Trinity 19
Mt
9:1-8
10/10/21
Two weeks
ago we had a very unusual Sunday. In the
course of the month leading up to when I was scheduled to be out of town, three
different pastors who had committed to cover the services at Good Shepherd had
to cancel due to personal or family health issues. With no way to find a pastor
to lead the services, I am thankful that our elders stepped up.
It was a
very different Sunday because, unlike every other Sunday at Good Shepherd, we
did not have the celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar. It was a different Sunday because we had
guest “celebrity preacher” from the sixteenth century, as the elder read one of
Martin Luther’s sermons. And it was also
a different Sunday because the service did not begin with Confession and
Absolution.
Now that
fact seems very odd to us because normally, corporate Confession and Absolution
begins every service. You will probably
be surprised to learn that in most Lutheran churches during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, this was not the case. There was no Confession
and Absolution at the start of the service, because those who were going to
commune had already gone to private confession during the days leading up to
the service.
You can
understand why the elder – a layman – didn’t speak the absolution you hear each
Sunday because he is not a called and ordained servant of the Word. But you may still have been surprised that
there was no Confession and Absolution, because in addition to this form on the
left hand side of the page, there is another form, often called the
“Declaration of Grace,” on the right side of the page.
In recent history this has commonly been understood
to be a form that non-ordained individuals could use. However, the reality is
that this is a complete misunderstanding of its history and purpose. This
absolution was also something that was only spoken by ordained pastors. The manner in which the The Lutheran
Hymnal of 1941 was laid out with its “Order of Morning Service – Without
Communion” and “The Order of the Holy Communion” – or “page 5” and “page 15” as
we knew it - created the misunderstanding.
Therefore, we did not use it at the beginning of the service when there
was no ordained minister present. And what can I say? That’s happens when your
pastor learns things as he researches and writes the chapter that covers every
form of confession and absolution in the hymnal for the forthcoming Lutheran
Service Book Handbook – which should be out next year.
The Church has always recognized that it
is an awesome thing to speak forgiveness from God to others. After all, this is
not a matter of one Christian forgiving another Christian. It is instead the declaration that sins against
God are forgiven. This is something only
God can do. Understandably, we
recognize that speaking for God – speaking like God – is not something we as
individual human beings take up and do on our own.
That is the basic issue that stands out in
our text this morning. In chapters eight
and nine of his Gospel, Matthew tells us about the ministry of healing miracles
that our Lord carried out. This follows
the Sermon on the Mount in chapters five to seven, and so in these five
chapters the evangelist shows us that Jesus’ ministry was a powerful one of
word and deed.
We learn that Jesus returned to Capernaum,
the city that served as his base of operations in the region of Galilee. Again and again, when people heard that Jesus
was in the area, the sick came to him, or were brought to him by others. We
learn that some people brought a paralytic to him lying on a bed. The family or
friends of the man were willing to carry him to Jesus. Of course, this shows their love and concern
for this man.
But it also shows something else, and our
text states this explicitly with the words: “when Jesus saw their faith.” The paralytic and the men who brought him had
faith in Jesus. They believed that he could he help, and their presence showed
that were willing to put their faith into action.
What happened next seems rather
surprising. We learn that Jesus said, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” The paralytic had been brought for
healing. Instead, Jesus forgave his
sins. This may seem odd to us at first.
But it also leads us to ponder more deeply what our real problem
is.
God had told Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the
garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall
not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” After Adam and Eve sinned, God said to Adam, “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.”
St. Paul summarized this fact when he told the Romans, “The wages of sin
is death.”
Unless Jesus returns first, sin will bring death to every
one of us. But it’s not just that
eventually we will die. Instead,
everyday we are in the process of dying.
Getting older does not mean you are getting better. It may seem that way when you are a teenager,
but it doesn’t take long to realize that age steals strength, speed, and
stamina. The illnesses and serious
health concerns that arise during life simply stand out as proof that this is
indeed what is happening. It is sin that
is the root cause of all of this.
So the real issue is not health and death. You are going to die. What matters is whether that sin which is the
source of physical death is going to cause eternal death. Since every sin is a sin against the holy God
it brings his eternal judgment. What
really matters is whether God has forgiven that sin, so that it no longer cuts
us off from God and prevents eternal life with him.
Jesus said, “Take heart, my
son; your sins are forgiven.” The scribes
who were there said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” Because they did not have faith in
Jesus, it’s not hard to understand why they thought this. All sin is sin against God. Only God
can forgive this sin. Yet here was Jesus, talking like had the authority of
God.
Our Lord knew their thoughts, and he
responded with one my favorite statements because it has two different meanings
at the same time. He 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’?” On the one hand, “it is easier to say “Your
sins are forgiven,” because there is no way to verify whether it has
happened. On the other hand, it is
harder to say “Your sins are forgiven,” and actually do it, because this is the
root cause of every physical problem – it is the cause of the fact that we are
always in the process of dying.
Jesus had forgiven the paralytic’s
sins. Now he added, “But that you may
know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – and then he
said to the paralytic—"Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” The man who had been a paralytic did in fact
rise and go home. Jesus had healed him,
and in doing so demonstrated that he did have authority on earth to forgive
sins. Matthew tells us, “When the crowds saw it, they were afraid,
and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”
Our Lord forgives the paralytic and
then heals him. In Jesus’ healing
ministry we see that he had come to bring God’s kingdom – his reign that frees
us from sin and all that it causes. The
goal of this ministry was to redeem us from our every sin of thought, word, and
deed. Jesus repeatedly told his
disciples that he would die. He said, “the
Son of Man came not to be served but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus Christ died on the cross to win
forgiveness before God. He received the judgment against sin that we deserved.
Though sinless, the wages of sin for him was indeed death.
Yet Jesus’ death was about more than providing
forgiveness. Jesus died so that God
could raise him from the dead on the third day and begin a bodily life where
death is never possible again. The
message of the New Testament is that the resurrection of the Last Day began on
Easter in the person of Jesus Christ. He
is the firstfruits, and on the Last Day when he returns in glory Jesus will
raise and transform your bodies so that they can never die again.
In our text, Jesus says to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” Our Lord is saying the exact same thing to
you this morning. It happened in Holy
Absolution when Jesus spoke through is called servant and said, “I forgive you
all your sins.” It is happening now as
his called servant proclaims the Gospel to you – that Jesus died on the cross
and rose from the dead to give you forgiveness.
It will happen in a few moment as Jesus will give you his true body and
blood, given had shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. He will leave no doubt that this forgiveness
is for you, because he will place that body and blood into your mouth.
This forgiveness is received by faith
– just as faith prompted the paralytic to be brought to Jesus. Faith acts.
And as those who have received this forgiveness, it also means that
faith acts in sharing this forgiveness with others. Faith which has received forgiveness in
Christ now forgives others.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us
to pray: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against
us.” He teaches us to ask for
forgiveness, confident that as repentant sinners we will receive it on account
of Christ. But Jesus does not leave
things there. Instead he adds, “as we
forgive those who trespass against us.”
And in case we have missed his point or are tempted to ignore it, in his
very first words after the Lord’s Prayer Jesus adds, “For if you forgive
others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but
if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses.”
Forgiving others is not an “option” in
the Christian life. If you want Christ’s
forgiveness to remain with you, then it must also be passed on to others who
sin against you. Peter once tried to put
a cap on this whole forgiveness thing.
He asked Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me,
and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Seven times! Wow! Talk about
graciousness. But Jesus said to
him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” And of course Jesus was not providing the
answer of four hundred and ninety.
Instead of if seven is the number of completeness, then seven times
seventy indicates total completeness – completeness that knows no limit.
This forgiveness begins in the setting
of your family. Spouses forgive one
another, because God in Christ has forgiven them. Siblings – brother and sisters - forgive one another,
because God in Christ has forgiven them.
Parents and children forgive one another, because God in Christ has
forgiven them. This means that we can’t knowingly continue to hold something
against them. It means that what has
been forgiven is left in the past, and is never brought up again.
It means that we forgive, even when
that other person is not sorry and does not ask for forgiveness. After all, that
is what God did for us. St. Paul told the Romans, “but God shows his love for us in
that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Shortly thereafter
he adds that God did this “while we were enemies” as he reconciled us to
himself by the death of his Son.
We do not have the power and strength to do this. It is only the Spirit of Christ who makes it
possible. It is only as we continue to
confess our sins and receive forgiveness from Christ that we are enabled to
live differently. Today Jesus says to
you, “Take heart my son. Take heart my daughter. Your sins are forgiven.”
Because of our Lord’s death and resurrection you are forgiven. Because you receive the Lord’s forgiveness,
you now forgive others.
No comments:
Post a Comment