens. The weight of sinfulness and the uncertainty of this kind of hypocrisy often make people excellent church members. And some religious institutions manipulate people by keeping them uncertain of their forgiveness. No one should utter such a simple statement. In one sentence, the entire burden of a lifetime of sin is lifted. Child, your sins are forgiven. It can't be that easy. That's what the scribes think. What will the great institutions built around religious performance do if forgiveness is so easily obtained? He's going to need the scribes and the Pharisees to teach them how to keep the law if you can just ask for forgiveness and receive it. Clearly, they thought this man, Jesus, doesn't have the authority to forgive sins because he's not doing it right. He didn't ask how diligently this man has kept the law. He's not even in Jerusalem at the temple. He couldn't have the authority to forgive sins because he's not forgiving sins the way we scribes know that God forgives them. And on top of that, it's blasphemy because this man, Jesus, is claiming a right for himself that only God has. So now Jesus challenges them on that very point and that very kind of thinking. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? For 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 bed and go home. And he rose and went home. When the crowd saw it they were afraid, and they glorified God who had given such authority to men. So Jesus has a second question for the scribes. Which is easier to say? To say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up, take your mat, and walk. Well, of course it's much easier to offer the man forgiveness and say your sins are forgiven than to tell him he is healed. Both of those statements are statements of authority. I could restate them like this I have the authority to forgive your sins, and I have the authority to call upon the power of God to heal your physical body so that you can get up and walk. Both statements imply a claim to great authority, but one of them describes an invisible reality. Jesus can claim to have the power to forgive sins, but we don't have any way of knowing whether that's true until judgment day. Forgiveness can't be verified. It's invisible. It's the harder thing to do, but it's easier to say. On the other hand, the claim to have the power to heal can be verified right now. After Jesus says rise and walk, we can see if the man is able to walk or not. The harder thing to say is the statement that can be immediately verified. So Jesus' question is one of logic. If I can do the more difficult, external, visible thing, isn't it likely that I can also do the invisible thing? Jesus has made two claims. He's claimed to have the authority of God to forgive sins, and he's claimed to have the authority to call on the power of God to heal this man of his paralysis. And he's saying, look, I can back up one of those claims right now. That would provide powerful evidence that my other claim to authority is also true. The miracles provide evidence that his claims are true and that he has the authority of God to heal. And if God has given him the authority to heal, isn't it also likely that he has the authority to forgive? Jesus heats up the controversy. If they think his claim to forgive sins is blasphemous, calling himself the Son of Man is only going to add fuel to that fire. Son of Man was a popular title applied by first century Jews to Israel's Messiah. The term comes from the book of Daniel. In a vision, Daniel saw one like a son of man coming through the clouds to have dominion over the whole earth, and this one would deal with Israel's enemies and establish the eternal kingdom of God. So Jesus leaves no room for neutrality here. He claims to be the Son of Man, God's unique representative who has the authority to forgive sins. And basically he's saying, look, Daniel's prophecy is being fulfilled before your very eyes. And to prove that his claim is so, he heals the man. The man immediately gets up, gathers his palate, and leaves. And the crowd which could not make way for him to enter the house has no trouble making room for him to leave. Then Matthew drives this point home with 9.8. When the crowd saw it, they were afraid and they glorified God who had given such authority to men. The word afraid here is the same word that was used of the disciples back when Jesus calmed the wind and the waves. It's often translated awestruck. This is rocking their world. And here again we see Matthew commenting on the authority of Jesus. I don't know how much the crowd understood, but the authority of Jesus has been the issue in this story. The scribes were upset because they thought Jesus was blaspheming by claiming to have authority from God. He claimed to have the authority to forgive sins. He demonstrates that he has authority from God by healing the paralytic, and that proves that if God has given him the authority to heal, God has also given him the authority to forgive. And that's an issue of being the Messiah. The Messiah is the coming king who will rule from David's throne. Kings rule with authority. The Messiah is the king who acts with the authority of God. And Jesus has just proven himself to have that authority. Now, I don't know how much the crowd understood about all of that, but Matthew understood it, and he's highlighting that fact. Jesus left the crowds talking about the authority of God given to this man, Jesus. And we know the one man who has that kind of authority is the Messiah. And there we see the evidentiary value of miracles. The miracles support our faith in Jesus because they demonstrate that God is with him and God has given him his authority. Now some of you will probably raise the question: well, okay, I understand that the miracles had evidentiary power to those who were in the house that day, but I wasn't there. I didn't see it. All I have are reports that these miracles happened many, many years ago. The more removed we are from the eyewitnesses, the less evidentiary power they have. I mean, I have evidence that Shakespeare existed, but I'm not going to change my life because of it, right? Why should I change my life based on these accounts of Jesus? Well, we can spend a lot of time talking about that. Briefly, I'd answer this way. This is where we put the accounts of the miracles together with all the other information we have. We look at the entire testimony of all the biblical authors. We consider their account of what God did with Israel. We look at what they say God has revealed about himself through the prophets. We look at what they say Jesus said and taught. We look at what they say Jesus did and how he died and rose again. And we look at what the apostles said and did after Jesus ascended. And looking at all of that together, we ask questions like, is this reasonable? Is this coherent? Is it compelling? Does it make sense of the world and my experience as I know it? Does it solve problems in my thinking that I can't solve any other way? And many other questions like that. And in the end, I think the worldview of the Bible is compelling because it is the best option. It makes the best sense of the world and the universe and life as we know it. True, you and I didn't see Jesus perform these miracles, but the apostles claim they saw him perform the miracles. They say that one of the many reasons they know him to be the Messiah is they saw him perform miracles. And the apostles are part of a great network of biblical testimony. We accept that testimony because it is rational, reasonable, compelling, and makes the most sense. It explains the existence of death, evil, and tragedy. It explains the way to find joy and meaning and purpose, and it solves all our deepest and darkest problems. Do I have a hundred percent certainty? No, but I don't need to be a hundred percent certain. The biblical claims just have to be reasonable, compelling, and plausible. Let me give you an analogy. If you came upon a thousand pennies and they were lined up in very neat rows on the sidewalk, and all of them were face up, what's the most reasonable, compelling, and plausible explanation? Would you say, wow, look at that? What fantastic statistical anomaly of random chance lined up all those pennies face up? Or would you say, Wow, look at that, face up rows of pennies? Some intelligent person must have put them there. Which explanation is more compelling and reasonable? Well, I would argue I don't have to be a hundred percent certain. The most reasonable, plausible explanation is somebody put them there. And when I look at our world in the universe, it's like looking at a thousand million pennies all lined up face up on the sidewalk. The most reasonable explanation is someone put them there. The only question is who? Now we have a group of people in history who claim that God himself explained to them what this whole deal is about, and he explained to them metaphorically how and why he lined up all those pennies. We hear their testimony and we have to decide whether or not that's worth believing. And I think the picture they paint of the world is more compelling, profound, and plausible than any other I know of. So, what do these miracles mean to us today? Well, the miracles not only validate Jesus' authority and his identity, it ought to cause the scribes to reconsider their whole worldview and theology. Jesus' claims were blasphemous, but they couldn't deny his life-giving power. They ought to be forced to ask, well, who is this Jesus? How do we gain access to him? What does it mean for me? Well, let's conclude with those questions. Who is Jesus? Is he a rabbi? Yes, but he teaches like no other rabbi before him. Is he a prophet? Well, yes, but no other prophet claimed the authority to forgive sins. Is he a king? Yes, he claimed a kingdom like no other king before him. He claims to be the Son of Man, the one Daniel saw in his vision, who was given authority and dominion and power over all of creation. So here is a man vested with all the authority that belongs to God. You can't water that down. Jesus is the Son of Man, the Messiah, and nothing less. How do we gain access to him? Well, you don't have to stand in line and take a number to gain access to Jesus. You don't have to make a pilgrimage to a holy city. There's no temple stairs to ascend, no intermediaries to kneel before, no priests to beg permission of. In fact, there's no protocol to observe whatsoever. All you have to do is come to Him in faith, like the paralytic. Believe what He says is true and act on it. So, what does this mean for you and me? It means forgiveness. Forgiveness which removes guilt, removes shame, and restores our relationship to God. Jesus said, Child, your sins are forgiven, and that is his message to people like us, people who are failures, who know we're failures, who know there are things about us that we would be ashamed of if anyone ever knew, who long for relief from the struggle with sin, and who want to believe that God will be for us, not against us, who want to start today's battle with the sense that God is on our side, not removed from us by a distant barrier, and who need the hope and mercy that goes along with forgiveness. Jesus has the authority to forgive our sins too. All we have to do is come to Him in faith, like the paralytic, and believe. Then we can shake off our paralysis, pick up our mats, and walk in the light. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. You can hear all the episodes in this series on my website, wednesdayintheword.com. There is no charge, no spam, and no ads. It's all free to help you improve your study skills and understanding of scripture. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please subscribe to the podcast, leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen, but most importantly, tell a friend what you learned. And if you can, tell them where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates. You can listen to more of his music and find his CDs at heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.