• "Your Sins Are Forgiven"
• Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity
• October 17, 2004
• The Reverend Stephen C. Scarlett

In the gospel today, some of the religious leaders objected when Jesus said to the paralyzed man, "Your sins are forgiven." It was not that they didn't believe that sins can be forgiven. Their objection was to the method.

On Mt. Sinai, God gave instructions to Moses concerning how sins were to be forgiven. Forgiveness required the sacrifice of an animal according to rituals prescribed in the Torah. As Hebrews says, "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins" (Hebrews 9:22). When Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven" he was claiming the authority to do, by his own word of command, what the religious leaders thought could only be done through the temple ministry. The only person who could circumvent the temple and forgive by personal command is God.

God created the world by speaking. Every aspect of the created world is subject to God's rule and command. Jesus exhibited this divine authority in his ministry. He multiplied the loaves and fishes, turned water into wine and calmed the stormy sea. The demons obeyed his commands. He showed his authority even over death, raising Jairus's daughter, the widow's son and Lazarus by his word. This shows that Jesus is the Word of God, through whom the Father made the world (John 1:1-3).

The Word was made flesh in order to reassert God's authority over the rebellious creation. God created the world and said, "It is good." But the devil and his angels rebelled against God in heaven and enticed man to join in that rebellion on earth. We inherit from our first parents that defect of nature called sin. The good news, as the gospel today says, is that "the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." He can restore what was lost at the Fall.

Jesus passed this authority on to his church. On Easter night, Jesus appeared to the apostles and "breathed on them and said, '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). Jesus breathed on them in the same manner that God formed man from dust and "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (2:7). The breath of life is connected with the authority to forgive because it is through forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit that we, who are dead in sin, are restored to life.

The church exercises the authority to forgive in baptism. As we say, "I believe in one baptism for the remission of sins." The church exercises the authority to forgive when her priests pronounce absolution. The church exercises the authority to forgive at the altar when she offers the sufficient sacrifice and administers "the blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you, and for many, for the remission of sins."

It is through the experience of forgiveness that we are able, as the epistle from Ephesians exhorts us, to "Put off the old man" and "be renewed in the spirit of [our] mind" and to "put on the new man" which is "created in righteousness and true holiness." The old man is paralyzed by sin, by patterns of lying, anger, theft, evil speech, bitterness and malice. Through the forgiveness of sins there is healing. A new man "rises and walks" to live a new life characterized by truth, forgiveness and reconciliation, honest labor, charity and edifying speech.

We grow in the experience of forgiveness as we grow in faith. At first, we may understand the concept of forgiveness, but we may think it applies mostly to the sins of other people. Faith may be an exercise in trying to act like a "good" Christian. Faith begins to change our lives when we come to understand that the promise of forgiveness applies to our real sins; when grace and forgiveness begin to touch those painful parts of our lives that cause guilt, shame and fear. Then, and only then, do crippled sinners begin to rise and walk.

Forgiveness is connected to the healing of our bodies, and, indeed, the whole creation. The first sin led to decay and corruption in the creation. The forgiveness of sins leads to the hope that the creation will be healed. As Romans says, "the creation will be set free from bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God."

Our culture puts great emphasis on physical health: diet, exercise, the search for cures for various diseases. These are good things inasmuch as they provide for a better life in this world. But those of us who have our hope set on eternity should put a greater emphasis on the health of our souls and the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness leads to bodily health for all eternity.

We should be diligent to examine our lives, week by week, in the light of God's commandments. We should ask the Holy Spirit to bring our secret sins into the light of Christ's saving presence. And we should take to heart the promise of forgiveness, for the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. And the church exercises that authority for the benefit of those who come to him with penitent hearts and sincere faith.

In the Creed, just after we say, "I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins" we say, "And I look for the Resurrection of the dead: And the Life of the world to come." The two are connected. The forgiveness of sins leads to the future hope of the resurrection. Now Jesus says to us, "Your sins are forgiven." Then he will say to us, in that full and final way, "Rise and walk."