[AI translation] [The beginning of the sermon is missing, page 244 of the publication Debt forgiven is missing.]...left with our plundered lives, we do not expect Him to speak a liberating word for our sins. Oh, those sins of ours, greater and lesser, are the least of our sins! We are used to them, we have grown accustomed to them, they have become our nature, we have made peace with them, we have come to terms with them, "I am like this now, I can't help it, we will just deal with those sins somehow with the good God when we come before him..."!
Sin is not our biggest problem, but many others! This is not what we need Jesus to help us with, but a thousand other problems! For there are so many troubles that paralyze our lives... This man in the story is suffering from a stroke, but another may be suffering from housing problems - he can no longer afford to rent a flat; or a crisis in family life - he can no longer cope with his children; or the evil of men has already ruined his nerves; or a secret grief of the soul, consuming his life; or the unloving misunderstanding that surrounds him at home; or the fear that the physical pains that come may point to the disease that everyone fears these days... Yes! We are waiting and asking for something like this help from Jesus, and perhaps we have come here asking for such help. We are waiting for Him to encourage us in this world full of fears, to comfort us in our sadness, to help us in our daily problems, to pull us out of some kind of a rut. This is what we expect from him... And then he says: "Your sins are forgiven you!" Well, that's not our problem! But I've often heard this frustrated complaint: "All my pleas to God are in vain, but he won't help me!"
But that is exactly what Jesus wants: to help the person in trouble! Help us! Only not in the way we would like: not to remove the symptoms of the trouble, but to reach down and get to the root of all our troubles. That's why he talks about sin! Yes, sin! Anyone who wants to experience his help should believe Jesus when he says to them, "Your real trouble is not what is outside you, but what is inside you." Great trouble is sickness, terrible misery is a benign condition, a family crisis, the disobedience of your children, the malice of men, an unfaithful partner, but your true trouble is deeper! In your heart, in your soul! Yes, your sins! Not the sins of others, but yours! Those sins, big or small, that have grown up in you, that you no longer even notice in yourself. Or the ones that maybe you hate yourself for, that you hide, that only you know about and that if they found out about you, maybe your neighbor would never say hello to you again. Yes, yes: that secret fornication, or that foeticide, or that tax evasion, or that lying, or that old stealing, or that selfish, unloving, cold heart of yours that scares people away, that lot of small and big vile, so-called bad temper that lies behind your well-bred manners, your smooth, smiling face. That is your real, that is your fatal trouble! That's why they don't understand you, no wonder they don't love you, of course life around you is confused, peace is upset... In short, let me say: our greatest problem, our most basic misery, is that our relationship with God is not really right!
Jesus sees this and that is why he says that forgiveness of sins is actually the decisive help for us. He does not preach forgiveness of sins as if He wanted to satisfy the person in trouble with a gracious word, but precisely because He does not want to pay for it with a superficial, temporary, momentary help. That is why He does not begin with healing, but with forgiveness of sins for us, today as then. He does so not out of powerlessness in the face of sickness, but out of power over a far greater evil, sin, and that is why he asks the pestering Pharisees, "Which is easier, to say to the man who has fallen into a fit of gout, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, arise and walk?" No doubt it is easier to say, "Your sins are forgiven," than to rise up and walk. But there is also no dispute that it is harder to actually do the forgiving than to heal. Because healing, at least to some extent, is something that humans can do! But to forgive sins, only God can! Because do you know what forgiveness means? It means that something that was, is no more! Forgiveness is as incomprehensibly powerful an act of God as creation. Creation means that what was not: became at the word of God! And forgiveness of sins means that what was is, at the word of God, no more! No! As if it had never been. God, through forgiveness of sins, creates from a miserable sinner a man who stands before Him without sin! This is the creative power of divine love! Now, indeed, what is easier, what is more powerful, what is more: to say to a man who has sinned, "Your sins are forgiven you," or to say, "Arise and walk?
Which is more important, more urgent: forgiveness of sins, or healing? Our earthly minds are inclined to choose the latter! For deliverance from all sorts of troubles we pray very much, for deliverance from bodily spiritual afflictions we labor very fervently and in many ways. But the cleansing from our sins is only a side issue. We fear a toothache more than a sin! And when Jesus says and does first of all what no one has ever asked Him to do, that is, to forgive this man his sins, He is warning us all: "You, man, I will not really help you if you can use your paralysed limbs again, if you happen to move into a better apartment, but you take your old heart with you. It also doesn't help if your partner's cold heart turns back to you, but you can still only demand love and not give it. Nor are you helped by getting rid of the pain, but not the sin! Can we believe Jesus that all our sins - however common, however habitual, however beautiful or ugly, however kind or hateful - that are not under the indifferent scope of forgiveness, are a greater evil than cancer, a greater misery than a stroke of the gut, a greater peril than a bleeding wound! A greater tragedy than a financial bankruptcy! God's greatest help for us is not to live 20, 30, 40 years longer on this earth, but to live forever! Jesus sees our life, our destiny, not only to the point of death, but the whole of it, in a larger perspective, and that is why he is saying to this very sick man who is almost at the limit: Your sins are forgiven you! Sin is a deadly poison, only one thing can neutralize it: forgiveness, when God says to someone through Jesus: "Your sins are forgiven!
Can we accept that for us too, forgiveness of sins is the first thing we need? That everything else is secondary? Because without forgiveness of sins, we may have good health, a nice home, a raise, a decent living situation outside, but there is no order inside, no true peace in our hearts, no right relationship with God. It is forgiveness of sins that puts our relationship with God in order, and when that is in order, then nothing is difficult, then everything else is basically in order. Then it is as if the rays of the sun break through the many, many sad things that were hanging over us like impenetrable clouds!
Your sins are forgiven! But can we also accept this as the word of Jesus to us personally? Look at this patient in the story: is this why he came? He did not come himself, but others brought him! Was it at his request, or against his will? How did he stand in faith, what was his repentance? - There is not a word about this in the account. We do not know. But Jesus looked into his misery and reached into his heart, and the word of Jesus was enough for him! It's not a question of how you got here this morning, it's a question of whether the word of Jesus is enough for you now, "Trust, my son, my daughter, your sins are forgiven you." True repentance can only come to a man in the light of forgiveness! If you now accept in your heart what Jesus is saying to you, you will be truly amazed at what he had to forgive and why he had to suffer there on the cross! How much He cares for you! And that you can never truly repay Him!
One last thing. After Jesus has given this patient the actual big help by forgiving him of his sins, He now goes back to the problem for which he was brought here, "Arise and walk," He tells him. So now he is demonstrating on his body, in a visible way, what he had just done on his soul, invisibly. This bodily healing is a small visible sign that the one whose sins Jesus forgives has not only been helped theoretically, spiritually, religiously, but practically, actually, in terms of everyday life, has been helped! In forgiveness of sins there is a liberating power, it means that the paralysis is lifted, a miracle happens. Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is joy and peace, life begins again! There what we read here happens: they all marveled and praised God and said, "We have never seen anything like it! So they look in amazement at those who have known Him and say this: Wow, what happened to this man? How he has changed! What happened? That he met Jesus and was forgiven of his sins! If only that could happen to us now! Let's try to sing it now as a personal testimony of our souls before Jesus:
"To the Lamb of God
I lay down my sin,
And my soul shall have peace
There at the foot of the cross.
All my heart
I bring to the Lord,
I'll cleanse all the filth
In the blood of Jesus,
In the blood of Jesus.
Broken and empty
I give myself to him.
That he may create me anew,
To fill the void.
All my troubles, all my sorrows
I give to the Lord
He bears all my burdens,
He wipes away my sorrow,
He wipes away my sorrow."
(Canto 459, verses 1-2)
Date: 10 October 1965.