Forgiveness links the call of the tax collector to the healing of the paralytic – Christ’s authority to discharge sins and restore men – Mark 2:13-17.
When Jesus pronounced the paralytic’s sins “forgiven,” he offended the Scribes and Pharisees. He alienated them further by showing mercy to “sinners” considered especially unacceptable by more scrupulously religious Jews. Seeing Jesus eating with “tax collectors” and “sinners,” the Scribes and Pharisees insinuated that the Nazarene also was a notorious sinner – (Mark 2:1-17).