Trinity 19 Matthew 9:1-8 (2021)

Christ’s Forgiveness

Matthew 9:1-8

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

St. Matthew 9:2 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…  In today’s Gospel we have yet another example of God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, forgiving sins, and proving that He, Jesus, has the right and the authority to do it.  And when we add to the story St. Mark’s and St. Luke’s accounts, we get the whole picture of what was going on that day in Capernaum.  

Jesus was staying in a house; and when the people of the city heard that He was there, they flocked to the house, filled it, and were even crowding together around the door, so that no one else could get in.

Four men were carrying a fifth man who was paralyzed and lying on a makeshift stretcher.  They couldn’t get in; they couldn’t make their way through the door or through all the people to get to Jesus.  But, by golly, they were determined to get to Him.  So, the four men climbed up on top of the house, pulled their paralyzed friend up, made an opening in the roof over the area where Jesus was, and then lowered their friend down to get him near Jesus.  

What a scene that must have been.  It took faith on the part of those men.  You don’t go through all that trouble to get close to Jesus because you don’t know Him, or because you think He’s unmerciful, unkind, or unable to save.  In all three Gospel accounts, the writers are careful to note that “Jesus saw their faith.”  He saw it because He is the Son of God who knows what is in every man’s heart.  He also saw it because it was evident in their behavior; their faith was manifested by their works.  Jesus saw that they trusted in Him to be a merciful and kind Savior.

Where had their faith come from?  Well, as always, it came from the good report about Jesus that they had heard, for as St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom 10:17).  Their faith came from hearing the Lord’s own preaching there that day, to the extent they were able to hear from a distance.  That is all it takes to create saving, justifying faith: to hear that Jesus is the good and merciful Savior sent from God to deliver poor sinners from sin, death, and the devil, and to believe in Jesus by that same God-given gift of faith.

The Gospel writers indicate that Jesus saw their faith – not their good works or their good character, but their faith.  The paralytic is the perfect symbol of the inability of sinners to help themselves and to move even a single muscle to help themselves.  They just can’t.  They can’t do anything.  Even faith itself is a gift worked by God’s Holy Spirit, as St. Paul writes to the Ephesians (2:8-9): “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that [faith is] not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.”   Seeing the faith of all of these men, Jesus spoke to the paralytic and said, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”

Now, some try to argue that the paralytic didn’t believe in Jesus when he was first lowered down through the roof.  They try to argue that the paralytic was an unbeliever, and that he only became a believer after Jesus forgave him his sins.  They point out that when it says Jesus “saw their faith” that it was only the faith of the four other men that Jesus saw, not including the paralytic, even though that idea is nowhere to be found in the text, nowhere to be found in the actual words of Holy Scripture.

Quite to the contrary, when Matthew says that Jesus saw “their” faith, it clearly includes the paralytic; there’s no other indicator in the text itself.  Think about it: Why would the paralytic let these men drag him up on a roof and lower him down into a house full of people to be healed by a man in whom he didn’t believe?  That makes as much sense, as my father used to say, as a screen door on a submarine.   

Further, Jesus would not have called him “son” if he weren’t already a believer, because, as Jesus Himself said in John 1:12, “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”  Jesus would not have pronounced forgiveness upon this man if he were an unbeliever; it would not follow the biblical pattern of forgiveness.

This is the same Jesus who said, “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father…” (Jn 5:22-23).  And this from John 5:24: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”  That is what the forgiveness of sins is; it is the declaration by God that you shall not come into judgment, that you are not going to hell, and that you shall not be condemned for your sins.  It is God declaring, “I release you from your sins.  You are not an enemy of God, but a child of God.  I declare you to be righteous in My sight.  You are justified by faith.”

How can Jesus do that?  As the naysayers there grumbled within themselves, “How dare He forgive a man his sins! Only God can forgive sins!”

That’s true, which is why we need to understand the full import of this sentence.  Jesus is claiming to be God.  He is claiming to be the One to whom all flesh must give an answer before the judgment, the One before whom every knee must and will bow.  He is claiming to be the One who can open the doors of heaven, and also the One who can sentence sinners to hell.  He is claiming to be the One who determines the fate of every human being.  So, on the basis of those true claims, we listen to Him.

On what basis does God forgive sins?  He hasn’t kept His reasoning a secret from us; He has revealed it clearly in His Word.  God forgives sinners from this solid basis: that He has, by grace alone, transferred the due punishment for our sins onto His Son, Jesus, the divine-human Substitute of God the Father’s own choosing.  “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” wrote Isaiah (53:6).  And as John (1:29) declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

To whom does God forgive sins?  He hasn’t kept that a secret, either. He forgives sins to the one who, in repentance and by faith, seeks refuge in Christ.  He forgives sins to those who flee by faith to Him as the Throne of Grace where God has already punished sins, and where God has promised always to be merciful.  Faith alone lays hold of Christ and receives everything that belongs to Christ.  Sinners are justified and forgiven by means of faith as that which lays hold of Christ.

Well, all this was just too much for the Pharisees who were there that day and witnessed the forgiving of the paralytic.  They didn’t believe Jesus was the Christ.  They didn’t believe Jesus would be the sacrifice for sin.  They didn’t believe Jesus was authorized to speak God’s word of forgiveness.  So, He proved it.  He proved to them that He had the authority on earth to forgive sins by doing another thing that only God can do: He spoke health into the paralyzed body of the forgiven man.  He spoke, and it was done.  And everyone was amazed, not only by Jesus’ power over the man’s palsied limbs, but also by that which was proved by the outward healing of the man, namely that God had also placed the authority to forgive sins – the authority to open heaven and to shut the gates of hell – on earth, in the person of Jesus.

To review this account in another way, the paralytic had two afflictions, namely, the spiritual torment of many sins and his physical illness.  Christ began his healing with the forgiveness of sins to teach that He does not heal the sick in order to be praised as an outstanding physician but, by the outward healing, He reveals Himself as the inward Physician of the souls that He wishes to rescue from sin.  

Christ also wishes to teach us that sickness and all misfortune stem from sin, and to remind us of our transgressions.  Thus, Christ first forgave the man his sins so that his healing would be complete.  Also, this reminds us that in sickness our principal goal should not be just to minimize physical pain, but to reconcile us to God by the forgiveness of sins, so that God will withdraw His hand of punishment and we will not be afflicted.

As you know, there is nowhere on earth where you can find Jesus preaching in person anymore.  There is no housetop you can open to lower a friend down to where Jesus is.  Did the authority to forgive sins ascend to heaven with Christ after His resurrection?  No, it did not.  The risen Lord, the Judge of all, left that authority here on earth, and you know the familiar passage from John 20 (vv. 21-22), where “Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, Receive the Holy Spirit!  If you forgive the sins of any, to them they are forgiven.  If you retain the sins of any, to them they are retained.”

And in response to that verse, the question in Luther’s Small Catechism which asks, “What do you believe according to these words?”, is answered this way: “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.”

What a wonderful treasure Christ has left on earth within His Christian Church in this ministry that was established by Christ – the ministry that is Christ Himself speaking and acting through a man.  Called ministers preach the Gospel by Christ’s command, and all who believe are forgiven.  Called ministers baptize by Christ’s command; they baptize the one who comes to them or who is brought to them in faith, and they apply the waters of forgiveness and salvation to that person.

Further, called ministers hear the confessions of those baptized Christians who want to hear Jesus speak forgiveness to them, and they absolve them in the stead and by the command of Christ. And called ministers administer the Sacrament of the Altar to baptized Christians, pronouncing forgiveness upon each one who receives the body and blood of Christ.  It is all just as real as it was on the day the paralytic was lowered down through the roof.  Heaven is opened to penitent sinners, and the gates of hell are closed shut.

Simply put, Christ purchased forgiveness for all, and that forgiveness is delivered only through the means of grace, which are the preached Gospel and the right administration of God’s sacraments of Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Supper.

Has God already forgiven and justified all men?  No, He has not already forgiven and justified all men.  We need to speak of this correctly.  Christ has most certainly paid for the sins of all men in His suffering and death on the cross; that’s called the Atonement.  Further, Christ has most certainly earned forgiveness and justification for all men in His atonement, and He most certainly wants all men to be forgiven.  But forgiveness, dear friends in Christ, is received only by faith, and justification is received only by faith.  If that were not the case, there would be no need for the preached Gospel and the Sacraments.  The Scriptures and our Lutheran Confessions are perfectly clear about that.

In fact, this is what Augsburg Confession, Article IV on Justification says: “It is taught among us that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God by our own merits, works, or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith when we believe that Christ suffered for us and that for His sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us, for God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness.”

And immediately following, in Article V, “To obtain such faith God instituted the office of the holy ministry, that is, provided the Gospel and the Sacraments.  Through these, as through means, He gives the Holy Spirit who works faith when and where He pleases in those who hear the Gospel.”

The paralytic and his buddies believed in Christ, and he was forgiven and healed by Christ.  We thank and praise our good and gracious God for providing the means of grace which are the very delivery systems through which we receive Christ’s forgiveness.  And we thank God that we get to receive them each and every week here in the Divine Service where God heals and forgives all of us who are paralyzed by sin.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.