Rev. Danny Mackey Trinity 19 October 22, 2017 Matthew 9:1-8 Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Muncie, Ind. Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven. It was love, pure and simple. It was love that motivated these people to bring this paralyzed man to Jesus. These nameless people in the text and we don t even know if they were family or friends, whoever they were out of love and concern for their friend, they bring him, bring this man who can no longer walk, to Jesus. In our Gospel lesson today, we see an incredible story of love; it s love shown to a poor paralyzed man. But we also see a tale of how often God s love isn t desired by man but rather is despised and rejected. This morning, this is what we will do. We ll compare our thoughts about love and how to love with God s, and see what we learn about God s love for us. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven. A lot of times, when we hear this, we can think that there s something wrong. We can think that the solution doesn t fit the cure. Your sins are forgiven? Jesus, the guy can t walk! Who cares about his sin right now? Heal him; make him walk! We can almost be slightly annoyed with Jesus Oh, Jesus, just get to the point and heal the poor guy! You know what this means? It means that often our expectations of God s love are wrong. We can think, The chief problem here must be that the guy is disabled so fix it. But note something from the text. And when Jesus saw their faith. When Jesus sees the faith of these people, the faith of this paralyzed man, that s when Jesus tells this poor man that his sins are forgiven. Before this account, Matthew records many miracles. It seems almost routine. Jesus heals lots of folks of lots of things. Chapter 8 itself has a leper, and the Centurion s servant, and Peter s mother-in-law, and two demon-possessed men. But this is the first time in Matthew that faith is mentioned with a healing. So maybe it s not a case of Jesus missing the point, but Jesus hitting things spot on. 1
Think about, for a moment, the times when things go badly in your life when things go wrong. How often does that thought creep in Maybe I did something to anger God; maybe this is my sin coming back to bite me? How easily can we become burdened with guilt and shame? This most likely was the case with this paralyzed guy. The popular Jewish understanding was that if something bad happened to you, some tragedy, it was your fault. In John, when they see a blind man, the disciples ask, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? So there you have this paralyzed man and Christ sees his faith sees the faith of the man s friends and our Lord speaks, Take heart be enheartened, don t be down your sins are forgiven. This is the sadness of our day and age. We so often only see things in terms of this life: how much we have, how good or poor our bodies are. We think with our stomachs and plan with our pocketbooks. And we so often miss the more important reality. This paralyzed man of faith didn t have our weaknesses; he knew what was important. He was concerned that his sin condemned him, not just to a life stuck on a bed, on a mat, but to an eternity of damnation and hell. And Christ speaks a word of forgiveness to him and he is lifted up. Would that our approach be the same as this paralyzed man s! Would that our faith, our desire for forgiveness dominate our lives, whatever comes in it, be it sickness or health, wealth or poverty, fires or floods! But too often we don t think this way. We let the cares and concerns of this life push the things of faith and eternal life to the background. We let ourselves be filled with worry instead of simply trusting. Christ says to you the same thing as he says to this paralyzed man: Take heart; your sins are forgiven. Take heart. Be encouraged. Let nothing take your joy from you for your sins are forgiven. And all these trials, all these troubles they re temporary, they ll pass away, but God s love for you never passes away, the peace of forgiveness and the joys of heaven never pass away. And we should let nothing, no tragedy, no trial in our life ever overshadow this truth. Let s continue on in the text. When Jesus says these words, the scandalous thing wasn t that He didn t just out and out heal the guy, but rather that Jesus asserted that He could forgive sins. 2
And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, This man is blaspheming. One of the things we can forget about sin is that sin is always against God. If someone sins and it hurts us, it affects us, we can complain about what they have done to us. You ve sinned against me. Yes; however, that s not the main thing. The main thing is that sin, all sin, is against God. When David gets caught in his adultery and murder, he doesn t say, Boy, I sure sinned against Uriah by killing him. Boy, I sure sinned against Bathsheba by dragging her into adultery. Boy, I sure sinned against Israel by bringing the country into a scandal. Boy, I sure sinned against my son, who died as a result of my sin. He had, I suppose, but that s not the thrust David takes. Instead, he says, I have sinned against the LORD. David then writes in Psalm 51, the same Psalm from which our Offertory is drawn from Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight. Sin is always, first and foremost against God. When your neighbor sins against you, it isn t primarily a sin against you, but against God. When you sin against your neighbor, when you think poorly of them or speak ill of them or harm them in any way that isn t a sin primarily against your neighbor, but you are sinning against God, the God who told you to love that person. This is what those scribes knew: sin is always against God. And this is why they are shocked by what Jesus says. Sin is against God; therefore, only God can forgive sins. If Jesus were just a man, this would be most blasphemous! And Jesus responds to this: 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. Jesus knows what these scribes are thinking, and He knows that they re wrong because they don t recognize who He is. Yes, Jesus can forgive sins; yes, He has this authority. But how to show it? How to demonstrate it? Well, watch this! Hey guy, get up and go home. I am Christ Jesus, I have authority over the body. I have authority over the soul as well. The physical healing here the man being cured of his paralysis is only done to show that the spiritual healing that Christ proclaimed 3
was real. Christ wants to prove that when He says sins are forgiven that He has the authority to do so. Authority is a big, important word in Scripture. In the New Testament authority is always tied to being able to forgive sins. And here is the thing the idea that just confuses and shocks so many folks out there Christ Jesus gives this authority to His Church! He does so in order that even to this day people might receive forgiveness here on earth and know that it is true and valid in heaven. For example, think about what some call the Great Commission. Before Jesus sends out the disciples to do their work, what does He say? All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Do you see how it worked? Christ says, I have authority to forgive sins, and now I am sending you out to go forgive sins. You have My authority now, you can act in My name go baptize people for the forgiveness of sins in My name. Authority to forgive sins. Or, in John 20, what does Jesus say to the disciples? Jesus said to them, Peace be with you. Even as the Father has sent Me, I am sending you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven. Again Jesus sends out the disciples, His apostles with His authority and the responsibility to forgive sins. And this is what God s Church is to be about to this day. That s why in the Nicene Creed we call it the holy Christian and apostolic Church it s the Church that does the same things the apostles did: shower out forgiveness upon people. That s why God has placed men into the Office of the Ministry. When you think about your pastor, whoever he may be, you ought to think, He is God s gift to me, so that I may be forgiven my sins. And that forgiveness is available is cause to marvel. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. That s what we do even to this day! We glorify the God who gives forgiveness. You see, this is the heart of God s love for you. Not in the temporary things that fade away, but in the fact that He constantly provides you the forgiveness won for you upon the cross by Christ Jesus so that you may be cared for not for a day or two, not 4
just until the next crisis, but that you may be cared for for all eternity! God s love for you is focused upon the big picture, the long run. And He will focus your eyes upon His forgiveness and strengthen your faith so that you may stand and remain strong in the face of all trials in this life, large or small. His forgiveness is real, His love for you is real, and His cross overshadows all things in your life. You are His, and nothing shall separate you from His love in Christ Jesus, our Lord. In His name. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus + to life everlasting. 5