Sometimes children can be fun to watch. There were once two children who really wanted cookies. One child asked his mother and she gave him cookies, and then they were gone. The second child asked his mother for cookies too. The mother took the child into the house and showed the child how to make cookies using a cookbook, how to measure the ingredients, set the oven, and make the first batch with the child. When they were done the child ate some cookies. Both children had cookies. However, one was transformed from within through the teaching that the mother gave.
Something similar is proposed in today's reading of the paralytic. Jesus could have simply said, "take your mat and walk." Think of the mother handing the cookies to the child. The child has not learned, only received a gift, possibly only superficial, that he doesn't fully appreciate or understand its worth. Had Jesus had the paralytic to take his mat and walk, the gift of healing would have been fought against and not appreciated or understood to its fullness. When Jesus says that the paralytics sins have been forgiven, that allows for that inner transformation and healing. It is profound and like learning, does not necessarily show physically on the outside. Once that interior change has taken place then it radiates outward and Jesus is then able to tell him to take his mat and go. Who but God alone can touch out innermost self to transform it? Not even a mother teaching a young one can do that, it has to come from God for we are each a temple of the Lord, and he makes us holy.
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