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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. It's Pastor Wolfniel here. This is the Sunday Drive to Church podcast for it's today, October 11, 2026, Trinity 19.
[00:00:11] Jonathan found this great kind of amazing ancient drawing of the miracle of the paralyzed man carrying his bed home. It's like a line drawing from the year 232.
[00:00:24] You lets pray. We'll talk about the text. Almighty and merciful God of your bountiful goodness, keep from us all things that may hurt us, that we, being ready in both body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish whatever you would have us do through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
[00:00:48] Amen.
[00:00:50] Trinity 19.
[00:00:51] By the way, some years ago I published a little book called the Absolution Anthology.
[00:00:57] It was just collecting different texts that are about the absolution. So Augsburg Confession Apology, the Augsburg Confession Office of the Keys, some other stuff from the Book of Concord, some other writings from our dogmatic tradition, and Luther's sermon on Trinity 19. It's so important because while we have the command in John 20, where Jesus has risen from the dead and he breathes on his disciples and he says, whoever sins you forgive, they're forgiven. Whoever sins you bind, they're bound.
[00:01:36] Who does that authority belong to?
[00:01:39] And it's from this text, this gospel reading from Matthew 9, 8, that we understand that the authority to forgive sins is the peculiar power that Christ has given to his church, that means to his Christians and in fact to each Christian.
[00:01:57] This is so important because it's not just, you know, I and Pastor Davis and Pastor Smith will stand in front of you and say, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, I announce the grace of God unto you. And in the stead, and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins. But. But that is the public exercise of the office, but the private exercise of the office.
[00:02:22] The private exercise of the absolution.
[00:02:26] Sorry, office is always public. The private exercise of the absolution, where one Christian says to another, your sins are forgiven, Jesus forgives you, that sin is put away.
[00:02:39] In the name of Jesus, I forgive you all your sin. And that one in particular, that being spoken by the mouth of the Lord's Christian, is authorized and given to every Christian. I was thinking about this because, you know, most Christians haven't heard the absolution.
[00:02:56] It's only the Lutherans that actually have the absolution after all. So all the other traditions don't have the absolution.
[00:03:02] So that's already a kind of horrific tragedy.
[00:03:08] But how many Christians have spoken the absolution, forgiven someone's sins? And of course, we're. We're bound by the scripture to forgive the sins committed against us. But those sins that are confessed that aren't committed against us, that's what the absolution is, speaking God's forgiveness.
[00:03:27] Okay, that's what we're going to talk about today.
[00:03:33] We have the Old Testament. Let's start with the Psalm, Psalm 84. This came up in just my reading, devotional reading this week, Psalm 84. And I thought, wow, I gotta underline the whole thing. It has this valley of Baca in it. It says, where is it here? The valley of Baca.
[00:03:50] I'd rather be a doorkeeper than the house.
[00:03:54] Ah, here it is. Verse 6, starting 5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on pilgrimage. That's pretty cool, talking about how you're going to the temple. Pilgrimage here is going to church. As they pass through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring.
[00:04:13] No one's been able to find where that valley is or know where it is or what it means. Maybe it's the Valley of Weeping would be the translation. It's probably a metaphor.
[00:04:22] But here you're going through the wilderness, but it becomes a spring.
[00:04:26] And then look at what it says in verse 10.
[00:04:30] A day in your courts is better than a thousand.
[00:04:34] I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
[00:04:38] For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you.
[00:04:51] Although I think when we're singing it, you have to say blessed, but blessed is the man who trusts in you. Amazing.
[00:04:58] How lovely is your tabernacle. O Lord of hosts. That's this beautiful going to church psalm. Then we have the Old Testament.
[00:05:06] I do not know why this is the text.
[00:05:09] I mean, so much of it is the house of the Lord. And so maybe the idea is, wherever Jesus is, that's the Lord's house. And this guy gets in by being dropped through the roof by his friends. Wow.
[00:05:20] But we have Genesis 28, 10, 17. This is the flight of Jacob. So you remember Jacob when he was 80, 80 years old, still single, no wife or kids.
[00:05:36] The Lord had given him the promise, but Isaac wants to give the promise to Esau.
[00:05:44] So Jacob and Rachel are working. Sorry. Jacob and Rebecca are working to make sure that Isaac doesn't do the wrong thing, and he gives the promise to Jacob. So they already plotted once Jacob, Esau sold the birthright, which wasn't his to begin with, for a pot of stew.
[00:06:00] And then now Isaac is getting old, and he asks Esau to go hunt for him and get him some stew. And then he's going to give him the blessing, and he goes and hunts. And in the meantime, Rebecca and Jacob sneak in there and get the blessing from him.
[00:06:16] You know, we think of it as the sneakery.
[00:06:19] Is that a word?
[00:06:20] Trickery.
[00:06:22] That they're tricking Isaac. But they are. But they're tricking Isaac for Isaac's own sake, because God had already given the promise that the older will serve the younger. Esau is supposed to serve Jacob. But Isaac just can't see it. Especially since here's Jacob, no kids, no nothing. Old man, he's a scholar. But Esau's out there ruling the world, hunting and governing, and he's got big families.
[00:06:49] So Isaac is tempted to follow his eyes and give the blessing to Esau. The prophecy must not have been right.
[00:06:55] So Jacob and Rebekah make sure that the promise goes to Jacob. But, boy, when he hears about it.
[00:07:06] So Jacob's got to run for it.
[00:07:09] And he gets halfway away and he gets to Bethel, and he's got nothing but a rock to lay his head on to take a nap.
[00:07:19] So he goes to sleep on this rock, and he has this vision of the ladder that goes up to heaven and the angels of God going up and down on it to picture the incarnation of Christ.
[00:07:32] And the Lord comes to Jacob and gives him this promise. He's got nothing but the promise.
[00:07:37] This is how you got to think of Jacob here. He's got nothing but this promise of God. And he wakes up and he names the place Bethel.
[00:07:45] It's so important, and it's good for us to also remember, just as we're becoming Bible scholars and students of the scripture, that Bethel comes up later.
[00:07:55] I don't know how many hundreds of years later, after Solomon dies and there's the rebellion, Jeroboam and Rehoboam and Jeroboam, up north, tries to set up the true worship at Bethel.
[00:08:08] That's where that comes in.
[00:08:10] Anyhow.
[00:08:12] How awesome is this place is what Jacob says, verse 17. This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.
[00:08:20] This comes up later when Jesus comes to call Nathanael, and he finds him under the fig tree and he says, you'll See heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
[00:08:33] And this is Jesus own authoritative interpretation of that ladder. That ladder is his flesh. And how amazing is that? Luther is Luther. He has this great comment on it. He says, how disorienting would it be to be an angel? You're used to looking up to see Jesus, but now you got to look down.
[00:08:48] What's he doing down there in the manger?
[00:08:52] Wow.
[00:08:53] Ephesians 4. Here we go with some more. Ephesians 22 to 28. That's the epistle.
[00:09:00] It's the old self, new self, flesh, spirit distinction, reminding us that the Christian has two wills, two wants, two pulls, two energies at work in us.
[00:09:12] You got the old self and the new self. That old self, what we call the old Adam or the sinful flesh, is always corrupt and being bent towards sin and death. So Paul says, put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and then be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness, therefore, having put away falsehood.
[00:09:42] That's the old self.
[00:09:44] Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor. That's the new self. You're members of one another.
[00:09:50] Be angry, but don't sin.
[00:09:52] That's interesting. That anger can belong to the flesh, but anger can also belong to the spirit, depending on if it's an anger of office or if it's an anger of person. In other words, am I angry because God has called me to defend my neighbor, or am I angry because I'm offended?
[00:10:09] Don't let the sun go down in your anger. Give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal. Thieving is of the flesh. Stealing is of the spirit. But let him rather labor, doing honest work with his own hands so he can have something to share with anyone in need. So against the twin vices of the seventh commandment, which is greed and laziness, we're to be generous and industrious.
[00:10:35] That's good.
[00:10:37] And that's part of the new life, part of the new man.
[00:10:41] We are not.
[00:10:43] Someone said one time, you can live however you want, or you can be a Christian.
[00:10:50] And this is a good reminder.
[00:10:52] We're called to a new kind of life.
[00:10:55] Though it's nice that as a Christian, I in fact am starting to want to do the right thing.
[00:11:01] That wanting is never perfect to the last day. But I'm starting.
[00:11:05] Okay, now we get to The Gospel. If you've been in Bible class, last few weeks, we've been talking about this. In Matthew, getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over and came to his own city.
[00:11:17] And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed, four friends, and they drop him through the roof. We hear in Mark's Gospel.
[00:11:25] And when Jesus saw their faith, the guys who brought him, he says to the paralytic, take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven. Which is astonishing. I don't want to say too much, I don't want to ruin it, but can you imagine? Here this guy is laying on the ground and everyone's waiting for Jesus to make his body work, and instead the absolution spoken.
[00:11:48] I think that's all this man needed.
[00:11:50] It has to be that he's sitting there being driven into the ground, into the pit of hell, by the thought that God is mad at him because something he did wrong. That's why I broke my back. That's why I can't move. That's why my friends have to have to feed me and clean me and dress me and carry me around, because God is angry with me. And then Jesus says, nope, nope, nope.
[00:12:14] But the scribes grumblers, man blasphemes. So Jesus knows it. Why do you think this? What's easier? Your sins are forgiven. Arise and walk. But so that you would know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He says to the paralytic, rise, pick up your bed. Go home. And he rose and he went home. That's the picture there on the page. He went home.
[00:12:36] And when the crowd saw it, they feared and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men, not to this man, but to men.
[00:12:49] So that Jesus now brings this divine authority to forgive sins and gives it to his church.
[00:12:55] Wow.
[00:12:57] Wow.
[00:13:00] Such a profound gift that Jesus gives.
[00:13:06] And in some ways, this is what evangelism is, the church speaking the absolution to the world. Well, this is what we'll talk about in the sermon, the hymn Lord, Thee I Love with all my heart, hymn 708.
[00:13:24] I am always trying to get this hymn into funerals.
[00:13:31] I've snuck it in there a few times.
[00:13:34] It's a long one. I mean, it's three stanzas, but they're extended stanzas. Kind of nice. And it's start to finish. This hymn covers it all. I mean, there's not a single thing it even talks about.
[00:13:44] Well, as far as I know, it's one of the few hymns that prays for the Lord to watch over our remains.
[00:13:53] Ha.
[00:13:56] Lord, thee I love with all my heart I pray Thee ne' er for me to part with tender mercy Cheer me Earth has no pleasure I would share. Yeah. Heaven itself revoid and bear if Thou the Lord were not near me. This is amazing. Like, I don't want to go to heaven if you're not there.
[00:14:15] Should my heart for sorrow break my trust in Thee nothing can shake Thou art the portion I've sought Thy precious blood my soul has bought Lord Jesus Christ, my God and Lord My God and Lord, forsake me not I trust Thy word.
[00:14:29] It's such a hymn of deep piety, this love for the Lord that we're called to sometimes. We're.
[00:14:36] We're talking about this on Wednesday in the Philippians Bible study. If you guys are just hanging around at 4 o' clock on Wednesday afternoons, you should come over to our.
[00:14:45] Our Bible study.
[00:14:47] Philippians Bible Study now. But I think Pastor Davis will finish Philippians this week. But Paul was talking about how he longs for the church with this deep affection, how we're not supposed to just be these rocks or trees, tree stumps.
[00:15:02] We're real humans with real flesh and blood. I mean, real profound emotions.
[00:15:10] And this hymn captures it. Lord, thee I love with all my heart.
[00:15:15] Why? Verse stanza 2. Yea, Lord, twas thy rich bounty gave my body, soul and all I have in this poor life of labor. First article.
[00:15:22] Lord, grant that I in every place may glorify thy lavish grace and help and serve my neighbor.
[00:15:27] Let no false doctrine be beguiled. That's a good prayer.
[00:15:31] Let Satan not my soul defile. That's a good prayer. Give strength and patience unto me to bear my cross and follow thee. That's a good prayer.
[00:15:39] Lord Jesus Christ, my God and Lord, in death thy comfort still afford. Don't leave me when I'm dying. And then it talks about the dying part.
[00:15:51] Lord, then at last let thine angels come to Abram's bosom. Bear me home that I may die unfearing and in its narrow chamber keep my body safe in peaceful sleep until Thy reappearing.
[00:16:04] That's a prayer. That the Lord would guard our.
[00:16:07] Our mortal remains until the last day. And then. When's then the last day? When the Lord comes in glory. And then from death awaken me that these mine eyes with joy may see. Job 19. Oh, Son of God, thy glorious face. Revelation 22. My Savior and my fount of grace.
[00:16:25] Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend. And I will praise thee without end forever and ever. That's.
[00:16:38] Okay. You guys all should have that at your funeral.
[00:16:41] We're going to hear from Pastor Amelius in Bible class. Don't make sure not to miss that. That'll be really great.
[00:16:47] And continue to keep him and the people at Mount Zion in Denver in your prayers as they, as Pastor Amelius and his family, deliberate this call that we've given to him.
[00:16:58] That should do it for the drive to church today. Drive safe, and we'll see you in a few minutes. God's peace be with you.