In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit
The answer is “YES!” What is the question you ask? Which is easier, to say,
“Your sins are forgiven you,” or to say, “Arise and walk”? Jesus Christ
forgives sins and raises the lame. He does so not merely
in the Scriptures. He forgives your sins and will raise you and all
believers in Christ from the dead when He returns on the Last Day. No
wonder most of today’s hymns come from the “Praise and Adoration”
section of the Service Book. Like those in Capernaum, you can’t help
marvel and glorify God, who had given such power to men.
The Lord God says in Isaiah chapter 43, I, even I, am He who blots out your
transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins. This is why
the scribes take issue with Jesus’ first words to the
paralytic. They believe Jesus is not the Son of God. He has no business
speaking the Word that only God can speak. Speaking the Word that God
alone can speak is blasphemy. Jesus is found guilty of blasphemy and
sentenced to death by crucifixion. Like the paralytic, Jesus rises up
from His place of rest and walks away.
You cannot separate the
forgiveness of sins from the resurrection. To declare your sins
forgiven is to say that you will rise from the dead. To say that you
will rise from the dead means you have saving faith in Jesus Christ,
the God-Man Who inaugurates the New Creation in His resurrection. No
faith in Christ, no forgiveness of sins and no promise of eternal life.
The
scribes imply Jesus is not the Christ when they grumble within
themselves that Jesus blasphemes. The scribes are the actual
blasphemers because they mock the Son of God and are caught. Jesus says
to them, why do you think evil in your hearts? That’s a good question. Why do
you think evil in your hearts when you come to God’s house to receive
forgiveness of sins and eternal life? King Solomon warns you in
Ecclesiastes, walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and
draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they
do not know that they do evil. Have you caught yourself walking to
God’s House thinking you will offer Him a pure and clean heart through
singing extra loud, praying extra hard, and looking extra pious? If you
have, join the crowd of fellow hypocrites who walk through church doors
all over the world. Consider yourself caught mocking the Son of God by
trying to be holier than your unholy neighbor is.
The paralytic
is a picture of Christ’s Church. He lies on a bed, unable to walk. He
depends upon the kindness of his friends to bring him to Jesus. Mark
and Luke’s Gospel go one step farther and say that the man had to be
lowered through the roof in front of Jesus because there was no way to
get the man through the house door. Those who carry the paralytic to
Jesus are friends both of the man in need of healing as well as the Man
Who can heal.
Sin binds your body and soul. You are unable to
walk or stand before God as someone who does not need His healing
touch. When you were an infant or a young child your parents brought
you to God’s House because they believed your soul needed healing. The
pastor, in the stead and by the command of Jesus Christ, washed you
clean of sin in Holy Baptism. You were clothed in the white garment of
incorruption. Because Jesus takes away your sins, He also makes the
promise that you will rise from the dead just as He rose from the dead.
When
you were confirmed, you spoke the Word of promise that you would rather
die before falling away from Christ’s holy Church. You spoke the
baptismal creed first spoken on your behalf at your baptism. You knelt
to receive the blessing of Jesus Christ. You also knelt to receive His
True Body and True Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of
sins. As you learned in confirmation instruction, where there is
forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.
It’s easy for Jesus to forgive sins. It’s also easy for Jesus to tell you as He
told the paralytic, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.
Pastors don’t use those exact words, but that’s what is said from this
chancel every Lord’s Day. Not only are your sins forgiven, but your
life in Jesus Christ is restored and renewed. What’s amazing about the
matter is that God gives such power to men. God gave this power first
to His only-begotten Son Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did
not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no
reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the
likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled
Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of
the cross.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not making the
inference that the pastor equals Jesus Christ. If it were so, then
countless sleeping bodies in cemeteries would be alive. Those sleeping
bodies will rise one day, but not at a pastor’s Word. Those sleeping
bodies will rise at the sound of our Lord Christ’s voice. His voice is
the same voice that brought all life into being at creation. His voice
is the same voice that spoke the Promise of a Savior to Adam and Eve.
His voice is the same voice that rose up the paralytic from his bed.
His voice is the same voice that will wake you and me from peaceful
slumber wherever our mortal remains may lie.
Jacob’s ladder has
one end in heaven. The other end is right here at the corner of Second
and Pine. God comes down to earth here to bring you the one thing
needful: the priceless treasure of the Gospel spoken in sermon,
absolution, and the Supper. After feeding your hungry heart, He says to
you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.
You
are already a new creation by virtue of your baptism. You will receive
the fullness of that new creation, a new body and soul, when Christ
returns to judge the living and the dead. On that day your body will be
changed. Gone is the old. The new has come. No more painful memories.
No more painful body. There will be resurrection joy unlike any Easter
you’ve ever experienced.
When Jacob saw the ladder in a dream, He responded surely
the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. How awesome is this
place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate
of heaven. Though this building is modest, it is the house of God
and the gate of heaven. We get a tiny glimpse of the life of the world
to come each weekend. We hear the Lord say to our soul as He said to
the psalmist, I am your salvation! Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done
marvelous things! He has given such power of forgiveness and life to man. The
answer is “YES!” Believe it for Jesus’ sake.
In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit
Rev. David M. Juhl
Our Savior, Momence, IL
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