This sermon was preached at St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am
Grace, mercy and peace be to
you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.
Prayer: May the words of my
mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord,
our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Our Gospel reading today tells the history of a paralytic man who is healed by Jesus. And we read in the first verse of our reading these words: And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. The setting of our passage today is near the Sea of Galilee. In the previous chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus had been in a boat with his disciples on this big lake, and had woken up from his sleep and calmed a storm. Then they spent some time over on the other side of the lake, where there was a demon possessed man, who had many demons cast out of him into a herd of pigs that rushed down the banks of the water and were drowned.
Now, we read that Jesus crossed back over the lake and came back to what the evangelist calls his own city. In the other Gospels, this city is named: it is Capernaum. Many people would not often think of Capernaum as Jesus’ own city. Maybe you would think of Bethlehem or Nazareth as his city. After all, he was born in Bethlehem, and he grew up in Nazareth. We often call Jesus, “Jesus of Nazareth”. Even Pontius Pilate ordered that a sign be put over Jesus when he was dying on the cross, which said, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”. But when Jesus was older, and after he had been baptised and been tempted by Satan in the wilderness, we read: When [Jesus] heard that John [the Baptist] had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea. This is where Jesus was recognised as a local preacher, where he preached in the local synagogue.
So Jesus comes to Capernaum, and we read: 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.” This event is also recorded in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, and in those Gospel accounts we are actually given a lot more detail about what happened. Mark tells us: And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. Luke tells us much the same thing, saying that they had to remove the roof tiles to let him down through the roof to bring him to Jesus. What an effort these people made! To think what lengths they went to! To think of all the people that must have had all kinds of needs and things to bring to Jesus, all these people pressing around, and then all of a sudden, some people start pulling the roof apart to get to Jesus.
When we come together to church, and when we meet together like this in the Divine Service, in the liturgy, we’re not coming to meet each other. Of course, it’s always nice to see each other, but that’s not the main point. We’re not a social club. But also, we’re not coming to see a particular pastor, like me. That’s not the point either. We come together to meet Jesus. I remember when I was a boy, at my home congregation, there was a little sign on the inside of the pulpit, with a verse from John chapter 12, the words of the Greeks that came to Philip, and said: Sir, we wish to see Jesus. And so, in the same way, there was this little message in the pulpit as a reminder for the pastor: Sir, we wish to see Jesus. The pastor must decrease and Jesus must increase. That’s the reason why pastors wear vestments, for example. It’s because it is to put the personality and characteristics of the pastor down, and to hide his person, and to point to the fact that it is Jesus is working through him. For example, on this chasuble that I’m wearing, there is a giant cross on the back. And I think it serves as a wonderful reminder that when the pastor speaks or does things, or whatever, it is Jesus who is doing it. The personality of the pastor is covered up by the cross.
So, this is the point of every church service we go to. We are coming to meet Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth is passing by! He makes an appointment to meet with us, and we touch his garment as he walks by. Sometimes people say, “I don’t need to come to church. I can worship God at home.” Just imagine if the paralytic man thought like that in our reading today, and said, “It’s okay. I don’t need to come and meet Jesus. I can talk to God at home.” Of course, he can talk to God at home. But that’s not the point. This is Jesus here! Aren’t you going to come and meet him? Aren’t you going to come and put your need to him?
If only people knew this. People don’t come to meet Jesus, because they don’t know their need. This paralytic man knew he was paralysed so he got his friends to bring him to the only man he knew who could help. Many people don’t know their sin, and so they don’t have a need for Jesus. Or, even if they know they have some kind of need or problem, they don’t know or don’t believe that Jesus can help them with it. Just imagine, though, if people knew these things, and if they queued up and down the street, lining up to hear the word of God, and if they still couldn’t get in to hear, they then started to tear up the roof so they could get a glimpse of Jesus and could come to get close to him.
In those days, when Jesus was visible, and people could see him, and touch him, and hear his wonderful words, it was much easier perhaps. But today, we must realise very clearly that Jesus is still here with us invisibly. And we are so cold-hearted about the whole thing, we are so numb and bored and we just come to church like a bunch of blank cows starting at a gate, like we don’t know what’s happening. Our sinful flesh is just so incredibly dull and asleep to the realities that God puts in front of us. If only we had a tiny glimpse of an idea about what happens here when we gather as Christians! Jesus said to his apostles when he sent them out to baptise and teach: I am with you always to the end of the age. Jesus also said to his disciples: Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them. Jesus doesn’t say, “My spirit will be with you”, or “I will be with you spiritually”. No—he says: I am with you, I am there in the midst of them. So when we preach, when we baptise, and absolve, and administer the Lord’s Supper, and gather together as Christians, to pray, to praise God, to sing to him, to confess the truth about him, Jesus promises to be here. The angels know all this, and they cover their faces in awe. If we can’t get in, maybe we should start tearing apart the roof!
Now, let’s see what happens in our reading. We read: When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”
Notice here, that it says: When Jesus saw their faith. We don’t know whose idea it was to lower down the paralytic. Was it the man himself, or was it his friends, or what? What we do know is that they were all in this idea together. It was a group effort! This man wanted to see Jesus, and he had good friends who wanted to help him get to see him. And Jesus is struck and moved by their faith.
Our sinful heart always works in such a way that we want to do everything ourselves, and solve all our problems on our own. But, sometimes, we need the help of friends. Sometimes, we need to tell our problems and our struggle to a fellow Christian, or Christians (plural), so that together, as a group, you can bring the matter to Jesus. We pastors are particularly bad at this, actually. We pastors like to give the impression that we’re the spiritual experts, and that all you people down there in the pews need us to look perfect. But in actual fact, we have just as many problems and struggles and temptations as you, in fact, sometimes more. The devil wants to attack pastors in the ministry. So sometimes, when we are under attack, or struggling with our faith, or are going through a hard time, or have some particular burden that we need fixed, whether it’s me or you, it’s important to share the burden so that we can come to Jesus together. Different Christians will have different ways of thinking about things. There’s the paralytic man, who might have some ideas, but then there’s other people who have the ability to carry the man, there’s other people who have the ability to take a roof apart, there’s other people who know how to lower a bed down by ropes and pullies. We shouldn’t stay paralysed by ourselves. Some people in the church can pray, some people can sing, some people can write, some people can cook, some people can support, and then, you know, some people just need to sit around and be paralysed. This is what the church and the community of the church is here for. So, let’s keep this in mind, when we see these people bring the paralytic man to Jesus, and how Jesus sees their faith, not just the paralytic man’s faith, but the faith of all these people who were involved in his life.
Jesus says to him: Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven. This is a wonderful, and very special word of encouragement which this man receives. But it’s also a little bit strange. The man was paralysed – why did Jesus respond to this problem by declaring to him that his sins are forgiven? Jesus teaches us here something very important about all kinds of problems in the world, about paralysis, disease, heartache, troubles, and all these things of things. They actually all come from sin. Now, with this man, who was paralysed, it is not as if his particular problem was caused by a particular sin. So, for example, it was not the case that this man had robbed a bank, and as a punishment, God had struck him with lightening and made him paralysed. Not at all. But there was a time in the world, right at the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden, before the fall into sin, when there was no such thing as a paralysis, or blindness, or deafness, or pain, or any kind of suffering. When there was no sin in the world, there was no suffering. But when sin entered into the world, then death also entered the world, and everything else that we suffer is a kind of precursor to death. So in Romans, we read: Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. So because we are all descended from Adam and Eve, and are all part of this human race, from the time of the fall, we also have sin in us, and this means that we are sinners ourselves, and that we sin. It also means that we live with the consequences of sin: all kinds of sufferings and troubles. This includes the man’s paralysis.
What it also means is that when we die, not only will be free from sin, but also free from all of sins consequences too. We will be completely forgiven, and we won’t have to live with any suffering. And when we are raised from the dead, and our bodies and souls are reunited and glorified, we will also be completely free from all of our physical problems, our physical ailments, and all of our worries and sorrows. At the end of the book of Revelation we read: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Even when we receive the Lord’s Supper here in the church, we receive it as a down-payment, a guarantee, if you like, of this wonderful resurrection, but we eat and drink the resurrected and glorified body and blood of Christ. And so we receive it for our forgiveness, but also for the future glorification of our bodies. That’s why at the end of the Lord’s Supper, the pastor says: The body of our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy precious blood strengthen and preserve you in body and soul unto life eternal.
And so, when Jesus meets this paralysed man, he says: Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven. Now, what’s interesting about this is that we know that Jesus actually came to bring forgiveness to everyone, and that he died on the cross for the sin of the whole world. We say that he is Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. But also, that wonderful forgiveness, and the wonderful atonement that Jesus acquired for us, and won for us, also needs to be applied to people individually. And in our reading, Jesus declares to this man, individually, the forgiveness of his sins. And he says to him personally: Take heart, my son. He says: Be encouraged. Let me tell you some good news for you!
Now, it is this speaking of the forgiveness of sins to this man personally that makes the scribes start to grumble. We read: And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” They would have been quite happy if Jesus had said to the man generally, that God in heaven forgives sins. But what upsets them is the fact that Jesus gives the man his own personal, private absolution in the presence of everyone.
But Jesus actually uses the whole situation not only to heal the man of his paralysis, and not just to forgive his sin, but to demonstrate to them that he really does have the power to forgive sins, and that these two things really do go together. So we read: 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”—and he said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home.
You know, there are many people that don’t care much for the forgiveness of sins. When we start to feel apathetic to the forgiveness of sins, it means that we are losing sight of our need for forgiveness, and are apathetic about our own sin. But sometimes, people just want something physical, something practical and down to earth, from Jesus, but they don’t want his forgiveness. Here in this reading, the two go together. Jesus gives to the man not just healing to his paralysis, but he gives him a higher and greater gift, the forgiveness of sins. To those who don’t value forgiveness or don’t believe it, it’s easy to throw around the forgiveness of sins. It’s much harder for us to say, ‘Rise and walk’, in such a way that it cures a man who can’t walk.
Jesus says: Which is easier? The forgiveness of sins was certainly no easy task for Jesus. He walked a long road to cross, was beaten, flogged, whipped, tortured, nailed to a cross, crowned with thorns. This was what is cost Jesus to say, “Your sins are forgiven”, because he actually laid down life as a ransom for sin, and paid the price for sin, and satisfied the righteousness of God with his own sacrifice and his own blood. No—it wasn’t easy for him.
But then, Jesus also rose from the dead, and what this means is not that he was the last person to rise from the dead, but he was the first. The firstfruits, as St Paul calls it, the first of many brothers. So, when we are raised from the dead, all our paralysis and everything will also be healed. He died for our sins, and he was raised for our perfect healing.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says to his disciples: Whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. In Jesus’ earthly ministry, he healed various people of all kinds of diseases and disabilities, and all sorts. But he says that in the church, we will do greater works. When we speak the forgiveness of sins even here today, it gives the promise of the future healing of body and soul in the next life and in the resurrection. What begins here in the church, when you are baptised, when you receive the absolution, when you receive the Lord’s Supper, is finished in the next life and in the resurrection, when there will be no more suffering and pain.
We should remember, also, that the gift which Christ has given to his church on earth is not simply a general message that God forgives sin, or even that Jesus has died for the sins of the world. Jews also say that God forgives sin. Muslims also say that Allah is all-merciful. But in the church, we don’t just have a general forgiveness, but we have forgiveness of sins which is given and applied to you personally. This is why we are baptised. Jesus takes everything that he won on the cross, and he showers it all upon you in your baptism, so that you can point to your baptism and say, “That is the day when God made me his child, and washed me clean from all my sin.” But then also, the Lord’s Supper is given to us individually and personally for the forgiveness of our sin, and we are asked to receive this not like animals coming to a trough, but in faith, trusting that this is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We also have the absolution spoken in the church by the pastor. Even, we can ask the pastor to speak the absolution to us personally in a private situation. We call this “private confession and absolution”. It is a wonderful gift of the church from Christ himself, which we can talk about in more detail another day. On Easter Day, Jesus said to his disciples: If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. This is the wonderful gift that the forgiveness of sins is not just given in general, but to you personally, in many and various ways, for all kinds of different spiritual troubles and ailments that you might have.
At the end of our reading, we read: When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. They were amazed not simply that God forgave sins generally, but that this power had been given to real human beings on this earth, just as Jesus actually did in the reading. He says: Your sins are forgiven, and he says this with all of his wonderful authority.
Let’s glorify God also for
the wonderful way in which Jesus, even today, stands in our very midst, and
forgives our sins, and applies the forgiveness of sins which he won for the
whole world to us individually and personally. This forgiveness is effective
and valid and legitimate not just here on earth, but before God in heaven, and
in a such a wonderful way that in eternity and in the resurrection from the
dead, every single tear will be wiped away, and we will be completely and
totally healed in body and soul from each and every single thing that is wrong
with us. Amen.
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