“The Power of Forgiveness”
Ninteenth Sunday After Trinity – October 18, AD 2009
St. Matthew IX: 1-8
The healing of the “man sick of the palsy” as related to us by St. Matthew is a condensed version of the same event found in St. Mark II: 1-12 and also in St. Luke V: 17-26. The other versions of this story provide some interesting details that St. Matthew omits. For example, in both St. Mark and St. Luke, the friends of the palsied or paralyzed man let him down through the roof of the house due to the large crowds around Jesus. Also, in St. Luke, once the man is physically healed, he goes away to his own house “glorifying God.” In St. Matthew and in St. Mark, the man simply arises and goes away without comment. Kind of sad that a man can experience a miracle of healing and then walk away without even acknowledging the Master’s hand, isn’t it? While the central message is essentially the same in all three Gospels, St. Matthew’s version, perhaps because it is pared down to the essentials, is a powerful proclamation of God’s desire and ability to make us whole in spirit and body through the forgiveness of our sins by His Son, Jesus Christ. It also clearly points to the divinity of Jesus, Son of Man, who is God with us in all our humanity, except without sin.
Sin. There’s that three-letter word that some today treat like a four-letter word that should be banned from our vocabulary and consciousness. But we won’t really grasp what God has done and is doing for us in Jesus Christ if we don’t look within ourselves and acknowledge the extent to which we are separated from God’s majesty, righteousness, and sacrificial Love. While today we don’t have the same Deuteronomic perspective of the ancient Hebrews, who believed physical debility was a direct result of one’s sins or the sins of one’s parents or ancestors, we do know also that sin or spiritual sickness can be integrally related to a person’s physical health. But as Jesus demonstrates with the paralytic man, the first priority is our spiritual health. The first thing Jesus says to the man is “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” Immediately the scribes think Jesus is a blasphemer because everyone knew that only God could do such a thing as forgiving sins. We know that Jesus is God and man, but to the scribes and Pharisees he was only a man. So they think to themselves “This man blasphemeth” yet they don’t openly confront Jesus at this point. But Jesus He sees into their hearts anyway and challenges them for thinking evil things. Remember, blasphemy was punishable by death—but since Jesus is really innocent, it is in fact murder the scribes are contemplating.
To emphasize that He does in fact have authority to forgive sins, Jesus asks them a tricky either/or question: is it easier to say “Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?” Think about it. How would you respond? For me I would find it easier to say “Thy sins be forgiven thee” than to test God to provide an immediate physical healing of a paralyzed man. But all things are possible with God, as Jesus demonstrates next, saying: “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.” And that’s exactly what the man does. The words of St. Chrysostom help us to understand the miraculous sign Jesus has just performed: “The more the soul is greater than the body, the greater is it to forgive sin than to heal the body. But because the former is not visible, and the latter is, He does what is the lesser but more evident, to prove something greater, but less evident.”
After witnessing these dual miracles of interior healing and exterior healing, the crowds “marveled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.” The power of forgiveness and healing was dramatically shown to be given by God to a particular man named Jesus. The scribes in the crowd were probably taken aback when the paralyzed man rose to walk, but they still viewed Jesus as just a man and therefore, they would not relent in their position that Jesus was blaspheming against God. But we believe through evidence of Scripture and our relationship with the risen Christ in His Body, the Church, that Jesus was not only a man but God Incarnate. We too are the “men” (and women) that St. Matthew alludes to in the concluding words of this Gospel lesson: “But when the multitudes saw it, they marveled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.” Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our sins have been remitted by our loving God, and we celebrate that fact whenever we participate in the Lord’s Supper. You know well the words of Jesus from St. Matthew 26:28: “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Nothing we could ever do or say could possibly accomplish what God has done for us through the sacrifice of his Son on the Cross.
By accepting Christ in our hearts, we acknowledge our sins have been forgiven, but truly living out that fact in our lives is very difficult at times, isn’t it? Instead of putting on the new, more mature life in Christ fully, we sometimes act out of childish or prideful impulses and desires that end up hurting others, even those we claim to love. No less a man than St. Paul struggled with this as we hear in Romans 7: 19 these words: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” Our sinful natures can cause us and others much pain, to the point where we would cry out as St. Paul does “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” The answer St. Paul immediately gives is “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
When we sin we have assurance of our forgiveness through Jesus Christ, but it is not cheap grace that is given us, for our Lord is both loving and righteous. There is an accounting of our sin and repentance is required for true forgiveness to happen. Jesus makes this quite clear in verse 20 and following verses of St. Matthew, Chapter 11: “Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not: Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works, which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” Not only collective repentance is important, as in the case of these cities, but also personal repentence. Remember the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in St. Luke, Chapter 18? The Pharisee thanks God that he isn’t like other men who are sinners, but the tax collector stands off not even looking up to heaven and strikes his breast saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” And Jesus says, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Matthew 18: 14)
Once we have experienced true repentance and forgiveness ourselves, we are better able to comprehend another dimension to the power given to us through Christ’s miracle of forgiveness and healing. That is, the power to forgive others. In a post-resurrection appearance to his disciples recorded in St. John, Chapter 20: 21-23, Jesus says, “ ‘Peace be unto you! As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whoseovever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained.’ ” From this comes the apostolic authority of priests to absolve sins in the Sacrament of Penance. Periodic participation in this Sacrament is an expectation of the Church. But forgiveness doesn’t stop there when the words of absolution are spoken and acts of penance are performed. Jesus wants all of us to reflect God’s great love for us and His Mercy by forgiving others. The prayer Jesus taught us makes it clear that when we ask God to forgive our trespasses, we also must forgive those that trespass against us. Let us not be like the unmerciful servant in the parable Jesus told who after being forgiven a sizable debt by the king turns around and demands immediate payment of a fellow servant who only owed a few dollars. Woe unto us if we behave that way. (Matthew 81:23-35) Sometimes we may feel like asking, like St. Peter asked Jesus, “How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” You remember what Jesus answered? – “Not seven times but seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21-21) In other words, our mercy to others should be as limitless as God’s mercy is to us. Truly practicing these words is painfully hard, and even impossible without God’s Spirit and Grace, but what a powerful witness it is. Our time for forgiveness and forgiving, and for healing and wholeness, is now. Our church, St. George’s, has provided numerous sacramental opportunities for us to be healed in every way – such as the healing Mass offered yesterday and every 3rd Saturday where we may be anointed with Holy Oil, and the other services of Meditation and Penance being given on the 1st Saturdays of every month here. We have, of course, weekly opportunity in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist on Sunday morning and on Wednesday at noon. May we all seek out these opportunities to receive sacramental Grace so that we too may marvel and glorify God that Jesus is with us and in us to cleanse and heal our entire being, and bring us into the presence of His Heavenly Kingdom.
And now unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all might, majesty, and honor, as is most justly due this day, both now and forever, Amen.