Sermon for Trinity 19
Ephesians 4:22-28 + Matthew 9:1-8
It’s a wonderful story we have before us in today’s Gospel about the healing of the paralytic. It’s especially memorable when we pull in some details from Mark’s Gospel, who explains that the paralytic was brought to Jesus in a very special way, by being lowered down by his four friends through an opening they had made in the roof, because the house where Jesus was preaching was so crowded with people that they couldn’t make a path to carry the stretcher through on foot. The faith of the five men was clearly on display as they went to such lengths to reach Jesus, because they believed that He could and would have mercy on the man who was paralyzed. And He did! But not, at first, in the way that everyone was expecting.
This healing account teaches us the lesson that was behind all of Jesus’ healing miracles: the lesson that Jesus, the Son of Man, was speaking and acting on God’s own authority, in everything He said, in everything He did. Jesus represented God the Father, not only because He was the Son of God, but because He had come into the world as a Man to be the perfect Mediator between God and man, with all the authority to speak and to act on God’s behalf. And the specific authority He displays in today’s Gospel is the authority to forgive sins—sins that had been committed against God, sins that would otherwise keep a person out of the kingdom of heaven, sins that would otherwise condemn a person to hell. It’s that authority to forgive sins that we want to focus on this morning.
The paralytic was successfully lowered down through the roof until his bed was lying on the floor right in front of Jesus. Matthew writes, When he saw their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son! Your sins are forgiven you.” No one was expecting those to be the first words out of Jesus’ mouth. Clearly the paralytic had come to receive physical healing from Jesus. But Jesus, the great physician of the soul, had diagnosed a deeper problem, a need for the man to know if God was angry with him—a question that often troubles people who suffer from a chronic disease or illness. “Is God angry with me because of my sins? Is God punishing me with this illness or with this trouble that won’t go away?” Jesus sees the man’s questions. But He also sees the man’s faith that Jesus will help him. So God the Father speaks through His Son, “Take heart, son! Your sins are forgiven you.”
And, behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man blasphemes.” Mark and Luke add the rest of what they were thinking: “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” You see, it is blasphemy, insulting God!, to pretend to speak for God without permission, without authority from God to speak for Him or to act on God’s behalf. The sins Jesus forgave at that moment weren’t sins that the man had committed personally against Jesus, as if the man had made fun of Jesus or had slapped Jesus across the face. Anyone can forgive the sins committed against him or her, because, in that case, the one doing the forgiving is the one who was originally offended, and forgiveness means that you’re no longer holding that offense against the offender. Your relationship is healed. Forgiveness means that the one who has been offended is no longer angry over the offense, no longer angry at the offender.
But what Jesus did was something else. He didn’t forgive the man for offenses committed against Him, the Man Jesus. He forgave the man for all the offenses he had ever committed against God. And the scribes were right—only God Himself can forgive the sins committed against God. Only God can unlock the prisoner’s shackles and set him free from death and eternal condemnation—unless God has authorized someone to forgive sins on His behalf.
And that’s exactly what God has done.
God the Father sent His Son into the world with the full authority to act on His behalf, to forgive sins in some cases, where the terms of the pardon (set by God) are met, and to withhold forgiveness in other cases, where the terms of the pardon are not met.
Now, what are the terms God has set for His pardon (for His forgiveness)? Well, first, atonement needs to be made for the sins committed against God. That lesson was driven home for the people of Israel through all the sacrifices for sin that God’s Law demanded. Atonement has to be made. Forgiveness has a price. In this case, the price of forgiveness is blood, that is, death. But not just any death. It has to be the death of someone whose blood has infinite value in the sight of God, the blood of someone who is innocent, righteous, not guilty of any sin. That’s why no sinner can ever meet this term for him or herself. It requires the death of God’s only-begotten, righteous, and innocent Son. That is the price required for paying the sin-debt every sinner owes to God. And it has now been paid, once for all, by Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. And because God is eternal, not bound by the progression of time, as we are, the future sacrifice of Jesus, from the perspective of the paralytic in today’s Gospel, was just as valid for his forgiveness as the past sacrifice of Jesus, from our perspective, is for us. So that term has already been met; Jesus’ atonement is available for anyone and everyone to use in order to satisfy the terms of God’s pardon.
The other term of God’s pardon is not a matter of earning forgiveness. It’s a matter of how the already-earned forgiveness can be applied, can be pronounced. Forgiveness must be sought through Jesus and because of Jesus. Anyone seeking God’s forgiveness in some other way, in some other place, for some other reason, cannot have it, remains unforgiven, just as anyone who doesn’t seek God’s forgiveness at all, because he’s happy holding onto his sins, remains unforgiven. But to the one who seeks God’s forgiveness through Jesus and for His sake, God the Father speaks through the mouth of Jesus Christ, “Take heart, son! Your sins are forgiven you!” And it’s not blasphemy at all, because Jesus has the permission and the full authority to speak and to act on His Father’s behalf. As He said after His resurrection, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.”
He goes on to prove that authority to those who accuse Him of blasphemy in today’s Gospel: Is it easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then he said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” And the paralytic was immediately healed, with power only God can give, proving that Jesus, the Son of Man, had authority from God to forgive sins.
The text before us is actually a perfect example of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Cor. 5: God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men’s sins against them. Now, reconciling the world to Himself doesn’t mean reconciling or forgiving the sins of everyone in the world—or everyone in the room. That’s not what Jesus did in today’s Gospel. But one by one, as the word about Christ brought people to faith in Him, He reconciled them to God through faith in Him. He forgave them their sins, according to the terms of the pardon set by His Father: that atonement has to be made, and that God’s forgiveness has to be sought only through Jesus, who is the atonement or the “propitiation” for our sins.
But then St. Paul goes on in 2 Corinthians, and God has committed to us (that is, to His chosen ministers) the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Just as God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, forgiving sins to those who sought forgiveness from Him and through Him, so the Lord Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and on earth, has appointed ministers, who are His divine ambassadors to call sinners—in His name!—to repentance and faith in Christ Jesus, and to forgive the penitent and believing in His name.
So Jesus said to His apostles, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And again after His resurrection, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. And still there are many people today who call themselves Christians who hear a pastor pronouncing the absolution and cry out, “Blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins! I don’t need any man’s forgiveness!” Well, that’s true, you don’t need the minister’s personal forgiveness. But you do need to approach God for forgiveness in the way that God Himself has instituted, namely, through the ministry He has placed here among us on earth. That’s why we confess this in the Small Catechism: Confession consists of two parts. First, that a person confesses his sins. Second, that a person receives the absolution or forgiveness from the minister, as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that his sins are thereby forgiven before God in heaven.
The truth is, it is God who has given this authority to men, to deal with sinners and to forgive sinners in His name. It’s how Christ has chosen to forgive sins, to justify sinners, and to reconcile sinners to God during this New Testament era until He comes again in glory. It’s an authority that Christ has delegated to His Church, which calls men to wield the authority of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, according to God’s command and according to those same terms of forgiveness that God Himself has established. They are to forgive sinners on the basis of Christ’s atonement, when the sinner seeks forgiveness from Christ, through the ministry that Christ has established on earth, a ministry of forgiving sins: through Baptism, through Holy Communion, and through the simple spoken absolution.
Take Baptism. Peter said to the crowds on the day of Pentecost, “Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins!” Take Holy Communion. Jesus commanded His ministers to do as He did on that Maundy Thursday evening, to take and to bless bread and wine, and to distribute them to those who are gathered in Jesus’ name, assuring them that this is His body, given for you, and that this is His blood, shed for many for the forgiveness of sins. And take the simple word of absolution. You came before God today, confessed your sins, confessed your faith in the Lord Jesus, who made atonement for your sins, and then asked God to forgive you for Jesus’ sake. And then you heard from me, the minister, the same exact words that the paralytic heard from Jesus: Your sins are forgiven you.
Because God Himself has set the terms of the pardon, that makes the absolution certain. That makes it something you can rely on, something you can believe in, something that your faith can stand on. “God’s authorized minister has examined me and has found that the terms of God’s pardon have been met. Atonement has been made for my sins by Christ. And I am, right now, seeking God’s forgiveness from Jesus and for His sake alone. God’s minister has, therefore, absolved me of my sins, with the full authority of God. So I know for certain that God is no longer angry with me, but that He has welcomed me into His kingdom and will give me eternal life. The forgiveness I have received through God’s authorized minister—in Baptism, in the Lord’s Supper, and in the simple word of absolution—is God’s own forgiveness, because God has given to men the authority to forgive sins.” Rejoice in that authority, whenever it is used according to Christ’s institution! Take great comfort in it! And, having put on the New Man through faith in God’s promise of forgiveness, live as the new person—the forgiven person—God has made you to be! Amen.
