Powerful Jesus!

 The All Powerful Jesus!

Matthew 9:2-7  And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. (3) And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. (4) And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?  (5) For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?  (6) But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.  (7) And he arose, and departed to his house.  (8) But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men. 

Simply put, you cannot put Jesus into any little box.  The world wants to paint Jesus as a meek, passive, non-confrontational, hippiesque, love-above-all-else, one-demential religious leader.  Jesus is NOT that!  And our text today proves it.

It was probably a daily occurrence that Jesus is brought sick people to be healed.  We have many accounts in the Gospels where Jesus does exactly what is requested.  This day was a little different.  A crippled man, said to have palsy, is brought to him to be healed.  He is eventually healed as desired but first Jesus takes a detour.

Before healing this palsy stricken man, Jesus declares that his sins are forgiven.  Notice the reaction of the religious leaders.  They declared him to be a blasphemer!  Blasphemy is the act of showing contempt or lack of reverence for God and/or the act of claiming to have the attributes of God.

So why didn’t Jesus just mind his business and do what he always did, and JUST heal the guy?  Why did he step into that mind field of antagonizing the religious leaders of the day?  Did he not know who they were?  Did he not think about his actions before he did it?  Could he not have anticipated the fall-out that this detour would cause?  Was he just careless?  Jesus knew exactly what he was doing!  And he gives us the answer in verse 6:

Matthew 9:6  But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath POWER on earth to forgive sins!..

Because Jesus is ALL POWERFUL!  Not only did he have the Power to heal the sick, he had the Power to Forgive sins.

The real key to this passage is that not only did he have the power to forgive the sins of this man as well as others in his life… He also has the POWER to forgive sins today.  He did it.. He does it because of this death on the cross!

Jesus has the POWER to forgive ALL of your sins too!

Reflecting the SON, 

Dennis Hogan

dennis.hogan@icloud.com

Questions, comments or  further explanation?  Contact me at:  dennis.hogan@icloud.com