Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2026
The forgiveness of sins is what Jesus gave this man that hour, and it is what He gives you this hour. He gave it to you first in Holy Baptism, where you were carried to Him; ever since, He has never stopped applying it. It resounds through the whole of the Divine Service; as you have just sung, the Spirit witnesses to your soul’s salvation “in Your Sacraments and Word,” and “there He sends true consolation.”
The Service begins with the Name of God, the very Name into which you were baptized, now spoken over you again, even as the sign of the Cross is made: the same sign once made over your head and your heart, marking you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. You confess your sins, and you hear them forgiven “in the stead and by the command” of Christ Himself. You cry for mercy; over and over and over again, you cry, and the Lord hears. In the Creed, you confess, “I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins,” the very faith that forgiveness calls forth in you. Daily, when you pray, “Our Father,” you say the very words once spoken over you as a hand was laid upon your head at the Font, words by which “God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children.” For in your baptism, He made you His own; now, He calls you as He called the man on the bed: “Son.”
And then, at the last, here, from this Altar, the forgiveness that has sounded in your ears throughout the Divine Service is placed into your mouth. “Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you.” Here, the mercy for which you have cried throughout the Service, and which you have received again and again, is given in its fullest measure: the very Body and Blood of Christ, under bread and wine, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.
Readings:
Old Testament: Genesis 28:10-17
Epistle: Ephesians 4:22-28
Holy Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8
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