 healing is visible while forgiveness is invisible. So he performed a visible healing to convince his doubters that his invisible act of forgiveness was just as genuine. He did something similar when his friend Lazarus died. Before raising Lazarus from the dead, a physical miracle, Jesus told Lazarus' sister Martha a spiritual truth. Even though one dies physically, he will live forever spiritually through faith in Christ. Jesus' authority to make such a claim could have been questioned before he brought Lazarus back to life, but not after.