Matthew 9:5 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 9:5 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?”

For which is easier, to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise and walk? The rhetorical question distinguishes the verifiable from the unverifiable: saying your sins are forgiven is not empirically demonstrable, while saying rise and walk is immediately testable. The harder command (rise and walk) will demonstrate the authority behind the easier command (your sins are forgiven). The physical healing is the public proof of the spiritual reality — if Jesus can heal the unhealable body, it is not a stretch to believe he can forgive the unforgivable sin. The logic is from the harder-to-demonstrate to the easier-to-demonstrate.

Church Fathers on Matthew 9:5

Christ had above shewn His excellent power by teaching, when 'he taught them as one having authority;' in the leper, when He said, 'I will, be thou clean;' by the centurion, who said to Him, 'Speak the word, and my servant shall be healed;' by the sea which He calmed by a word; by the daemons who confessed Him; now again, in another and greater way, He compels His enemies to confess the equality of His honour with the Father; to this end it proceeds, 'And Jesus entered into a…
Chrysostom · 4th century · Hom. xxix

That Matthew here speaks of 'his own city,' and Mark calls it Capharnaum, would be more difficult to be reconciled if Matthew had expressed it Nazareth. But as it is, all Galilee might be called Christ’s city, because Nazareth was in Galilee; just as all the Roman empire, divided into many states, was still called the Roman city. [margin note: civitas] Who can doubt then that the Lord in coming to Galilee is rightly said to come into 'his own city,' whatever was the town in…
Augustine · 4th century · De Cons. Evan., ii, 25

Or; This city may be no other than Nazareth, whence He was called a Nazarene.
Jerome · 4th century

Read all 29 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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