Matthew 9:6

Furthermore, so it could be understood that he was in a body and that he could forgive sins and restore health to bodies, Jesus said, “That you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins,” then he said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your pallet.” He could have simply said “Arise,” but since the reason for doing every work had to be explained, he added, “Take up your pallet and go home.” First he granted remission of sins; next he showed his ability to restore health. Then, with the taking up of the pallet, he made it clear that bodies would be free from infirmity and suffering; lastly, with the paralytic’s return to his home, he showed that believers are being given back the way to paradise from which Adam, the parent of all, who became profligate from the stain of sin, had proceeded.

In this paralytic the whole Gentile world is offered for healing, he is therefore brought by the ministration of Angels; he is called Son, because he is God's work; the sins of his soul which the Law could not remit are remitted him; for faith only justifies. Lastly, he shows the power of the resurrection, by taking up his bed, teaching that all sickness shall then be no more found in the body.

And whereas, when He spake unto the sick of the palsy, He spake without clearly manifesting His own authority: for He said not, "I forgive thee thy sins," but, "thy sins be forgiven thee:" upon their constraining, He discloses His authority more clearly, saying, "But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins."

Seest thou, how far He was from unwillingness to be thought equal to the Father? For He said not at all, "The Son of Man hath need of another;" or, "He hath given Him authority," but, "He hath authority." Neither doth He say it for love of honor, but "to convince you," so He speaks, "that I do not blaspheme in making myself equal with God."

Thus everywhere His will is to offer proofs clear and indisputable; as when He saith, "Go thy way, show thyself to the priest;" and when He points to Peter's wife's mother ministering, and permits the swine to cast themselves down headlong. And in the same manner here also; first, for a certain token of the forgiveness of his sins, He provides the giving tone to his body: and of that again, his carrying his bed; to hinder the fact from being thought a mere fancy. And He doeth not this, before He had asked them a question. "For whether is easier," saith He, "to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee? or to say, Take up thy bed, and go unto thine house?" Now what He saith is like this, "Which seems to you easier, to bind up a disorganized body, or to undo the sins of a soul? It is quite manifest; to bind up a body. For by how much a soul is better than a body, by so much is the doing away sins a greater work than this; but because the one is unseen, the other in sight, I throw in that, which although an inferior thing, is yet more open to sense; that the greater also and the unseen may thereby receive its proof;" thus by His works anticipating even now the revelation of what had been said by John, that "He taketh away the sins of the world."

Well then, having raised him up, He sends him to His house; here again signifying His unboastfulness, and that the event was not a mere imagination; for He makes the same persons witnesses of his infirmity, and also of his health. For I indeed had desired, saith He, through thy calamity to heal those also, that seem to be in health, but are diseased in mind; but since they will not, depart thou home, to heal them that are there.

Seest thou how He indicates Him to be Creator both of souls and bodies? He heals therefore the palsy in each of the two substances, and makes the invisible evident by that which is in sight. But nevertheless they still creep upon the earth.

(Verse 5, 6.) Which is easier to say: your sins are forgiven you; or to say: rise up and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, then He says to the paralytic. There is a great difference between saying and doing. Whether the paralytic's sins were forgiven, only the one who forgave them knew. But both the one who rose up and those who saw him rise up could verify it by his walking. Therefore, a bodily sign is given in order to prove something spiritual, although it has the same power to forgive the faults of both body and soul. And intelligence is given to us, because many bodily weaknesses occur due to sins. And perhaps your sins are forgiven first, so that with the causes of weakness removed, health is restored.

Whether or no his sins were forgiven He alone could know who forgave; but whether he could rise and walk, not only himself but they that looked on could judge of; but the power that heals, whether soul or body, is the same. And as there is a great difference between saying and doing, the outward sign is given that the spiritual effect may be proved; But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.

(ubi sup.) That that which had been proof of his sickness, should now become proof of his recovered health. And go to thy house, that having been healed by Christian faith, you may not die in the faithlessness of the Jews.

(Mor. xxiii. 24.) Or by the bed is denoted the pleasure of the body. He is commanded now he is made whole to bear that on which he had lain when sick, because every man who still takes pleasure in vice is laid as sick in carnal delights; but when made whole he bears this because he now endures the wantonness of that flesh in whose desires he had before reposed.

His rising up is the drawing off the soul from carnal lusts; his taking up his bed is the raising the flesh from earthly desires to spiritual pleasures; his going to his house is his returning to Paradise, or to internal watchfulness of himself against sin.

"But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins - then saith He to the paralytic - Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house. But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God Who had given such power unto men." Jesus commanded him to carry his bed so that the event would not appear to have been imaginary, and also, so that the multitudes would see the miracle. For they thought that Jesus, Who is greater than all, was only a man.

(ap. Anselm.) These words That ye may know, may be either Christ's words, or the Evangelist's words. As though the Evangelist had said, They doubted whether He could remit sins, But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath the power to remit sins, he saith to the paralytic. If they are the words of Christ, the connection will be as follows; You doubt that I have power to remit sins, But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power to remit sins—the sentence is imperfect, but the action supplies the place of the consequent clause, he saith to the paralytic, Rise, take up thy bed.

Therefore, that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins. He shows it in deed: first, the end of the deed is mentioned; secondly, the method; thirdly, the efficacy.

Hence he says, In order that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, he says to the paralytic, "Rise, take up your bed and go home." By this he manifests that he is God: "He will save his people from their sins" (Mt 1:21). He says, the Son of man, and on earth, thereby shattering two errors, namely, Nestorius' and Photinus'. Nestorius said that the Son of God and the Son of man were two supposits [persons] and that something said of one could not be said of the other. Hence it could not be said: This child created the stars. Therefore, he says, Son of man, because it belongs to God to forgive sins. Likewise, against Photinus, who said that Christ received his origin from the Virgin Mary and acquired divinity by his merits. And he rested his belief on Matthew (18:18): "All power has been given to me on earth and in heaven." That is why he says, on earth. Hence it says in Baruch (3:38): "After this he was seen on earth and conversed with men." Has the power.

It seems that this does not prove anything, because the apostles themselves had the power. However, they had it as ministers, not as its authors.

The statement, but that you may know, can be taken in two ways: either as the words of the evangelist, and then they are narrative; or as the words of Christ, and then the statement is left incomplete, because they doubted. Therefore, that you may know that I have power to forgive sins, he says to the paralytic: "Rise..." Hence he cured with a word, as God alone does: "He spoke and they were made" (Ps 33:9).

Three things should be noted about the sick man: he lay on a pallet, he was carried by others, he could not move. Therefore, because he lay on a pallet, he said, Rise; because he was carried, he said, take up your bed; because he could not move, he said, and walk, for "God's works are perfect" (Dt 32:4). Similarly, to a sinner lying in sin it is said, Rise from sin by sorrow; take up your bed by satisfaction: "I will bear the Lord's anger, because I have sinned against him" (Mic 8:9); and go home, the home of eternity or his own conscience: "When I enter my house, I will find rest in her" (Wis 8:16).

I could never see how one escaped the dilemma aut deus aut malus homo by confining oneself to the Synoptics. Moderns do not seem startled, as contemporaries were, by the claim Jesus there makes to forgive sins; not sins against Himself, just sins. Yet surely, if they actually met it, they would feel differently. If Dr Pittenger told me that two of his colleagues had lost him a professorship by telling lies about his character and I replied, "I freely forgive them both", would he not think this an impertinence (both in the old and in the modern sense) bordering on insanity?