When Jesus returned to Capernaum after several days, people heard that he was at home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door. Jesus was speaking God’s word to them.
News of his arrival spread quickly. The crowd filled both the room and the entrance, leaving no open path for another person to enter. This was the obstruction facing anyone trying to carry a man who could not walk.
Four people came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They could not bring him near Jesus because of the crowd. Instead of turning back, they opened the roof above Jesus and made an opening. Then they lowered the man on his mat.
The four could not ask the man to leave the mat and pass through the crowd alone. They carried him upward, located the part of the roof above Jesus, and opened a space large enough for the mat. Keeping him upon it, they lowered him into the room directly before Jesus.
Jesus saw their faith and told the man that his sins were forgiven. Some teachers of the law were sitting there and questioned this in their hearts. They thought that only God could forgive sins.
Jesus saw faith in the action of the group, not only in the man lying before him. His first words did not announce restored movement. He addressed the man as son and declared his sins forgiven. Before the man responded, the teachers of the law objected inwardly.
They did not speak their accusation aloud. In their hearts they judged Jesus’ words as blasphemy because forgiveness of sins belonged to God alone. Jesus immediately knew the reasoning they had kept within themselves.
Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked why they were reasoning that way. He asked which was easier: to tell the paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven, or to tell him to rise, take his mat, and walk.
A declaration of forgiveness could not be verified by watching the man’s limbs, but a command to stand would have a visible outcome. Jesus did not leave the comparison as an unanswered debate. He joined the visible healing to his claim of authority to forgive.
Jesus said that people would know that the Son of Man had authority on earth to forgive sins. Then he told the man to rise, pick up his mat, and go home.
Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man and said that this authority operated on earth. His command required three concrete actions: the man was to stand, lift the mat that had carried him, and return home.
The man stood immediately. The mat that had marked his inability to move became something he carried himself as he made his way through the people who had blocked the entrance.
The man stood up at once, picked up his mat, and walked out in front of everyone. The people were all amazed and glorified God. They said they had never seen anything like it.