Once a paralytic was brought to Jesus. The Master told him, "Your sins
are forgiven." Nearby scribes gasped, "Blasphemy!" Only God can
forgive sins, they thought, and they definitely did not regard Jesus as God.
So they took Him to be blaspheming.
The scribes were raising a question about reality. Was the lame man really
forgiven? They thought not.
Postmodernists speak about the "social construction of reality."
Everyone views the world through circumstances of society and culture, they
say, so reality is a "social construct." What is true for me may
therefore differ from what is true for you. No one can arrive at objective or
absolute truth-so the thinking goes. It tells people that their reality
amounts to a set of stories they choose to believe in their particular social
and cultural setting. Oddly, it absolutely holds that there is no absolute
truth!
Such postmodernist thinking raises challenges. When the church indicates
that people are wrong in their beliefs or behaviors, it can be and often is
regarded as intolerant of others, even insulting toward them. When we tell
people the Good News about Jesus, they may well respond, "That's your
truth, not mine."
In modest ways, a sort of "social construction of reality" is
understandable. We know, for example, that during the 20th century there were
terrible examples of mob psychology in which people were influenced by the
groups of which they were members to think and act in certain ways. But on any
large scale, despite all postmodernist claims, "social construction of
reality" is idolatry. People do not construct reality. The Lord God Who
made the heavens and earth is the One Who constructs reality.
The episode of Jesus and the paralytic teaches us to cling to the Divine
con struction of reality as our Lord expresses it in His forgiving Word. Jesus
said, "That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to
forgive sins, get up, take up your bed, and go home" (Matthew 9:6). The
man really could walk-because Jesus gave the Word. Here was reality as God
made it! In the same way, when Jesus a few moments earlier had said the man's
sins were forgiven, those sins really were forgiven. Forgiveness is invisible,
but real. Christ gave the Word, and it was so.
As with the man's walking, Christ's forgiveness had no cause or basis in
the man himself. For the same Jesus Who said "Your sins are
forgiven" was the Jesus Who eventually went to the cross for us. God held
Him responsible for the total sin of the entire human race. That was no
fiction. It was real. Jesus suffered, sweating as great drops of blood (Luke
22:44). He was really and truly forsaken by God when He died, as He said
(Matthew 27:46). His death was an accursed death before God as our Sin-bearer.
Then, after the debt was entirely paid, the tremendous sacrifice totally
complete, there was no reason why He could not live again. The sin of the
world, once held against Jesus, was gone. He rose from the dead.
On Easter, we rejoice over a Word of real forgiveness we can speak in the
world. This Word not only tells about forgiveness but actually forgives. We
can only say it to people because God said it in the first place. He said it
when He raised His Son from the dead.
Easter is a great celebration of the Divine construction of reality. It's
too good to be true that our sins are forgiven, the devil is defeated, and
death has been dealt its death blow. But it is all most certainly true. When
all the evidence in our sinful lives accuses us and when even our own hearts
condemn us (literally, know against us), we listen to the "not
guilty" verdict of the God Who is greater than our hearts (1 John 3:20).
We remember our baptism. We receive the body and blood with which He bought
and paid for our forgiveness.
Our good and gracious God constructs a reality of forgiveness and life for
us in the crucified and risen Christ. It will culminate in the resurrection of
the dead and the life of the world to come. "In my Father's house there
are many rooms," Jesus said. God constructs reality. It seems too good to
be true, but Jesus added: "If it were not so, I would have told
you." Then He said, "I am going to prepare a place for you"
(John 14:2). You and I have the privilege of telling people the Good News
about Jesus, inviting them to live with Him even as we will. What a glorious
privilege that is!