When Jesus saw their faith, he said,
"As for you, your sins are forgiven."
Jesus saw their faith demonstrated in their willingness to go to great lengths to bring their friend to Jesus. Clearly they believed that to be in his presence was worth any effort that might undertake. Although they were exercising their faith for the sake of their friend's paralysis Jesus used that faith as a doorway to intervene first at a deeper level. Forgiveness produced an interior freedom that was vastly greater and more significant than that made possible by physical healing. Slavery to sin was a much greater weight of oppression than the inability to freely move one's physical body.
The friends of the paralyzed man were able to strongly express their faith in Jesus as one who had authority over the physical world. They expected something to happen that was real, and of genuine obvious physical consequence. But in order to do what would most benefit a situation Jesus did not need their ideas and plans as much as he needed that strong faith. What he did in forgiving the sins of the man did have real consequences as that man would have been the first to attest by the complete change within him. But in order to provide an external confirmation for those who lacked the privileged view into that inner world Jesus performed the external physical healing as well.
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"–
he said to the one who was paralyzed,
"I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."
Because the claim to be able to forgive sins was a breathtaking claim Jesus did decided to back it up with a claim that would be more difficult to falsify, even if it was ultimately a lesser act. It was true that God alone could forgive sins. As to the power of might of healing he might well give it to others, as he certainly had to prophets in past ages. But here the power of healing was to signify the truth of what Jesus said about forgiveness. He did not address men as purely spiritual creatures and insist we forget about the physical. He used the physical as a visible sacramental sign of what was happening in the heart. He thus encouraged the faith of those who had faith and invited those who did not to come to believe in him.
Isaiah encouraged his people to strengthen hands that were feeble, make firm knees that were weak, and encourage fearful hearts. But this was precisely what Jesus himself did for the sake of the paralyzed man. He gave this visible manifestation of his glory so that people could realize that the time had come for what Isaiah went on to prophesy:
Here is your God,
he comes with vindication;
With divine recompense
he comes to save you.
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf be cleared;
Then will the lame leap like a stag,
then the tongue of the mute will sing.
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