Jesus and Man's deepest Sadness.
I. "Jesus saw their faith." Jesus did not see their faith because there was in them no other commendable quality for Him to see; there was their common attachment to their unfortunate friend. But without their faith their affection for their friend could not have linked him in his suffering and miseries with the Christ in His healing and His peace. It was because they believed in Him that they carried the man to Him. And Jesus saw their faith in Him, and because of their faith He had the opportunity afforded Him of seeing their love of the man.
II. He saw something in the man that was a greater evil than the palsy. The friends thought that his being palsied was a sufficient reason why they should carry the man. But Christ forthwith, when He had seen their faith, thought of the man's sin. He had been called Jesus, for He was to save His people from their sins. This salvation was His ulterior aim in all He said or did. The external was touched for the purpose of awakening and quickening the internal of man. The body was healed in order that the spirit might arise and go to its Father. This man's affliction seems to have been connected with his sin. Sin and pain have been the sad associates of man's mortal life. The man was in misery because of his sin, not because of his palsy. He needed cheer of spirit; his heart was broken, and Jesus saw and dealt with that. Having the greater, he could rest without the lesser. Not health, but forgiveness, was to be the basis of his joy.
III. It was when He addressed Himself to the greater thing He saw that Jesus crossed the prejudice of certain of the scribes. Christ suffered at the hands of the scribes and Pharisees because of His morals. It was godliness, according to Christ, that constituted His great offence. It is when Christ touches the conscience, and talks of purity of heart, and says something of hypocrisy that the great quarrel begins. There is no cross for any one who can teach that the kingdom of heaven cometh with observation; and as long as he can say, "Lo, here!" and "Lo, there!" he is safe enough; but He is not who refuses to give a sign from heaven, and who says, "The kingdom of heaven is within you."
J. O. Davies, Sunrise on the Soul,p. 87.
Reference: Matthew 9:1-8. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 466.