Issues of Reconciliation

As far as everyday reception of the sacraments is concerned, the Sacrament of Confession/Reconciliation is one that many of our protestant friends really have a difficult time accepting. The big, and dare I say obvious, question that usually comes up quite quickly is this, Why would you go confess your sins to a priest? Don’t you know that it is God who has the power to forgive sins? The first place we need to go in Scripture is Jn 20:19-23 where Jesus appears to the Apostles , after the Resurrection, breathes on them, and tells them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." This passage begs the question, why would Jesus give his Apostles the power to forgive sins if they were just supposed to keep that power to themselves? What would be the point? Logically we can gather that Christ wanted his Apostles to actually use the power and authority he gave them to continue his work on earth after his Ascension. Paul gives us a specific example of this mission in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 when he tells the community in Corinth, “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” This is the mission Christ has sent us on, a mission where the forgiveness of sins is central. And just as the mission of the Church did not end with the original Apostles, neither did the authority Christ gave them. It was passed on to their successors, modern day bishops and priests. Finally we can also look at James 5:13-16 Where James tells the people to call a presbyter (priest) if anyone is sick and they should anoint him with oil and pray for him, and his sins will be forgiven. James then follows this by commanding us, “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed “ James flat out tells us to confess our sins to one another. And what would be the point unless at least some actually had the authority to forgive those sins? Ultimately it breaks down to this. God gave us the sacrament of confession for the forgiveness , why should we pretend like we know a better way than his?