Take Heart! Your Sins are Forgiven
Matthew 9:1-8
October 6, 2024 anno Domini
Today is LWML Sunday. The chosen text for this year’s theme is Luke 1:38:
“And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.” (Luke 1:38, ESV)
Last week Michael the Archangel was kicking the Devil out of heaven. This week the angel Gabriel brings God’s Word to Mary, a young, unmarried, but betrothed virgin. She would conceive a son, and if the conception was not enough to put Mary off, the Son of God Himself would dwell in the flesh of her son. She was tasked, as the Church rightly confesses to be the Mother of God.
Gabriel delivers a life changing Word. How would Mary respond? She could have said no. Eve did. Mary was, as the bulletin cover says, “Ready to serve.” Behold I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your Word. Her faith receives God’s Word, and that Word changed her life. She risked divorce from Joseph, death for supposed adultery, a risky journey to and delivery in Bethlehem. Her son’s life would be in danger from His conception until His resurrection. And she said, “let it be to me according to your word.”
The paralyzed man in today’s Gospel reading also got a life changing Word. These texts lead us to ask, “Has the Word of God changed my life?”
Some people brought a paralyzed man to Jesus. Learn from this. If you know people who are helpless and hopeless, bring them to Jesus. Keep them in your prayers, invite them to join you in church, confess your hope in the forgiveness of sins. When Jesus saw their faith, He helped the man. Their faith moved Jesus to help this man. Think about that. Your faith, your trust that Jesus can help, moves Him to help others. So, keep praying for your unbelieving children and grandchildren. You can’t believe for them, your faith won’t save them, but your faith and prayers move God. Ask Him, trust Him, bring others to Him like you brought your children to the baptismal font.
Now let’s consider that young man for a moment. We get no background on his paralysis. Did he break his neck because he rolled his dad’s chariot after drinking too much at a party? Was he hurt by someone else? Was he born paralyzed?
We don’t know, but any of those scenarios could be used by the Devil against him. If it was his own fault he would be hammered and burdened with guilt. If it wasn’t his fault the Devil would tell him that God was angry with him or didn’t care for him, that he was worthless and useless, a drag on his family and friends.
Put yourself on that paralyzed man’s bed. Your friends say there’s a guy who can help. This Jesus fellow has cleansed lepers, healed a centurion’s servant, cured Peter’s mother-in-law, calmed a storm and cast out demons. They believe but you’re skeptical. There’s nothing to be done. There’s no cure for paralysis. But they keep testifying to the miracles of Jesus. And this isn’t some imaginary thing that happened In Jerusalem. This is right here. The guy is in Nazareth. You’re going to see Him, and so the littlest bit of hope begins to flicker, like when you get referred to a new doctor or someone offers an alternative treatment. Maybe this will work.
Mark and Luke tell us even more of your friends’ faith. When they can’t get into the house, they carry you up to the roof. They start removing the thatching on the roof and moving the supporting boards apart, to make a hole large enough to lower you. If you saw that, if you were laying there, you would marvel at your friend’s love for you, but also at their faith in Jesus.
Then there you are, with Jesus looking down at you. Here it comes. You’re getting healed. You know it. And then Jesus speaks. “Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.” That is not the life-changing word you were expecting. You were hoping for repaired nerves, mended bones, legs that could walk and hands that could grasp.
I doubt the paralyzed man realized what Jesus has just done for him. Do you? You’ve got stage 4 cancer, and your pastor says, “Take heart, your sins are forgiven.” You’re so crippled with arthritis you cannot do anything without pain. “Take heart, your sins are forgiven.” You look at the evil in the world and you’re terrified for the future. “Take heart, your sins are forgiven.”
The Scribes, the experts in the Law, hearing this get the significance of Jesus’ words. He has just spoken as God Himself. He said something only God can say, and for the Scribes He has said something they don’t want God to say, “Your sins are forgiven.” That’s blasphemy. That’s telling lies in God’s name – Jesus is claiming to be God by speaking what only God can speak. Your sins are against God, only God can forgive. Jesus claimed it, spoke it, and did it.
Meanwhile you’re lying there, still paralyzed. You could care less what Jesus and the Scribes are arguing about. You don’t care about forgiveness. You just want your legs. But then your ears pick up because Jesus says, “For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk.”
On the one hand It’s easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven.” Forgiveness is invisible. No one knows if it happens or not. You could say “You’re forgiven” 77 times a day, but whether that person is forgiven who knows? Only a fake TV healer is going to say to a paralyzed man “rise up and walk.”
On the other hand, only God can forgive. If all Jesus does for this man is give him back his legs He has spoken the easier word, but He hasn’t really helped the man. Without forgiveness the man is still in his sins, stilled damned by God, still destined for eternal death and suffering.
So, Jesus does what can be seen to show what is unseen. He does the easy work for God to do the hard work of forgiveness. “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” He heals the man to prove He is God to show that He can speak the Word of forgiveness.
The young man didn’t lay on his bed any longer. His friends didn’t carry him home. He rose and went home. That’s what he did with his body. What did he do with forgiveness? Would he get drunk and go for another chariot ride? Would he be angry at those who hurt him or didn’t help him? Would he remember his friends in their time of need?
What have you done with forgiveness? Has it changed your life? Christ has not only spoken forgiveness to you He has accomplished it. He doesn’t just say it. He does it. He died for your sins. God’s blood was shed. Make no mistake, you have no sin which He has not forgiven. And today, through his authorized man, He has spoken the Word that only God can say, “your sins are forgiven.” He spoke that Word in your baptism and His Word with the Water changed your death to life, your despair to hope, your suffering to everlasting joy, your fear to courage. He brings you back to those waters every Sunday when He absolves you of your sins. He feeds you with the same body and blood that died on the cross that you might taste of His forgiveness and know it to be real.
Has forgiveness changed you? Do you take heart in forgiveness when you are suffering? Do you have courage in the face of evil to fight it? Are you of good cheer because you’re forgiven? Are you doing battle against your sins? Your sins are forgiven. Christ has taken them. He has silenced the devil. He has made peace between you and the Father. Because He has done all that His Father raised Him from the dead and seated Him in power over all creation. That’s what forgiveness is and that’s what it means. If that doesn’t change you, repent. If you’re still lame with sin and lying on your bed of iniquity, get up and walk. You’re forgiven. Take heart and be of good courage. In the name of Jesus. Amen.