In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. It is very true that they saw incredible things, but they missed the point. But it notice, the charge, as far as the Jews were concerned, and the Jews are the ones who brought the charge against Christ, that he made himself out to be God. He claimed to be God.
Now you know why this the church is putting this particular incident before us today, trying to bring home to us that the incarnation is God becoming man. Now did Christ claim to be God or didn't he? Well, one of the best arguments, one of the best proofs, one of the most convincing and persuasive bit of evidence that we have is this story today. Now, books are fine. I think books are just great.
They're expensive, but they're very good to have around. You can use them to hold doors open and level a table, and you can even read a book once in a while. They're very useful to have in your house. Mice like them too. But let me tell you, there's something much more important than a book to give evidence, and that's to get the evidence from what people thought at the time.
So what did the people who heard and saw Jesus, who traveled all the way from Galilee all the way down to Jerusalem, came all the way from the sea in the West, came east almost to the Jordan? What did these people think that Jesus claimed to be? Only god can forgive sins. I can forgive sins, ergo, draw your own conclusion. I'm god or I'm a liar.
Now the point of this story today isn't the cure of a paralytic. Notice, I'm not at all impressed with all these cures. I've I've said many times, what in the world what measure is there for a few people cured for all the sick, the ill, the invalid in the whole world? Christ did not remove the problem of physical illness. He only cured it.
Oh, forget it. But he and not once did he do it without a significant consequence, which sometimes was totally lost upon the people. The people were very much impressed here by the fact that a man brought in as a paralytic, and he gets up and walks. Who wouldn't be impressed? You go to Lourdes, And almost every afternoon when you have that when you have the general blessing, almost invariably somebody thinks they're cured and starts walking around.
Then they almost get killed by the crush of the people to see them. So, you see, it's it's a very happy and carnival like atmosphere in some ways. But the point here is that the people only remembered, the crowd only remembered to cure the paralytic, but that's incidental. When they lowered the paralytic down, our lord didn't say, oh, you poor man. You have suffered so much.
I will relieve you of your pain. I will lift the cross from your shoulders. I will send you out of here completely whole. You will walk out of here. He did nothing of the sort.
He said to this paralytic who was lowered down in front of him, your sins are forgiven you. That was for the benefit of the crowd. Nobody was asking forgiveness of sins. They were they were asking our lord to cure the paralytic. And he replies by saying, your sins are forgiven.
Only god can forgive sins. I forgive sins, ergo. That's what put Christ on the cross. He claimed to be god. See, that wasn't lost upon the pharisees.
That wasn't lost upon the scribes. Now I when I use the word pharisee, I use it with respect. I spent much of last week trying to run down the meaning of pharisee and sadducee. It's very illuminating, very illuminating. And believe me, you can't just be satisfied with Webster's definition of it.
But these, so that the scribes and the pharisees and the sadducees, they they would they understood this. They understood that Christ claimed to be God. Therefore, he must die. The law said that if you're guilty of blasphemy, you must die. And they accused Christ of blasphemy.
They accused Christ of claiming to be God because why? Because they dreamed it up? Because they projected that onto Christ? Because they imagined it? Not at all.
Because they had evidence. They had heard Jesus, and they had seen Jesus, and they charged him with claiming to be God for the simple reason that he did claim to be God, because he was god. In the name of the father and of the son and holy spirit. Amen.