‘Who is this that forgiveth sins also?’, or as they said before in Luke, ‘Who can forgive sins, but God alone?’ (Luke 5:21). They were of course right.
We want to hear these words; we need to hear these words. But we cannot go to any mere man, any earthly priest to hear them. We can only go to Christ himself, and when we hear them from him, we know they are true. We can rejoice over them as words that we can hold onto forever, and words that will never be retracted or changed. The words of Christ are different to the words spoken by every other person. He knows that what he says is true, and he wants us to know it is true, for he knows that this is our greatest need, and we can have assurance that we are forgiven in no other way, than to hear it from his mouth.