In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
Growing up, I remember always being struck at how it seemed odd that Jesus would deal with forgiving the paralyzed guy before He healed Him. That was the thing that struck me as strange in the text – surely the guy needs healing. Of course, behind that reaction, behind that assumption that the healing was the big thing, the miracle, was a faulty assumption on my part. See, I grew up in the Church, and so I was simply used to forgiveness being everywhere. Every service, there would be confession and absolution. Every service, calls for mercy. Every service, Christ and Him Crucified preached. Every hymn, revolving around forgiveness. Yes, forgiveness is everywhere in the Church. In fact, it is my job to make sure that forgiveness permeates this place – as a Pastor I am, if you will, a professional forgiver. But my friends, that's the reality of life in the Church. Christ's Church is a forgiveness place – as Luther says in the Catechism, “In this Christian Church [the Holy Spirit] daily and richly forgives my sins and the sins of all believers.” In the church.
But what of outside the church? What about beyond these walls? Out there forgiveness becomes, well, I wanted to say a bit less common, but frankly, it becomes down right scarce or absent. More and more so every day. I grew up in a Christian family, I went to a Lutheran school, so there was plenty of forgiveness there. Many of you who are my age or older grew up in a time when the Church was more prevalent, more impactful on society. You'd expect to find some forgiveness, some grace, some mercy out there. It's just what was typical. But those days are going and almost gone. Forgiveness is rarer and rarer to find out there, in part because the Church, because we as a group, as a body aren't as big a part of out there as we used to be. And the world becomes much more crass, and now forgiveness is viewed as not just an odd Christian thing, but an insult, a wretched thing worth of indignation.
And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven.” And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” Do you hear it? The indignation? The umbrage? How dare He? How dare Jesus just waltz on in here and forgive someone. We get distracted by the fact that the guy is paralyzed, so we don't pay attention to the scribes, to the smart people and their evil thoughts. But those evil thoughts are there, and they are brazen. Forgiveness being simply given, simply scattered out, something simply received by faith rather than being something that you work and labor and grovel and beg for – these scribes hated that idea. And frankly, my friends, we today hear more and more people speak the same way as the scribes think. Think of the rage, the indignation that permeates the world. It's always been there, really. It's just more open, and bold, and we run into it more and more as we see more and more clearly that we in the church are but strangers here.
And I suppose we could consider why this anti-forgiveness rage is so popular today. Whether it's just being judgmental, whether it's cancel culture, whether it's oppression power dynamics, they all let me feel better because of someone else' sin. They all let me do whatever I want because of another person's sin. They all “let” me not love my nieghbor because of their sin. They did that, and I am so much better than them because I never would. They need to be fired, removed, canceled – because they don't meet my standards (see how good I am). They are just a villain and an oppressor, so I don't have to love them as a neighbor – I can rebel and topple and throw them down and be a hero no matter how vile my own actions are. And all these sorts of reactions are addictive. The endorphin hit our sinful flesh gets in smugness, in playing the victim card, in spinning up tales of self-justification is a drug as bad and as deadly (spiritually deadly, especially) as anything out there. And that anti-forgiveness world view is always there, calling, calling, calling to you to ignore and forget this Church stuff and just jump on in wholeheartedly into the hatred games of the world. And if and when you do, you'll probably feel really good about it... at least until that judgment gets centered on you, until you get canceled, until someone casts you as the villain in their own petty drama.
Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven. Jesus looks around that room, and He sees the problem. There's a paralyzed guy there. Yeah, being paralyzed is a problem, but it's a secondary problem, like all the problems we see and out and about in the world. It's all a side effect of sin. Sin wrecks the world. Sometimes we see this in the consequences of our actions. We see sin destroying relationships – whether it's anger, greed, lust, disdain – sin blows relationships out of the water. We see anger, greed, lust, hatred leading to violence and war. But it's more than that. The wages of sin is death – sin means our bodies are all doomed to fall apart – that we all are going to return to the dust of the ground from whence we came. And out in the world there's no real understanding of sin and its wages. There's just heroes and villains, and of course I'm the hero you see, and you're the villain, There's excuses for why what I did wasn't really that bad, at least not as bad as what they did. But that's not understanding sin. That's side stepping it. You know what sin really is? I have sinned. I am corrupted. And this sin manifests in my thoughts, words, and deeds, all of which are infested. Even my righteous deeds are as filthy rags, as the prophet Jeremiah says. And I will be wrestling with sin, and sin will be calling out to me until sin drags me into death and the grave. Sin is always there driving you and I to death. That's what sin is.
And when He saw their faith... and when Jesus sees this paralyzed man and his friends who brought him to Jesus, Jesus realizes that they aren't just seeing things shallowly – they see sin and its impact. This paralyzed man has faith; and that means he sees his own sin. You cannot see or understand your own sin apart from faith. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals your sin to you by the Word of God – the Spirit convicts the world of sin, that's what Jesus says in John. Because apart from the Spirit making you understand sin, there's just power dynamics and blame games and you'll just have to accept me the way I am, and in fact you better praise me for whatever stupid, evil thing I do otherwise you're an oppressive jerk. By faith, this man knew sin, his own sin. And Jesus – Jesus came to take care of sin. Jesus came to take that man's sin away and to carry it to the cross. Jesus came to die, because that's what sin does – it kills. And if sin is going to kill anything in His own creation, it's going to kill Jesus because Jesus won't abandon His creation. And Jesus came to rise – to stand up again having defeated sin, and to make you all rise again even after death, freed from sin. For which is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Rise and walk?” Oh my friends, Jesus shows us that the two are utterly tied together. To be forgiven means that you will live, that you will rise from the dead, for where there is forgiveness there is also life and salvation! Forgiveness always moves, always flows into life, real life – because sin is death and forgiveness gets rid of sin and death.
But, I get ahead of myself. Jesus is just setting the stage here, setting the stage for Good Friday and Easter, setting the stage for the day of your death and last day where you will rise like Jesus because Jesus is always focused on forgiveness. “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.” Oh you blind scribes, whether you like it or not God forgives. God Almighty isn't about being your secret weapon in your sinful power games; God shows His might and strength in His forgiveness, by which He restores His creation – in part now but in full in the life of the world to come. And the Messiah will come and He will with His death and resurrection establish forgiveness for all time, and with His Word and Spirit He will have His forgiveness proclaimed in all times and in all places, even to this day and to this place, even though we are surrounded by people who hate Jesus and who hate forgiveness and are finally becoming bold enough to say so openly. Doesn't matter – Jesus forgives, because He loves you. Period
And the kicker? When the crowds saw it, they were afraid – they were afraid because they saw something powerful. Something literally earth shaking – earth shaking when Christ died, earth shaking come the last day and all the graves on earth are opened. Because the power wasn't just the guy walking, oh no. And they glorified God, Who had given such authority to men. The authority, the power at play here is simply this – I forgive you in Jesus' name. Forgiveness has been unleashed upon this sinful world. It has been unleashed upon you. Jesus has seen you drenched in forgiveness – forgiveness that drowns your sinful nature and pulls you clean to new life now and eternally. Jesus has forgiveness proclaimed to you, over and over again; over and against your own sin, over and against the calls for you to join in the frays of the world. In the stead and by the command of Christ Jesus I forgive you all your sin. And the wildest part. These friends brought the man trapped on his bed to Jesus; but you, oh child of God, you get to top that. You are an heir of eternal life, and Christ your brother has given you the authority of His forgiveness and life – you are authorized to forgive – to make wherever you go be a place of Christ's forgiveness, because this world is His, and He died for all. You get to forgive people. Forgive us our trespasses as... we forgive. Do you understand the authority God has invested you with at your baptism? The life changing power of forgiveness is yours to proclaim; the Cross of Christ Jesus doesn't just have to stay up there on that wall but it goes with you wherever you go, wherever the Holy Spirit puts you, whenever He opens your lips and the Words of Eternal life flow out. What has been given to you is yours to give to others, for you will never run out of Christ's forgiveness. That lavish washing away of sin will never run dry.
Oh my friends, you live awash in Christ's forgiveness. And sometimes, that forgiveness is easy to forget, to ignore, to simply assume that everyone knows it. Sometimes it something that Satan tries to make you forget, where you forget who you are. Remember – you are a forgiven and forgiving child of God, because Christ Jesus has died and risen for you, and the day is going to come when He will look at your corpse, and laughing at Satan's feeble attempts to wreck His creation, Jesus will say to you, “Rise and walk” - and you will. Nothing can stop that; and you get to hear that good news and proclaim that good news over and over in the meantime in the face of Sin, death, and hell. Christ Jesus has won, and you are forgiven. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
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