Matthew 9,1-8. 19. Trinity

Matthew 9,1-8 5122

19. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 66 

James the brother of Jesus. Bishop of Jerusalem. Martyr 62

Severin, Bishop of Cologne, Germany. ✠ 403 

23. Oktober 2022

1. ℣ Say unto my soul, I am thy Salvation:   

℟ The righteous cry, and Yahweh heareth (Psalm 35,3b; 34,17a). 

O God, our Provider; help us to see that all that You do and allow to happen is to lead to a good end, so that we rest in peace and are eternally happy.  Amen. (Ich singe dir mit Herz und Mund elkg 581,17-18 2021 Paul Gerhardt 1653). 

2. »And getting into a boat Jesus crossed over and went to His own city. 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.“ And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves: „This man is blaspheming.“ But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said: „Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say: ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say: ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins“ —He then said to the paralytic—„Rise, pick up your bed and go home.“ And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.« 

3. Today’s Gospel pericope occurs in Capernaum in Galilee. Matthew tells us that this is Jesus’ own city, for he had moved there from Nazareth at the beginning of His ministry. Capernaum was a modest town with 1500-3000 people. This is also where 4 of the 12 apostles lived: Peter, Andrew, James and John who had a fishing business there. These are also the earliest of Jesus’ disciples. Peter, Andrew and Philip were originally from nearby Bethsaida 10 km/6 mi northeast.

4. As the events of this day unfolds, a discussion and teaching about faith and forgiveness ensues. There is a paralytic whose friends believe Jesus can and will heal him. In response to their faith, Jesus tells the paralytic that his sins are forgiven.  

5. Here Jesus makes one of the clearest and most remarkable testimonies that sin and sickness are inextricably related (Gibbs 459). This idea shows up several times in the Gospels, most famously in John when Jesus heals a man who had been born blind. What Jesus highlights in Matthew 9 is that it is only sinners who get sick (Gibbs 459). The paralytic needs healing of his sins and of his paralysis; Jesus heals both of his maladies.  

6. No one begrudges Jesus of healing the man’s paralysis; it is the forgiveness of his sins that offends some of the scribes. Jesus is blaspheming! These experts in the Scriptures know that only God can forgive sins, and He has establish the means for that: the sacrifices the priests do at the temple in Jerusalem. So the scribes have 2 points of contention against Jesus: 1. He is not God, so he has no authority to tell this man his sins are forgiven; 2. We are in Capernaum, not Jerusalem, and Jesus is not a Levitical priest so he is operating outside of the covenant God had given Israel at Mount Sinai. Blasphemy is serious business, and under the covenant Jesus should be stoned to death: that is how the scribes interpret the law.  

7. Jesus has already taught about the importance of the law in His Sermon on the Mount: »Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished« (Matthew 5,17-18). By forgiving the paralytic, Jesus is fulfilling and accomplishing the Law, the Prophets and the covenant!  

8. What stymied the scribes still tempts our sinful flesh 2000 years later. Is Jesus truly God? Does He have the authority to fulfill and accomplish the Sinai covenant? There are numerous theologians in the 21. century who argue that Jesus was merely a man and therefore had no authority to forgive sins. These modern day scribes reject Jesus’ claims contrary to the testimony Jesus presented. The Devil works hard to convince our fallen, rational mind that the scribes had it right and Jesus was mistaken as to his identity or that we have uplifted Jesus above his simple moral teacher mantle, namely Jesus was only a moral teacher and not the Messiah. 

9. C. S. Lewis coined this trilemma as: Is Jesus a lunatic, Lucifer or the Lord? Lewis said the following: „I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. … Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God“ (Lewis 36-37 Mere Christianity) 

10. Lewis simplifies Jesus’ claims to 3 essential points: 

   i. to have authority to forgive sins; 

   ii. to have always existed (omniexistentium); 

   iii. to intend to return to judge the world at the end of time (Lewis 35). 

Lewis implies that these amount to a claim to be God and argues that they logically exclude the possibility that Jesus was merely a great moral teacher because he believes no ordinary human making such claims could possibly be rationally or morally reliable (God in the Docks 101; Eerdmans © 1970). 

11. Jesus claims to the the Lord; the scribes claim he is either a liar or Lucifer. Only God can heal and forgive, therefore if Jesus has the ability to heal the paralytic then He also has the authority to forgive. Jesus doesn’t give the scribes or us any other alternative: either He can heal and forgive or He cannot; He is the Lord or he is a liar or Lucifer. There can only be forgiveness where there is a sacrifice; an innocent must take the place of the guilty. This is the centerpiece of the Sinai covenant—an animal must shed its innocent blood to cover the guilt of the sinner. The scribes likewise interpreted the Law correctly: if there is a sacrifice, then there is forgiveness. To forgive sinners Jesus must be the sacrifice for the sinners. Jesus has the authority to forgive because He is God and He has paid the redemptive price with His own death and shed blood. 

12. Since Christ has full atonement made

And brought to us salvation,

Each Christian  therefore may be glad

And build on this foundation.

Your grace alone, dear Lord, I plead,

Your death is now my life indeed,

For You have paid my ransom (Salvation unto Us has Come lsb 555,6 Paul Speratus 1484-1551) 

This is most certainly true. 

10. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7).  Amen. 

11. Let us pray. O almighty and most merciful God, of Thy bountiful goodness keep us, we beseech Thee, from all things that may hurt us, that we, being ready both in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish those things that Thou wouldst have done.  Amen. (The Week of Trinity 19, Vespers Collect 1. The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.)

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

 

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

Evangelisch-Lutherisches Kirchengesangbuch. Copyright © 2021 Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche, Hannover. 

Gibbs, Jeffrey A. Matthew 1:1 – 11:1. Copyright © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.

Lewis, C. S. The Complete C. S. Lewis. Signature Classics. Copyright © 2000 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd.