Trinity 19
Dear friends in Christ. Today’s Gospel is the glorious account of Jesus healing a man who was paralyzed. But notice something vital: before Jesus healed the man of his paralysis, He forgave the man his sins. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” Only after some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, [knew] their thoughts…did He heal the man. Jesus took care of first things first. Our first and most urgent need—even compared with some great sickness or disease or suffering—is the forgiveness of sins. We need this more than health, food, clothing, etc. We could be naked, starving and suffering from every known disease—but if we had the forgiveness of sins, we could stand before God holy and righteous and be assured of heaven and every heavenly and spiritual blessing; with the forgiveness of sins—no matter what our outward circumstance may be, we are certain that we are God’s dear children, that He is our loving heavenly Father and that things are right between us.
Not only does Jesus take care of this paralyzed man’s greatest need—which is the not need to walk, but the need for the forgiveness of sins—He also shows that the forgiveness He speaks and brings is certain and sure; that it is a divine word. And He shows His is a divine work and He has divine authority as He heals the man of his paralysis. He does a work only God can do, forgive sins. Jesus distributes the forgiveness of sins that He brings about by His holy life and innocent suffering and death; He has fully paid the debt of sin. That’s the glorious Easter proclamation!
When the crowds saw it … they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. So it is not just Jesus during His earthly ministry forgiving sins, but Jesus, through His Church continues to grant forgiveness to repentant sinners. Jesus has given His dear Christians the authority to forgive the sins of those who are sorry for their sins. That’s what we hear in today’s catechism section on The Office of the Keys, which is that special authority Jesus has given His Church on earth to forgive the sins of the repentant sinner. He specifically entrusts the Church with that authority on Easter Sunday evening when He says to the disciples [Jn. 20. 22-23]: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them they are not forgiven. This authority to forgive or not to forgive sins is called the Office of the Keys because like a key locks or unlocks a door, so too does the forgiveness of sins unlock heaven to us and shut hell to us.
What makes today’s Gospel so eye-opening is the order—first the forgiveness of sins and then the physical healing. This puts everything into the proper perspective—our greatest need, no matter what, is the forgiveness of sins. Because of the sin that surrounds us in the world and because of our own sinful nature, we don’t recognize our sin; we don’t recognize how great and damning our sin is. People coming from other parts of the country often remark on our hills, lakes and waterfalls, etc.—all things we take from granted because we are all the time surrounded by them. Sadly, this is often the case with our sin.
Also the opposite is true as well: because we enjoy the grace of God and the forgiveness of sin; because we have richly, fully and abundantly the Gospel word, the holy absolution, the Blessed Sacrament it is all very easily taken for granted; we don’t treasure them as we ought because they are all around us—and this is the fault of our old sinful nature. Now that we are forgiven our sin, now that we have new life, now that we are a Christian, what are we to do? What does Scripture call on us to do? The psalmist writes of the Christian [Ps. 1.2]: His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. We, as Christians are called up to meditate on the law/ teaching/ instruction of the Lord. Our lives as Christians is one of daily meditating on the Lord—both on His Holy Law and on His saving word and work.
This is where our text, today’s Epistle, comes in: Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. How can we do this unless we ponder/ meditate upon the holy Law of God? How can we recognize our sin and what sin is, unless we daily hold before us the mirror of God’s holy word? How can we put off our old self, that is, our sinful corruption we were born with, unless we can rightly identify it?
Daily meditating on the Lord includes meditating on His holy law. This is especially vital for Christians because we very easily can look at our lives and compare them with all the sin and corruption in the world around us and very easily come to the conclusion that we are not all that bad—compared with others—and that God must be pleased with how well we are doing. This is the sin of self-righteousness. What makes this so bad is that there is truth in it. To be sure, hopefully, as Christians our lives will be better than much of the world around us; the Christian is to shine like a star in the darkness surrounding us; but, we dare not ever think we are better than others, or look down on others because they seem to be greater sinners than we. All of us are saved/ rescued by God’s grace alone; none of us have anything to hold up to God to make Him obligated to us. The moment that any Christian thinks he/she is better than another/ deserves heaven, etc. there is a reliance on self and works—and ultimately, what need is there for Jesus and His saving work? Faith is no longer in Jesus but in self. Meditating on the Lord and His holy Law keeps us from the sin of self-righteousness and drives us all the more to Jesus as we recognize our inner wickedness, that we still have our old sinful self and that we need a Savior from sin, that we still are in need daily of much grace and forgiveness, that we still need the holy absolution.
As we Christians meditate on the Lord and His holy Law, we recognize what sin is. Again, because we are surrounded by sin and still have our old sinful nature within us, we do not always recognize sin/ recognize what is the holy Law/ will of God and what is not. Notice what St. Paul writes in our text: Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. Our deceitful desires—we can’t trust the desires of our heart. Often these deceitful desires promise us happiness, joy and life but only bring misery and destruction—if not in this life, then certainly in eternity. Temptation makes the sin very appealing—that’s the deceitful desire; or makes it seem like sin is the only way. And to reason it makes sense to fudge a little here, lie a little there, do this thing here all to get ahead or out of a tough spot. And, after all, everybody does it! But sin after sin only leads a person away from the Lord and closer to hell.
The only way to recognize these deceitful desires is to ponder the Lord’s word of Law. There we see what is sin and what is His will. And all this so that we put off [our] old self, which belongs to [our] former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. By us Christians pondering our Lord’s word of Law, we then live lives of daily repentance—that is, that we recognize our sin, are sorry for our sin, and turn to Jesus to forgive us our sin; this is daily repentance. By our daily repentance we are fighting against and battling [our] old self, which belongs to [our] former manner of life and is corrupt. This is putting off [our] old self, which belongs to [our] former manner of life and is corrupt and putting on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness is difficult work, a constant battle; our Christian life.
2. But we Christians do not just meditate on the holy Law of God; we also meditate on His saving word and work. Meditating on His holy Law will certainly show us our sin and our need for a Savior; but that’s only part of it. Let us also meditate on Jesus and His saving word and work. As we sinners meditate on Jesus and His saving word and work, we are, by faith, made bold to dare to approach our Lord seeking His help and forgiveness. As we receive His love and forgiveness, we are empowered and motivated all the more to put off [our] old self, which belongs to [our] former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
This daily putting off of our old sinful nature we were born with and putting on the new self, the Christian, created in us by the Holy Spirit in baptism whose will agrees perfectly with the will of God is part and parcel of the Christian life. It is all rooted and grounded in God’s work for us in holy Baptism. Before holy Baptism, we were just old sinful nature; but in baptism the Holy Spirit, through the water and word, created the new self/ the Christian in us. We were born anew/ recreated. In our baptism we were given the Holy Spirit.
Dear Christian, consider/ ponder who you have in you—the Holy Spirit Himself. He is leading you and guiding you into every good work. The wonderful thing is that as we live lives of repentance that is, as we put off the old sinful nature and put on the new self/ the Christian, or, as St. Paul puts it differently elsewhere, as we crucify and put to death our old sinful nature, by daily drowning it by daily contrition and repentance—what is happening is that by this constant putting off and putting on, the old sinful nature grows weaker and the new self, the Christian in us grows stronger. We do well to ponder what the Holy Spirit is working in and through us—and how by this we are strengthened all the more to follow Him!
This pondering/ meditating on the Lord’s work on us, in us and through us is vital for us Christians. That’s why St. Paul in our text call on us to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Yes, we have been born from above and recreated in the waters of Holy Baptism; yes, that is a one-time event—but it has meaning and significance the rest of our life. The devil would want nothing more than for Christians to forget their baptism. In baptism our sins were washed away; we were clothed with Jesus and holiness; we were made heirs of heaven. We daily need to ponder this great mystery and miracle that happened to us—as in baptism our greatest need was taken care of: our sins washed away and forgiven and Jesus’ perfect holiness given to us.
So by daily meditating on our Lord’s holy law and on His saving word and work we remember our sin but we also remember His saving work for us. Precisely here, in the forgiveness of sins our faith is strengthened to love the Lord all the more, to hold to His promises and to seek and strive to live all the more according to His holy will. By daily meditating on our Lord’s holy law and His life saving work, we daily start anew/ fresh—again grabbing ahold of the forgiveness of sins given us in baptism and the absolution. We are renewed in the spirit of [our] minds.
It does us Christians well to spend some part of our day in quiet contemplation, withdrawing our heart and mind from the vain matters of the world. The devil would want nothing more than for us Christians to fill our lives and minds with the busyness of everyday life so that we do not spend time pondering God’s holy Law and His saving word and work. But as we spend time in this quiet meditation and contemplation we are rejuvenated spiritually, our lives will be richer in good works/ works of love for the Lord and neighbor and we will all the more delight to meet the Lord here in church and in the Blessed Sacrament. INJ Amen.