Matthew 9:5-8 - Take your mat and go home

9:5

“Which is easier to say?” In truth, saying your sins are forgiven is easier to say, for we cannot see any obvious evidence either way whether the person saying it had any authority to do so, or whether their words had any effect. Whereas, if you say “get up and walk” then people will immediately see if your words had any effect or power behind them. Yet to have the authority to forgive sins, to have that right, is far more difficult to do. Jesus had to go to the cross in order to be able to forgive sins with authority.

9:6-8

However, Jesus wanted to demonstrate that He did indeed have the authority to forgive sins. So He commanded the man to “Get up, take your mat and go home”. And the man did get up and walk home. Jesus demonstrated that His words had power. The people were amazed and gave praise to God “who has given such authority to men”. So in this passage we see both the divinity of Christ and His humanity. God does give power to men.