Hi everyone. Welcome back once again to daily gospel exegesis, where we try to do a really solid

exegesis of the gospel text to help you understand maybe some things that you might

have missed if you just skim read the text. We want to really dive into the very text of the

gospels. And today if you go to Mass, you would hear from Matthew chapter 9 verses 1 to 8.

Jesus got into the boat, crossed the water and came to his own town.

Then some people appeared bringing him a paralytic stretched out on a bed.

Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic,

Courage my child, your sins are forgiven.

And at this, some scribes said to themselves, this man is blaspheming.

Knowing what was in their minds, Jesus said, why do you have such wicked thoughts in your

hearts? Now, which of these is easier to say, your sins are forgiven? or to say, get up and walk.

But to prove to you that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said

to the paralytic, get up and pick up your bed and go off home.

And the man got up and went home. A feeling of awe came over the crowd when they saw this

and they praised God for giving such power to men. So what's the context here? Jesus has been doing

various healings in the Galilee region and on the previous day he had crossed to the eastern side

of the Sea of Galilee to heal the demoniac. That's at the end of Matthew chapter 8. And now Jesus

gets back into the boat in verse 1, crosses the water and came to his own town. So he gets back in the boat on the western shore,

sorry, on the eastern shore and goes back across to the western shore where his hometown of

Copernum is. That's basically where he lives for the first few years of his ministry. So he's going

home, back to Copernum. He probably went into his own house, or certainly he went to Peter's house,

according to Mark's version. And there's a question about whether Jesus may have actually lived

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