Bible Text: St Matthew 9:1–8| Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christian Preus
Jesus speaks the most precious words ever spoken, “Take heart, child, your sins are forgiven.” And the scribes grumble in their hearts and say he blasphemes. Jesus tells them He knows what they’re thinking and that what they’re thinking is evil. He doesn’t say, mistaken, or unfair, or mean. He says evil. It’s the same word he uses to refer to the devil himself, the evil one. And that’s no coincidence. The devil hates these words more than anything. Because they’re the power of God for salvation to all who believe them. They take you out of the devil’s power and they open heaven to you. They are the fulfilment, the actuality, of Jacob’s dream, where heaven is open, a ladder comes down to earth, and sinners are welcomed in where the devil has no entrance. So we’re going to spend some time on these words this morning. “Take heart, child, your sins are forgiven.”
First, you need to hear them. You’d think this paralytic needed something else. He couldn’t walk. He wanted to. And in your life, you’ll often think you need something else from God. And you’ll be frustrated that you don’t get it, or at least that God is taking his time in giving it to you. And when you’re feeling this way, you know what you need to hear? Take heart, child, your sins are forgiven. And that’s for two big reasons. One, because we can’t become entitled brats and remain Christians. If we’re expecting good things from God, it can’t be because we think we deserve them. We don’t. We’re sinners. The regular exercise of saying and meaning I’m a sinner, that I’ve offended God and man, I’ve been selfish, I deserve punishment and not reward, that’s honest and good and necessary. But two, we should expect good things from God. But the reason we should expect them is because He forgives us our sins. That paralytic was not disappointed when Jesus said, “Take heart, child, your sins are forgiven.” His friends weren’t disappointed. In fact, these are exactly the words they were hoping to hear. They were the words that confirmed everything they believed about Jesus, they established the fact that He was gracious, that He wanted to do them good. That, “Be courageous, child, your sins are forgiven” was to say also, “Wait for it, and I will heal you. It’s going to happen. If I now call you a child of God, if I now say you’re perfect and free from all sin, righteous and pure, (because that’s what forgiveness is) how could God deny you any good thing after this?” It was as much as done. And they knew it.
And this is exactly what you should think when you receive the forgiveness of sins, and especially when you take into your mouth the body and blood of your Lord. Take courage. Wait for it. There’s nothing good that God will deny you. He’s called you His child. He’s put His name on you. He’s forgiven you your sins. He’s fed you with His life. This is the guarantee of all else. And if it doesn’t come in this brief life, if there’s disappointment here, don’t think you’ve lost out. He’s given you your crosses to conform you to Himself, so that your joy can be full as His joy is full. Remember there will be no paralysis, no cancer, no disease, no loneliness, no despair, no dementia in the resurrection. The voice that says, “Take courage, child, your sins are forgiven,” will raise you incorruptible from the grave and you will enjoy for eternity what no man and nothing can take from you.
Second, Jesus earned the right to forgive sins. There is no record in the history of the world of any man claiming to have the authority to forgive sins until Jesus spoke the words of our Gospel. Only God claimed it. But Jesus claims it now. Because He earned it. The price He paid is literally unimaginable. We can’t comprehend, and I don’t think even in the resurrection we will ever be able to comprehend, what Jesus endured to earn this right. He is the Almighty God, the eternal Son of the Father, the infinite, the good, and He bore our sins, the evil that belongs to us, He suffered His own wrath against them, the God who is life and the source of all life, He died. No man had ever said, “Take courage, child, your sins are forgiven,” because no man can redeem his brother. But this Man did. He is God made flesh for us, and His words are not simply words but action, powerful. They have in them and behind them the blood of God shed for us. They are full, complete, nothing lacking in them, nothing to add to them. What could you possibly add to words bought by God’s blood? They’re sure, reliable, perfect.
Third, the devil attacks these words. We celebrate the Reformation this week. We celebrate it, among other things, to remember that the devil had almost silenced the words of forgiveness on this earth. Remember that Jesus called the thoughts of the scribes evil. Devilish. Because they wanted to silence the words, “Take courage, child, your sins are forgiven.” And the pope had done just that in Luther’s time. No one was hearing the forgiveness of their sins. They didn’t hear it from the Bible, because they couldn’t read it, they didn’t have it in their own language, it was robbed from them. But even then, even if they had it and could read it, which they couldn’t, what we sinners need is not only to hear Jesus speak the words to the paralytic, but to hear Him speak them to us. And that is what the pope silenced above all. You couldn’t go to your pastor and hear him say, “Take courage, child, your sins are forgiven.” He didn’t say it. The pope wouldn’t allow it. He said instead, do this, do that, and if you fast and pray and pay, then maybe your sins will be forgiven. The silence of these beautiful words was so overwhelming, that the poor people turned to the ridiculous and they bought slips of paper, indulgences, because the pope promised forgiveness at least of punishment, but not of guilt, if they paid for it with money.
God raised up Martin Luther to beat down the devil under His feet. Luther translated the Bible into the people’s language, and he had it printed cheaply, he reformed education, so that girls and boys would learn to read and see for themselves what Jesus is actually like, not a petty god who told you to do this or that and then maybe he’d reward you, but the God who loves you so much that He spent His own life to redeem you. But more than this, Luther made sure that people heard the words, “Take courage, child, your sins are forgiven” heard them spoken not to the paralytic but to them. Pastors preached it. People confessed their sins, and heard, without condition, the truth that God Himself loved them. God is not angry at you. All His anger was spent on the cross. He consumed it all. And He has nothing to give you but His love and forgiveness and peace and life.
Finally, God gives this right to forgive sins to men. That’s how our Gospel ends. It doesn’t say, “to a man,” it says, “to men.” Because this is what Jesus does. When He rises from the dead, He tells His apostles, the first pastors, to go into all the world and forgive sins. He gives this right to His whole Church. The pope in Luther’s time claimed that he and he alone had the right to forgive sins, the power of the keys, to open and close heaven. It was an evil claim. And even more evil is how he practiced it. He just didn’t forgive sins. That was Luther’s main argument in the 95 Theses. If the pope actually has the power to forgive everyone’s sins, then why doesn’t he do it, why does he instead have them pay for indulgences, or do all sorts of works, and then only give them a conditional forgiveness? If he has the power to forgive sins, to open heaven, then why not do it! I think that’s what got the pope especially mad. Because it hit.
And it hit, because the One who actually earned us the forgiveness of our sins, Jesus Christ, told His Church to do exactly this. Forgive sins freely. Open heaven to them. Blessed are they who mourn for they will be comforted. Comfort them. No one has to earn it. Because Jesus already did. And no one can earn it. Only Jesus could. So preach it. Speak it. To everyone. That’s Jesus’ insistence.
When you hear your pastor tell you your sins are forgiven, know that Jesus told him to do it, and they are Jesus’ words. The pastor’s an instrument, a mouthpiece. And the words don’t belong to the pastor either. They belong to Christ, and so they belong to every Christian, because we are His body. You can speak them. Please do. Not publicly obviously, not up here in the pulpit or down there at the font, but in your home and with your family and friends and anyone who needs to hear them. God gave this power to men, to us, to all of us Christians.
But our greatest treasure is not speaking them. It’s hearing them. It’s applying them to ourselves in true faith. It’s knowing like that paralytic that life is beautiful, because everything sin has done to mess it up, Jesus forgives, and no matter what else is happening in our lives, we are children of God. We are heirs of everlasting life. We are by virtue of our Baptism, by virtue of being named children of God, of being joined to Christ, fully and completely entitled to hear and trust in the forgiveness of our sins and to have the courage to live life in the sure confidence that God will work all to our good, until He brings us to see His glorious face. Glory be to the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.