Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’?” It’s easier to tell someone their sins are forgiven them than it is to tell them to get up and walk. If any of us told a paralytic to arise and walk it would become immediately evident that we have no ability or authority to tell the paralyzed to walk. It’s much easier to tell someone “Your sins are forgiven you” because, unlike paralysis, there’s no physical demonstration whether you’ve actually forgiven them their sins. We can forgive our neighbor when they sin directly against us because we are the wronged party. Jesus tells us in Luke 17:3-4, “If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” But no man one has the authority to forgive sins committed against other people and especially sins against God. This is why, after forgiving the paralytic, some of the scribes present said within themselves, “This man blasphemes!” St. Mark adds that the scribes also said in their hearts, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7). While can forgive the sins of the one who sins against us and repents, no man has the ability or authority to forgive the sins of others as Jesus does with the paralytic.
What the scribes fail to recognize—or rather, refuse to recognize—is that that Jesus is not like other men. He is man, born of Mary. But He is also true God, the eternal Son of God the Father, the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person (Heb 1:3). As the eternal Son of God, He is fully God with all power and prerogatives of His Father, which includes the ability and authority to forgive sins of all who hate their sins, repent them, and want to be rid of them. God the Son takes on human flesh and becomes like us in every way except sin, and yet remains God. This is why, when these men bring this paralytic to Him, Jesus says to him, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” Anyone with eyes could see that the man sought healing from paralysis. But Jesus, who knew what was in man (John 2:25), sees the paralytic’s heart. He sees the man’s repentance, that he knows his sins, is burdened by them, and wants to be free of them. So his friends take him to Jesus and he hears words that are far sweeter than any physical healing: “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” In one sentence Jesus bestows three great blessings on the man. He calls him Son. Jesus saw the faith of the man, that he believed Jesus was the Christ and that Jesus could unburden his conscience. Jesus tells the paralytic that he is a son God because he believes in Jesus and trusts Him for mercy. Jesus tells him, “Be of good cheer.” Jesus tells him to take heart and rejoice. Why? Because he has a gracious God in Jesus, who does not delight in the death of sinners, but that they turn from their sins and live. Jesus tells him, “Your sins are forgiven you.” They are removed as far as the east is from the west. They are drowned in the depths of the sea of God’s mercy. They are blotted out as a thick cloud, and God remembers them no more.
God alone can forgive sins like this. If Jesus were a mere man, then He would blaspheme. But Jesus isn’t a mere man. He turns to the scribes and puts the question to them, “For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins” — then He said to the paralytic, ‘Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.’” He does the more difficult—the impossible—to show them that He has authority on earth to forgive sins. It is as if He said, “Since you cannot believe I can forgive men their sins with My word, I will heal this man with My word. If My word can heal him instantaneously, then you have no reason to disbelieve that My word forgives him all his sins.” And it was so. He arose and departed to his house. The paralytic rises to new life, physically and spiritually. He rises on new legs and firm feet. The Shulamite could have been describing this man when she said in Song of Solomon 5:15, “His legs are pillars of marble Set on bases of fine gold. His countenance is like Lebanon, Excellent as the cedars.” From now on walks on new legs, strong and powerful. From now he walks with a bright and lively countenance, his heart rejoicing that his sins are no more and that He is a new creation in God’s sight. This forgiveness and the new life it brings can only be given by God, which is why Jesus gives it to the penitent paralytic: He is God who forgives sins and raises to new life.
Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men. God first gave this power to man by becoming man in the incarnation. But the multitude marvels and glorifies God for giving such power to men, not just the man Jesus of Nazareth. By becoming man, God the Son shares this authority with His human nature. But He is rich in mercy and gave this authority to others as well. He promises Peter and the eleven, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt 16:19). He tells them all again in Matthew 18:18, “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then on the evening of His resurrection from the dead, He breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:22-23). Those men then went into the world, preaching the gospel and forgiving the sins of all who were truly penitent. By Christ’s authority they spoke that same absolving word as Jesus had spoken to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven you.” And those men appointed other men in cities to do the same work and speak the same word to all who were truly penitent, believed in Jesus for mercy, and intended to order their lives according to God’s commandments.
God still calls men into His ministry to do that very same thing; to bind the sins of the impenitent on them so that they see their lost condition and repent, and to forgive the sins of the penitent so that those sins are removed from them. Christ’s ministers are men who, of themselves, have no authority to forgive sins. But they are men whom Christ has called and placed into His office, His ministry, His service, and given such power to them. Through His minister’s absolution, Christ calls all who repent, Son, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,” as St. Paul writes in Galatians 3:26. As God’s adopted sons, you have “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away” (1 Ptr 1:4). Through His minister’s absolution, Christ bids you be of good cheer and to take heart, because you have a gracious God for Jesus’ sake, who doesn’t want your death but wants you to live eternally with Him. Through His minister’s absolution, Christ says to you, “Your sins are forgiven you.” Christ removes them as far as the east is from the west (Ps 103:12). They are drowned in the depths of the sea of God’s mercy (Mic 7:19) and they are blotted out (Is 44:22). The minister speaks in the stead and by the command of Christ, so His absolution is to be heard as if it were from Christ Himself. For in that absolution Christ says to you “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:2).
Through the minister’s absolution, Christ says to you, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” As the paralytic rose on new legs as pillars of marble and feet of fine gold, so you go forth from this place with new legs and feet to walk in the newness of life. This new life, which Christ began in you when He rebirthed you in baptism, He increases in you so that you continually put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Paul gives several examples of what that looks like; putting away lying and in its place speaking truth with our neighbors; not sinning in our anger but committing it to the Lord who judges righteously; and putting away stealing and pursuing industriousness instead, so that we may help others. These are illustrations of what this new life of true righteousness and holiness looks like. It means putting off sin and pursuing its opposite virtue, in thought, in word, and in deed. This is what it means that Christ tells us—as He told the paralytic—“Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” Arise to new life by faith in His absolving word. Take up your bed, the former sins, no longer lying in them, and go to your house, the vocations to which God has called you. Do this as a son of God, with a bright and lively countenance and your heart rejoicing that your sins are no more and that you are a new creation in God’s sight. Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
