Homily 29 — Matthew 9, verses 1 to 8

“And he got into a boat, crossed over, and came to his own city. And look, they brought to him a paralyzed man lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, take courage; your sins are forgiven you.’” [a]

By “his own city” the evangelist here means Capernaum. The city that gave him birth was Bethlehem; the one that brought him up was Nazareth; and the one he lived in continually was Capernaum.

This paralyzed man, however, was different from the one set before us in John. That man lay at the pool; this one was at Capernaum. That man had had his illness thirty-eight years; nothing of the kind is said about this one. The other was left with no one to protect him; this one had people to take care of him, who even picked him up and carried him. To this man he says, “Son, your sins are forgiven you”; but to that one he says, “Do you want to be made well?” The other he healed on a Sabbath day, but this one not on a Sabbath — otherwise the Jews would have charged him with this too. And in this man’s case they kept silent, but in the other’s they pressed hard to persecute him.

I have not said this without purpose. I said it so that no one would suspect the two were one and the same paralyzed man, and think there was a discrepancy. But you, I beg you, notice the humility and meekness of our Lord. Even before this he had sent the crowds away from him; and more than that, when the people of Gadara sent him away, he did not resist but withdrew — though not to any great distance.

And again he got into the boat and crossed over, when he could have gone across on foot. For he did not want to be always working miracles, so as not to harm the teaching that he had truly become man.

Now Matthew says that “they brought him,” but the other evangelists say that they also broke up the roof and let him down. And they set the sick man before Christ without saying a word, leaving the whole matter to him. In the beginning he went about in person and did not require so much faith of those who came to him; but in this case they both came to him themselves and had faith required of them. For it says, “Seeing their faith” — that is, the faith of those who had let the man down. For he does not on every occasion require faith of the sick person alone: for example, when they are out of their minds, or when in some other way their illness has taken them out of their own control. Or rather, in this case the sick man too had a share in the faith, for he would not have let himself be lowered unless he had believed.

Since, then, they had shown such great faith, he in turn shows his own power. With full authority he forgives the man’s sins, and in every way he makes plain that he is equal in honor with the one who begot him. And notice: he had pointed to this from the beginning. He did it by his teaching, when he taught them as one who had authority; by the leper, when he said, “I am willing; be clean”; by the centurion, when the man said, “Only speak the word, and my servant will be healed,” and he marveled at him and praised him above everyone; by the sea, when he checked it with a mere word; and by the demons, when they acknowledged him as their judge and he drove them out with great authority.

Here again, in another and a greater way, he forces his very enemies to confess that he is equal in honor, and he makes it plain out of their own mouths. He wanted to show that he was not seeking honor. So — though a great crowd of onlookers stood there blocking the entrance, which is why they let the man down from above — he did not hurry at once to heal the body that could be seen, but let them give him the occasion. First he healed what cannot be seen, the soul, by forgiving the man’s sins. That indeed saved the man, but it brought no great glory to himself. It was they, troubled by their malice and wanting to attack him, who made what was done conspicuous, even against their will. In fact, in the richness of his wisdom he used their envy to bring the miracle into the open.

When they grumbled, then, and said, “This man is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?” let us see what he says. Did he take away their suspicion? And yet if he were not equal, he should have said: “Why pin on me a notion that does not fit me? I am far from having this power.” But as it is, he said nothing of the kind. Quite the opposite: he both affirmed it and confirmed it, by his own voice and by working the miracle. Since it was plain that when he said certain things about himself his hearers were offended, he confirms what he had to say about himself through others — and what is truly marvelous, not through his friends only, but through his enemies as well. This is the excellence of his wisdom. Through his friends, when he said, “I am willing; be clean,” and when he said, “I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel”; but through his enemies here and now. For because they had said, “No one can forgive sins but God alone,” he added, “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins” — then he says to the paralyzed man — “Get up, pick up your bed, and go to your house.”

And not only here, but in another case too, when they were saying, “We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourself God,” in that instance too he did not put down this opinion but confirmed it again, saying, “If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me; but if I am doing them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works.”

In this case he also reveals another sign of his own divinity, and no small one, and of his equality in honor with the Father. For since they said, “To undo sins belongs to God alone,” he not only undoes sins, but before that he also gives another kind of demonstration, in something that belonged to God alone: bringing into the open the secrets of the heart. For they had not spoken aloud what they were thinking. [h]

For it says, “Look, some of the scribes said within themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’ And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts?’”

But to see that it belongs to God alone to know people’s secrets, hear what the prophet says: “You, and you alone, know the hearts”; and again, “God tests the hearts and the inmost parts”; and Jeremiah too says, “The heart is deep beyond all things, and it is man, and who will know him?”; and, “Man looks on the face, but God on the heart.” From many passages one may see that to know what is in the mind belongs to God alone.

So, showing that he is God, equal to the one who begot him, he uncovers and brings into the open what they were reasoning within themselves — for they did not dare to speak their minds for fear of the crowd — and in this too he shows his great gentleness.

“For why,” he says, “do you think evil in your hearts?”

And yet if anyone had cause to be displeased, it was the sick man, as one completely deceived. He should have said: “I came to have one thing healed, and you mend another? Why, how is it plain that my sins are forgiven?”

But as it is, he for his part says no such thing, but gives himself up to the healer’s power; while these men, meddlesome and envious, plot against the good done to others. So he rebukes them, yes, but with all gentleness: “Well, if you disbelieve what came before, and count my saying an empty boast, look, I add another sign to it, the uncovering of your secrets; and after that yet another.” And what is that? Restoring strength to the body of the paralyzed man.

And notice: when he spoke to the paralyzed man, he spoke without plainly showing his own authority. He did not say, “I forgive you your sins,” but, “Your sins are forgiven you.” But when they forced his hand, he reveals his authority more clearly, saying, “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.”

Do you see how far he was from being unwilling to be thought equal to the Father? He did not say at all, “The Son of Man needs someone else,” or, “He has given him authority,” but, “He has authority.” Nor does he say it out of love of honor, but, as he puts it, “to convince you that I am not blaspheming when I make myself equal with God.”

Everywhere, in this way, he wants to offer proofs that are clear and beyond dispute: as when he says, “Go, show yourself to the priest”; and when he points to Peter’s mother-in-law serving them; and when he lets the pigs throw themselves down headlong. In the same way here too. First, as a sure sign that the man’s sins are forgiven, he supplies the restoring of strength to his body; and as a sign of that again, the carrying of his bed, so that what happened could not be thought a mere illusion. And he does not do this before he has asked them a question. “For which is easier,” he says, “to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Pick up your bed and go to your house’?” What he is saying amounts to this: “Which seems easier to you: to knit together a body that has come apart, or to undo the sins of a soul? It is quite plain: to knit together a body. For as much as a soul is better than a body, so much greater a work is the doing away of sins than this. But because the one is unseen and the other is in plain sight, I add this other sign. Though it is the lesser thing, it is more open to the senses, so that the greater and unseen thing may receive its proof through it.” So by his works he was already anticipating the revelation of what John had said, that “he takes away the sins of the world.”

Well then, having raised him up, he sends him to his house. Here again he shows that he did not boast, and that the event was not an illusion; for he makes the same people witnesses both of the man’s illness and of his health. “I had wanted,” he says, “through your misfortune to heal those others too, who seem to be healthy but are sick in mind. But since they are unwilling, go home, and heal the people there.” Do you see how he shows himself to be the Creator of both souls and bodies? So he heals the paralysis in both parts of our being, and makes the invisible plain through what is seen. But for all that, they still crawl along the ground.

“For when the crowds saw it, they marveled, and glorified God, who had given such power to men” — for his flesh was a stumbling block to them. But he did not rebuke them; he goes on through his works to rouse them and lift up their thoughts. For at that time it was no small thing for him to be thought greater than all men, as one who had come from God. If they had firmly established these things in their own minds, then, going on step by step, they would have come to know that he was even the Son of God. But they did not hold on to these things clearly, and that is why they were not able to come near him either. For they said again, “This man is not from God,” and, “How is this man from God?” And they kept harping on these things, putting them forward as cloaks for their own passions.

Many people do the same thing now. Thinking they are avenging God, they gratify their own passions, when they ought to handle everything with moderation. For even the God of all, who has the power to hurl his thunderbolt at those who blaspheme him, makes the sun rise, sends the rain, and gives them everything else in abundance. We ought to imitate him, and so plead, advise, and warn with meekness — not angry, not turning ourselves into wild beasts. [l]

For their blasphemy does God no harm at all, that you should be angry. It is the one who blasphemed who has received the wound. So groan, and weep; the disaster really does deserve tears. And the wounded man, again — nothing can heal him like gentleness: gentleness, I say, which is mightier than any force. See, for example, how he himself, the one who was insulted, speaks with us in both the Old Testament and the New. In the one he says, “O my people, what have I done to you?” in the other, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And Paul too commands, “With meekness instruct those who oppose you.” And Christ again, when his disciples came to him asking for fire to come down from heaven, sternly rebuked them, saying, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of.”

And here again he did not say, “You accursed men, you sorcerers! You envious men, enemies of people’s salvation!” but, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?”

We must, you see, use gentleness to root out the disease. For the person who has become better through fear of men will quickly go back to wickedness. That is why he also commanded that the weeds be left alone, giving an appointed day for repentance. Yes, and many of them did in fact repent and become good who before were bad — for example, Paul, the tax collector, and the thief. These were truly weeds, and they turned into good wheat. In seeds this cannot happen, but in the human will it is manageable and easy; for our will is bound by no limits of nature, but has freedom of choice as its privilege.

So when you see an enemy of the truth, wait on him, take care of him, lead him back to virtue: by showing him an excellent life, by using “speech that cannot be condemned,” by giving him attention and tender care, by trying every means of setting him right, in imitation of the best physicians. They do not cure in one way only. When they see that the wound does not yield to the first remedy, they add another, and after that yet another; now they use the knife, now they bandage. And you, then, having become a physician of souls, put every kind of cure into practice according to Christ’s laws, so that you may receive the reward both of saving yourself and of benefiting others, doing everything to the glory of God and so being glorified yourself as well. “For those who glorify me,” he says, “I will glorify; and those who despise me will be held of little account.”

Let us, I say, do everything for his glory, so that we may reach that blessed lot — which may God grant that we all reach, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.