Who but God alone can forgive sins?

 

Scripture readings can be found at Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel for today we hear the familiar story of the paralytic being brought to Jesus by his four friends. Unable to gain access through the front door, they took a dramatic step in going to the roof, breaking it open, and lowering the paralytic down to Jesus. I can only imagine the look of surprise on the face of Jesus and those present. Most were shocked by this, but with Jesus, I think his reaction was that of joy and approval. He saw the strong faith these four friends had in going out of their way to bring their friend to Him for healing.

Upon seeing their faith Jesus says something that upsets the scribes around Him: “Child, your sins are forgiven!” (Mark 2:5) The scribes rightfully know and believe that only God can forgive sins. To their understanding, Jesus was only a man, nothing more. So, this was a teaching moment for Jesus, indicating that He was not only fully human, but fully God. He was revealing His divinity to those present. If Jesus was not God, he would indeed be blaspheming, as the scribes thought, since only God can forgive sins. But Jesus goes on and reveals His divinity by healing the paralytic. Jesus says to the scribes, “…that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth,” and to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat and go home.” (Mark 2:10-11)

As in all the healings of Jesus throughout the gospels, this healing is tied to that of faith in Him and His ability to do the healing. Jesus saw the faith of the four men and the paralytic and proceeded to heal the man in need of healing.

Further, the four men that brought the paralytic are examples of how we are to live out our lives as Catholic Christians. These four men have a friend in need of healing, and they know of the healing power of Jesus, so they bring him to Jesus. We all have family and friends that are in need of various forms of healing, whether it’s spiritual, emotional, or physical. We ae concerned about them and their need for healing. We, as with these four men, can bring those we care about to Jesus for healing. It doesn’t have to be as dramatic as lowering them through a roof to be in front of Jesus just to get his attention. Instead, every time we turn to Jesus in prayer, we can and should bring our family and friends before Jesus to grant them the healing they need.

Also, we in turn can turn to Jesus for our own healing. As we see in the gospel, Jesus has the power to forgive our sins. Jesus has given His Church this power to grant forgiveness of sins through the sacrament of Confession. We are all in need of forgiveness of sin, and we have the opportunity to receive that forgiveness in confession. Through each confession, we receive from the priest the forgiveness of our sins, and healing from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us turn to the Lord Jesus often for our own physical and emotional healing and that of all others in our lives that we may have true peace and happiness that can only come from Jesus.