Trinity
19
Mt
9:1-8
10/6/24
The
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota has developed a worldwide reputation for
excellence in medical care. It is known
for its work with cancer, along with cardiology and heart surgery. One billion
dollars worth of research goes on the at the hospital each year, and so its
staff includes experts who deal with rare conditions.
Because
of its reputation people from all fifty states, and one hundred and forty
countries come to the Mayo Clinic each year for treatment. They make the trip because in this world
there is nothing more significant than one’s health. It’s hard to live well and enjoy life when
you don’t feel good. What’s more the
threat of death prompts people to do anything possible in order to find help.
In
our Gospel lesson this morning, we learn about several men who are willing to
go to great lengths in order to help their friend regain his health. They bring the man to Jesus in the faith that
the can heal him. Jesus does, but in the
course of doing so Christ shows that he had come into the world to provide far
more than physical relief. He had come
to address the root cause of all that is wrong in our lives, and in our life
with God.
The
beginning of Matthew’s Gospel tells us that Jesus’ ministry included two
activities. We hear: “And he went
throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming
the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction
among the people.” First, Jesus taught
and proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom – the good news that God’s saving
reign was present in Jesus. And second,
Jesus demonstrated the presence of this reign by healing those who were sick.
It’s not surprising that this drew a great deal of attention. Matthew goes on to say, “So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.”
We
learn in our text that Jesus had just returned to Capernaum from another part
of the Sea of Galilee. When he arrived, some people brought to him a paralytic
lying on a bed. These individuals were
determined to help their friend. They physically carried him to Jesus.
Yet
we learn that they were motivated by more than care for the paralytic. Our text says that Jesus saw their faith.
They believed that Jesus could heal the man.
And when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my
son; your sins are forgiven.”
This
is probably not what the men who brought the paralytic expected to hear. They brought the man for healing, and
instead, Jesus forgave his sins. Yet in
doing so, our Lord demonstrated that he had come to address the root problem of
all that is wrong in this world.
God
created man in his own image. He created
us to live in perfect fellowship with him.
We knew God as God wants to be known, and we were able to live perfectly
according his will. God created us as
creatures who are a unity of body and soul.
He made a very good creation in which we were to live our bodily
existence.
However,
tempted by Satan, Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
They brought sin into the world.
This sin ruptured the fellowship that man had with God. Man lost the
image of God, and was no longer able to live according to God’s will. Instead, he was a sinner who faced God’s
wrath and judgment.
But
for man, the spiritual and physical cannot be separated from one another. God had told Adam that if he ate of the true
of the knowledge of good and evil he would die.
And so after Adam ate of the tree he told him, “By the sweat of your
face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were
taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Sickness
bears witness to the presence of sin in our life. From the moment that we are born, we are
always in the process of dying because we are sinners. Yet we were not meant
for death. Instead, God created us for
life. And that is why God sent his Son
into the world.
Jesus
had forgiven the paralytic’s sins. This
was a remarkable action, and it did not go unrecognized. We learn, “And behold,
some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’”
All
sin is committed against God.
When David sinned, he confessed to God, “Against you, you only, have I
sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” We sometimes lose sight of this fact. Our sin is not the breaking of some abstract
rules. Instead, sin is an affront to the
almighty God.
All
sin is committed against God. And only God can forgive sin. The scribes understood this very well. And so when Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sin
they accused him of blaspheming. They accused him of arrogating to himself an
authority and power that belonged only to God.
Jesus
knew their thoughts and 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’?” Jesus’ question moved in two different
directions. On the one hand, it is
easier to say “Your sins are forgiven” because, unlike rising and walking, no
one can verify whether the action has taken place. But on the other hand it is more difficult to
forgive sins because this is the true root cause of all that is wrong in the
world.
Yet
after asking his question, Jesus proceeded to state: “‘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.’” Then the man who had been paralyzed rose up,
and went home. We learn that when the crowds saw it they were afraid,
and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
Jesus
healed the man and in so doing demonstrated that he did have the authority to
forgive sins. He had the authority to do so because he is the Son of God who
entered into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the
virgin Mary. Jesus’ inherent authority
is something that is recognized by others. When our Lord had completed the
Sermon on the Mount, Matthew tells us, “And when Jesus finished these
sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching
them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”
As
the Son of God, Jesus had the authority to forgive sins. But in order to deal with the problem of sin
as it effects all of humanity something final and complete was needed. In Matthew’s Gospel we learn that Jesus’
healing ministry points us towards this.
In
the previous chapter, Matthew tells about Jesus’ healing ministry as he
recounts: “That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by
demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were
sick.” Then the evangelist adds: “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the
prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’”
This
quotation is from Isaiah chapter 53 which talks about the suffering Servant. At
his baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus as God the Father said, “This
is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus is identified as the Servant of the
Lord at his baptism.
At his baptism Jesus took the place
of sinners and began his way to the cross, for the Servant of the Lord in
Isaiah is the suffering servant. The Son of God had entered the world in order
to provide the ultimate and final answer to sin. Sin is sin against the holy God. It evokes
his wrath, and as the just God requires his punishment.
Jesus Christ took on the role of the
suffering Servant to receive God’s judgment against our sin. Isaiah said of the
Servant, “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our
iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with
his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the
iniquity of us all.”
Jesus Christ received God’s judgment
against our sin on Good Friday. He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?” as he drank the cup of God’s wrath. The One who worked miracles
for others, did no such thing for himself as he remained on the cross until
death, and he was then buried in a tomb.
Jesus died on the cross as the
suffering Servant who won forgiveness for us. But the complete defeat of sin
required more than forgiveness. As we have seen, sin produces death. Jesus
Christ died. But then on the third day he rose from the dead. He defeated death
as he began the resurrection of the Last Day.
In our text we see Jesus heal the
paralytic. Our Lord didn’t heal everyone who was sick in first century
Palestine. In the same way, our prayers
for healing are not always answered in the way we want today. But in his
resurrection Jesus has begun the healing that all will receive. Christ will
return in glory on the Last Day and will raise us from the dead. He will give
us resurrection bodies like his own that can never get sick or die again. Paul
told the Philippians that “we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who
will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by
the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”
Our Lord calls us to live as those
who have already now received his saving reign. We have been given the washing
of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit in Baptism. Jesus teaches us to love
God above all things, and to love our neighbor as our selves. He tells us to
live in ways that the demonstrate Christ in the world. Jesus said, “You are the
light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light
a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in
the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that
they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in
heaven.”
Where we stumble; where we fail, we have
the comfort of knowing that Jesus gives forgiveness to us. In our text Jesus
says to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.” The Lord
who died on the cross and rose from the dead to win forgiveness continues to
speak these words to us.
In Holy Absolution the crucified and
risen Lord speaks through his called servant and says, “I forgive you all your
sins.” This gift that takes place at the beginning of the Divine Service is
available for you as well in a private setting where you can confess specific
sins that bother you, and where you can hear this Gospel word spoken to you as
an individual. Jesus forgives repentant
sinners now. And at the resurrection of the Last Day he will give us the
healing so that we never again know knows of sin, sickness, and death.
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