NOTES for Mat 9:1-8
Christ can heal physical illness, and He has already healed many sick people, but this time He chooses to begin with the forgiveness of sins. This is the main thing needed not only by this particular paralytic, but by everyone who comes to Christ. To this day many who come to church for healing receive it, yet even then we are so reluctant to admit that our most serious illness remains our habitual, long-standing sin. Christ does not refuse at all to heal bodily illnesses, yet already in the healing of the paralytic He clearly showed what should follow what.
Meanwhile, by publicly declaring the forgiveness of sins, Christ truly bore witness to Himself as God. The Pharisees do not accept the works Christ performs and are ready to accuse Him of blasphemy, but they are right that no one except God can forgive sins. From this point on, the crack grows between the educated scribes, who do not want to entrust themselves to Christ, and the simple people, who understand the subtleties of the law less well and often do not understand who Jesus is, but are drawn to Him.
For the scribes, distrust will cancel out their knowledge; for simple people, trust will fill in theoretical gaps and lead to a deeper understanding of the meaning of revelation.