Date: 28 July 2024, 9.30am
Speaker: Dn Samuel Chan Sermon Text: Matthew 9: 1-13
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TRANSCRIPT
Good afternoon and a warm welcome to all who are joining us at Mount Hermon’s service today, whether in person or online. It is my privilege to share God’s word with you. Let me pray before we begin.
Dear God, by your Holy Spirit and through your word, open our eyes to see Jesus for who he is, our saviour, who makes possible the forgiveness of our sins. In Jesus’ name, amen.
1. Jesus can forgive sins (v1-8)
I want us to begin with some imagination work. You can close your eyes if you want. Think back to when someone offended you. It could be a classmate who didn’t fulfil his part of the group project causing you to get a bad grade. Or a colleague who had spread unfounded rumours about you. Maybe it was a loved one who hurt you by his words or actions. How did you feel when that happened?
Got it? Now imagine this. I walk up to that person and say, “hey, remember that thing you did or said that hurt so-and-so? Don’t worry about it man you are forgiven!” How will you feel? If you are like me, you’d probably go, “errr excuse me?? I’m the one who has been offended and wronged. Who are you to say that he’s forgiven for what he did to me? Only I have the right to offer or withhold forgiveness.”
That’s what the scribes (Jewish religious leaders) thought in our passage today when Jesus told the paralytic, “your sins are forgiven” (v2). In their heads they probably went, “wait a minute, who are you Jesus? Only God can forgive sins. Are you claiming to be God then?”
You see, sin essentially is disobedience against God. At the most basic level, sin is wrongdoing. In Singapore, we love a good discount, and you may have heard someone go, “eh, there’s a massive sale going on, it’d be a sin not to check it out.” What they mean is it would be wrong to not explore and exploit the discounts on offer. When that classmate failed you in the group project, when that colleague maliciously and falsely gossiped about you, when your loved one hurt you deeply with his words and actions, they have in a way sinned against you. They have wronged you and caused you harm.
But ultimately, the person whom they have offended is God, the Creator and ultimate moral lawgiver. At Mount Hermon, we are going through the book of Genesis this year, and the book begins with “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” It proceeds to outline how God created all things, including humans. God is Creator. Genesis also outlines how God gave Adam and Eve commands on how to live, what to do and not do, like not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God is the ultimate moral lawgiver. And so, when we sin against each other with our words and actions, we are offending against God’s creation and going against His moral law. This makes God the ultimate offended party in every human sin, and that is why only God can pronounce forgiveness of sins.
That is why the scribes said to themselves that Jesus was blaspheming. By saying “your sins are forgiven”, Jesus was claiming to be God himself.
But Jesus knew what the scribes were thinking, of their unbelief that Jesus can forgive sins. In response, he raises the rhetorical question of which is easier, to say “your sins are forgiven” or to say “rise and walk”? In this case, it is easier to say “your sins are forgiven” because it cannot be visibly verified. So although no one can confirm if sins were forgiven, neither can they prove Jesus words are untrue. In contrast, it will be immediately apparent if Jesus’ words to “rise and walk” hold authority or not. The paralytic either rises and walk, proving Jesus’ words are authoritative, or he doesn’t and Jesus’ words are simply hot air.
And so that those present may know Jesus has authority on earth to forgive sins, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your bed and go home”. And the paralytic rose and went home, right in front of the crowd of people. Through this visible miracle of healing the paralytic, Jesus backs up the authority of his earlier non-visible pronouncement of “your sins are forgiven”. Because “rise and walk” happened just as Jesus said it, so will it be when Jesus says, “your sins are forgiven”, for God the Father has given Jesus the Son authority to forgive sins.
Put simply, Jesus can forgive sins. But he not only can forgive sins, he wants to forgive sins. That’s our second point. Jesus wants to forgive sinners. In other words, Jesus is both able, and willing, to forgive our sins.
2. Jesus wants to forgive sinners (v9-13)
The story in our passage moves on to Jesus calling a tax collector called Matthew to follow him. Jesus must have gone on to find more tax collectors because he was later seen reclining with many tax collectors and sinners. This caused quite a hoo-ha with the Pharisees.
You see, the Pharisees were a group of religious leaders who prided themselves on their strict keeping of religious law and as such looked down on those who were not in step with the law. During my schooling years, the rule for socks was that they had to minimally cover your ankles. If the Pharisees were in my school, they’d probably wear their socks up to their kneecaps! These were folks who not only kept the law in society but went above and beyond.
In contrast, tax collectors were viewed by Jewish society back then at the other extreme; as morally despicable. One of my favourite martial arts movies is Ip Man starring Donnie Yen. In the first Ip Man movie, a Chinese policeman, Li, became an interpreter for the invading Japanese forces. He watched on as the Japanese oppressed his fellow Chinese, leading Ip Man to brand him a traitor. In similar fashion, the tax collectors helped the occupying Roman Empire extract money from fellow Jews. Most tax collectors often extracted more than necessary, lining their own pockets with the excess money. That is why tax collectors were branded as traitors, intensely hated and shunned.
So when the Pharisees asked the disciples, “why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”, the subtext is really, “why is Jesus, a religious teacher, mixing around with the moral filth of society? This isn’t proper; it’s desecration.”
In response, Jesus likened himself to a physician, that is a doctor. And like any doctor, the people he is looking for, his target audience so to speak, are those who are sick. Of course, Jesus could be talking about physical ailments. He did after all heal the paralytic earlier. But I believe Jesus was talking about spiritual sickness. If you read on from v12, Jesus said “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Jesus said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” He is the doctor who is searching for and calling sinners to him. Even in the earlier episode of the paralytic, the main point wasn’t the physical healing, but that the physical healing displayed Jesus’ power to forgive sins, of spiritual healing. Jesus is the doctor who can forgive sins, and is calling for sinners to him to find forgiveness of sins.
Going back to the Pharisees’ question: why does your teacher (Jesus) eat with tax collectors and sinners? Well, why do doctors spend their days around those who are sick? Because doctors can offer solutions to the illnesses suffered by the sick. Their very purpose is to help the sick. And while Jesus can heal physical ailments, he is a doctor focusing on a much more lethal disease – our sin. Jesus knows he has the authority to forgive sins, and like a doctor with the cure, he is calling for sinners to come to him to find forgiveness of sins.
3. Do you want your sins forgiven by Jesus?
To recap: Jesus is God who can forgive sins, and Jesus is a doctor who wants to forgive sinners. That’s Jesus Christ. Now let’s turn to you. Do you want your sins forgiven by Jesus?
You might ask, what sins? Didn’t Jesus say that “those who are well have no need of a physician”, and that he “came not to call the righteous, but sinners”? This means there are those in need of Jesus and the forgiveness he brings, and there are others who are righteous and have no need for Jesus, right?
For those who don’t know me, I’m a model Singapore citizen. As a student, I handed up all my homework on time and never pontang-ed or skipped classes. I was a prefect in secondary school. As a commuter, I move into the centre of the MRT carriage to make way for others. When driving, I use the turning signal function! With the last one I’m pretty sure that puts me up in the 90th percentile of Singapore drivers already! If one day for NDP they were canvassing for people to feature as model Singapore citizens, I reckon I’d be a strong candidate. For those who do know me, let’s just maintain this image and not add anything else shall we?
I’m of course joking about being a model Singapore citizen. But if one day the government asked us to fill a form, and other than the usual name, NRIC, date of birth, etc. there’s a checkbox of either “good citizen” or “bad citizen”, which option will you tick? How many of us will tick the “good citizen” option? I mean, the “bad citizen” option should be for those with a criminal record or something, right?
In the eyes of the Singapore government, we may perhaps pass off as good citizens. But in the eyes of God, every single one of us fall under the “bad” category; none are good enough to be considered “good”. Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. A few verses earlier in verses 9-10, it says all are under sin, that none is righteous; no one seeks for God.
But if none are righteous, why did Jesus draw a distinction between the righteous and sinners, saying, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners”? Well, it was the Pharisees who made that distinction first. In asking, “why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners”, they drew a line between the religiously upright (such as themselves) and the morally corrupt in society, because they saw themselves as morally superior on account of their law-keeping efforts. In a nutshell, the Pharisees regarded themselves as righteous, not among the sinners.
Against this backdrop, we can understand Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees to mean this: (i) those who see themselves as well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick; and (ii) I came not to call the self-righteous, but sinners. In other words, the Pharisees’ efforts at being righteous have blinded them to their own moral failings and sins. In self-medicating, they thought they had no need for a doctor, unaware that they’re still suffering from their sinful condition. In striving towards good and moral behaviour, they did not see their need for Jesus and the forgiveness of sins that he alone can offer.
Earlier, I asked how many of us will tick the “good citizen” option. I would have. And if you’re like me in doing so, then we’re like the Pharisees in our passage today. We feel morally superior to others on account of our good behaviour. Our passage today warns us of the danger of being blind to our sinfulness and our need for a saviour. For those of us who are Christians, and have been for a while, there is a danger of becoming like the Pharisees and thinking ourselves morally upright because we attend church, because we serve regularly in various ministries. The reality is all of us have sinned. None are righteous. But it’s possible for us to be delulu and see ourselves as self-righteous (delulu is Gen Z slang for delusional).
In contrast, the tax collectors and sinners were aware of their sins. They were probably reminded about it everyday by the rest of society. They knew, given their behaviour, that there was no way they could be among the “morally upright” in society. But it is to these who have the benefit of the forgiveness of sins by Jesus. Not because they’re more deserving, but simply because they acknowledge their sinful condition and their need for someone to help.
Do you acknowledge your sinful condition?
Here’s the thing. It’s not enough to be good. It’s not enough to be very good. It’s not even enough to be very very good. When it comes to God, you need to be perfect. Nothing else will do. The bible describes God as “Holy Holy Holy”. That is, he is “Set apart, Set apart, Set apart”. But set apart from what? He is set apart from sin.
So how many hurtful words, how many evil thoughts, and how many wrongful deeds does it take to separate us from a “Holy Holy Holy” God? One. Just one. One harsh word, one hateful thought, one harmful deed, is all it takes to separate you forever from an eternal, holy God.
At the beginning, I asked us to think back to when someone offended you. Now I want us to think back to the last time you offended someone. Perhaps it was you who failed to do your part for a group project. Maybe you joined in the gossiping session in the workplace. Was there ever a time you spoke an unkind word or harboured an angry thought at a loved one? That moment alone is all it takes to separate you from a holy God.
But the good news is that Jesus wants to forgive sinners like you and me! Jesus’ call to Matthew was simply “follow me”. It wasn’t “once you’ve sorted your affairs and clean up your act, come and find me afterwards”. Jesus also said, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” To the Jewish audience back then, they would understand sacrifice as a key religious work. Sacrifice involved finding a lamb without blemish and sacrificing it to God. In so doing, God’s judgement for sin is directed away from the human sinner and towards the unblemished lamb instead. It was a ritual that the Jews had to do repeatedly because they repeatedly sinned.
To put Jesus’ words in today’s context, Jesus is saying he doesn’t desire or need your sacrificial offerings, your religious works or service in church, your good behaviour, or a sorted out life. He’s calling you to come as you are, sin and all, for he desires and delights in showing mercy. Romans 5:8 makes this clear when it says: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were still deep in our sins, in our messy morally corrupt lives, God in his love and mercy sent his only son Jesus to die on the cross for us. In this act, we see that our sins, though they are many, God’s mercy is more.
Remember the ritual of sacrificing an unblemished lamb to avert God’s judgement for sin? Jesus’ death on the cross is the ultimate sacrifice. Jesus, who was without sin, is that unblemished lamb. He was sacrificed, crucified on the cross. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming, he exclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. God’s judgement for our sin is directed towards Jesus instead. That’s why Jesus desires mercy and not sacrifice; he doesn’t require sacrifice from us because he became the sacrifice for us!
So at baptism, Christians publicly confess that we have sinned against the Lord God in thought, word, and deed. And we also confess our belief in Jesus Christ, both true God and true Man, who saves us from our sins by his blood shed on the cross.
We are all sinful. No one is righteous.
But Jesus can forgive sins. Jesus wants to forgive sinners. And he is calling sinners like you and me to come to him as we are, to find forgiveness of sins, which he accomplished on the cross at the cost of his own life.
Do you acknowledge your sins, and your need for forgiveness? Do you want your sins forgiven by Jesus? If you do, please look for myself, or the church leaders, or the friend who brought you here today. We would love to share more.
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