General vs. Specific Cure: Absolution

Imagine sitting down in doctor’s waiting room. You find your way into one of the chairs, stare off at the TV at a show you never watch regularly or flip through one of the outdated magazines sitting nearby. Then all of sudden, the nurse comes out.  Rather than calling one name out as usual, she simply says, “All Rise.” The doctor comes out and says, “Well, what is wrong?” Looking around, everyone says together, “We are sick.” The doctor writes down something on his prescription pad and heads to the copier. Shortly after, he returns and says, “Here. Take one and pass it down.”

Even if the prescribed cure worked for everyone in the room, wouldn’t you still think it was a little odd? Wouldn’t you want to be examined by the doctor? What if there was something wrong that you did not even know about? Wouldn’t you want to make sure that the medicine given was the exact thing that your sickness required?  I know I would.

And yet most of us have no problem with receiving our spiritual care that way. We file in, our pastor asks what wrong, and we speak in unison about our general sickness. Pastor then gives out a general word of cure to all gathered. We shuffle out.

Here is the good news. That general cure works. When the pastor says “I forgive you all of your sins” in the name of Jesus and in his stead to the entire congregation, your sins are forgiven.  You, the poor miserable sinner are cured of that malady and give the status of saint.

But the fact that the general cure works does not mean that we should never leave the waiting room. It does not mean that we should never go into the examining room and speak with the doctor.  It does not mean that we should never take advantage of private confession and absolution.  It does not mean that we should not go in and sit one on one with our spiritual physician, our pastor, and confess our sickness to him.

For it is there that he can help you examine more than just the general sinfulness you confess on Sunday. There he might be able to reveal some sickness that you do not even know you have. There he can give you exactly the word you need to be cured. And there you know that that word was truly meant for you.  Satan’s accusation that the word of forgiveness could not be meant for you is quieted as your pastor looks right at you and placed his hand over you or upon you to assure you of the forgiveness of your sins, the specific sins you struggle with, the specific sins you have just confessed.

Truth is we don’t sin generally. We sin specifically. We sin in specific ways against specific people and carry around specific guilt. And while the general cure of absolution indeed makes us well, it does not mean that we should not desire the specific cure that comes as we sit with our pastor.

Christians understand through the word their sickness. And they understand that God has given his church and her pastors to deliver the cure of his forgiveness in words of absolution. And so they go and confess their sin. Yes, there may be some shame in speaking about our sickness, but we also know that feeling at the doctor who cares for our body as well. But we endure the shame knowing that it can truly only be removed when the sickness it is attached to is healed in absolution.

Blessed is the man who sins are forgiven. The gifts Christ freely gives, he gives to you and me. Absolution is his gift to us.