In the former passage, Martha hints to Jesus that He can raise her dead brother (though she falters in that belief later), then Jesus reminds her generically of resurrection, which she recognizes as the general resurrection on the last day, then Jesus explains that HE is resurrection--the most important thing, and then He proves it by doing the "simple resurrection"(*) Martha hinted at at the start.
In the latter passage Jesus approves the faith of the man's friends by forgiving his sins, then meeting the scribes' objection to this by asking which is harder, announcing forgiveness or healing (obviously the doing of forgiveness is harder though healing is easier to demonstrate), and then demonstrating his authority to do spiritual healing (or spiritual resurrection?) by doing the physical healing.
It seems like the same general arc: someone wants a physical miracle, is offered a greater spiritual one, and then is given the physical one as proof.
(*) Not that there's anything simple about it. Maybe "preliminary" is better, or "temporary."
1 comment:
I think that is it exactly. In ultimate spiritual reality, it is harder to forgive sins - only one can do it. OTOH anyone can say it, pretending in blasphemy they are capable and eligible. So in this world, the easier task looks harder to us, and is used as the proof.
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