Members of ours tell stories about the way that they grew up with Confession. Everyone went to the pastor once a quarter to confess what they had done wrong. Confession was required in order to receive Communion, and a proper Confession was believed to be essential in order to get into heaven. That’s why in earlier days, communion was only offered once a month or even less frequently. Confession was a box to check before coming to communion.
Confession, in other ways of practicing it, presents a little more like beating one’s breast, as the tax collector does in Luke 18 (9-14), which can be misunderstood to mean that we need to beat ourselves up, constantly calling ourselves out, focusing on our wrongs to the point of humiliation.
It is said that confession is good for the soul, but how exactly is that so? Is it simply a box to be checked before communion? Is it a step to take so that we can be right with God?
Why is it that we say that confession is good for the soul? I would imagine that your own experience will tell you why. We have all experienced in our lives the weight and pain of sin that goes unconfessed. David confessed publicly in many psalms that when he left his own sin unconfessed, his bones were wasting away inside of him. He felt God’s hand heavy on his chest like an oppressive heat in the summer. He couldn’t eat. He couldn’t sleep. His unconfessed sin literally ate away at him. And, if you’re anything like me, unconfessed sin has that same effect on us. The guilt and shame will literally eat at us. The mere mention of unconfessed sin raises that sin to your memory, and your own heart feels its weight on your chest.
We feel this way because of guilt. We instinctively know that when we sin, we owe somebody something. That’s guilt. We know that when we’ve wounded someone, we deserve payback for what we’ve done against them. We know when we’ve done evil, there is always punishment. We owe somebody something for our sins. And if that somebody is God, the weight of guilt is that much heavier. We also feel this way because of shame. When we’ve done something – even if no one knows anything about it – we’re ashamed and embarrassed about it. In fact, our shame might even be heightened if no one knows about it because now we’re constantly trying to keep that sin hidden and buried. Sin leaves us ashamed and embarrassed about who we are and what we’ve done. It makes us want to hide.
Confession is good for the soul, simply for the physical, emotional, and mental toll that it takes on us. It brings our sin out into the open so that the darkness no longer has its hold on us. Confession brings our sin out into the open. It breaks the power of guilt and shame and hardness over us.
Confession is good for the soul, but absolution is better for it. In fact, absolution is the main part here and the most important part. Our Lutheran fathers wrote: “Confession is to be retained for the sake of the absolution (which is its chief and most important part)” (AC XXV, Tappert, 63:13). See, confessing can only take us so far. If we only confess our sins and bring them out into the open, we have only vomited them out. But that’s not far enough. Those sins always have to be dealt with. Those sins also have to be forgiven. That sin must always be covered. That is the work of absolution.
See, absolution is great for the soul because you come begging for mercy, you come begging for help, you come broken and beaten and defeated by sin, you come crying out to the Lord for mercy, and you come confessing your sins. And then God, through his called servant, through a fellow believer, does something. Yes, in the absolution spoken by the pastor, through the forgiveness spoken through a fellow believer, as through an agent of His, God deals with your sins and forgives them.
This is what happens in the absolution here at church. The pastor says: “In Jesus’ name, I forgive you all of your sins.” And then, at that moment, your sins are separated from you as far as the east is from the west. At that moment, your guilt is removed, and you are acquitted. At that moment, through the power of those words, your sin is removed. And not just that. At the very same time that your sin is removed, God also gives you something. He also gives you glory; he covers your shame with righteousness. Just as God covered Adam and Eve with clothes he made, so God covers you with righteousness and glory his Son earned. You come with torn clothes and filthy rags; you go with righteousness and glory all over you. The absolution both justifies you and sanctifies you. It both acquits you and makes you holy. It both declares you “not guilty” and makes you wholly righteous before God, lacking no good thing. That’s why I say that while confession is good for the soul, absolution is great for it.
Now, let me wrap this up with an invitation. Let me be your confessor. When your sins weigh heavily on your hearts, or even if they don’t, I invite you to meet with me for this purpose alone: to be absolved. I won’t turn our time into a counseling session or even give you advice about it. It will be what we do in church, only more intentional and more personal. It might even be a time and a place to privately confess your sins out loud, to break their hold on your heart. To confess something you did a long time ago. To something that is weighty on our hearts. And this is what I will say to you, “In the strong name of Jesus, I forgive you all of your sins. Go in peace.”
I warmly and heartily invite you to do this with me privately at any time. During Holy Week, I am setting aside time during Holy Week to be specifically available for this. I have reserved these times for private absolution. You can sign-up for a time slot here (https://bit.ly/PrivateAbsolution), or you can just come. Let me be your confessor, or rather, let me be your absolver, your forgiver. And this is why: If confession is good for the soul, then absolution is great for it. God knows we need it constantly.
Fellow Sinner, Nate Bourman