If someone told me that they were God I would honestly think they were mad.
But if that same person said to my paralysed friend (who I know has never been able to sit up, let alone run) to get up and walk – and he immediately got up from the floor and walked unaided out of the room without so much as a limp, then he’d have my attention.
Jesus healed many people of sicknesses and diseases that we still can’t fix. He made the blind see, the deaf hear. But to this one man he said first that his sins were forgiven.
The local religious leaders were outraged because they (rightly) understood that only God had the right to say that. Who on earth did Jesus think he was?
Well, Jesus proved who he was just by speaking. He said, “Rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” – and he did. He got right up and walked out of the house. No smoke, no flashing lights; not a mirror in sight. With his words he made a broken man’s body whole in a second.
That man left with his body fixed, but more importantly with his sin forgiven. Know anyone else who needs to hear about that kind of love? You, perhaps?