Mark 2:3–12

³four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. ⁴They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. ⁵Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, ⁷“What is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”

⁸Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? ⁹Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? ¹⁰So I will prove to you that the Son of Man^* has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, ¹¹“Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”

¹²And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!”