The Man Who is God (Matthew 9:1-8) 21 February 2023

 

On any given day, you will find people on social media who will proudly proclaim “Jesus never said he was God.” You will hear several different kinds of people with different motivations who make the claim. There is the ill-informed atheist who shouldn’t really care what Jesus did or didn’t claim, since he doesn’t believe in God in the first place. The exvangelical who has “deconstructed” his faith to the point that it is difficult to put back together again. Then there is the Muslim who believes Jesus was a prophet and, as such, could not claim deity.

While it is true that Jesus didn’t go around proclaiming Himself to be God with skin on, there are numerous places where he made claims where he equated himself with God, whom he often identified as “Father.” Today’s passage includes one of these.

Explanation

In this short passage, Jesus arrives in Nazareth (his own city) and encounters a paralytic who had been brought to him. He is moved by the faith of this group, but says a most remarkable thing. One might have expected him to tell the man to pick up his mat and walk. He might simply have said arise, or get up. He doesn’t do that, I expect because of the presence of scribes in the crowd. Instead, he says, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.” (vs. 2 NASB1995) I expect that no one in the crowd knew quite what to make of that pronouncement. While I’m sure the paralytic new there was sin in his life, he didn’t come for forgiveness. He came for healing. The scribes got right to the heart of the matter. “Only God can forgive sins. This is why they accused him of blasphemy in vs. 3. The immediately understood that Jesus was claiming authority to do something that only God has authority to do…forgive sins. Jesus called this thinking “evil” and goes on to make his point. “But so you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” then tells the paralytic to get up and go home. He demonstrated his authority to do something only God can do by performing a miracle.

Side note: That title “Son of Man” is one Jesus gave himself and seems to be a favorite of Matthew’s. Matthew records it often. It is intended to demonstrate his absolute humanity. This is important because heretics then and now want to make Jesus somethings more spirit than God.

Application

While there is no command here, there is a pattern that I believe is worth noting. While it was the paralytics need that put him in Jesus’ path, Jesus took the situation to a deeper need…the man’s sinful state. It implies to me a pattern that may be useful in prayer. We are often led to prayer by a need in our lives. If that’s the case, state the need and lay it before our God. But before belaboring the point, engage in some measure of self-evaluation. If it is necessary, confess our sins and seek forgiveness. Then return to question of the need that brought us into Jesus’ presence in the first place. Deal with the core issues, then return to the felt needs.