Trinity 19
Dear friends in Christ. Today has the unique benefit of having both the Gospel reading and the catechism review speak on the same topic, so that theme can get more firmly grounded in our hearts. And today’s theme is the forgiveness of sins, and in particular—the Office of the Keys, which we define in our catechism as that special authority which Christ has given to His church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent. It is called the Office of the Keys because it works like a key to open heaven by forgiving sins, or to close heaven by not forgiving them.
Today’s Gospel tells us of Jesus healing a paralyzed man. St. Mark fills out this account a bit more telling us that since this man’s friends could not get him close enough to Jesus to have Jesus heal him, they took apart the roof and lowered him down to Jesus. So what does Jesus do? He said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” What happened next? And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” Again, St. Mark fills in a bit to St. Matthew’s account telling us what these scribes were saying [Mk 2.6-7]: But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Don’t we often hear the same thing when we say that we go to church to receive the absolution/ the forgiveness of sins? Don’t people say to us “only God forgives sin, so how can the pastor forgive sins? Isn’t he making himself God?” But let us not forget what Jesus told His apostles, His Church, on Easter Sunday evening [John 20.22-23], [Jesus] breathed on His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” Jesus gave His Church—people—authority to forgive sin.
It’s not that in and of ourselves we do/ can forgive sin. Christ has given His Church that authority. It is grounded on His holy life, suffering and death for our sin; that forgiveness and reconciliation that He obtained. Through His Church, us Christians, Jesus is applying His saving work to the individual in the absolution, in baptism, in the Sacrament of the Altar. This is the glorious work of the Church, the work Christ commissioned us to do: to proclaim and give that forgiveness of sin He won for us. In the Church we proclaim/ give that forgiveness in the stead and by the command of Christ.
The Gospel continues: But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 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.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
Here Jesus shows that He is the true God and therefore has authority in and of Himself to forgive sins as He heals this paralyzed man who then walked home with his mat. Jesus distributes the treasures of His saving work: then, during His earthly ministry; and now He continues to do so as He gives His Church, His dear Christians, the authority to forgive sins with that forgiveness He obtained.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus, true man, clearly shows that He is the true God as He forgives the paralyzed man’s sin. Notice how He does it: His enemies said Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone? They laid down this definition, they declared the law that only God can forgive sin. So what does Jesus do? He shows He, true man, is also true God by healing the man. And because Jesus healed the man—doing only what God can do—He showed that He is God and has the authority to forgive sin in and of Himself. Jesus has given that authority to His Church to forgive the sins of those who are sorry for their sins. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
The forgiveness of sins is something you can’t see. That’s why Jesus confirmed His forgiveness with that outward physical healing. The interesting thing, though, is that the scribes were not wrong in what they said, Who can forgive sins but God alone? Not only is it the righteous God and His holy law/ will that is wronged each time we sin, but it’s more than that. Only God alone forgives sin because forgiveness, compassion and faithfulness are characteristics/ attributes of God. That’s what the prophet Micah is praising in our text this morning: Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old. There is no God like the Lord, the holy Triune God, who forgives sin, is compassionate and is faithful to His word and us.
Micah begins our text: Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? Here we come to the reason why God is merciful and forgives our sin: we are full of iniquity/ guilt. We all are conceived and born in sin and we daily add to that sin tremendously. With each of our sins we rightly earn and deserve nothing but God’s wrath and damnation in hell. Each of our sins—whether we feel/ recognize them or not—makes us more and more guilty before the Lord and more and more worthy of His righteous wrath and damnation. Dear Christian, no one can be like Micah and humbly marvel at God’s love and faithfulness unless he/she rightly recognizes his/her sin and what that sin brings about. The temptation for us is to try to excuse/ minimize/ explain away our sin; to try to make our sins no big deal in our hearts and minds; to try to point to what we think are “good works” by which we think we can stand in a pretty good position before God and make ourselves worthy of heaven and salvation.
Dear Christian, here is the call to each of us honestly to examine our hearts and lives in the mirror of God’s holy law and simply to recognize and confess that I have sinned, I have sinned most grievously, I have offended God’s holy divine righteousness, I have by my sin earned and deserved nothing but God’s wrath and damnation. This is not a game. Take the holy Ten Commandments in hand. Go down slowly, carefully and each of us will see our own great sin and sinfulness.
We don’t stop there, though. We go on and remember what Micah says in our text: Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He pardons our iniquity/ our guilt. The word “pardon” literally means “to lift up.” What does God do with the guilt of our sin? He “lifts it up” from us and puts it on Christ; He lifts the burden off of us and puts it on Christ on the cross, as the prophet Isaiah [53.4] says: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned away, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. It is Christ who takes our sin and guilt on Himself, becomes sin, and on the cross endures all of the Father’s wrath and punishment for us and our sin in our place. This is how our sin is pardoned/ forgiven. Don’t take passing over transgression as if God pretends not to see, overlooks our sin, simply “passing over” it as if it weren’t important. Instead, He passes over it in the sense of “walking over” like walking over dry ground, or treading on it. That thought comes out a bit later even more clearly as Micah says: he will tread our iniquities underfoot. This is a military picture. Our sins do not and cannot stand against us—the Lord Christ has trodden them down like an enemy and utterly defeated them. Jesus has conquered the power and tyranny of our great spiritual enemies of sin, death, devil and hell. He did that by His holy life as He endured every temptation the devil threw His way—the very same and greater temptations that we fall prey too countless times each day; now His perfect holiness and righteousness is ours through faith in Him. Jesus conquered hell as on the cross He endured the pains of hell as He was forsaken by the Father; now all the wrath and punishment we deserve, Jesus has already endured—God’s holy wrath has been placated and so the devil and hell don’t have a claim on us; we sinners are reconciled to God. Jesus conquered and destroyed death as He Himself died—but death could not hold Him, the holy God-man and He rose from the dead destroying death’s hold on all. Our spiritual enemies have been subdued; Christ has trampled them; He has tread our iniquities underfoot. In fact, sin has no right to disturb our peace/ our conscience. Our Lord regards the accusations of sin and the devil and the claims of hell against us as an insult—as if they were accusing Him of failing to carry out the work of our salvation. That’s why the Lord keeps pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression; He richly gives us the forgiveness of sin and pronounces it and gives it everywhere in His Church in word and sacrament so that we have no doubt that we poor sinners are forgiven and reconciled to Him and that heaven stands open to us.
Notice again the beautiful imagery of Micah’s hymn of praise, how definite our forgiveness is: You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Our sins are forgiven; they will never come to light in His judgment, not even on the Last Day. We have a glorious visual/ image here with Holy Baptism. All our sins are overwhelmed/ extinguished/drowned in the waters of Holy Baptism: where our sins are washed away, where we are clothed with Christ, where the Holy Spirit works faith, where we are brought into God’s holy family, the Church.
2. Why would a just and holy God forgive sin? Because He is also compassionate! Micah rejoices in our text: He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us. Because God delights in showing steadfast love, He is moved from anger to compassion. He is a holy God who must punish sin, but in mercy and compassion on us poor sinners He punished Christ in place of us. Also in today’s Gospel, not only does Jesus show He is the true God by forgiving the paralyzed man his sin, but in the very act of healing that paralyzed man He is showing in a very clear outward/ visible way that He is the true God because He is compassionate; He delights in showing love and mercy.
When we feel our sin, when our conscience accuses us of sin, keeps dredging it up to try to get us to despair, when we are reminded—and rightly so—that God is a holy God and we are sinners, when we are led to confession let us in faith hold on the simple fact that Micah here rejoices in: the holy God forgives sin; and the holy God forgives us our sin because He loves to show mercy and steadfast love.
That’s the way He is working in His Church. Through the forgiveness of sins He is giving His dear Christians—poor, repentant sinners—a most glorious peace of conscience. When we feel our sin, we return to our baptism and run to confession and hear and receive the absolution for our sin; we hear the saving word and work of Christ proclaimed to us week after week; here Christ comes to us with His very body and blood giving us the forgiveness of sin. In the midst of trials, when the devil whispers to us, “So where is your God?”, we run to our Lord’s holy word and sacrament and take and receive His forgiveness and compassion—and we say back “Here He is!” and things are right between me and Him—look He forgives Me my sin, I’m His, He loves to show mercy and he delights in steadfast love.
And He is faithful to His word and promise. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old. Just as He has sent a Savior, Christ Jesus, His Son, who is also true man born of Mary—as He promised; so too will He forgive me my sin—as He has promised and Jesus brought about; and so too will He keep me firm in that faith by His gracious working in His holy word and Sacrament. Who is a God like Him forgiving sin and compassionate? INJ