Sermon Response to Scripture proclaimed for Year C, Easter 2: John 20:23 At Zion Episcopal Church By The Reverend Sarah E. Saxe on April 3, 2016 Jesus breathed on them and said to them, 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. My Orthodox Study Bible says that in this passage Jesus is giving priests and bishops the authority to either forgive or retain sins. Really? Can I, as a priest in Christ s one holy catholic and apostolic church can I, by some magical power reinforced in me by the Holy Spirit at my ordination, actually forgive or retain the sins of others? That just doesn t make sense to me - that Jesus would trust us mere humans to do what only God can do. So I decided to explore the passage in Greek, and I discovered that the Perfect tense is used here. Now the Perfect tense doesn t exist in English. It s used to describe an action that was brought to completion in the past but whose effects are felt in the present. The difference between our Past tense and the Perfect tense is that even though it happened in the past, this thing that is now over, affects us now. Because there is no Perfect tense in English, such passages are difficult to translate without a paragraph of explanation at every occurrence; and they occur a lot in the Bible! My Greek textbook suggests 2 methods that we often see in the Bible.
The first method can be found in the statement, Jesus died. This sounds like his death is a thing of the past that doesn t have any effect on the present, but we know better. And sure enough it is the Perfect tense that is used in most of these places. A common translation is Jesus has died. As in Jesus has died for our sins. This past action has present significance. The other method when translating the Perfect is to use the Present tense. We often hear it is written but it is written is actually not the Present tense but rather the Perfect tense. Now we know Scripture was written in the past, but perhaps we sometimes forget that because it is in the Perfect tense these ancient words of the past are applicable today they speak to us today. What was written in the past affects us now. What Jesus did in the past affects us now. And today we are confronted by this Perfect tense. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. They are forgiven/they are retained is in the Perfect tense. So we could also say, If you forgive the sins of any, they have been forgiven them and if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained, which sounds a little bit awkward. The point is that the forgiveness of sins happened in the past and affects us now. Retaining or (a better translation) holding fast happened in the past and affects us now. So keep that concept in mind, because there are a couple of other things. First of all, it doesn t say if anywhere in the Greek passage. And those first verbs forgive and retain aren t in the Subjunctive or Conditional mood. They are just in the Present tense you forgive the sins, you retain. The word if has been inserted by the English translator. Although this also might sound awkward, the first part of the sentence should read, Ever of whom you forgive the sins, they are forgiven to them; So not if you forgive but just which people you forgive. Which ones you choose of the already-forgiven ones. But that still sounds as though the Priest as the agent
of the Church can choose whom he or she should forgive. Not whether or not, but which ones. Second we have a reverse of the usual Perfect then Present sequence. Jesus has died to forgive our sins. Perfect then Present. It is written so that we can respond to it today. Perfect then Present. Rather than moving from Perfect to Present, today Jesus moves from Present to Perfect. He moves from the Present, back to the past which affects the present. So if we put it in the typical order it would read, The sins have been forgiven them, ever of whom you forgive. The sins have been forgiven them. It happened in the past. What you do now in the present, already happened in the past. Their forgiveness has already happened! And Jesus is saying this to the first bishops of the Church so to speak his apostles. Those whose sins these first bishops or priests will forgive, well, their sins have been forgiven. And who could have done that before the Church even existed? (Wait for congregation to respond.) God. So truly, truly I tell you, it is not the priest who forgives nor is it the Church; it is God. By the death and resurrection of Jesus, our sins have been forgiven. A priest has no more authority to make forgiveness happen than any other person. What a priest does do is pronounce that forgiveness. As an agent of the Church the priest assures through the pronouncement, that the person s sins have been forgiven by God. Well what about you? What happens when you choose to forgive someone who has wronged you or when I choose to forgive someone who has wronged me? After all, the verse does say that we too are doing some forgiving and retaining.
Since Scripture itself is in the Perfect tense, Jesus words apply to us now and that may be why he reversed the order. Jesus words don t apply just to the ordained but to all of us. All of us who have received the Holy Spirit at our Baptism. To be Christian is to forgive. When we ourselves forgive, whether clergy or laity - we are actually recognizing God s forgiveness that already has happened, (whether or not we realize that we re recognizing it). God s forgiveness that still affects us now, with every baby that is conceived. When we forgive, we are making an attempt at human reconciliation and loving our neighbor that the Gospel demands of us. When we forgive, we are holding ourselves to a higher standard a standard that aspires to the ultimate standard of forgiveness and love God dead on a cross. Now keep that thought in mind, because there s one more section of this verse that must be addressed - the second half, commonly translated as if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. We ve already addressed the fact that if shouldn t be in here. We ve also addressed the Perfect tense and Jesus reversal of Present and Perfect; but there is one final item. The word sins doesn t appear here. It actually reads, ever of whom you retain they have been retained. They ve already been held fast. Now most translators argue that the word sins is implied here and so they insert it and I won t argue with that; but couldn t it be something else that is retained? Couldn t it be someone else who is being held fast? Couldn t it be the sinners themselves? The lost sheep? Hasn t God held fast to them, as Jesus teaches us throughout the Gospels? Ever of whom you retain, they have been retained. Ever of whom you hold fast, they have been held fast.
In conclusion, this verse is neither just about priests and bishops, nor just about us the Church but also about God - what God has done and is doing. It s not about anything we can do to make forgiveness happen or to retain sinners as members of the flock. It s about what God has done God has forgiven them; God has held fast to the sinners, not the sins. And what God has already done affects us now. How do we deal with that? Jesus stressed the Present tense first and then the Perfect. Even though God has forgiven them and God has held fast to them, whether or not we forgive others or retain others is part of our present our daily living. Because when we can t let go of the sins of others (sins that happened in the past), don t they affect our present state? Couldn t they affect our future? Our future relationship with this person? And I wonder, if knowing that God has forgiven them will change how we forgive them? Likewise when we don t try to retain sinners, to hold fast to them (recognizing of course that all of us are sinners) doesn t that past act of not retaining affect our present life by changing the shape of our community? And I wonder if knowing that God has held them fast will change how we hold them? At the Nuclear Security Summit press conference, President Obama said, What we do is important to the rest of the world. What we Americans do. Well, what we Christians do is important to the rest of the world because the world knows us through our actions. All those people out there who don t go to
church who stopped going to church who have never been to church what we do is important. How will we show the world what it s like to be Christian? To practice forgiveness and acceptance just as we have already been forgiven and accepted just as they have already been forgiven and accepted. To practice forgiveness and acceptance that s a good way to show the world who we are. They ll know what it s like to be Christian by how we forgive and how we hold on to all of God s children. They ll know we are Christian by this type of love.