Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

The 1^st Sunday after Michaelmas
"Is It Important to Find Forgiveness on Earth?"
Genesis 28.16-17; Ephesians 4.23; Matthew 9.6

From the Old Testament of the Day: Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." [Genesis 28.16-17]

From the Epistle: "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind." [Ephesians 4.23]

From the Holy Gospel: "But that your may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" – He then said to the paralytic – "Rise, pick up your bed and go home." [Matthew 9.6]

Each year, on this 19^th Sunday after Trinity, which more accurately is the 1^st Sunday after the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, no matter when that festival day falls in the long Trinity Season, we hear in the Holy Gospel the miracle of the healing of the paralytic who is brought to Jesus on a stretcher. And paired with this lesson, we hear the Old Testament of the Day from Genesis, which presents the event of God’s appearance to Jacob in the night. Your attention is invited first to this Old Testament as you ponder this question this morning: "Is It Important to Find Forgiveness on earth?"

I.

In the Old Testament of the Day, Jacob, Son of Isaac, is on his way from his father’s homestead in Beer-sheba to the patriarchs’ ancestral land in Har-ran, in order to secure a wife from among the tribe, just as Isaac, his father, had done through the family’s chief steward, Eliezer.

Now, the timing of this venture in wife-finding is due to the manner in which Jacob received the family’s paternal blessing from Isaac. Jacob, aided and abetted by his mother, had pulled a charade on his nearly-blind father to secure the blessing, which according to the expected order of things would have been given to his older twin-brother, Esau. Robbed of what he thought to be his by right, Esau swears to kill his brother, and his mother persuades his father to send Jacob on this expedition. Thus it is that Jacob finds himself alone, in barren land, in the dead of night, where he lays down, with his head on a rock, to sleep.

Jacob is a man who needs forgiveness. He has lived up to his name, which means "he grabs the heel," or more generically, "he cheats!" He has cheated his brother – twice, once for the family birthright, the right of the first born, and again for the patriarchal blessing, to be in the lineage of the promised Messiah – which is why Esau said to his father, "He is rightly named, for he has cheated me!" He has cheated his father, by this deception that he pulled on him, with major help and urging from his mother. And he has cheated the Lord God, trifling with the blessing of God. After all, if God had Jacob in mind for the blessing, He would have arranged it, without help. All this is on Jacob’s mind that night. Truly, Jacob is a man in need of forgiveness.

And God delivers forgiveness to Jacob, though the night vision, the dream of the ladder from heaven down to earth, with God Himself standing along side of it. God gives Jacob the sign of His presence. God gives Him the words and promises of the patriarch blessing, and God promises His presence with Jacob on his journey.

The Lord almighty brings His forgiveness to Jacob on earth. When Jacob awakes, he identifies this particular place of wasteland as a temple of God. "Truly God is in this place, and I did not know it!" He marks the place; he sanctifies it – that is, he sets it apart. He returns to it at the conclusion of his journey. This place, this pile of rocks forming a crude altar, with this pillow-rock on top of it, becomes for Jacob the place of his forgiveness, on earth. "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and thus, this is the gate of heaven!" Here is a place to find forgiveness on earth.

II.

And this is not just Jacob’s idea – a place of forgiveness on earth. It is God’s idea! It is God’s plan. In the course of the lives of the patriarchs, the practice of building altars for sacrifices for forgiveness is blessed by God. Later, in the Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land, God institutes the extensive practices of the priestly sacrificial life, centered on the Ark of the Covenant. The purpose of this sacrificial system is for the faithful to find forgiveness and assurance on earth.

But, with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple at the hand of the Babylonians, and according to God’s permission, forgiveness is no longer able to be found on earth. It must be sought by heavenward pleas and prayers. This situation among God’s people remained until the Advent of Christ on earth.

With Christ on earth, forgiveness of sins returns to the earth. This is the grand discovery of the crowd that observed the miracle in today’s Holy Gospel. Jesus says that the miracle of healing the paralytic has a God-intended purpose: "That you may know that the Son of Man has authority ON EARTH to forgive sins!" And the crowd gets it! "They glorified God, who had given such authority to men!" That is the purpose of this miracle! That is the message of this Gospel text!

Forgiveness on earth is a good thing! Or is it? How often is it said among us, among faithful Christians, "Oh, I don’t need to go to church! I can pray and get forgiveness anywhere!" "I see the need for our pastor’s repeated emphasis on baptism and on going to communion EVERY week!" "Now, the pastors these days seem to be pushing confession and absolution on us! I don’t need to confess to a man. I can go straight to God all by myself!" Is it important to find forgiveness of sins on earth?"

III.

You can bet your life, it is! In fact, that is exactly what Jesus does! He lays down His life for forgiveness, on earth! The atonement for the world’s sin could have happened anywhere. It is a deal between God the Son and God the Father. But it happens, for you and all sinners, on earth! At the right place and at the right time, forgiveness is purchased and paid for, on earth, on Golgotha, just outside of old Jerusalem. You can go to the place. Forgiveness of your sins happened, once for all, on earth. It is the way God intends it.

Therefore, God the Holy Spirit is sent to a ministry of the forgiveness of sins on earth! To be renewed in the spirit of your mind, as the Epistle exhorts you, means this: let the Spirit do His work, for, on, and in you, as He communicates and delivers faith, forgiveness, and renewal to you through specific channels on earth. He uses Holy Baptism to bring you faith and forgiveness on earth. He uses the voice of the Gospel in God’s Word to bring you forgiveness and the wisdom of the forgiven ones, on earth. He uses the earthly elements of bread and wine, joining with them Christ’s true body and precious blood, to bring you forgiveness, life, and salvation, on earth. And He uses the authorized voice of His called and ordained ministry, not just to talk about forgiveness and to tell you that there is such a thing, but actually to bring the forgiving and absolving voice of God Himself to your ears and life, on earth. These activities of God the Holy Spirit constitute His ministry to renew the spirit of your minds, by which He, to this day, "calls, gathers, and enlightens the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it in the one true faith."

Is it important to find forgiveness on earth? You bet your life, it is!