I recently created a 26-day Advent devotional booklet for my church called “Good News of Great Joy.” I will be posting a devotional from it each day between now and Christmas day. Enjoy!
Scripture: Matthew 1:21; Matthew 9:1-8
In Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, Joseph Ratzinger, the former Pope Benedict XVII, reflects on the angel’s words to Joseph in Matthew 1:21: “Mary will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Save the people from their sins? This wasn’t Israel’s expectation for the Messiah at all! Surely the angel’s message must have been disappointing to many people. Ratzinger writes:
The prevailing expectations of salvation were primarily focused upon Israel’s concrete sufferings—on the reestablishment of the Davidic kingdom, on Israel’s freedom and independence, and naturally that included material prosperity for this largely impoverished people. The promise of forgiveness of sins seems both too little and too much: too much, because it trespasses upon God’s exclusive sphere; too little, because there seems to be no thought of Israel’s concrete suffering or its true need for salvation… Certainly it does not match the immediate expectations of Messianic salvation nurtured by men who felt oppressed not so much by their sins as by their sufferings, their lack of freedom, the wretched conditions of their existence.[1]
I’m glad he said this! As a preacher, I worry that we twenty-first-century Americans, like first-century Jews, don’t feel especially oppressed by our sins. Meanwhile, I’m the wet blanket, reminding people that they are, indeed, sinners. In fact, our sinfulness is the main problem that God needed to solve by sending his Son.
While I worry sometimes that this message isn’t popular, it’s the only message I’ve got!
Benedict goes on to relate this understanding of salvation to the four men in the gospels who lower a paralyzed friend through the roof of a crowded home in order for Jesus to heal him. They expect, of course, physical healing. Instead, Jesus pronounces his sins forgiven and seems happy to leave it at that.
Forgiveness of their friend’s sins was the last thing they were concerned about. The paralytic needed to be able to walk, they thought, not to be delivered from his sins. The scribes criticized the theological presumption of Jesus’ words. The sick man and those around him, on the other hand, were disappointed, because Jesus had apparently overlooked the man’s real need.
On the contrary, Benedict writes, Jesus is doing precisely what the angel told Joseph he would do. Jesus goes on to heal the man physically, but only as a demonstration of his authority to forgive sins. “[T]he priority of forgiveness for sins as the foundation of all true healing is clearly maintained.”[2]
Man is a relational being. And if his first, fundamental relationship is disturbed—his relationship with God—then nothing else can be truly in order. This is where the priority lies in Jesus’ message and ministry: before all else, he wants to point man toward the essence of his malady, and to show him—if you are not healed there, then however many good things you may find, you are not truly healed.[3]
Have you received the healing that comes from the forgiveness of your sins? Have there been times in your life when you prayed for the physical healing of someone, only to find that God gave them a spiritual healing instead?
1. Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, trans. Philip Whitmore (New York: Image, 2012), 42-43.
This is really excellent on Benedict’s part. Despite my conclusion previously of the many errors in Catholic doctrine, Benedict is “spot on” here (and elsewhere). Sin is our biggest problem. (Indeed, not dealing with sin can be the CAUSE of some of our other problems, as repeatedly pointed out by the OT prophets.)
I’m telling you, Tom, this Benedict book is an absolute masterpiece on Christmas. I’d recommend it. He doesn’t stray into Catholic dogma at all—not even concerning the “perpetual virginity” of Mary or her “immaculate conception.” It’s a very evangelical-friendly book. I like him a lot.