St. Matthew 9:1-8 – Trinity 19 – 2012
Zion Ev. Lutheran Church, McHenry, IL
October 13-14, 2012
Watch here
In the Name of Jesus. Amen. Be of good cheer. Have courage. Be positive as you go about your life. Take heart.
Today, at this moment, the Lord of Heaven sees you. He knows your pain. He knows your hurt. He knows your fears. He knows that you feel like you’ve gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson – the Tyson before he went nuts – and you feel like you can’t bear another punch.
Your evil is paid for by Christ. Your sin atoned for by His death. All your transgressions, every fruit that you’ve eaten against God’s command, every thing that you’ve done that you shouldn’t have done and every thing that you’ve not done that you should have done, all of it, He paid for it all.
He suffered God’s angry wrath, His righteous judgment. For we are all children who have disobeyed our Father and should be punished. Christ took our grounding. He took our punishment. He took our spanking and it killed Him.
The Cross is where your salvation, heaven, eternal life is won. It’s where your forgiveness is achieved. Where your debt is paid, where your punishment is answered for before God Himself.
The resurrection is your justification, your forgiveness, before the Father. The spirit of your minds literally is restored to life again. Your new self, the forgiven you, created in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
“I forgive you all your sins.” delivers to you the forgiveness of sins. You are righteous. You are holy. You are pardoned by that word of forgiveness.
No matter what else is true of you, the Word of forgiveness delivered to you, the absolution spoken to you, defines who you are and makes everything right in the universe.
Be of good cheer. Take courage. Look up. One more day. For your sins, all of them, are forgiven.
“Um…. yeah…. that’s nice.. but could we, Pastor, get to the part where my situation gets better. Where I can pay my bills. My loved ones are okay. Stop the stress in my life. Somehow make my kids stop doing bad things or simply to be civil to one another.”
That’s the question in today’s Gospel. This paralytic is brought to Jesus on matt. Jesus looks at them, looks at their faith, and He says, ‘Be of good cheer, son, your sins are forgiven!’”
Churchy words don’t change anything. They are just churchy words.
“God won’t give you something you can’t bear” isn’t comforting when the weight is so heavy that you are about to be crushed by it.
“God will get you through this” or “this happens for a reason” is only helpful after God has gotten you out of your stuff and you are drinking a cold German Soda Water outside your house with your loved ones celebrating how everything went okay.
And so the Son of Man stops, and says, “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” Which is easier to wave my hand and fix it or to save you from your sins?
Unbelief looks at it all, looks at the forgiveness of sins, and says, “That’s all, Jesus? My sins are forgiven. It doesn’t even live up to the hype. Give me something that I can work with. Don’t let me lose my house. Don’t let me lose my life. Be God. Do a God thing. Do something and turn this hell into heaven right now.”
But, God is so good that He doesn’t have to prove that He is good. He’s God and doesn’t have to do the things that He does to show us that He is God.
“Get up and take your mat and go home” doesn’t save you from anything but the matt. We just the matt problem to the next problem, next emergency, next charge that Jesus has to save us from. Out of the frying pan, into the heat of eternal hell. It treats the symptoms of sin without curing the disease. Leaving us praying, “Save me, Jesus, from needing to be saved from these things around me!”
“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.”
He healed the guy, He fixed His universe, to show that He could forgive your sins. Not to prove to you that He is the Son of Man. He’s God. He’s good. You can tell by your sins being forgiven.
For the Father knows the harder thing, the thing that will cost Jesus His life, is winning you eternal life. Saving you from needing to be saved. The Father sends His Son to die on the Cross for our sins and the sins of the whole world. To rescue you once for all time from all that you need saving from – ever.
This is what fixes what is wrong with your universe. This is the case closed of your life and the lives of your family.
Lift your heads up. Stop being afraid of what terrible thing might happen. It already happened to Jesus. He rose again from it and you will too.
You are alive in Christ. You are forgiven. So, put away the old way of looking at His words, His promises. Change the way you treat others. Let the thief steal no more. Let us who doubt, give up our doubts. For His Word, His promises, deliver who He is and how He is toward you.
And not to make your situation is better… like suddenly everything is going to be flowers and puppies and kittens for you. It may still be cloudy and overcast, with no blue skies in sight. You still may headaches, hands may still shake you, and there may be danger right around the corner about to pounce on you…
Despite the universe. Despite the pain. Despite the suffering. Rest solely on the promises of Christ. Jesus is the one whose words change reality. From death to life. From paralytic to walking. From sinner to saint.
Be of good cheer. Have courage. Be positive as you go about your life. Take heart. I forgive you all your sins. Rise, take your matts, and go home. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
