Mat 9:5 For what is easier, to say, [your] sins are forgiven you; or to say, Arise, and walk?

As we have said before, "sins are forgiven" is from the phrase hamartia aphiemi, which means something closer "your mistakes have left you."

"Arise and walk" is egeiro (to rise up) kai (and) peripateo (to walk up and down), but peripateo is also a metaphor meaning "making your way," "progress," "to use your opportunities," and "to live."

So, after Christ has accused the scribes of seeing the base motives in others and carrying a burden in their hearts, he asks which of two alternatives are easier:
- Proclaiming that someone's problems are behind them, or
- Proclaiming is going to rise up and make progress.

This is answering the scribes' negativism with an even greater form of positivism. It is like a poker game. "You can to think poorly of me for saying something positive? Well, I am going to say something even more positive."