Mark 2:5-8

⁵ So Jesus, after seeing their faith,[1] says to the paralytic “Child, your sins are being forgiven.” ⁶ But some of the scribes were sitting there and questioning[2] in their hearts, ⁷ “Why is he speaking like this? He is blaspheming; Who is able to be forgiving sins, except One: God!” ⁸ So, Immediately Jesus, because he was aware in his spirit that they were questioning this way within themselves, says to them, “Why are you questioning about these things in your hearts?

the scandal of forgiveness

The scribes did not have a problem with Jesus’ healing ministry, per se. But the idea that Jesus dared to banter about with this word “forgiven” on his lips was just a scandal for them. Forgiveness was a theological term, and the scribes saw theology as their realm of expertise, because it had to do with the Bible. How could this popular rabbi dare to interfere with their area of operation? The problem was not really that forgiveness comes from God alone. It was that someone else besides the Bible experts could dare to offer it as God’s representative.

But the excellent message that Jesus taught included the fact that each of us can act as God’s representative, in fact he urged us all to do so. As such, we can dispense his forgiveness just as freely as he did when he gave it.

Yes, I know that Jesus is affirming that he is the Son of God here, and that he has authority to forgive because of his identity as God’s unique Son. The healing of the paralytic happened to show that. But it was also a message to all of us who claim to be experts of what the Bible says. That does not make us the only ones who can forgive. The Lord wants us all to be experts in that.

LORD, make us expert forgivers.

[1] πιστις (2:5; 4:40; 5:34; 10:52; 11:22).

[2] διαλογιζομαι (2:6, 8; 8:16f; 9:33; 11:31).