So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins

Matthew 9:1-17 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over the Sea of Galilee and came to His own city.

² And they brought to Him a paralyzed man lying on a stretcher. And seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man who was paralyzed, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.” ³ And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming!” ⁴ And Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? ⁵ For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ⁶ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, pick up your stretcher and go home.” ⁷ And he got up and went home. ⁸ But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

⁹ As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s office; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.

¹⁰ Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and began dining with Jesus and His disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” ¹² But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ Now go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, rather than sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

¹⁴ Then the disciples of John came to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁵ And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the groom cannot mourn as long as the groom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the groom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. ¹⁶ But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. ¹⁷ Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

In John 3:16 Jesus says: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.”  What though does it mean to believe in Jesus, God’s Son? It is more than acknowledging that He was or that He is. In today’s text it says: They brought to Him a paralyzed man lying on a stretcher. And seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man who was paralyzed, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.” And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming!” And Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, pick up your stretcher and go home.” And he got up and went home. But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.  The belief in Jesus that leads to eternal life, believes that He has the authority to both forgive sins and to heal every disease. In Revelation 21:8, when those who will not inherit the promise of God are listed, the fearful and the unbelieving are first on the list, mentioned before the: abominable, and murderers, and sexually immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars. Our belief that He has the authority to both forgive and heal must go beyond a mental ascent. It must be more than that we believe that God so loved the world. It needs to be personal. We need to believe that God so loved us, each one of us individually, that Jesus died on the cross for each one, for you and for I. We need to believe that He not only has the authority to forgive and to heal, but that it is true that on the cross, He said: “It is finished!” (John 19:30) We are forgiven and we are healed. Jesus taught us to pray saying: ‘Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven…’ We need to believe that it is already finished, that the realities of heaven will be manifested on earth, that we are healed and forgiven.

The text says: Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and began dining with Jesus and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. Now go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, rather than sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” There are many today who try to distort and pervert what it says here. They say that Jesus preferred the company of sinners over the company of religious people. They say that if Jesus were here today, He would prefer to be with sinners rather than in the church. Jesus did not eat with and associate with sinners because He preferred their company or embraced their sin. He didn’t call them on their phones and ask them to hang out. He called them to repent, to change the way they believe. To believe that He has authority to heal and forgive. In John 3:16-21 Jesus says: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.”

In today’s text Jesus says:  “no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”  To believe that the Son of God, the very one who was with God at the creation of all things and who is with Him in heaven, would come to earth as a man and die for our sins is beyond human comprehension. We need to think differently to believe that Jesus not only has all authority, but that He has already fully accomplished everything we need through the cross. “It is finished!” Our old way of thinking will not hold the glory and the magnitude of what God has done and wants to do for us. We need to change the way we think, to repent and believe. We need to be fresh wineskins to truly believe and receive all that He has done for us.

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.