The Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth

18 JANUARY (Mk 2,1-12)

These scribes are really weird. They spend their lives studying, examining, interpreting the Scriptures and ignore that a prophet of the living God had already spoken the same sentence spoken by Jesus to the paralytic. After his sin, David was visited by Nathan. Here is what happened on that day.

The Lord sent Nathan to David, and when he came to him, he said: “Judge this case for me! In a certain town there were two men, one rich, the other poor. The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers. But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. She shared the little food he had and drank from his cup and slept in his bosom. She was like a daughter to him. Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he would not take from his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and made a meal of it for his visitor.” David grew very angry with that man and said to Nathan: “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this merits death! He shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold because he has done this and has had no pity.” Then Nathan said to David: “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king of Israel. I rescued you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your lord’s house and your lord’s wives for your own. I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more. Why have you spurned the Lord and done evil in his sight? You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord: ‘I will bring evil upon you out of your own house. I will take your wives while you live to see it, and will give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down.'” Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan answered David: “The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die. But since you have utterly spurned the Lord by this deed, the child born to you must surely die.” Then Nathan returned to his house. (2Sam 12,1-15).

One man says to another man: “The Lord has removed your sin. The Lord has forgiven it.” Jesus, seen as a true man by the scribes, says to another man the same thing: “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” Jesus does not say, “I forgive you your sins,” but “God has forgiven your sins.” “Your sins are forgiven by God.” Along the lines of Nathan, he lives a strong and intense prophetic experience. This is the truth of what is happening. The scribes instead distort the words and attributed to Jesus what Jesus did not say, “I forgive you your sins.” He could have said it, but he did not say it.

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, “Why does this man speak that way? 5 He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth” – he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.” He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

Jesus did not blaspheme. He spoke as a true prophet. The sign he also gives, healing the paralytic is a true prophetic action. The Sent by God has God’s words and the words of God are always creative of a new reality. If the word of the prophet can recreate the body, it can also recreate the soul. If it heals from the fruits of sin, it even heals from the tree that produced the fruit. The scribes think of impressing the crowd because of their science. They do not know that before Jesus all their science is folly.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints teach us true wisdom.