And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?
Jesus knew the unspoken, concealed thoughts of those before Him as plainly as an open book. By asking why they thought evil in their hearts He openly exposed and rebuked their inward reasoning against Him. Their evil was inwardly judging Him as a blasphemer for forgiving the repentant paralytic and opposing His authority to forgive sins. The question defends His right on earth to forgive sins, and the healing that followed was given as evidence of that authority and of His Messiahship. His knowledge of hidden thought together with His power to forgive revealed His divinity clothed with humanity. He also knew the paralytic's deepest burden was guilt over sin weighing more heavily than bodily suffering, so He first gave peace by forgiving his sins and then healed his body.
Context and Setting
The question was asked at Capernaum while Jesus was a guest at Peter's house, when men, women, and children flocked from every direction to hear Him, having heard His gracious instruction, witnessed His wonderful miracles, and seen that He turned none away and that even loathsome lepers found access to His presence and were healed. Friends and relatives brought to Him a helpless paralytic reduced to utter helplessness by incurable palsy who had given up all hope of recovery, and they began to hope he might be relieved if he could be brought under the notice of Jesus. He was let down through the roof into the presence of Jesus, after He had told the hopeless, sin-burdened man that his sins were forgiven. He feared that his sinful life would keep him from Jesus, yet to Jesus the sick and sinful can come for mercy and healing.
His affliction followed a life of sin, with dissipation as its main cause and bodily suffering as the penalty of his wrongdoing. His awareness of this made him fear that Jesus, the pure Physician, would not receive him. Jesus instead welcomed the suffering man and brought hope to the guilty and wretched.
Scribes, Pharisees, priests, rulers, and teachers were present, watching Him and hoping to find grounds to accuse Him. Their outward restraint and nearness to the Teacher hid wicked purposes, hatred, hostile thoughts, and evil intentions in their hearts toward Him. Their hostility was joined to concern for their own influence, for seeing the healed man before the watching crowd made them fear that their authority over the people would be lost. Christ knew the opposition in their hearts, while the man himself was deeply troubled by their claim that his sins meant God had rejected him.
The Pharisees treated the palsied man's sickness as proof of God's anger and judged his suffering as God's punishment for his sins. Yet illness is not always evidence of divine displeasure, and Jesus meets the sinful and suffering with mercy. Condemning sufferers does not prove the condemners holy, for those who condemn them may themselves be more corrupt in heart and life.
Knowing Hidden Thoughts
Jesus knew the concealed, unspoken thoughts of those before Him like an open book, understanding what was in their hearts without their speaking aloud. When He told the hopeless, sin-burdened paralytic let down through the roof that his sins were forgiven, He knew the scribes and Pharisees were inwardly accusing Him, and He answered their hidden reasoning. His knowledge and authority in addressing their doubt about His power to forgive sins revealed His divinity.
By asking why they thought evil in their hearts, He openly exposed, confronted, challenged and rebuked the evil reasoning and hidden unbelief within them. He called their thoughts evil and challenged them to recognize His authority to forgive sins, with the healing to serve as evidence of that authority and of His Messiahship. In the account of the paralytic the central need thus joined to the rebuke was forgiveness and peace with God as well as physical healing.
Their evil was inwardly judging His words as evil, accusing Him of blasphemy for forgiving the repentant paralytic, and opposing His authority to forgive sins. They had not spoken it aloud, yet their inward accusation treated His forgiveness as a wrongful claim to do what they believed belonged to God alone. He defended His right on earth to forgive sins by asking whether it is easier to heal the man or to forgive his sins, teaching there is no difference to Him, and by commanding the man to take up his bed and walk to prove that the Son of man has that power.
He also knew the paralytic's thoughts and deepest burden, that guilt over sin weighed more heavily than bodily suffering. He understood the man needed relief from the burden of sin and peace of soul before he could benefit fully from bodily healing, and answered that need by forgiving him before healing his body. He is a witness to every thought, word and action, and all, including students, are accountable to Him for what they do and say. On another occasion He knew the Pharisees' inward thought that He was doing away with the law, and His exposure of their thoughts showed that God's law reaches the motives of the heart and that self-love itself is transgression.
Authority to Forgive
“Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?” was spoken to men who had said nothing aloud but had inwardly accused Him of blasphemy for forgiving the repentant paralytic, and by laying open their unspoken thoughts He confronted their hidden unbelief and defended His right on earth to forgive sins. The question exposed their evil judgment and led directly into His demonstration that the Son of man has authority to forgive sins. That healing of the man would provide the evidence of that authority and of His Messiahship. He spoke and acted while standing at the head of the human race, His divinity clothed with humanity, so that the rebuke together with the miracle revealed divine knowledge and divine forgiving power in human form, and understanding these wonderful things opens a history of experience for the churches.
He reads unspoken thoughts like an open book, and when the hopeless, sin-burdened paralytic let down through the roof was told his sins were forgiven, He knew the Pharisees’ inward charge that He was wrongly claiming to forgive sins. He answered that evil reasoning by asking whether it is easier to heal the man or to forgive his sins, teaching that there is no difference to Him. He then proved that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins by commanding the paralytic to arise, take up his bed, walk, and go home. That joining of forgiveness of sin with healing of the body stands as a precious lesson from His ministry to the sick, the pattern for ministering to the afflicted.
Restoring the decaying body required creative, life-giving power, the same power by which God gives life. Christ also uses that same power to renew a heart dead in sin, so the bodily healing was evidence that He had power on earth to forgive sins. His knowledge of their inward reasoning together with His power to forgive revealed His divinity as He addressed their doubt about His power to forgive sins. In discerning the evil thoughts of the scribes who questioned His authority, His knowledge of their thoughts confirms His divine power and exposes their resistance to His work of mercy.
In the healing of the man with palsy He acted as the great Physician with all power in heaven and in earth over physical and spiritual disease. His work proves His absolute control, the same control shown over winds and waves and over men possessed with demons, with the keys of death and of hell given to Him and principalities and powers made subject to Him. On another occasion the same searching question met the inward thought that He was doing away with the law, and by exposing their thoughts He showed that God’s law reaches the motives of the heart, so that self-love itself is transgression. He explained the law in its true significance without weakening any commandment, freeing it from human traditions that obscured its demands.
Unbelief and Response
His power to restore the sick and to forgive sins laid bare the unbelief, hostility and hardened opposition of the religious leaders. That exposure came even while His miracles were giving powerful evidence of His authority. The healing and forgiveness of the paralyzed man furnished convincing evidence that He had power both to heal and to forgive sins.
The scribes met that convincing evidence with hatred, skepticism and unbelief. Their hearts were so hardened by malice and skepticism that they rejected the mercy and light set before them and sank further into darkness. They recognized that He possessed power they believed belonged to God alone, yet their amazement and recognition did not overcome their prejudice and jealousy. Seeing the healed man before the watching crowd joined their hostility to concern for their own influence, making them fear that their authority over the people would be lost.
Outward claims to holiness do not make a person free from guilt. Those who judge a sick man's suffering as God's punishment for his sins do not prove themselves holy by condemning him, for they may condemn sufferers while being more corrupt in heart and life themselves. The healing itself restored the man to health, strength, hope and peace. It brought hope, joy, gratitude, faith and loyalty to him and his family, leading them to trust Christ with complete faith, and it glorified God through Jesus.
Healing Body and Soul
The deepest suffering of the paralytic came not from his helpless body but from sin and a burdened conscience, a guilt that weighed more heavily than bodily pain. He was deeply troubled by the rulers' claim that his sins meant God had rejected him. Knowing what was in the hearts of all present, Jesus answered that inner need first by assuring him his sins were forgiven, bringing him hope, peace, and joy. Only after the man's mind was relieved did He heal his body and enable him to walk.
He needed that relief from the burden of sin and peace of soul before he could benefit fully from bodily healing. Christ's forgiveness brings peace that restores the mind, relieves mental distress, helps make the body responsive to treatment, and can bring health to the body. At the same time relief of bodily suffering can make a person more receptive to spiritual appeal, so care for the sick must reach both needs together.
That joining of forgiveness of sin with healing of the body stands as a precious lesson and pattern for ministering to the afflicted. Physicians are to follow His example by caring for the soul as well as the body, ministering to both and pointing sinners to Him as the great Healer.
As He worked for the man with palsy, so He will work today for those who come to Him for healing of physical and spiritual infirmities. The lesson calls for greater faith and calm reliance on His word and promise, believing He means all He says and will perform it without being wrought up into excitement.
Jesus knew the unspoken, concealed thoughts of those before Him as plainly as an open book. By asking why they thought evil in their hearts He openly exposed and rebuked their inward reasoning against Him. Their evil was inwardly judging Him as a blasphemer for forgiving the repentant paralytic and opposing His authority to forgive sins. The question defends His right on earth to forgive sins, and the healing that followed was given as evidence of that authority and of His Messiahship. His knowledge of hidden thought together with His power to forgive revealed His divinity clothed with humanity. He also knew the paralytic's deepest burden was guilt over sin weighing more heavily than bodily suffering, so He first gave peace by forgiving his sins and then healed his body.
Context and Setting
The question was asked at Capernaum while Jesus was a guest at Peter's house, when men, women, and children flocked from every direction to hear Him, having heard His gracious instruction, witnessed His wonderful miracles, and seen that He turned none away and that even loathsome lepers found access to His presence and were healed. Friends and relatives brought to Him a helpless paralytic reduced to utter helplessness by incurable palsy who had given up all hope of recovery, and they began to hope he might be relieved if he could be brought under the notice of Jesus. He was let down through the roof into the presence of Jesus, after He had told the hopeless, sin-burdened man that his sins were forgiven. He feared that his sinful life would keep him from Jesus, yet to Jesus the sick and sinful can come for mercy and healing.
His affliction followed a life of sin, with dissipation as its main cause and bodily suffering as the penalty of his wrongdoing. His awareness of this made him fear that Jesus, the pure Physician, would not receive him. Jesus instead welcomed the suffering man and brought hope to the guilty and wretched.
Scribes, Pharisees, priests, rulers, and teachers were present, watching Him and hoping to find grounds to accuse Him. Their outward restraint and nearness to the Teacher hid wicked purposes, hatred, hostile thoughts, and evil intentions in their hearts toward Him. Their hostility was joined to concern for their own influence, for seeing the healed man before the watching crowd made them fear that their authority over the people would be lost. Christ knew the opposition in their hearts, while the man himself was deeply troubled by their claim that his sins meant God had rejected him.
The Pharisees treated the palsied man's sickness as proof of God's anger and judged his suffering as God's punishment for his sins. Yet illness is not always evidence of divine displeasure, and Jesus meets the sinful and suffering with mercy. Condemning sufferers does not prove the condemners holy, for those who condemn them may themselves be more corrupt in heart and life.
Knowing Hidden Thoughts
Jesus knew the concealed, unspoken thoughts of those before Him like an open book, understanding what was in their hearts without their speaking aloud. When He told the hopeless, sin-burdened paralytic let down through the roof that his sins were forgiven, He knew the scribes and Pharisees were inwardly accusing Him, and He answered their hidden reasoning. His knowledge and authority in addressing their doubt about His power to forgive sins revealed His divinity.
By asking why they thought evil in their hearts, He openly exposed, confronted, challenged and rebuked the evil reasoning and hidden unbelief within them. He called their thoughts evil and challenged them to recognize His authority to forgive sins, with the healing to serve as evidence of that authority and of His Messiahship. In the account of the paralytic the central need thus joined to the rebuke was forgiveness and peace with God as well as physical healing.
Their evil was inwardly judging His words as evil, accusing Him of blasphemy for forgiving the repentant paralytic, and opposing His authority to forgive sins. They had not spoken it aloud, yet their inward accusation treated His forgiveness as a wrongful claim to do what they believed belonged to God alone. He defended His right on earth to forgive sins by asking whether it is easier to heal the man or to forgive his sins, teaching there is no difference to Him, and by commanding the man to take up his bed and walk to prove that the Son of man has that power.
He also knew the paralytic's thoughts and deepest burden, that guilt over sin weighed more heavily than bodily suffering. He understood the man needed relief from the burden of sin and peace of soul before he could benefit fully from bodily healing, and answered that need by forgiving him before healing his body. He is a witness to every thought, word and action, and all, including students, are accountable to Him for what they do and say. On another occasion He knew the Pharisees' inward thought that He was doing away with the law, and His exposure of their thoughts showed that God's law reaches the motives of the heart and that self-love itself is transgression.
Authority to Forgive
“Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?” was spoken to men who had said nothing aloud but had inwardly accused Him of blasphemy for forgiving the repentant paralytic, and by laying open their unspoken thoughts He confronted their hidden unbelief and defended His right on earth to forgive sins. The question exposed their evil judgment and led directly into His demonstration that the Son of man has authority to forgive sins. That healing of the man would provide the evidence of that authority and of His Messiahship. He spoke and acted while standing at the head of the human race, His divinity clothed with humanity, so that the rebuke together with the miracle revealed divine knowledge and divine forgiving power in human form, and understanding these wonderful things opens a history of experience for the churches.
He reads unspoken thoughts like an open book, and when the hopeless, sin-burdened paralytic let down through the roof was told his sins were forgiven, He knew the Pharisees’ inward charge that He was wrongly claiming to forgive sins. He answered that evil reasoning by asking whether it is easier to heal the man or to forgive his sins, teaching that there is no difference to Him. He then proved that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins by commanding the paralytic to arise, take up his bed, walk, and go home. That joining of forgiveness of sin with healing of the body stands as a precious lesson from His ministry to the sick, the pattern for ministering to the afflicted.
Restoring the decaying body required creative, life-giving power, the same power by which God gives life. Christ also uses that same power to renew a heart dead in sin, so the bodily healing was evidence that He had power on earth to forgive sins. His knowledge of their inward reasoning together with His power to forgive revealed His divinity as He addressed their doubt about His power to forgive sins. In discerning the evil thoughts of the scribes who questioned His authority, His knowledge of their thoughts confirms His divine power and exposes their resistance to His work of mercy.
In the healing of the man with palsy He acted as the great Physician with all power in heaven and in earth over physical and spiritual disease. His work proves His absolute control, the same control shown over winds and waves and over men possessed with demons, with the keys of death and of hell given to Him and principalities and powers made subject to Him. On another occasion the same searching question met the inward thought that He was doing away with the law, and by exposing their thoughts He showed that God’s law reaches the motives of the heart, so that self-love itself is transgression. He explained the law in its true significance without weakening any commandment, freeing it from human traditions that obscured its demands.
Unbelief and Response
His power to restore the sick and to forgive sins laid bare the unbelief, hostility and hardened opposition of the religious leaders. That exposure came even while His miracles were giving powerful evidence of His authority. The healing and forgiveness of the paralyzed man furnished convincing evidence that He had power both to heal and to forgive sins.
The scribes met that convincing evidence with hatred, skepticism and unbelief. Their hearts were so hardened by malice and skepticism that they rejected the mercy and light set before them and sank further into darkness. They recognized that He possessed power they believed belonged to God alone, yet their amazement and recognition did not overcome their prejudice and jealousy. Seeing the healed man before the watching crowd joined their hostility to concern for their own influence, making them fear that their authority over the people would be lost.
Outward claims to holiness do not make a person free from guilt. Those who judge a sick man's suffering as God's punishment for his sins do not prove themselves holy by condemning him, for they may condemn sufferers while being more corrupt in heart and life themselves. The healing itself restored the man to health, strength, hope and peace. It brought hope, joy, gratitude, faith and loyalty to him and his family, leading them to trust Christ with complete faith, and it glorified God through Jesus.
Healing Body and Soul
The deepest suffering of the paralytic came not from his helpless body but from sin and a burdened conscience, a guilt that weighed more heavily than bodily pain. He was deeply troubled by the rulers' claim that his sins meant God had rejected him. Knowing what was in the hearts of all present, Jesus answered that inner need first by assuring him his sins were forgiven, bringing him hope, peace, and joy. Only after the man's mind was relieved did He heal his body and enable him to walk.
He needed that relief from the burden of sin and peace of soul before he could benefit fully from bodily healing. Christ's forgiveness brings peace that restores the mind, relieves mental distress, helps make the body responsive to treatment, and can bring health to the body. At the same time relief of bodily suffering can make a person more receptive to spiritual appeal, so care for the sick must reach both needs together.
That joining of forgiveness of sin with healing of the body stands as a precious lesson and pattern for ministering to the afflicted. Physicians are to follow His example by caring for the soul as well as the body, ministering to both and pointing sinners to Him as the great Healer.
As He worked for the man with palsy, so He will work today for those who come to Him for healing of physical and spiritual infirmities. The lesson calls for greater faith and calm reliance on His word and promise, believing He means all He says and will perform it without being wrought up into excitement.