The man was paralyzed. He wanted to get to Jesus. His friends carried him to Jesus. They knew that for what they needed from God, Jesus was the man to ask. But what Jesus gives to a man who is paralyzed is unexpected: “Son, be of good cheer! Your sins are forgiven!” With those words Jesus teaches us that our greatest need is not even to have fixed what is wrong with our bodies, but to have fixed what is wrong between us and the Lord. But again, as they have these past weeks, the Pharisees teach us some religion: “This man blasphemes!” Blasphemy means trash-talking God. And Jesus must be trash-talking God because He's forgiving sins. For the Pharisees know only God forgives sins. But here's the question: how do you KNOW if God's forgiven your sins? Easy. By your holy life. By having your life changed and being obedient to God's Word. Yep. That's the world's religion: you'll know you're on God's good side when your life gets better, your bank account gets bigger and your body gets healthier. God, whom we can't see, forgives us, but only if we really ask for it and then really try to deserve it. Run away from such preaching and believing! Brothers and sisters in Christ, that way of thinking, that only God, who is “up there somewhere” can forgive sins means you will never ever know if He's forgiven YOUR sins. You will never have any certainty or assurance that your iniquities have been taken care of. Such a God, who is forgiving but unknown apart from my good life, is no real God.
No, the True God makes certain that we are never uncertain. The Father desires to forgive your sins, it is true. But He doesn't make you guess whether it's so. No, He sends His Son to take care of it. And He doesn't send His Son in some way where we can't be sure who He is or what He's up to. Rather, He sends His Son in the flesh. As a man. Like you and me. The Son takes on Himself human flesh in the womb of Mary so that the glory and judgment of God is hidden in Him and we can see and recognize God's Son as one of us. To do what? To preach the Kingdom of God. To forgive sins. To heal our diseases. To go keep the commandments. To go to the cross. To be punished for our sins. To shed His blood in our place. To die as every sinner. To conquer death. To harrow hell. To rise again. To send the Spirit. All of this Jesus does and because He does all this He can say to the paralyzed Man, “your sins are forgiven.” Have no doubt about it. But more than that, Jesus proves that He has authority to do such a thing as forgive sins. What's the proof? He can make the man un-paralyzed. He can heal him and make him walk just by speaking His Word. When Jesus says to the man, “Get up and walk,” what happens? The man gets up and walks! So, following that same logic of Jesus' Word: If he says to the man, “Son, be happy, your sins are forgiven,” what happens? The man's sins are forgiven. Jesus' Word does what it says because He is the Son of God in human flesh. Jesus forgives sins because He is the Lamb who takes them away. See? God doesn't just do things invisibly. He sent His Son, in the flesh, for everyone to see and hear and by His lips to heal and forgiven.
Now the Lord Jesus has ascended and is hidden from our eyes. And so the world goes back to thinking that now it's like the Pharisees teach: God's just “up there somewhere” and you have to ask forgiveness and hope He gives it to you somehow! Dear Christians, it's not so! If the Lord came in the flesh with authority to forgive sins on earth, do you think He would leave us without the forgiveness of sins upon earth? Hear what St. Matthew records after Jesus heals the paralytic: they feared and glorified God because He had given this authority to men. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord has not left you to wonder where your forgiveness comes from. He has given the authority on this earth to men to forgive sins. To what men? To his holy, Christian church! Dear Christians, this is the reason you have a pastor: to forgive you your sins. Plain and simple. That's my job. When I absolve you, I don't say, “Jesus died for your sins, just hope it's true!” No! I say to you, “by the authority of Christ,” and “in the stead (place of) and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I FORGIVE YOU.” But it's not ME forgiving you. It's Jesus. But He uses my mouth to do it so that you can be certain it's real and true. Not up in heaven somewhere, not worked out in your life all perfect and properly arranged, but by the words Jesus has given me to speak. It's the same way with Baptism and the Supper: these are Christ's but they are carried out by the pastor here and now on earth so that you can be certain and confident of the forgiveness of sins. NOT by something in YOU. But by something given to you, outside of you, but real and true and tangible and visible and physical and earthly: used by Jesus to deliver His forgiveness to you.
But there's more. YOU, brothers and sisters in Christ, have been given this authority to forgive sins. You don't do it publicly and for all people like the pastor does, but you have every “right” to forgive the sins of those who are troubled by their sins. In fact, here are good works to do for your neighbor: when others sin against you, absolve them! When people come to you troubled and worried because they are not godly or have done something wrong, forgive them! Pronounce to them that Jesus has died for their sins and that they are indeed forgiven because their Lord shed His blood for them. In this world, religion tells people the best they can do is to hope that God forgives sins. But you, you speak what Christ has given to His church: that sins ARE forgiven for Jesus' sake. Parents, comfort your kids with this Good News. Husbands and wives, forgive one another! All of you: pronounce absolution to those who worry whether they have God's favor. If anyone in your life doubts the love of God in Christ, if they are troubled and worn out by their sins, then pronounce forgiveness to them. If they still doubt, or even if you do, then come to the pastor. Encourage them to come to the pastor. Either way, it is not some vague “hope it works out” kind of forgiveness that we can't be sure of, but we, who are “little Christs” to the world, will deliver this good and saving news that their sins are forgiven.
Notice that when the men came to Jesus, the Gospel says, “When He saw their faith.” What is faith? Faith clings to Jesus. The faith of these men was in Jesus. Their hope and trust and confidence wasn't in some God far away somewhere hoping it would all work out, it was anchored in THAT MAN who stood there speaking words. Their faith clung to Jesus and Jesus' Word saved that man. It forgave and healed Him. Now, on the earth, faith means clinging to Jesus where He is. Hoping you'll get forgiveness from “up there” somewhere won't cut it. Your Lord has given you means to receive forgiveness. Your pastor. Another Christian. If you believe in Jesus and you desire the forgiveness of sins, don't just toss your prayer out onto the wind with the vague and uncertain confession that “God forgives my sins because I ask.” No! Be certain! Be confident! Go to your pastor so that you can stand confidently before the devil and the world and declare: “My sins are forgiven because the man to whom the Lord gave this authority has forgiven them in Jesus' name!” Beware of making forgiveness something far away in heaven only as if it is not given out on earth. Watch out for forgiveness which you have only because you think you deserve it rather than because men with authority have pronounced it unto you. In short, beware of seeking forgiveness from God somehow apart from His church, His pastors, other Christians. And run away from any forgiveness that is yours “because you ask” rather than because your pastor or fellow Christian says, “I forgive you” or “you are forgiven.” Forgiveness that is talked ABOUT is not forgiveness. Forgiveness that is ANNOUNCED and DECLARED is the kind the Lord has put into the mouths of men to rescue us from our sins and to grant us certainty that nothing now stands between us and the Lord.
Jacob dreamed of Jesus. That's because Jesus is the ladder that stretches between heaven and earth. True God and True Man, Jesus brings heaven to us and us to heaven. And He does it by being on the earth and dying and rising for the forgiveness of our sins. That is how the Lord works. He works through His Son. Now His Son works through the ministers and people of His church to deliver the life giving pardon which cancels our sins. Fear the Lord today and glorify Him! For He has given such authority on earth to men. To do what? To forgive your sins. So here it is again: In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you your sins. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.