The Power of Forgiveness

Last week we finished our series of passages from the sermon on the mount with a statement of Jesus authority. Matthew continues in Chapter 8 and 9 with illustrations of this authority in various ways. Chapter 8 begins with three healing stories, two of which are responses to faith requests and a third which is a simple gift. Then is verses 16 and 17 we have a summary of the fact that Jesus did many healings.

In verse 18 the emphasis changes to Jesus authority to call disciples. There are people who want to follow Jesus when it is more convenient, and there is the story of a storm on the lake when Jesus calms both the wind and the waves and the fear in the hearts of his disciples. Jesus chides them for their weak faith in him and they are amazed at his authority. Then there is the story of Jesus confronting evil spirits and driving them out. Matthew is building up a picture of Jesus as one who has authority in the broadest context.

Finally in Chapter 9 Jesus calls Matthew to follow him and we discover what Jesus is on about. In verse 13 Jesus says, “I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.” In the sermon on the mount Jesus was redefining their view of righteousness and the Kingdom of God, and now he is challenging their view of who God accepts and calls.

At the beginning of Chapter 9 we have a remarkable healing story. It is of a paralysed man who Jesus heals by saying, “Your sins are forgiven.” Jesus is then accused of blasphemy, but he proves that he has the power to forgive sins by simply telling the man to get up and go home. The proof for them is in the fact that he does. They believed there was a direct link between sin and sickness. I think Jesus is both using that belief to teach them and to undermine the belief at the same time. For them the fact that the sick were clearly sinners, made them outcast and unacceptable to God.

Jesus says that because they are sick and outcast sinners, they are in fact, the focus of God’s call. By telling the paralytic to get up and go home, shows both Jesus’ power to forgive in their minds, and the fact that the healing in not necessarily about forgiveness at all. None of the previous healing stories are the result of forgiveness, but rather about people’s faith or God’s gracious gift. What this paralytic needs to know is that he is forgiven. This is the essential component of his healing.

All healing stories however, are about salvation, and they are all told to illustrate how God’s saves people, sets them free from whatever binds them, and enables them to become followers of Jesus in a right relationship with God.

The passage finishes even more incredibly; “When the people saw it, they were afraid, and praised God for giving such authority to men.” Mark and Luke both tell this story, but only Matthew concludes with these words. Matthew is telling us that we have the authority of God to forgive sins. In the Sermon on the Mount we do not have the authority of God to kill, break sacred vows, punish, condemn or look down on people, but now we find that we can forgive them.

In fact this is a primary part of our mission; to set people free from what paralyses them, and there is nothing more paralysing than guilt, blame and disgrace. We have the authority of God to forgive those who need it. This is the Good News of the cross after all. The hardest act in the story is for the paralytic to actually get up, and the hardest part of forgiveness is to accept it.