Undercover Boss was a popular TV show for quite a few years, one of those feel-good reality shows that a lot of people like. For its 136 episode run over 11 seasons, it pretty much always followed the same format. Some high-up executive in the company goes undercover, pretending to be a new hire. He spends a week working different jobs and being trained by various people who are, in reality, his own unwitting employees. Through it all, he gains a new respect for the hard work they do, oftentimes things he struggles with, perhaps with humorous results. And at the end when they find out that this “new hire” has been their boss the whole time, they are shocked. And having gotten to know these good people and their challenges so much better, the boss usually gives out some sort of rewards to show how appreciative he is. Everyone leaves with a smile.
As we read the Gospels and follow Jesus’ ministry in and around the land of Israel, sometimes you might get the feeling like you’re watching the very first version of Undercover Boss. Jesus humbled himself to live with us as one of us. This is God? This man who has to journey around by boat and by foot? This man who gets hungry and tired? But don’t be fooled. He didn’t humble himself to deceive us but to save us. He has the authority.
Our Gospel for today comes from the beginning of Matthew 9. This is in the middle of Jesus’ ministry, during a time when he was in Galilee up in the north. Matthew tells us that Jesus had just traveled across the sea of Galilee and came to his own town. This is referring to the town of Capernaum, which was a town by the sea and became a home base for Jesus after the people of his hometown of Nazareth rejected him. Jesus never owned his own house, but he might have stayed with some of his disciples who were from that town. The brothers Peter and Andrew and the brothers James and John came from Capernaum.
The event that happens here is recorded not just by Matthew but also by Mark, in chapter 2, and Luke, in chapter 5. And this is one of those accounts in Scripture that is really neat because of how it can be taught very simply to little children but at the same time it has great depth for all Christians.
The simple version is this. Jesus was in a house where lots and lots of people crowded around to see him. In that same town there was a man who was paralyzed, who couldn’t use his legs and had to lie on his bed all day. When he and his friends heard that Jesus was in their town, they wanted to go to him for help. And so four friends picked up this man’s little stretcher bed and carried him off down the street to see Jesus. But when they got there, there were so many people they couldn’t get through the crowd. How were they ever going to get into that house? Well, they came up with a plan. They climbed up on top of the house, carrying their friend the whole way. Most houses in Israel had flat tops, so they weren’t too hard to walk around on top of. In fact, since they didn’t have air conditioning people oftentimes slept on the top of their house when it was hot. The actual roofing material might be bundles of straw or clay tiles or some combination of the two. Luke actually does mention tiles. The Greek word is κεράμων which is where we get our English word “ceramic.”
So what did these clever friends do? They wanted so badly to bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus. They made a hole in the roof and they lowered him down, right in front of Jesus. And what did Jesus do? He healed that man then and there. He told him to pick up his mat and go home, and he did.
That’s the simple version, and it’s a great lesson about trusting in Jesus, letting nothing get in the way. It’s a great lesson about the power of Jesus to heal and about his love and mercy for those in need.
But it’s really only half of the story. There’s more to this little account, and the rest of it is just as interesting as imagining what it was like for four men to lower a paralyzed man through the roof on a stretcher. Because even though many people scoffed at Jesus and thought him to be nothing because of his lowly appearance, he in fact has all authority to heal bodies and souls.
Lowering a man down through a roof is certainly unusual, but the first real surprise in this story is Jesus’ response to what has happened. Matthew says, When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Take heart, son! Your sins are forgiven.”
It would certainly be understandable if you saw this man and thought that his greatest need was to have his paralysis healed. The fact that this man had a disability in his body was evident to everyone with eyes. But Jesus saw something else. He saw their faith.
We can decipher a lot by looking at a person. We can look at how they dress and how they act and how they carry themselves. We can see the expressions of their faces, but we can’t see their faith. God said to Samuel, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” To Jesus our hearts are like an open book. And of course they would be. Because a heart of faith is a heart in which the Holy Spirit dwells. Would Jesus not recognize those who are his own? He is not like an undercover boss who needs to learn to appreciate his hard-working employees. No, he’s the shepherd who calls his sheep by name. Even the hairs on our heads are numbered. He saw this man and the fact that he was paralyzed, yes, but even more than that, to Jesus, clear as day, was this man’s heart, this man’s faith.
And he said, “Take heart, son! Your sins are forgiven.”
Anyone could see this man’s bodily ailment. But Jesus knew what he needed more than anything. He needed the forgiveness of sins. Without that, what does the rest even matter? In this life we might have many things that go well for us for many years. We might have great health and financial success and many friends. Or, it might be the complete opposite. We might struggle with ailments that afflict us in body and mind, fail to make ends meet, and suffer betrayal from those we thought we could trust.
Those things do matter to us, and they’re things that we might cry out to God in prayer over. But all of it is meaningless unless we have a God who forgives our sins. Even the healthiest person is going to die. Even the richest person will go to the grave a pauper. And those who are here and have been blessed with a good long life will often say that one of the hardest things is how one by one you lose your friends.
We’re all heading to the same place. And none of us can claim that we have been so holy, so righteous, so perfect that we deserve to live forever or that we deserve a seat in heaven. We need a Savior. We need someone who has the authority to say, “Your sins are forgiven.”
When the experts in the law heard Jesus say this to the paralyzed man, they scoffed. “Who does this Jesus think he is?” They thought to themselves or muttered to each other “This fellow is blaspheming! He’s a liar who exalts himself and claims to sit in the seat of God!”
And just as Jesus saw the faith of the paralyzed man, so he also read the thoughts of these men’s hearts. Matthew says
Since Jesus knew their thoughts, he said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? 5Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he then said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.”
Which of those things is easier, to say “Your sins are forgiven” or to say, “Get up and walk”? Anyone can say the words, but actually both of those things are impossible for any of us to accomplish by our own power. But not for Jesus, who truly has that authority. He has all authority. The paralyzed man got up. He didn’t even need anyone to give him a hand. He was completely cured. He had to be carried in but he was the one carrying his stretcher out.
And so if Jesus has such power to heal the paralyzed man of his paralysis, doesn’t he also have the authority to forgive sins?
We don’t always have all of our prayers answered the way that we hope for in this life. Sometimes we pray for healing and it doesn’t come. Sometimes we pray for success but all we see is failure. And we wonder “Where is God? Is he so far up above me that he doesn’t notice me? Are my prayers too weak to reach all the way to his throne? Is there a whole crowd blocking the door and no one to carry me up to the roof and lower me down through? And maybe then our sins also haunt us; “I don’t deserve God’s goodness anyway.”
But Jesus isn’t so far above you. He came to earth to be one with you. Your heart to him is like an open book. He went to the cross for you and for your sins. He never forgets those who are his own.
When you hear those words from Jesus, “Your sins are forgiven.” You can know that they come from the one who has all authority. He’s the one who sends out pastors to proclaim it. He is the one who has commanded that his forgiveness be poured out freely to all in baptism. And he is the one who gave us the great supper of his forgiveness.
Is it harder to forgive sins or to heal diseases? Neither is difficult for Jesus. He even raised himself from the dead! He will care for you body and soul. Cry out to him in all your needs. But know also that his goal for you is not that you have ease and success in this life. No, he knows what you truly need and his goal is to bring you to heaven. And on the day when he comes again he will say even to those whose bodies have long been in their graves, “Get up, and go home, to the mansions prepared for you.”
Our boss, our great Lord and Master Jesus truly humbled himself and dwelled among us. It wasn’t so that he could discover what life is like for us. No, it was for our sake, that we might have a God and Lord who is like us in every way. He has the authority to restore you to God and to give you all that you need. And with that authority he declares to you, “Take heart, your sins are forgiven.”
Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson