Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity - October 11, 2026

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Doctors hear a lot of symptoms, and we expect them to be able to consider those symptoms and then diagnose our problems. This is also true of a lot of other jobs, and I’m not only talking about veterinarians either—although they don’t have a patient telling them what they’re feeling on the inside. But if you’re a mechanic, either for vehicles or heavy equipment or small engines, you’ve got to pay attention to the sounds the machine is making, make a diagnosis, then get to fixing what you think is the problem. And, of course, we all get frustrated when we fix something and the problem remains. We diagnosed it wrong. But that’s life. We might have a rare disease that the doctor hadn’t considered.

The same is true with our feelings and thoughts. They send us messages of things going on beneath the surface that we might not easily name. This is why depression is rarely about depression—there are factors other than chemical imbalances at play. These could be guilt over sin, resentment, suffering from the actions of others, and much more. It’s not easy to figure out the root problems because it’s easier to ignore and suppress problems rather than talk about them and being willing to repent of them or forgive others.

I think of this when we have our text for today. There is a paralyzed man who was lowered through an opening in the roof by four of his friends. The crowds were so large that these men couldn’t make it into the house where Jesus was. When Jesus sees the faith of those men, he says some striking words to the man: “Son, your sins are forgiven” (5). It’s shocking for two reasons.

First, if you were to diagnosis this man’s problems, his sins would probably be the last on your list. How many sins could this man even commit?? Now, we should know that sin is more than just wrong deeds. He could sin with his desires, his thoughts, his words, and so much more. That being said, most of us would label his paralysis as his far bigger problem. Now, I’m not going to diagnosis his sins from afar—from 2000 years ago without any further description in the text. But Jesus could, and did. When he saw the man, he was a perfect diagnoser. Yes, the man had paralysis, but I imagine Jesus thinking, “I’ll get to that later. That’s a minor problem.” The man’s real problem is his sin. So Jesus forgave it.

This leads to the second shocking thing. Jesus forgives the man’s sins. It’s not as shocking to us now, because God has given his Church authority to forgive and retain sins. Jesus gives pastors in particular to address consciences in this way. But prior to God becoming man, the Israelites received forgiveness by offering sacrifices. Only God could just announce sin forgiven. We know this was shocking because we get an insight into the scribes’ thoughts: “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (7). The charge of blasphemy is associated with claiming to be God. Jesus was indeed claiming to be God. And he was. The interesting thing is that the scribes make the connection of what Jesus is claiming to be, they just don’t believe it. This is precisely why Jesus would be crucified a few years later.

What follows is Jesus’s proof to them of divinity. He heals the man. We’ll get to his words later, but this is one proof that Jesus is divine. He did miracles that are astounding. They point to his creative ability. He who was at creation, who made heaven and earth and man and woman is able to do marvelous things. Yes, God allowed the prophets of the Old Testament to do some miracles. There are three resurrections in the Old Testament. God used Moses to turn the Nile into blood and divided the Red Sea. But Jesus did things never seen before—multiply bread, heal the blind, heal the paralytic, and eventually, rise himself from the dead. That resurrection is the final proof of Jesus’s divinity, but He was leaving hints along the way that the Jews should have believed.

Jesus’s words say as much. “‘Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Rise, take up your bed and walk”? 10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the paralytic— 11’I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home’” (8–11). Jesus’s authority to forgive sins is linked to his authority to heal. Healing demonstrates that he is God. Forgiving is what God does. “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Ps 103:8) is one of the most-used phrases in the Bible. God forgives his people their sins time and again. Jesus has this authority, and He gives it to His Church to proclaim.

There is one other interesting question that comes out of Jesus’s statement. Which is easier, to heal or to forgive? We would be tempted to think that forgiveness is just words, but healing a paralytic takes years of schooling in medicine and robotics—or was simply impossible for generations of man. But for Jesus, healing the paralytic was as simple as speaking Creation into being. He could just do it out of his divine power. Forgiving sins, on the other hand, meant far more. It meant his death on the cross. The book of Hebrews reminds us: “under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (9:22). Gone are the days of animal sacrifice, because Jesus the God-man took our place. He did so that His blood would wash away our sin. We do not believe in anything called “cheap grace,” as if forgiveness is just words. Grace was costly. Every time your sins are forgiven, whether by me in the beginning of the service or in baptism or in the Lord’s Supper, that forgiveness was won by the blood and death of Jesus. It is the most expensive gift that you have ever or will ever receive. The God who did not need to die did—for you and for your salvation.

What this means for us is that our sin does not only have earthly consequences. It does not only matter when it is committed against other people and we need to apologize to them. David realized this after he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and Nathan called him out on his sin. In his penitential psalm, he cries out to God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment” (Ps 51:4). I can think of a few other people that he sinned against: Bathsheba, her dead husband Uriah, Joab whom he used to kill Uriah, and his whole kingdom. But David recognized that while he needed to apologize to them, it was really and ultimately God that he was sinning against and from whom he needed forgiveness. This is true for us as well. Our sins grieve God. When we bottle them up or bury them in our past, God grieves and we suffer. The diagnosis for many—not all, but many—who are suffering from guilt or depression is sin. Sin committed against you, or sins that you have committed.

The medicine for this is the rich forgiveness that Jesus has bought for you. No matter the sin, no matter whether you are a victim or not, forgiveness releases the bondage of sin and guilt. It frees you to walk forward in life not carrying a great burden on your back.

As I was working on this sermon, a news article came to my attention. It revolved around the announced execution for the Fort Hood shooter. But it was about one of his victims who survived that terrorist attack. Alonzo Lunsford acknowledged the justice of capital punishment but then said this, “The weird thing about it, I’ve forgiven him because my faith does not allow me to heal and continue unless I forgive that man.”  This is Christianity. True healing comes through forgiveness. The church is all about the forgiveness of sins—sinners confessing their sins and receiving God’s grace and mercy on account of Christ Jesus our Lord. This is as true now as it was back then for the paralytic. If you were to ask the paralytic, “What was the greatest blessing in your life?” I’m sure he would say, “I am thankful that I can walk, but my greatest blessing was the fact that God in Christ Jesus forgave all my sin.” This ought to be true for us. We will suffer many physical challenges, but our greatest blessing is grace and mercy from God, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.