Trinity 19

Matthew 9:1-8 - Trinity XIX - October 14, 2012
God’s Authority on Earth

What’s easier?  To say to a sinner, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say to a paralytic, “Rise and walk”?  At first, I suppose we might think that it’s easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” since no one can really tell if it’s true or not.  There’s no way of determining whether or not someone’s sins are truly retained or absolved when somebody says that they are.  Such a thing is invisible.  What does it look like, after all, to have your sins forgiven? 

But to heal someone – oh, that requires a power that can be scrutinized. Or to put it quite simply, you can see it.  If someone tells a paralyzed man to get up and walk around, you’ll know immediately whether the guy has any power to heal.  And who has such power, but God?  And so I guess it seems that “rise and walk” would be the harder thing to say.  We know what it looks like, after all, not to be paralyzed.  But what does it look like to be forgiven?  You can’t see the forgiveness of sins. 

But God can. 

And this is why the scribes accused Jesus of blasphemy.   Only God can forgive sins.  He’s the one we’ve sinned against.  Consider what David confesses in Psalm 51, “Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done what is evil in Your sight.”  And he continues: “That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.” It is God who judges; it is God who speaks; because it is God who sees.  When God sees sin, He calls it sin – whether anyone else can see it or not.  When God sees righteousness, He calls it righteous – whether anyone else can see it or not. When God covers sin, He announces forgiveness – whether anyone else can see it or not.  

God calls a thing what it is.  To tell someone that his sins are forgiven, therefore, is to tell him what only God can say, because it is a judgment that God Himself must make. It is to say that although God sees your sins, He does not look upon them.  It is to say that, despite your unrighteousness, God judges and declares you to be righteous and blameless in His sight.   And what God sees makes a whole lot more of a difference than what we see!  In order to know what God sees, we need to hear His judgment. 

So what is easier to say?  “Your sins are forgiven,” to someone who has a bad conscience, or, “Rise and walk” to someone who has no strength to do so?  In other words, what’s easier to say: what you cannot say, or what you cannot say?  It’s really a non-question, isn’t it? —At least you can’t really give a good answer, can you?  But if you noticed, Jesus didn’t give much time for the scribes to answer His question.  Instead, with as much ease that He told the man to cheer up on account that his sins were forgiven, Jesus immediately turned to him again and healed him of his paralysis too.  Jesus could do both.  “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins— Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 

Just as it is in God’s power alone to kill and make a live, to strike down and to heal, so it is God’s prerogative alone to forgive sins.  To claim this authority for one’s self is, by definition, blasphemy—unless, of course, God gives this authority. 

God gives this authority to man.  The authority to forgive sins belongs to man here on earth.  God gave it to Him.  It belongs to the Son of Man.  This is the title that Jesus claims for Himself.  He is one of us.  Yes, He is the almighty God, begotten of the Father from eternity.  But He is also our Brother, born of the Virgin Mary in time.  Jesus possesses the authority to forgive sins not according to His divine nature, but according to His human nature.  Of course Jesus is true God and true Man in one Person.  But what this means is that the authority that Jesus has to forgive sinners their sins is an authority that He earned as our Brother.  Having assumed our human flesh and blood, Jesus placed Himself under the law in our place in order to redeem us whom the law condemned.  And so He took upon Himself the very sin that we needed to be forgiven of. 

Consider this.  When Jesus said that the paralytic’s sins were forgiven him, He was not saying that God changed His mind about how much He hates sin.   No, He was saying that He who was speaking to him right then and there was the very God Man who would pay the price.  God’s hatred for sin would be taken out on Him alone as He alone paid the price for the whole world on the cross.  Jesus earned the authority to forgive the sins that He Himself took away – by taking them away. 

As a Man, Jesus joined Himself so completely with our fallen human race that there is no sin that has ever been committed, no sinfulness that ever reigned in any mortal body that Jesus did not make His own.  Jesus gave His immortal body into death in order to give us life and immortality.  His sacrifice was complete.  By His innocent, bitter suffering and death in the place of all humanity, Jesus reconciled the world to Himself.  And so now as our Brother, He exercises His divine prerogative to forgive sins.  He does so as the Man who rose triumphant from the dead.  

In Matthew 28, we have recorded for us the familiar account of what is known as the Great Commission.  Jesus gathered His disciples on the mountainside.  When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.  And then right before He ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, He gave His disciples one last command.  We often hear this passage recited thus: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all these things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo I am with you always even to the end of the age.”   Here we see Jesus provide for the life of the Church until the end of time.  What a passage!  But the way this passage is usually quoted doesn’t give us the full context.  And it’s too bad, because the context here is really important.  “Therefore, go,” we say.  But what statement can we really ever begin with the word “therefore”?  “Therefore, I’m tired.”  What?  No, you’ve got to give a reason!  The word “therefore” begs for it.  Why are you tired?  “I got up early.  I got little sleep.  I’ve been working all day, and therefore I’m tired.”  That’s better.  Something must come before “therefore.” 

And so likewise Jesus gives His reason.  He says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto Me (Matthew 28:18).  Therefore go.”  “All authority is Mine” He says, “because I obeyed the Father in your place, because I did what He had required of you.  And I did it well, and I rose from the dead, because I had no sin of My own whereby death could hold Me.  All authority is Mine, because the Father, having accepted My sacrifice, has declared the whole world righteous in His sight, and so has given to Me the authority to forgive sins.  Therefore go and tell men that their sins are forgiven.  Therefore go and make friends of God by absolving them of the sins that I already bore.  Therefore go and baptize those born in sin, that they might be born again to faith as children of God through water and the word.” 

The authority that Jesus gives to man today is the authority that He as a Man earned.  It is the authority that could only be found with God in heaven, but thanks to Christ, it now exists here on earth. We find it where His name is placed on His people, and where we are taught His word.  Our Lord God in heaven reigns over us today through the preaching of the Gospel on earth. 

Your sins are forgiven, because Jesus took your sins away.  This is the same thing as to say that Jesus took your sins away; therefore your sins are forgiven.  Just as Jesus forgiving the paralytic offended the scribes, so it is our claim today to be able to forgive sins that continues to offend.  But as by healing the paralytic, Jesus proved that He had authority to forgive, so it is by His own resurrection from the dead that He proves the authority He gives His Church to forgive sins today. 

The authority for me, as a sinful man, to tell you that your sins are forgiven does not reside in my own person – although I, as your pastor, have been sent by God to forgive the sins of the penitent and to bind the sins of the impenitent.  But the authority of the absolution that I speak as a called and ordained servant of the word does not reside in my ability to see your faith or judge you.  No it resides in the truth of God’s word that creates and sustains your faith.  The absolution is nothing less than God’s judgment that He already made by raising Jesus from the dead.  The authority of the forgiveness of sins is found in the objective fact that God is reconciled to His fallen creation by the atoning death of His Son. 

And God was pleased with the offering that Christ gave.  So how can He be unpleased with you?  God, who hates sin, can find no more sin to hate than the sin that Jesus bore.  God hears our thoughts and sees our hearts.  Just think of Jesus who saw both faith and unbelief in our Gospel lesson this morning—And yet the God who sees it all and who knows it all also raised Jesus from the dead precisely because there was no sin left that Jesus failed to take away.  If you want to know the certainty of the absolution you hear, look no further than the cross of Jesus where your sins were borne. 

“Be of good cheer,” Jesus said. “Be encouraged,” He said. “Be bold in the midst of your suffering and weakness, to stand before God without fear, asking anything you desire,” Jesus told the man who could not move.  And then Jesus forgave him his sin.  We see our earthly problems too, and, not unlike the paralytic who was bed-ridden, our immediate troubles seem like the greatest – they seem like the most insurmountable.  It seems like they are what we need God to address.  And He does.  But He addresses them as the Great Physician who knows the source and the root of all our pain and misery.  By forgiving the man his sins Jesus not only diagnosed the real problem, but He also guaranteed him that He would heal him as well. 

Think of it.  If Jesus takes our sin away, how can He withhold health and life?  If Jesus gives to us His own righteousness, how can sickness and pain, old age, broken bones, strokes, paralysis, or even death separate us from God?  If God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for the sin of the world by raising Him from the dead, by giving perfect health, and glorious immortality to His body, how can God possibly leave us in our weakness and pain?  He can’t.  And He won’t. 

When Jesus healed the paralytic in our Gospel lesson, He was not simply showing mercy – although what mercy He showed to a man in his condition!  He did not simply prove He was God – although He clearly did prove it in the face of those who accused Him of blasphemy.  But more than all this, Jesus linked the forgiveness of our sins that we hear to our own resurrection from the dead.  It is the necessary result.  If the wages of sin is death, then the gift of God, which is ours through the forgiveness of sins, must amount to nothing less than life.  And it is a glorious life.  It is a life unmarred by sin and guilt and temptation, a life with no pain or fear or uncertainty, where God shall wipe away every tear from our eyes. And this life is forever.  And this life is ours – right now.  It is ours by faith when we believe that for Jesus’ sake, God truly does have favor toward us as He says. 

Jesus still forgives our sins today.  He Himself is present with us – even to the end of the age – every time we hear the Gospel proclaimed or read or feebly uttered by a friend who consoles you in your grief.  And in His forgiveness is also our health and our life.  You can’t see forgiveness.  And you can’t see your health and your eternal life either.  But what God sees is infinitely more important than what we see.  And God tells us what He sees when He gives His judgment that we are free from sin.  And so we hold onto His word in true faith, knowing that His word is truth. 

Jesus saw the faith of those who came to Him in our Gospel lesson this morning.  Their faith didn’t earn a thing.  But their faith looked to Jesus who had power to help.  Our faith doesn’t earn a thing either.  It doesn’t make the forgiveness of sins effective.  It doesn’t actuate the promises we hear.  No it simply receives.  It receives what is true.  It receives what is already real.  And so our faith looks to Jesus to help us in our every physical need.  We turn to Him when cancer strikes, when strokes debilitate, and when the body wares.  And He fulfills our request more fully than we could ask.  He forgives us our sins.  He may not heal us now.  We may have to wait until the resurrection.  But so be it.  When Jesus forgives us our sins, He gives to us what our faith needs to live; and so He gives to us eternal life in Him.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.