The Meat of the Matter
Our next Church Fellowship night will be October 17th beginning at 5pm. We will have a 70’s “Who Done It” Mystery Theme.
Matthew tells us this morning about the healing of a Paralyzed man, but tells it in a way where, read closely, we see the most important healing was his soul, even more than his body.
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The Meat of the Matter
Good morning. The healing of the paralyzed man in Matthew 9 also appears in Mark and Luke, and all three tell the story in the same fascinating way. They build what I call literary sandwiches. That describes it accurately, but also sounds funny so it makes it easy to remember the point.
That’s why we have the Hamburger or Oreo image in our Bulletin this morning in our Gospel lesson. As we walk through the story, we’ll see how easy it is for us, just like the onlookers in our Gospel, to be distracted by the sandwich bread. But remember, what’s most important is what’s inside.
Matthew actually gives us two sandwiches, one big and one small. The big one starts right before the healing. Matthew records Jesus performing miracles as he preaches, culminating in the exorcism of a legion of demons from two men in Gadara. You may know the story. The demons go into a herd of pigs who run off a cliff, and the people of that town, instead of celebrating two neighbors freed from demonic torment, beg Jesus to leave, because they’d rather have kept their pigs than face a man with that kind of spiritual authority.
Right after the healing, we read Jesus calling a tax collector named Matthew to be His disciple. Matthew is almost certainly the writer of this Gospel and uses this story to share how Jesus called him out of a life of being despised by everyone he knew, to being an apostle. Mark and Luke both include the same story, but instead of Matthew, the tax collector is called by his birth name, Levi. And here’s where it gets interesting. When we compare Levi and the Levites, we see something remarkable, or maybe better put, ironic.
The Levites were set apart to serve God and represent Him to His people. Yet here the religious not only shun outcasts, but grumble when Jesus brings restoration to outcasts and sinners. And how does Jesus answer that failure? Jesus takes the least respectable man He can find, interestingly named Levi, and gives him their job: to preach and serve God. While they stand apart from sinners, this despised Levi gets up, follows Jesus, and begins serving God.
And just like Gadara didn’t appreciate Jesus rescuing the demon-possessed men, the religious leaders despise the rescue of this outcast. That’s the bread, the surrounding story that tells you what kind of day this was, a day of Jesus rescuing people and others condemned Him for doing it.
Now to the small sandwich, the story of the paralytic itself.
Some men carry a paralyzed friend to Jesus, and when they can’t get through the crowd, they lower him through the roof. Jesus sees their faith and says, “Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.” Some of those elites think to themselves:
This man is blaspheming. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Rise and walk’?” Then He tells the paralytic to rise, take up his bed and go home. And he does. The crowd’s afraid, and glorifies God that Jesus has such power.
Read quickly, the bread part in the bulletin, that’s a great story. Man can’t walk, Jesus heals him, crowd is amazed. If that were the whole story, the scribes never would have objected, and the story would be an empty sandwich. But that’s not what happens. Jesus doesn’t start with the man’s legs. He starts with his soul.
Which is why Jesus asks His strange question to the scribes. Which is easier:
To say, “your sins are forgiven” or “rise and walk”?
On the surface, forgiving sins looks easier, since no one can see whether it actually has happened. If I walk into a hospital, in my clericals, and talk and pray with people, and tell them their sins are forgiven, no one will bat an eye. Especially since I say, “Jesus forgives your sins.” Jesus, however, forgives sins on His own authority, and that is what the scribes object to.
But if I started going through the ICU telling people lying in pain that they are healed, and they need to get up and walk home, that’s another story. You’d probably have me locked up unless…Unless what? Unless everyone actually started getting up, healthy as can be, and went home.
Jesus uses the healing as proof that His authority to forgive sins is real. The healing shows He can do the invisible, spiritual work as well. He is not asking a riddle. He is offering evidence. “That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” and then, in front of everyone, He proves it.
This is the meat of the sandwich, hiding in plain sight inside a story everyone thinks they already know. The forgiveness of sins isn’t a backup plan here, something Jesus threw in before getting to the real miracle. It was the entire point. The walking was there to prove it, so that even people who couldn’t see into the man’s soul could trust what Jesus had done there.
Which raises the question Matthew is really asking all of us. When the crowd saw the man walk, they were afraid, and they glorified God. But notice what moved them. It wasn’t the quiet pronouncement that a man’s debt to God had been wiped away. If this man had gone home still lying on his mat, forgiven but still paralyzed, nobody in that crowd would have marveled. Nobody would have said, “Praise God, his sins are forgiven.”
We are far more easily moved by what we can see than by what matters most. We celebrate the healed diagnosis, the job offer, the answered prayer we can point to. And we should be grateful for those things. But we can walk right past the deeper miracle: that our sins, every one of them, have already been wiped off God’s record through Christ.
The story also gives us a perfect picture of the Christian walk and life. Getting up and walking at Jesus’ command is the proof of a change in our life. It was true for the paralytic, and for Matthew. In our Epistle lesson, Paul talks to those who have had their sins forgiven, and describes what that walk should look like: Put off the old self, corrupted by its deceitful desires, be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Don’t lie. Don’t let anger control you. Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath. Don’t steal and share with those in need. Don’t tear people down with your words, use them to build people up. Paul doesn’t say clean yourself up and then Christ will accept you. He says you were taught in Christ to put off what you were, since you have been made new. Forgiveness first. Walking second.
And that’s where the sandwich comes together. The man on the mat gets up. Levi gets up. And Christians are called to get up and walk, not because walking earns forgiveness. But because forgiveness has already been given.
That is the Gospel. Jesus does not say, “Walk, and then I will forgive you.” He forgives, and then He says, “Rise.” Your sins are forgiven. Now get up. Follow Me. Walk with Me.
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