MATTHEW 9:1-8 Words have great power. Words have started and finished wars.

Words have comforted and words have enraged. There is great power in words, even in words spoken by human beings. But the Lord God has given his authority to words spoken by human beings. The self-righteous Pharisees object when Jesus tells the paralyzed man, Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven. They charge Jesus with blasphemy: mocking God by making false claims about him. To demonstrate that he is the almighty Son of God, with authority on earth to forgive sins, Jesus performs the miracle of healing the paralyzed man. He uses a sign that men can see. At Christ's Word, the paralyzed man rises from his mattress and walks home. This is how our Lord Jesus Christ works today in his church. He works through visible means. He attaches his Word to things that we can see: water, bread and wine, a man in a pulpit preaching. Jesus does this in the place where he has promised we will find his Word, in his Church, where he is really present. St. Matthew begins our text by telling us, Jesus...crossed over and came to his own town. That town was Capernaum, the place where Jesus had established the headquarters for his ministry. Jesus settled in Capernaum to fulfill Isaiah's prophecy, that the land of Zebulun and Naphtali along the Jordan River would see the great light of Christ Jesus and salvation that comes through him. Jesus would be found in the place where God had promised he would be found. And so it is still today. The Church is Christ's own place. He has promised: Where two or three come together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Christ's presence produces the Church. Where Christ is, there his gifts are distributed. Where Christ's gifts are distributed, there is the Church, the little flock that gathers around the voice of her Good Shepherd. That's why the friends carried their friends to that house that day. They knew that Jesus would be there. They had heard the reports that Jesus had healed other people, and they trusted that if he wanted to, he would heal their friend too. But we notice what comes first. First comes forgiveness of sins. That's Christ's first Word to this man who has come for healing. For Christ knows that we must be forgiven before we can be healed. He knows that we must be justified before we can be sanctified. So, Jesus provides what you and I need. He forgives all our sins. He does this, again, through means. He calls pastors and vests them with his authority. We read that the crowds who witnessed the miracle praised God, who had given such authority to men. We notice the plural. The Holy Spirit is looking ahead to the day when Christ's disciples would be sent into the world to proclaim Jesus' words and works to the world. Jesus would give his authority to men, sent out in his name. So, when you come to church, and your pastor forgives all your sins in the name of the Triune God, that forgiveness is sure and certain. It is God's forgiveness. That's Christ's promise: Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. In our Chrisian Worship hymnal, the pastor says, As a called servant of Christ, and by his

authority, I forgive you all your sins. Those words can be understood correctly, but they aren't really the best and clearest way for your called pastor to absolve you of your sins. We find better and clearer language in the familiar words of the Lutheran Hymnal: I, by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins. So, your pastor is going to use those words in our Communion service from now on. Christ has established a holy, preaching office. He has given authority to men to proclaim his Word. Jesus will feed you today with his body and his blood. He will give you the visible assurance that your sins are forgiven through his perfect life, and through his innocent suffering and death on the cross. His resurrection from the dead was God the Father's visible sign that he had accepted Jesus' payment as payment in full for the sins of the world. Today, at your Lord's altar, Jesus will give you his body and blood to eat and to drink. He will declare to you: Take heart; your sins are forgiven.