Holy Absolution [Wednesday in Lent 5]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

This evening, we hear Jesus speak from Holy Absolution:

“When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”

When speaking of our 5^th part of our catechism, Holy Absolution, we are speaking of the power to forgive sins, not multiplying punishments for sins. That is, the power to forgive sins given to men. Second of all, God is the only One Who can forgive sins, because He is the only one sinned against and He proclaims Himself as the forgiver of sins. Isa. 43:25 says, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

Forgiveness is not a weapon to be used to cause despair and yet that is exactly what some so-called evangelicals do. They tear at the conscience of a person, declaring them condemned to hell if they believe that forgiveness comes from a man, making the Gospel which is meant to bring comfort, a Law of death.

They shout, “Only God can forgive sins” in their most judgmental voice and only tell people that they are going to hell. They throw Bibles at your head, thinking this is what God wants them to do, but they take little responsibility for you afterwards, much less do they care about you nor do they care about what you will read in that head-splitting book. The Spirit will take care of it, they say!

Well, of course the Spirit will take care of it, but not by half-truths such as theirs or half-measures which these super-spiritualists would have us believe. However, they are closer to the truth than they know. They know God’s Word must be preached. They know that someone, a person, has to do it. And, they know that others must hear. They are thoroughly grounded in the human aspect of preaching and teaching.

What they miss is the other half of that puzzle of preaching and teaching that God has given us. In reality, the key to understanding Holy Absolution and the Office of the Keys is in the two natures of Christ. That He is both God and man, 100%, all the time, explains everything we need to know. Our third reading this evening, from Matthew 9, puts us on the right path. In it, Jesus is forgiving the paralytic’s sins without healing him. Though He eventually heals the man, Jesus puts the priority and emphasis upon forgiveness. Meaning, forgiveness is better than a whole and healthy body.

In order to cement this doctrine, Jesus says that God has given such authority to men. the phrase there is a little stronger in the Greek. It literally makes that last phrase one of God’s titles. Meaning, God is the Giver of Such Authority to Men. As in, part of Jesus’ mission is to reveal that men have the authority to forgive sins, in Christ.

Jesus caps off this gift in John 20:22-23 saying: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” coupling that with Jesus saying, “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt. 18:18) and “The one who hears you hears me” (Lk. 10:16) and you get a pretty solid picture of some kind of position on earth, instituted by Christ, where God forgives sins through a man.

Unless you are looking in the Bible for something other than Jesus and forgiveness, you will miss this plain teaching and end up throwing Bibles yourself. For Jesus is God and man. The things He does, the offices and ceremonies He institutes and puts into practice in His Church comes from both natures. In His Church there will be spiritual and physical Absolution.

A Church that is full of the spiritual and the physical. A Church in which the physical affects the spiritual and the spiritual affects the physical. With all this, there is little left to the imagination. All the questions of “What must I do to inherit eternal life” and “what must we do to be doing the works of God” and the like that are asked of Jesus appear silly, because the answer lies in our own skin, which Jesus shares.

One of my favorite quotes from Dr. Luther comes from when he is asked what a person should do if they feel no need to run to the sacraments. He answers: “For those who are so minded that they do not realize their condition I know no better counsel than that they put their hand into their bosom to ascertain whether they also have flesh and blood. And if you find that to be the case, then go, for your good, to St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, and hear what sort of a fruit your flesh is: ‘Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and the like’ (Gal. 5:19-21).”

 Dr. Luther says the way to understanding your need for Holy Absolution, from His called and ordained man, is to simply see if you have a body that is fueled by blood. That’s it. He even goes on to say that if you don’t believe your senses, then at least believe the Holy Scriptures, which know your body better than you do. 

 Romans 7 says, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out” (v.19).

If you are quite dead to all sensibility, still believe the Scriptures, which pronounce sentence upon you and your flesh. And, in short, the less you feel your sins and infirmities, the more reason have you to go to the Sacrament to seek help and a remedy. (LC V:75ff)

Such is the recipe for having and believing that a man can forgive your sins. Not on his own account, but as a called and ordained minister of Christ and by the authority of His words and actions to us, in Holy Absolution.