Trinity 19
Mt
9:1-8
10/7/18
Here in the western world at the
beginning of the twenty first century, there really isn’t any religious view
that is considered to be completely out of bounds. You can be any version of Christianity – even
if your “Christianity” means denying the text of Scripture itself. You can be any non-Christian religion, as
immigration bring in more Muslims, Hindus and others. It is very cool and
progressive to say that you are agnostic.
Being an atheist is perfectly ok.
You can claim any kind of spirituality.
Your god can be a he, a she or an it.
Your god can be creation itself.
There is, however, still one place
where you really can’t go. You can’t say
that you are god. If you claim that one, people are going to
call you on it. They will politely
tolerate almost anything else, but if you claim to be god, that’s just too much
– even for our world. If you claim to be god; if you speak in ways that clearly
claim divine prerogatives, people are going to say that you are really weird or
completely delusional.
You can’t get away with it today,
and you certainly couldn’t get away
with it in first century Judaism. This was a religion that was so committed to
avoiding offenses against the majesty of God that it even avoided saying God’s
name for fear of breaking the second commandment. The reason that you hear about the “kingdom
of heaven” in Matthew’s Gospel is because Jews used this as a circumlocution to
refer to the “kingdom of God.” The world
“Jehovah” is actually a Christian misunderstanding of the fact that Hebrew
vowel signs added later are an indication to the reader that they are to say “Adonai”
instead of the actual name of God – Yahweh.
This fact provides the background
for our Gospel lesson today. Matthew
tells us that Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee and returned to Capernaum, which
served as his base of operations during his ministry in Galilee. We learn that some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. We hear, “And when Jesus saw their faith, he
said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.’”
It’s
obvious why they brought the paralytic to Jesus. In chapter eight Jesus had been carrying out
his ministry of healing and casting out demons.
He had even restored a dead little girl to life. They wanted Jesus to
heal the man, and we learn that Jesus could see they all had faith that he
could.
What Jesus actually
did must have surprised them. He said, “Take
heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”
They came for healing. Instead, Jesus forgave the man’s sins.
If they
were surprised, the scribes who were present were appalled and
scandalized. Matthew tells us: “And
behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is
blaspheming.’” It was apparent to them
that Jesus had spoken forgiveness to the man in a way that infringed on what
only God can do. Jesus claimed to be
doing something that only God can do, and for the scribes, there was only one
to thing to call this. It was blasphemy.
In a way,
you almost have to feel sorry for Jesus’ opponents. Imagine what it was like to
oppose someone who seemed to know what you were thinking. Of course, Jesus didn’t just seem to know –
he knew exactly. Matthew reports, “But
Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? For
which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive
sins’--he then said to the paralytic—‘Rise, pick up your bed and go home.’ And
he rose and went home.”
Just as
Jesus knew about the faith of the paralytic and the men who brought him, he
also knew about the unbelief and hatred that was within the scribes. So Jesus
asked what has to be one of my favorite questions that he directs to his
opponents. On the one hand it is much easier to say “Your sins are forgiven”
than “Rise and walk” because no one can verify whether sins have actually been
forgiven before God, while it is clear
whether a paralytic can suddenly start walking.
Yet on a
deeper level, it is far more difficult to say “Your sins are forgiven,” and actually do it, than it is to say “Rise
and walk,” and bring about healing. The
reason for this is that sin is the source and cause of all illness. Certainly there are some specific sins that lead
to illness. If you break the sixth
commandment and have sex outside of marriage, you can get a sexually
transmitted disease. If you abuse
alcohol in persistent drunkenness you can damage your liver.
But that’s
not what I mean. Instead, I am talking
about death. God warned Adam that if he
disobeyed and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would
die. Sin brought death. It brought every imperfection that leads to
death. Created to be very good, people
and creation itself are no longer that. Instead because of sin they are in the process
of degradation that leads to death. Every illness – every imperfection – finds
its source in sin. Though they may not
all cause death, they all point to that final outcome of sin. They all point to
death.
Now note
that our Lord didn’t deny the basis for the scribes’ thought. He had in fact forgiven the man’s sin in a
way that only God can do. There was no objective way of confirming this had
taken place. That is why we hear in our text: “‘But that you may know that the
Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’--he then said to the
paralytic—‘Rise, pick up your bed and go home.’ And he rose and went home.”
Jesus’ entire ministry was directed
towards sin. That’s just as true for his
healing ministry as it is for his death on the cross. In the previous chapter Matthew provides a
summary statement about Jesus ministry as he says: “When evening came, many who
were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a
word and healed all the sick.” And then
he goes on to add, “This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet
Isaiah: ‘He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.’”
The Isaiah text Matthew quotes is
from chapter 53. It is one that is cited
all the time in the New Testament because it describes the saving work of the
Christ by which he has given us forgiveness.
For example we read there, “But
he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the
punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” We learn that it was through this
substitutionary work that Jesus Christ has taken away the sin that separated
you from God. This is the same thing
Jesus declared when he said, “the Son
of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many.”
However, Matthew now tells us that
Jesus’ healing ministry was also part of this work. Jesus came not only to give you forgiveness
before God. He came to free you from every way that sin impacts life –
including the physical. That is what we
see in Jesus’ healing ministry. They are
actions that show Jesus is already beginning to reverse the physical impact of
sin. And then it is in the resurrection on Easter that Jesus began the final
renewal that does away with illness and death forever. In Jesus’ resurrected body the resurrection
of the Last Day has started. Your
resurrection has already begun in Jesus.
And when he returns on the Last Day, your share in that resurrection
will mean that sin, illness and death will never trouble you again.
Matthew tells us at the end of our
text, “When the crowds
saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority
to men.” Jesus Christ, the God-man had
this authority. And now as the crucified
and risen Lord he has given this authority to his church, to speak in his place
and stead. That’s what happened at the
beginning of the service.
You heard me say, “I forgive you all
your sins.” I didn’t say this in order
to make the general point that you are forgiven because of Jesus. I didn’t say this because you did something
to me personally, and now I was forgiving you.
I said this because those words were doing
what they said. They were forgiving sins before God.
As the scribes perceived, that is
something only God can do. It is something
that only God can say. And since I am
not delusional, I would never dare to speak them by my own person or
authority. Instead the words of
absolution say, “As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by his
authority.” It is Jesus who gave Holy
Absolution to his church. It is Jesus
who instituted his Office of the Ministry.
It is the Spirit of Jesus who placed the pastor in the Office here in
this place. And it is Jesus’ authority
as the crucified and risen Lord that gives those words power. They do what they say because of Jesus, and
so you are forgiven indeed.
You are
forgiven by those words. And we are probably content to stop right there. After all, we want to receive forgiveness. But our
Lord says that if we receive forgiveness, we must also give forgiveness to others. Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer,
“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Then immediately after the Lord’s Prayer, in
the Sermon on the Mount Jesus adds, “For if you forgive other people when they
sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not
forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
The forgiveness
you receive from Christ is a great gift.
But to receive this gift is also to commit yourself to forgive
others. To receive this gift is to be
committed by God to forgive others. For Jesus says that if you won’t forgive
others, then you do not get to keep this forgiveness. The only way to have it,
is by sharing it.
This is
true in the daily course of our life.
There are a hundred little things for which we forgive one another. In this way, forgiveness is like the air we
breathe. Our life as Christians is
sustained by the forgiveness we receive from Christ through the work of the
Spirit. Our life together as Christians
is sustained by this same forgiveness as we share it with one another.
But there
are also those big things – those painful things. There are those momentous
words and actions that stand out – those words and actions against us that have
fractured relationships and created rifts that remain to this day. Are there any of those still present in your
life?
If there
are, then our text’s focus on Jesus’ word of forgiveness for you must lead you
to ponder how Jesus’ forgiveness is to be shared with that person. And then
Jesus’ word of absolution must lead you to speak the six most powerful words in
world: I forgive you for Jesus’ sake.
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