Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (2024)
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Matthew 9:1-8
Matthew 9:1-8
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ we have in our Gospel lesson this morning Christ’s healing of a paralytic, and he spoke to the man first words of great blessing and comfort as He forgave the mans’s sin. It was only after He forgave his sins and rebuked those whose hearts were wicked on the inside that He then healed the man to show that He does have the power and authority to forgive sins. But why is that forgiveness so important?
The Affliction of Sin
We confess that we deserve all punishment.
In our confession of sin for the everything we have done and left undone, but we also say, that we deserve all temporal and eternal punishment. The eternal punishment speaks of hell, but temporal is here on earth. Which is to say any affliction that God wishes to lay upon us, He is justified to send. Be it a loss of goods, friends, family, and even our life, we have earned it by our sins according to God’s Law.
When our flesh is afflicted, we feel abandoned.
When the body no longer functions as it ought, when it fails us and doesn’t do as we want. This is especially true the more that we relied upon it or took care of it. How can it suddenly betray us if we had been taking care of it? We can weather a particular bad flu or cold for a few days and even a few weeks, but that is different from a chronic condition.
Persistent afflictions oppress and steal hope and joy.
For while short term illnesses lift, there are others whose strength doesn’t return, or limbs don’t heal, or are lost permanently. There are those who lives are irreversible changed and seek to find a new way to live in this world. At those points, one can slip and feel abandoned by God and forsaken, and all the platitudes that we commonly use fall short.
Bearing Crosses
What had this man lost?
He was a paralytic he had lost both of his legs and had no means of getting to the one who could heal him. Now in that day, that meant you were dependent entirely on your family, and community. They didn’t have all the programs that we had today, and it wasn’t easy. There he was everyday relying on the grace and mercy of those who were providing for him.
It’s easy to slip into despair.
When people take time to help you, they are taking time out of their day, they’re taking out time they could be tending to the fields, to the cooking, to the working some type of job, what hope did one have of marriage, for even if you had a family how would you provide for them? Initially there would be anger, for even though we can confess with our lips and know that God is in charge even a godly man like Job fell victim to this despair. But what type of person are you then? That God deals with you justly according to your sins and you refuse to accept it? Then the Law thunders forth from the heavens Who are you O man, to doubt or question your creator, and the lot that He has chosen you! Why should a sinner be dissatisfied with what God gives to him? Which left the man not only with broken legs, but also a broken spirit. What was he to do? How was a lame man to get to Jerusalem to offer up a sacrifice before the temple of the Lord?
This man didn’t need more Law.
The Law had done its work, and when the Law has laid us low, and has stripped away everything we had, there is no more need for Law, rather this man is in need of the Gospel. For the Law had finished its work and that is evidenced by Christ’s words to him.
Take Heart, My Son
Jesus first addresses the man’s despair.
Now you and I might have other words, when his friends just tore open the roof of your house and lowered him through. We would have found other ways to deal with him. The words there take heart, also mean to be of good cheer and courage. Christ speaks to console and still the torment inside his heart.
Jesus encourages him, he has not been forsaken.
Rather Jesus forgives this man. Forgiveness for all his sins, to comfort and seal his heart with the promise of peace with God. God has not abandoned him. His sins shall not be counted against him, but have been removed as far as the east is from the west.
To have peace with God is more important than health.
Why? Well if we see how awful temporal affliction is and realize the great discomfort, suffering, and anguish that come sin this life, what do you think eternal punishment looks like? If that which comes to an end brings about despair and hopelessness, what about that which has no end? Peace with God is more important than earthly health and ought to be treasured. THis is why we value greatly
The Forgiveness of Sins
There’s no more precious gift than this.
It is far more valuable than anything else on earth, for the earth itself is passing away, but the forgiveness that Christ won for us carries us through the end of all things and looks to the kingdom that will not end. That is why
Jesus entrusted this to the church.
He told the disciples that the forgiveness of sins was to not only be preached in his name, but he also gave them the promise that whatever sins they forgive on earth will be forgiven in heaven. That the same message this man received might be passed on throughout the ages and to all peoples.
It was so that you might take heart.
Just like this man, no matter how horrible or anxious your heart may be about your sins, no matter how far you had fallen into despair and hopelessness. Jesus says be of good cheer your sins are forgiven, you are not forsaken by God, but have been saved, rather look and
See that Jesus was forsaken for you.
Jesus took your place and suffered for you, and it was Jesus that suffered and died and descended into hell bearing your sins, so that you might have the forgiveness of sins. Now the forgiveness that Jesus spoke to this man was
Focused Forgiveness
Jesus didn’t speak to everyone in the room.
The greek makes it clear that he is referring and speaking to that man. He doesn’t speak a general forgiveness to the entire crowd that was before him and had prevented his friends from using the door, so they came through the roof. The word “your” is referring to that one man.
Private absolution is meant as comfort.
Some churches turned it into a form of torture requiring the person to name all their sins before hearing the words of forgiveness. But that is not what we have here in the Scriptures is it? Christ forgave the man, and so if you come to your pastor seeking forgiveness for your sins, you do not have to name them all, but confess that you are a sinner and you will hear these words of comfort.
Many people think like the scribes.
There was a movement that said, that all that was needed was the general absolution at the start of the Church service. There were even those who boasted of being such strong Christians that they didn’t need to hear that forgiveness spoken to them individually, and they cast aside the private absolution as being too catholic. Never-mind that our Small Catechism speaks of it, that Christ spoke these words of comfort to individual sinners like this man, or like Peter, and knowing the need gave to the Church the office of the keys, so that when you hear your pastor forgive your sins, you can rest assured that they are forgiven because of Christ’s promise.
There is so much in this passage my brothers and sisters in Christ, that brings many rich blessings to us, and much more that could be said on the forgiveness of sins. What is important is to know where you might find help, and that when the Law has done its work, and laid you low. You know where to find hope. So take heart, your sins are forgiven. In Jesus name. Amen.
