‘But Jesus perceiving their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why do you reason in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you', or to say, ‘Arise and walk?' ”
Jesus gathered what they were thinking and whispering among themselves (for Jesus' ability to discern thoughts compare Luke 12:15; John 2:24). What a contrast between what He knew about the paralytic and what He knew about them. He knew what the paralysed man had been thinking, about his faith, and about his uncertainty in respect of his worthiness. Now He knew what these men were thinking, about their lack of faith, and about their confidence in their own worthiness. And so He challenged them. They had been following Him around, they had seen some of His miracles. Well, let them now decide. Which was easiest, to declare a man's sins forgiven or to heal him and make him walk? Let them think about that.
If they did so in the light of their own teaching their reply would have been, ‘Neither, for the one cannot happen without the other.'
So His reply was astute. He would agree that only God could forgive sins, but who could heal people? The answer was again, only God. In that case surely the One who could heal was proving that He was of God and could therefore also declare God's forgiveness.
They were caught in the net of their own teaching. They believed that illness and disease was the consequence of sin. Thus for someone to be healed by God meant that their sin had been dealt with. The healing demonstrated forgiveness. A later Rabbi would say, ‘a sick man does not recover from his sickness until all his sins are forgiven him'. So the fact that Jesus healed men and women should have suggested to them that He had the power to determine whether God had forgiven a man.
Indeed they should have recognised that this was to be the proof positive that the Kingship of God had come. Isaiah 53:5-6 made quite clear that One was coming on Whom all their iniquities would be laid, because He bore them on their behalf. Did that not mean that He would bring forgiveness? But He would also carry their diseases. Jeremiah 31:34 made clear that when the Kingship of God came men's sins would be freely forgiven. And Micah declared that in those days God would turn and have compassion on them, pardoning sin and passing by transgression, delighting in mercy (Luke 7:18-19). For then would be opened to the house of David a fountain for sin and uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1).
So if the Kingly Rule of God was drawing near they should recognise from the Scriptures that the One Who brought it would also bring forgiveness. And as well as forgiveness He would bring healing. The eyes of the blind would be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped and the lame would leap like a hart (Isaiah 29:18; Isaiah 35:4-6; Isaiah 61:1-2). Thus forgiveness and healing would go together. They had seen the latter constantly in His ministry. Did they not see then that that meant that the Kingly Rule of God with its consequences of forgiveness had come? That the acceptable year of the Lord was now here. Yet still they would not concede the point for they were not willing to face the consequences. They did not want the hearers in the crowd to think that it meant that this man Jesus had been justified in declaring the man's sins forgiven. So they did not reply. They sat there silent, but unforgiving, and for that reason quietly ignored. They have ceased for the present to be important. (Luke only mentions what is important to his theme).