When You’ve Got Forgiveness…

Matthew 9:1-8

In years past the dietary supplement Geritol was sold with the slogan “When you’ve got your health, you’ve got just about everything.” Jesus seems to differ significantly with that viewpoint. “And just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven’" (Matthew 9:2). For Jesus it is more appropriate to say, “When you’ve got forgiveness, you’ve got just about everything.”

The reason I say this is because forgiveness is Jesus’ first response to the paralytic and the faith this man’s friends demonstrated. What Jesus wanted them—and especially the man who was paralyzed—to know was that in their faith they had found right relationship with God and been reconciled to him. This was, after all, the heart of Jesus’ ministry. His preaching, teaching, calling, healing, and exhorting were all focused on restoring the connection between God and God’s people. Everything else followed from there.

Every time that Christian communities gather a typical part of their worship, regardless of where it takes place, is the confession of sins and the assurance of pardon. God’s people are encouraged to acknowledge their failings and to name them before God. This in turn provides the opportunity to hear God’s grace proclaimed. We know we have failed; we also know that God loves us anyway and is working through the love of Jesus Christ to keep the relationship with God open, and that through that relationship all else becomes possible.

When the paralyzed man was brought to Jesus by his friends, Jesus’ first impulse was to assure him of his forgiveness. When Jesus did heal the man it was a further confirmation of God’s love and compassion, proving that when you’ve got forgiveness, you’ve got just about everything.

Prayer: Lord, we have failed you in so many ways. Forgive us, we pray, and help us to walk according to your will. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

When Is Enough Enough?

Matthew 18:10-20

What in Matthew’s gospel may sound like a lost cause may not be all that final. Jesus is discussing conflict within the church when he says, “If the member refuses to listen to (two or three members), tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:17). The key terms here are church, Gentile, and tax collector, and they deserve some careful attention.

First of all, we know that Jesus is really talking past the disciples to us because the church is a post-resurrection reality, birthed at Pentecost. How then are we to deal with the likes of Gentiles and tax collectors? Jesus can’t mean that we give up on them entirely. The mission of the church, as given by Jesus later in Matthew’s gospel, is to go and “make disciples of all nations (i.e. Gentiles)” (28:19). And Jesus himself has already expressed his concern for tax collectors in particular by calling a tax collector named Matthew to become a disciple. When Jesus’ choice of dinner companions (“sinners and tax collectors”) was questioned he answered, “I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners” (9:1-9).

When Jesus says that those who refuse to listen to the church should be treated as Gentiles and tax collectors he is not giving up on them, but singling them out for a renewed effort at reconciliation. So I would suggest that Jesus’ words in Matthew 18 are not a warning to those who disagree with the church, but a reminder to the church – as the body of Christ at work in the world – “to call not the righteous, but sinners,” and “to go and make disciples of all nations.” In other words enough is never enough.

Prayer: Lord, open our hearts to those who need the good news, and grant us the patience to live you word into reality. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Is This a Trick Question?

Matthew 9:1-8

“Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’?” (Matthew 9:5). According to Matthew this was Jesus’ question to a group of scribes who doubted his authority to forgive the sins of a paralyzed man. Is Jesus serious? Of course it is easier in that case to say “your sins are forgiven” than to say “ stand up and walk,” at least if we really expect something to happen. But that’s not the point.

The point is that the God of grace and forgiveness is also the God of hope and healing. To trust God in one area of our lives is to trust God in the other, and what God offers in each case is just as real. How often do we forget our need for forgiveness? How often do we focus solely on our need for wellbeing as we see it? And yet forgiveness, a release from the power of sin over our lives, is every bit as important as alleviating our illness or pain. In a very real way the sins of the paralyzed man kept him weighed down. Assuring him of God’s love allowed him to stand spiritually, just as healing him allowed him to stand physically.

Which is easier to say? If we slow down and pay attention we will see that by God’s grace we receive both healing and forgiveness and that in God’s love and mercy we find that we are strong enough to live as God intends.

Prayer: Lord, help us to stand as a forgiven people, healed of that which keeps us from you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.