Welcome to Bethel! Today we will be returning to our series on the Apostle’s Creed by reflecting on Psalm 51 and Mark 2:1-12, Forgiveness: Healing Power. The creed teaches us under the section under the work of the Holy Spirit that we believe in the forgiveness of sins. Our thoughts almost immediately go towards the forgiveness that we experience through Jesus’ death on the cross, however we are called to be a people who seek forgiveness from God through confession and repentance, and who offer forgiveness to others. Forgiveness is not simple, nor is it easy; forgiveness always comes at a cost. This week we will be focusing on God’s forgiveness of us, after Easter we will take a look at Jesus’ command for us to offer forgiveness and what that looks like.
Welcome to Bethel! Today we will be returning to our series on the Apostle’s Creed by reflecting on Psalm 51 and Mark 2:1-12, Forgiveness: Healing Power. The creed teaches us under the section under the work of the Holy Spirit that we believe in the forgiveness of sins. Our thoughts almost immediately go towards the forgiveness that we experience through Jesus’ death on the cross, however we are called to be a people who seek forgiveness from God through confession and repentance, and who offer forgiveness to others. Forgiveness is not simple, nor is it easy; forgiveness always comes at a cost. This week we will be focusing on God’s forgiveness of us, after Easter we will take a look at Jesus’ command for us to offer forgiveness and what that looks like.
Forgiveness—Healing Power
Psalm 51; Mark 2:1-12
February 13, 2022
This morning we are looking at forgiveness. We will be focusing on the forgiveness we receive through Jesus, after Easter we will reflect on our call to forgive. The apostles’ Creed talk about believing in the forgiveness of sin. The Heidelberg Catechism, in discussing the Apostle’s Creed teaches us, “I believe that God, because of Christ’s satisfaction, will no longer remember any of my sins or my sinful nature which I need to struggle against all my life. Rather, by grace God grants me the righteousness of Christ to free me forever from judgment.” At the heart of the Christian faith is the belief that God forgives us for our sins because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross where he took on himself all the sin and brokenness of the world so that we can receive forgiveness and healing. In and through Jesus we receive grace and freedom. Forgiveness is serious stuff, without forgiveness, there is no reconciliation, no healing in relationships, especially with God.
This is so central to our relationship with God our Father that it can never be overstated. David gets that in Psalm 51. David has sinned badly, taking a woman who is not his wife and bringing her to his bedroom to have sex with and then to protect himself from her husband Uriah and the consequences of his actions, which could have led to civil war in Israel because Uriah was a powerful military leader, David arranges for him to die on the battlefield by abandoning him. It’s important that we have names to David’s confession in Psalm 51 because it reminds us that sin is always personal, always hurts someone, even if the only person we hurt is ourselves, but ultimately it hurts God by betraying God by us putting our desires and wants ahead of who God has created us to be, who Jesus calls us to be.
David cries out for mercy, basing his plea for forgiveness on God’s unfailing love, on God’s ‘hesed.’ Hesed is a Hebrew word meaning love based on a prior relationship, it’s loyalty and unfailing kindness. David is counting on a God who doesn’t give up on his people, a God who is willing to take unfathomable amounts of abuse and still stay in relationship with us. David admits that any punishment God decides to give is justified. He goes on to plea for God to cleanse his heart, to create in him a clean heart and renew a steadfast, a strong solid committed to God spirit within him. He knows that on his own without God’s help, he can’t stay true to God. David knows what the Catechism teaches us, that it’s by grace that God grants us the righteousness of Jesus to free us forever from judgment.
Jesus is the only one able to achieve our forgiveness from God since he is both God and human. Q&A 14 teaches us, “That the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God took to himself, through the working of the Holy Spirit, from the flesh and blood of the virgin Mary, a truly human nature so that he might become David’s true descendant, like his brothers in every way except for sin.” As God is able to take all our sin on himself and as fully human, he is able to take our place. It takes a descendant of David to bring the cleansing that David so desires.
As God, Jesus is able to forgive our sin. In the story in Mark, we see a group of friends bringing a paralyzed man to Jesus for healing. When they are prevented from getting close to Jesus by the number of people around Jesus, they go to the roof of the house and dig a hole through it, big enough to lower the paralyzed man through it right in front of Jesus. Then Mark says something that surprises me each time, “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Matthew and Luke both say the same thing, that Jesus turns to the paralyzed man and forgives his sin because Jesus sees his friends’ faith! Jesus responds to their act of faith and offers a greater healing than they had ever anticipated, Jesus offers healing for the paralytic’s soul, healing in the relationship between God and the man, by granting the man forgiveness for his sins. As you read through the Gospels and the stories of Jesus’ life, you begin to see a pattern; Jesus is always on the lookout for strong faith in the people around him, and when he sees it, Jesus acknowledges it with encouragement, and in this situation, with healing.
Forgiveness is a big thing; forgiveness brings healing, brings hope for the person being forgiven, and forgiveness brings healing for the person doing the forgiving. The teachers of the law think to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” If our sins are truly against God alone, as David confesses, then the only one who can forgive sin is God; Jesus is claiming here to be God! The teachers of the law get that, but the people get it too. This is dangerous ground for Jesus to walk because the penalty for blasphemy is death. In the end, Jesus is convicted for blasphemy in Mark 14 for claiming to be God, “Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as worthy of death.”
Our forgiveness comes at the cost of Jesus’ life, but it also impacts Jesus’ relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is led to the cross, a death that shows he is cursed by God, “you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.” Paul reminds us in Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole." Listen to this a moment, Jesus is cursed by his Father because of our sin, Jesus is cursed for us so that we can be forgiven by God. Jesus knows this when he tells the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven,” knowing the cost that this forgiveness is costing him.
Dietrick Bonhoeffer talks about cheap grace. David doesn’t know about cheap grace; he knows just how messed up sin has made him and how much it’s going to take to make things right between him and God, so much so that he has no chance of ever making things right on his own, he needs God to do the hard work of reconciliation and forgiveness. Bonhoeffer talks about how we feel it’s God’s job and responsibility to forgive us. So many of us, because our asking for forgiveness from God seldom goes much deeper than, “Father forgive me for I’m a sinner,” and then we leave our prayer and continue on with doing everything just like we’ve been doing, confident that we’ve done our part and now Jesus needs to do his, which he already did on the cross. We don’t understand just how much our sin has cost Jesus and God and our hearts and lives never really change.
Jesus took all the sin of the world on himself, all the brokenness and wrong, all the hurt, and it was so heavy that God blocked the light of the sun in the middle of the day so that we wouldn’t witness the anguish of Jesus. Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit have never been separated from each other. They have been together for eternity. Now think of the pain that you see in someone whose spouse has died after 40 or 50 years together, of the huge loss in their life. Think of how great the loss that God and the Holy Spirit feel when our sin separates Jesus from them for the first time in eternity. It helps us understand what Jesus means then on the cross when he cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” how hard it is for Jesus to carry our sin away, how hard it is for the Father to curse his only begotten son; all because of us, all for us.
This is not cheap grace, this is costly grace, as Dietrick Bonhoeffer calls it, and it’s precious. “Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.”
Are you content with cheap grace that accomplishes nothing except giving you permission to never change or be changed by the Holy Spirit, or is Jesus’ costly grace finally enough to move you to leave your old life and values behind and embrace Jesus as your only Lord and Saviour?