A paralytic is brought by some men* to Jesus. Jesus first forgives the paralytic his sins on account of the men's faith. The Pharisees and teachers of the law question Jesus' authority in their minds. Only when Jesus heals the man physically do they presumably believe.
The significance for me is that this happens in front of Pharisee and teachers of the law. 1 Corinthians 1:22-24 says:
22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The forgiveness given to us by Jesus Christ is not something we can intellectually believe. But God knows that we as human beings need to see to believe; so Jesus said:
24But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...
Jesus is saying: the powerful miracle here is the forgiveness of sins! The physical healing is just to accommodate those who do not believe. Sometimes it's so hard for us to see God because we spend so much of our time on intellectualizing and church-izing Him. But it's when it comes to brokenness and fervent faith in His power to change us that God can do the most.
* Jesus said "Friend, your sins are forgiven." (Luke 5:20) But it doesn't say the paralytic was a friend of the men carrying him - a common assumption. Jesus was just calling the paralytic his friend. Imagine: we can bring complete strangers, so broken they can't even go in their own strength, to Jesus!!!
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