Bible Text: Matthew 9:1-8 | Preacher: Pastor Andrew Richard
Four men bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus, and they will not let anything get in their way. You can picture these four burden-bearers hurrying through the street to the house where Jesus is, others who are unencumbered passing them by and rushing ahead of them. They arrive to the house and find it full, people spilling out the door. A single person could hardly squeeze his way through, let alone five. You can imagine the conversation. “Jesus is right there in the house. I can see the top of His head. We can’t shove our way through. Do we wait? The crowd has to disburse eventually. Jesus has to come out eventually. No. The situation is desperate. Now is not the time for waiting. Indeed, Jesus is so gracious, He wouldn’t want us to wait. He won’t rebuke His lowly ones who trust in Him in time of need. To the roof! Find some ropes! We’ll remove the ceiling tiles and lower him through. We’ll drop him right into the Lord’s lap. What will He say? I don’t know. But it’ll be the right thing. Why we would expect anything other than mercy from the Lord? Come on! Let’s go! Cheer up, friend; you’ll be walking in no time!” And up they went, and down he came, and Jesus looked at him in all his paralyzed misery, and Jesus said, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”
You have to wonder what their reaction was. Or maybe you don’t have to wonder. How many times have you come into church, laden with earthly cares – cares about health, cares about money, cares about loved ones, the world, politics, daily bread, sickness; strife among family, friends, co-workers, students, parishioners; cares about what this person said, or what that person thinks of you; all the customary crosses of life that feel like they’re weighing you down into an early grave – how many times have you come into church bearing these burdens, and you hear Jesus say, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven,” and something in you can’t help but think, “You don’t understand. That’s not what I need right now.”
It’s shameful to own it. I would love to be able to say, “No, not me. I wouldn’t ever dare to think I know better than Jesus.” But it’s not true. I can’t say it, and you can’t say it either. Jesus teaches us in today’s Gospel what our greatest need is. And it isn’t the need for health or money or earthly peace or the million other things our stupid flesh feels are the most important things in life. The paralytic lands in front of Jesus, and he, and his four friends, and all those in the house know what the problem is and what Jesus should do. And with the words, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven,” Jesus sets them all straight, and He sets us straight too.
Our greatest need is for the forgiveness of sins. The fact that we feel other needs more than that one only means that our feelings are not honest and our perception is not true. The fact that we arrive to church, and receive the forgiveness of sins, and feel that somehow something is still missing only proves our depravity and our need for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus said to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” and we must confess that Jesus did not miss the point. We must confess that Jesus knows better than we do. We must confess that the preaching of the forgiveness of sins is the medicine that cures all ills, is the bedrock of our lives, is the anchor in every storm, is riches beyond all wealth, is the satisfaction of every need, and that every other good thing in life is secondary.
Recognizing this could rightly be called the highest art of the Christian life, and none of us will ever be the master of this art, but we must all lie there like the paralytic before Jesus and learn it our whole life long. Lord, grant that we be paralyzed before You as You tell us that our sins are forgiven. Grant that we stir neither arm nor leg away from this teaching. If paralysis means that we get to lie at Your feet and hear Your blessed Absolution, then grant us to be paralytics always. If our flesh would run after other things that it thinks it needs more than forgiveness, then cut off our legs. If our fallen bodies would reach for lesser things as if they were greater, then cut off our arms. Just leave us our ears, and fill them with Your Absolution, and then we will have everything we need.
Maybe this sounds extreme. It’s not. Take any care of life and place it in one side of the scales. Then place in the other side death and hell, damnation and the wrath of God, eternal punishment and unquenchable fire, and you’ll quickly see that the needs we feel most are feathers compared to bricks. But, as Jesus says, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” Take heart. Jesus has borne those heavy burdens. Your sins that have merited all those horrible things – Jesus has washed those sins away with His blood. With nails and spear and crown of thorns He has opened up springs that cleanse you from all sin. Jesus’ wounds issued forth a holy flood, so that were your sins as high as the highest mountain, the blood of Jesus would not only cover them upwards of 15 cubits as the flood did in Noah’s day, but 15,000 cubits, and, as the Lord says, “I will remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:34, Heb. 10:17). “O depth of love, to me revealing / The sea where my sins disappear! / In Christ my wounds find perfect healing, / There is no condemnation here; / For Jesus’ blood through earth and skies / Forever ‘Mercy! Mercy!’ cries” (TLH 385:4).
In the midst of all trial our greatest comfort is, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” The forgiveness of sins means that all our problems have come to an end through the blood of Jesus. The forgiveness of sins means that we have a Lord who met our greatest needs at the cost of His own life; therefore He will not despise us or forsake us in our lesser needs. The forgiveness of sins means that all tribulation comes from a loving Father in heaven who has reconciled us to Himself through His Son; thus all things the Lord sends us are for our good, for we live under His mercy.
Jesus tells the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven,” and with these words Jesus at the same time teaches us our greatest need and meets our greatest need. That’s the main point of the reading. But then the scribes had to interfere: “This man is blaspheming.” Satan knows that our greatest need is for the forgiveness of sins. Faith lays hold of the forgiveness of sins, and nothing else can grasp it. That means unbelief is the biggest threat to our salvation, and the devil will constantly seek to kill faith with doubt. He will hold your sins up before your face and lift hell’s cover and torment your conscience with fire and sulphur. He will lie and say that your sins are a much weightier matter than the mere Word of Jesus. In this the devil teaches a false and dangerous doctrine, and if he has his way with his lies, all is lost.
Now to the paralytic and his four friends and all those present it didn’t seem like anyone had interfered. The scribes merely said among themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” Besides the scribes, Jesus was the only other one there who knew there was a challenge to His Absolution. But Jesus responds to their mere thoughts, and in this He shows that He will not allow a murmuring, a whispering, even a mere inkling to stand against the forgiveness of sins and cast doubt on it. Jesus lays into the scribes, and He sharply defends His answer to our greatest need. His Absolution is our deliverance from hell and all harm. His Absolution cost Him His very life. And He is not going to let Satan’s minions take that Absolution away.
Jesus proves in the sight of everyone there that He has authority on earth to forgive sins, and this miracle serves as an everlasting testimony to the power and efficacy of the Absolution. Men can’t see the forgiveness of sins. But men can see a paralytic rise and take up his bed and walk. Jesus says “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” No mere man’s words have the power to do either of those things. My word can’t make a paralytic rise and walk. My word can’t forgive sins. But the one whose word has the power to do one of those things obviously has the power to do the other. So Jesus says, “‘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.”
The crowds marvel at this, and Matthew includes a very comforting note at the end of the reading, namely that the crowds “glorified God who had given such authority,” not “to a man,” but “to men.” “They glorified God who had given such authority to men.” Matthew here anticipates Christ’s institution of the Absolution, recorded in John 20, “The Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.’” Jesus did not limit the Absolution to His own mouth, but has put it in His Church’s mouth. What do you believe according to these words? “I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.”
So when the devil causes doubt about the forgiveness of sins, two things stand: the paralytic, and Jesus’ institution of the Absolution. First, the paralytic rose and walked. A house full of people witnessed it. Jesus’ enemies witnessed it. The man couldn’t walk, Jesus spoke, and then the man could walk. When Satan taunts you with your sins and tries to tell you that they aren’t forgiven, you say, “No. You’re wrong. Your lies are trampled under the feet of a man carrying a bedroll. The paralytic walked. Therefore the Absolution is valid.”
Second, Jesus has given His Absolution to His Church. We didn’t presume to speak it on our own authority. But what does the pastor say? “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins.” Again, when Satan tries to tell you that these are mere words of men, you say, “No. You’re wrong again. These are words of Jesus that He Himself has put into the mouths of men. When the pastor speaks the Absolution that is the same Word that the paralytic heard two thousand years ago when Jesus forgave his sins. The pastor’s Absolution is the Lord’s Absolution, and therefore the Absolution is valid.”
See with what certainty the Lord has granted you to know that your sins are forgiven! The forgiveness of sins is and always will be your greatest need in this life. And Jesus in His mercy has so arranged things that you never need wonder whether your sins are forgiven or not. But as Jesus makes you know your greatest need He also makes you know that He has met it. He made the paralytic walk to prove that He has authority to forgive sins. He shed His blood for the forgiveness of your sins. He rose from the dead and gave His Absolution to His Church so that his deathless voice would constantly bestow the forgiveness of sins. Therefore, as Jesus said to the paralytic, so He says to you today: “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” In the name of Jesus. Amen.