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INJ
St John 20:19-31
'Absolved'
Divine Service
Quasimodogeniti, The First Sunday in Easter | March 29, 2008
Dear Saints,
One of the most offensive things about our liturgy is what happens at the very beginning. We sing a hymn, we call upon the name of the Lord, and then we have this portion of the service called “Confession and Absolution.”
The first offensive business is this whole “I am a poor, miserable sinner” business. If nothing else, this type of talk does not help our self-esteem. But this confession is true; it is the truth. You are a sinner. Completely. Totally. Everything you think and say and do is stained with sin.
One of the reasons that this sounds so strange is that this place, the Lord's church, where we are gathered to hear the Lord's Word, is the only place in the entire world that you will hear this teaching. Every other teaching in the entire world, the teaching that comes from every other altar of every other god does not.
Perhaps we should pause for a moment. You all should be asking this question, “Are you saying, pastor, that no other church or religion teaches about sin?” Good question, and I'm glad you asked. Because that's not what I'm saying. Almost everyone talks about sin. The atheists and satanists don't. They say that there is no sin, and that the whole thing is an invention to give coercive power to the clergy.
But every other religious teaching says something about sin, from the Muslims to the modern Jewish organization to the Roman or Baptists. They all talk about sin, but they don't go all the way with it. A couple of months ago I published in the church newsletter theological statements from all four of these religions about sin. And all four of these teachings, Muslim, Judaism, Rome and the Baptists, say that our sinfulness is a tendency, that we have an inclination to sin and do wrong. That we have a choice to sin or not sin. Do you see the difference? They do not confess that they are poor miserable sinners, and that they are by nature sinful and unclean, but rather that they tend to sin and make mistakes.
And the trouble is that if you have a tendency then you can fight against it. You can rally your will and emotions, or come up with some sort of plan or program to fight against that sinful tendency, all for the purpose of overcoming it and doing good instead of wrong.
But that is not how it is here. (And now we're back on track.) We do not confess our sins in order to rally for some sort of better life, to somehow align our efforts and overcome sin. We do not come for some sort of moral reformation, we come to die. We we confess our sins, to be out with it, to say before God and all people that we are poor miserable sinners we are saying the we have come to the end of ourselves and our own resources and there is nothing we can do to be good or better. Our only hope in that the Lord, in His mercy, would forgive our sin.
But this doesn't just sound strange because we don't hear it anywhere else. It sounds strange because this conflicts with the constant refrain of our flesh, which is constantly giving us that silent pep-talk, “You're good. You deserve it. You've worked hard. At least you tried. At least you didn't do that or think that. Don't worry, you'll do better next time.”
I don't know if your flesh is the same as mine, if you hear this voice too, or if I'm just preaching to myself, but I do know that pride clings to our sinful flesh, clings like a great white shark clings to an injured seal, that our pride is constantly gnawing away at us.
But this strange talk of our complete and utter sinfulness is like pride poison. It puts it to death; it puts us to death.
But then something even stranger happens in our liturgy. Following the confession we have the absolution. If this talk of being sinful is offensive, then the absolution is even more.
I remember hearing the absolution for the first time. You know, when you actually hear and try to comprehend what the words really mean. And do you know what I thought? “Who does that guy think he is, forgiving my sins? I don't need anyone to stand between me and God.” It was offensive to me, and I've heard many people say the same thing to me as a pastor. “I don't need some pastor to forgive my sins. Where is that in the Bible?”
We'll answer the last question first. Where does it say in the Bible that the pastor forgives sins? Answer: the gospel text appointed for today, John 20. This happens on the evening of the Lord's resurrection. Jesus comes into the midst of His twelve, and “he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.' 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.'” [John 20:20-23]
With this breathing and speaks the Lord Jesus sets His church in the world to forgive sins. This is what we learned in the catechism as the office of the keys. It is the binding and loosing of sins, and it is why the church in on the earth, why we come to church, and why the Lord has put His church here, on the corner of 13th and Macon St in Aurora, CO, so that the forgiveness of sin would be given out.
But the question still remains, “Why do we need a man to say it? Doesn't forgiveness come directly from God?” Answer: yes, forgiveness comes from God, but we have to ask how He delivers it.
Imagine, if you will, a man in prison. He's guilty of some terrible list of crimes, and deserves punishment and death. His case has gone before the judge who knows the guilt and the punishment, but instead of giving the punishment out to the prisoner, the judge gives it out to the defense lawyer (who also happens to be the judge's son). And then the judge acquits the prisoner and sets him free. The judge declares the criminal innocent. This is the doctrine of justification, that the Lord imputes or accounts us righteous and forgiven for the sake of the suffering of our Lord Jesus.
But our prisoner? He's still in jail. So the judge sends the bailiff to the jail, and the bailiff says, “I release you. You are free to go” as he turns the key and unlocks the door.
This is what the Lord is sending His apostles and pastors and Christians to do. The freedom that the bailiff gives is the freedom won by the judge and his son, but the bailiff delivers that freedom. In this case the bailiff is himself also a prisoner.
It is the same way with the forgiveness of sin. Jesus won our forgiveness in His death, and preached it throughout the world in His resurrection. Now He sends out His ambassadors to go unto the ends of the world setting captives free, unlocking the door, delivering the forgiveness of all sin.
Now we should note that what we do publicly here in the divine service, we also do privately. Private confession and absolution it is called, and this is because we fight against a tricky devil. When we hear the absolution the devil often tempts us, saying, “Well that forgiveness is good for everyone else, but not for you. If your pastor knew what you did, he would never forgive your sins.” And so the devil, with words like this, tempts us to unbelief and doubt. He pushes us outside the Lord's forgiveness. So for us that have this battle with the devil and our conscience, we have recourse to private confession and absolution. We say, “Pastor, this is what I've done... Can this be forgiven?”
And the answer to that, listen dear saints, the answer to that is always, “Yes, it can and it is. Jesus died for each and every sin. None are excluded. I forgive you all your sins.” So the absolution, the forgiveness of sins, casts out doubt and fear and and faith is born in this promise, faith that endures to eternal life.
These are two strange and wonderful things, this confession and absolution. In them the Lord kills us by His Law, and raises us to life in the promise of the Gospel. May the Lord grant us all this life, as we confess our sins and hear the Lord's absolution. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO