sins are forgiven’ (Matthew 9:2). When the religious authorities heard this, they were furious. They thought that Jesus was just a human being making himself out to be God. As twentieth-century people, we are accustomed to hearing ministers and priests pronounce the promise of God’s forgiveness on people who repent of their sins. Jesus commissioned the church to make those utterances in his name. Therefore it doesn’t offend us. In the Jewish community of the first century, however, it was clearly