The authority to forgive sins on earth

Sermon for Trinity 19

Ephesians 4:22-28  +  Matthew 9:1-8

It’s a wonderful story we have before us in today’s Gospel about the healing of the paralytic. It’s especially memorable when we pull in some details from Mark’s Gospel, who explains that the paralytic was brought to Jesus in a very special way, by being lowered down by his four friends through an opening they had made in the roof, because the house where Jesus was preaching was so crowded with people that they couldn’t make a path to carry the stretcher through on foot. The faith of the five men was clearly on display as they went to such lengths to reach Jesus, because they believed that He could and would have mercy on the man who was paralyzed. And He did! But not, at first, in the way that everyone was expecting.

This healing account teaches us the lesson that was behind all of Jesus’ healing miracles: the lesson that Jesus, the Son of Man, was speaking and acting on God’s own authority, in everything He said, in everything He did. Jesus represented God the Father, not only because He was the Son of God, but because He had come into the world as a Man to be the perfect Mediator between God and man, with all the authority to speak and to act on God’s behalf. And the specific authority He displays in today’s Gospel is the authority to forgive sins—sins that had been committed against God, sins that would otherwise keep a person out of the kingdom of heaven, sins that would otherwise condemn a person to hell. It’s that authority to forgive sins that we want to focus on this morning.

The paralytic was successfully lowered down through the roof until his bed was lying on the floor right in front of Jesus. Matthew writes, When he saw their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son! Your sins are forgiven you.” No one was expecting those to be the first words out of Jesus’ mouth. Clearly the paralytic has come to receive physical healing from Jesus. But Jesus, the great physician of the soul, has diagnosed a deeper problem, a need to know if God was angry with him—a question that often troubles people who suffer from a chronic disease or illness. “Is God angry with me because of my sins? Is God punishing me with this illness or with this trouble that won’t go away?” Jesus sees the man’s doubts, as well as his faith that Jesus will help him. So God the Father speaks through His Son, “Take heart, son! Your sins are forgiven you.”

And, behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man blasphemes.” Mark and Luke add the rest of what they were thinking: “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” You see, it is blasphemy, insulting God!, to pretend to speak for God without permission, without authority from God to speak for Him or to act on God’s behalf. The sins Jesus forgave at that moment weren’t sins that the man had committed against Jesus Himself, as if the man had made fun of Jesus or had slapped Jesus across the face. Anyone can forgive the sins committed against him or her, because, in that case, the one doing the forgiving is the one who was originally offended, and forgiveness means that you’re no longer holding that offense against the offender. Your relationship is healed. Forgiveness means that the one who has been offended is no longer angry over the offense, no longer angry at the offender.

But what Jesus did was something else. He didn’t forgive the man for offenses committed against Him, the Man Jesus. He forgave the man for all the offenses he had ever committed against God. And the scribes were right—only God Himself can forgive the sins committed against God. Only God can unlock the prisoner’s shackles and set him free death and eternal condemnation—unless God has authorized someone to forgive sins on His behalf.

And that’s exactly what God has done.

God the Father sent His Son into the world with the full authority to act on His behalf, to forgive sins in some cases, where the terms of the pardon (set by God) are met, and to withhold forgiveness in other cases, where the terms of the pardon are not met.

Now, what are the terms God has set for His pardon (for His forgiveness)? Well, first, atonement needs to be made for the sins committed against God. That lesson was driven home for the people of Israel through all the sacrifices for sin that God’s Law demanded. Atonement has to be made. Forgiveness has a price. In this case, the price of forgiveness is blood, that is, death—the death of God’s only-begotten, beloved Son. That is the price required for paying the sin-debt every sinner owes to God. And it has been paid, once for all, by Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. And because God is eternal, not bound to the progression of time, as we are, the future sacrifice of Jesus, from the perspective of the paralytic in today’s Gospel, was just as valid for his forgiveness as the past sacrifice of Jesus, from our perspective, is for us. So that term has already been met; Jesus’ atonement is available for anyone and everyone to use in order to satisfy the terms of God’s pardon.

The other term of God’s pardon is that it can only be given out to the one who seeks it from Jesus Himself. Anyone seeking God’s forgiveness in some other way, in some other place, for some other reason, cannot have it, just as anyone who doesn’t seek God’s forgiveness at all, because he’s happy holding onto his sins, cannot have God’s forgiveness. But to the one who seeks His forgiveness through Jesus, God the Father speaks through the mouth of Jesus Christ, “Take heart, son! Your sins are forgiven you!” And it’s not blasphemy at all, because Jesus has the permission and the authority to speak and to act on His Father’s behalf. As He said after His resurrection, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.”

He goes on to prove that authority to those who accuse Him of blasphemy in today’s Gospel: Is it easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then he said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” And the paralytic was immediately healed, with power only God can give, proving that Jesus, the Son of Man had authority from God to forgive sins.

The text before us is actually a perfect example of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Cor. 5: God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men’s sins against them. Now, reconciling the world to Himself doesn’t mean reconciling or forgiving the sins of everyone in the world—or everyone in the room. That’s not what Jesus did in today’s Gospel. But one by one, as the word about Christ brought people to faith, He reconciled them to God through faith. He forgave them their sins, according to the terms of the pardon set by His Father: that atonement had to be made, and that God’s forgiveness has to be sought from Jesus and from nowhere else.

But then St. Paul goes on in 2 Corinthians, and God has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Just as God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, forgiving sins to those who sought forgiveness from Him and through Him, so the Lord Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and on earth, has appointed ministers, who are His divine ambassadors to call sinners—in His name!—to repentance and faith in Christ Jesus, and to forgive the penitent and believing in His name.

So Jesus said to His apostles, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And again after His resurrection, 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. And still there are many people today who call themselves Christians who hear a pastor pronouncing the absolution and cry out, “Blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins! I don’t need any man’s forgiveness! I’ll just go directly to God!” Well, good luck with that! I wonder how they hope to approach God, or where they hope to find Him! The truth is, it is God who has given this authority to men, to deal with sinners and to forgive sinners in His name. It’s an authority that Christ has delegated to His Church, which calls men to wield the authority of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, according to God’s command and according to those same terms of forgiveness that God Himself has established. They are to forgive sinners on the basis of Christ’s atonement, when the sinner seeks forgiveness from Christ, through the ministry that Christ has established on earth.

Now, that forgiveness may be given through the spoken absolution alone, as we do at the beginning of our services. There you hear, both in the confession of sins, and in the words I speak after the confession of sins, those same “terms of pardon” referenced, the atonement of Jesus as the basis for forgiveness, and the seeking of forgiveness from and for the sake of Jesus, which is what “believing in Jesus” means. You also hear in that absolution the very same words that Jesus spoke to the paralytic: “Your sins are forgiven you.” And you even hear the reference to the fact that Jesus has given me, “as a called and ordained minister of the Christian Church,” the authority to pronounce forgiveness in His name. That same forgiveness is also given in Holy Baptism, as Peter urged the crowds in Jerusalem to be baptized in the name of Jesus “for the forgiveness of” their sins. And it’s also given in Holy Communion, where Jesus has given this sacramental meal to us Christians to eat and to drink His body and His blood, which were given and shed for us “for the forgiveness of sins.” All done by the authority of Him to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given, who has authorized ministers to forgive sins in His name.

And that makes the absolution certain. That makes it something you can rely on, something you can believe in, something that your faith can stand on. “God’s authorized minister has examined me and has found that the terms of God’s pardon have been met. Atonement has been made for my sins. And I am, right now, seeking God’s forgiveness from Jesus and for His sake alone. God’s minister has, therefore, absolved me of my sins, with the full authority of God. So I know for certain that God is no longer angry with me, but that He has welcomed me into His kingdom and will give me eternal life. The forgiveness I have received through God’s authorized minister—in Baptism, in the absolution, and in the Lord’s Supper—is God’s own forgiveness, because God has given to men the authority to forgive sins.” Rejoice in that authority! Take great comfort in it! And, having put on the New Man through faith in God’s promise of forgiveness, live as the new person—the forgiven person!—God has created you to be! Amen.