So goes Jesus’ question to the scribes: ‘Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up, take your mat, and walk”?’ (Mark 2:9).
From one perspective, a more physical perspective, it is much easier to say ‘your sins are forgiven’. Nobody can see forgiven sin. Jesus can pronounce forgiveness and nobody can prove otherwise. But ‘get up and walk’, everyone can see if that has worked or not. Far easier to say the one nobody can see or prove than the other.
From a cultural perspective, however, it would be far easier to say, ‘get up and walk’. Jesus has already been healing people and everybody likes healing. What’s to complain about? But ‘your sins are forgiven’ is deeply offensive. It puts Jesus in God’s place. It is a claim to divine authority, and blasphemy was punishable by death.
Jesus isn’t setting the question up as though one is easier than the other. Rather, the question is the equivalent of asking whether it’s easier to drink an entire ocean or eat the sun; both are impossible! Asking which is harder is not suggesting one is harder than the other, it is suggesting nobody can do either.
But Jesus says he can do the impossible thing nobody can see and will prove it by doing the impossible thing that everyone can see. Nobody except God can forgive sin, that is impossible. But Jesus will show that he has the divine authority to forgive sin by doing the physically impossible thing of making a paralytic man get up and walk.
Jesus is claiming God’s authority here. Only God can forgive sin. This is what the scribes were thinking in their hearts. And Jesus agrees with them! He says that’s right – but I can forgive sin and I can prove it. Jesus is claiming God’s authority.
But it isn’t just an inference because of what he does. Jesus calls himself the Son of Man here. This is Jesus’ favourite term for himself. It doesn’t just mean ‘a man’, it is a term from the book of Daniel.
The Son of Man in Daniel 7 is appointed by God to be Lord and receive God’s kingdom forever. He’s given authority, glory and sovereign power, and crucially, all nations and peoples worship him. The Son of Man is an object of worship. Only God can be worshipped, but the Son of Man is given authority from God, and receives worship as Lord over God’s kingdom at God’s command. He is God incarnate.
Jesus calls himself the Son of Man. He takes this divine title for himself and claims God’s authority. Jesus is saying, I am God, the divine Son of Man, with God’s authority on earth to forgive sin.
How would anybody prove that claim? In vv11-12, Jesus tells this man to get up and walk, and in full view of everybody he gets up and walks. Mark’s point is that Jesus has God’s authority to forgive sin. He is the divine Son of Man, who has authority on earth to forgive sins that only God can forgive. Jesus is God in the flesh with God’s authority.