We know the Pharisees and the teachers took issue with the statement that Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sins. They didn’t see Jesus as the Messiah. They definitely didn’t see Him as God’s Son. The Pharisees thought Jesus had committed blasphemy because they believed only God could forgive sins. They were correct in thinking that no mere human can forgive sins. They were incorrect because Jesus was no mere human. He was Divine. He is One with God, so He can forgive sins (How Are Faith and Forgiveness Connected?).
Jesus knows what we are thinking because He has access to our hearts. It wasn’t just intuition that Jesus could discern what the Pharisees were thinking. The whole crowd probably had a pretty good clue that they were not buying what Jesus was selling. Jesus knew what everyone in the crowd was thinking because He is God. God knows our thoughts. “You know when I sit down and when I stand up; you understand my thoughts from far away” (Ps. 139: 2 CSB). Oh, yeah. Jesus can not only see into our minds, but He also can see into our hearts. He knows the condition of our hearts. He knows if He is in them or not. The thing is, God knows us better than we know ourselves. We may not recognize something as a sin. God does. We can’t hide anything from God. God has seen us at our worst and deemed us forgivable anyway. Perfect God has looked at imperfect man and said, “I can not only forgive you, but I can make you clean again.” That is what Jesus was offering to the paralytic that day” (Spiritual Healing versus Physical Healing).
Simon started talking to himself. Maybe he knew Jesus was good at figuring out thoughts; maybe he didn’t. The Pharisee obviously didn’t get Jesus’ nature. If he did, he didn’t value it. He didn’t see Jesus as the Savior. Jesus called Simon on his attitude. In fact, He showed us a good way to correct our fellowmen (Who Does God Forgive?).
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