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The Difficulty of Forgiveness

Mark 2:9

“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’?”

The more I reflect on Jesus’ rhetorical question to this angry group of scribes, the more wondrous His words become. For a paralyzed man, Jesus will create mature tendons and muscles to replace atrophied ones. He will reconnect a fractured spine that suddenly begins to function without painful rehabilitation. Only God can do that! Yet, only God can forgive sins as well. Both are divine miracles. Jesus, then, is effectively asking, “Which of these is easier for God? To create or to forgive? To heal a paralyzed body or to incarnate into spiritually paralyzed humanity and bear our transgressions upon Himself?”

God’s forgiveness of you and me is the greatest miracle of all . . . and it did not come easy.

Further Reflection

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

1 Peter 2:24