Protestant Interpretation of John 20:23 in Light of Matthew 9:8? How is:

John 20:21-23
Εἶπεν οὖν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς πάλιν Εἰρήνη ὑμῖν καθὼς ἀπέσταλκέν με ὁ Πατήρ, κἀγὼ πέμπω ὑμᾶς καὶ τοῦτο εἰπὼν ἐνεφύσησεν καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς Λάβετε Πνεῦμα Ἅγιον ἄν τινων ἀφῆτε τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἀφέωνται αὐτοῖς ἄν τινων κρατῆτε κεκράτηνται
Jesus said again to them therefore, Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you. And having said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, Recieve ye the Holy Ghost: if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you hold bound the sins of any, they are held bound.


In light of:

Matthew 9:2,6,8
καὶ ἰδοὺ προσέφερον αὐτῷ παραλυτικὸν ἐπὶ κλίνης βεβλημένον καὶ ἰδὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς τὴν πίστιν αὐτῶν εἶπεν τῷ παραλυτικῷ Θάρσει, τέκνον ἀφίενταί σου αἱ ἁμαρτίαι ... ἵνα δὲ εἰδῆτε ὅτι ἐξουσίαν ἔχει ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἀφιέναι ἁμαρτίας ... Ἰδόντες δὲ οἱ ὄχλοι ἐφοβήθησαν καὶ ἐδόξασαν τὸν Θεὸν τὸν δόντα ἐξουσίαν τοιαύτην τοῖς ἀνθρώποις
And behold, they brought out to him one paralyzed, lying on a bed. And Jesus, having seen their faith, said to the paralytic, Take courage, son;  thy sins have been forgiven! ... But so that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. ... And the crowds seeing [this] marveled, and glorified God, Who gave such authority to men.

Not proof that Jesus really did give men (priests) this power to forgive sins with the power and authority of the Holy Ghost, which He expressly imparts to them for this ministry?

Specifically, how isn't an interpretation other than this ridiculous? Seeing as it would either seem to imply there are such things as 'divinely-approved' grudges (John 20:23b), rather than a priest withholding absolution from an unrepentant.. penitent; or a redundant 'when you forgive someone, you have forgiven them,' whereas this seems to clearly bestowing upon them the &quot;authority&quot; to &quot;forgive sins&quot; by the power of the &quot;Holy Ghost&quot;, at least in the Catholic view—that when they forgiven the sins of any God has forgiven them?
Thank you in advance!
Jesus says,


  As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you.


so the question to start, How did the father send Jesus?

John 12:49


  For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.


john 5:19


  19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.


So Jesus was not picking for himself who to forgive, who to heal, rather he was doing that which the Father willed.

Now, jesus says that he sends the disciples in the same manner,

So we can understand that its not up to the disciples to "pick and choose" who to forgive and who to hold accountable, but rather to do the will of the father also. just like jesus said, 


  who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak."


In the same way, the disciples had a message entrusted to them.


  And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”


So the core of the Gospel message is the forgiveness of Sins. This is what humanity is in need of.
The bible says we are enemies of God, seperated by our Sins
Collosians 1:21-23


  21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.


So this forgiveness of Sins is achieved through faith in the Gospel, the Good News of Christs death on our behalf, his paying the penalty for sin, and Rising again, defeating Death.

The ever famous Ephesians 2:8-9


  8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.


Peter shows us in the book of Acts that he understood that forgiveness of Sins was offered by God to those who would believe in the Gospel in repentance.


  42 And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. 43 To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”


Note Pete says "Whoever believes in him WILL recieve remission of Sins.
He does not say, ask me nicely and i will give you forgiveness of sins. he affirms that God forgives sins, but he has been "commanded" to preach this message of forgiveness

See what Paul says about this 
2 Corinthians 5:18-20


  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling[b] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.


So God has made one way for the forgiveness of sins, Faith in the savior Christ, and his work on our behalf. and he has entrusted this "Ministry of reconciliation" or forgiveness of sins, to all his chosen people.

Now to address the second scripture you provided from Matthew,


  And Jesus, having seen their faith, said to the paralytic, Take courage, son; thy sins have been forgiven!


This fits extremely well with what we have said so far, Upon seeing their Faith jesus responds your sins have been forgiven.

So they put their faith in Jesus, and Their sins were forgiven.

Now on to the peoples response, 


  And the crowds seeing [this] marveled, and glorified God, Who gave such authority to men.


If we know anything from studying the bible, its that the people around Jesus almost never got anything right. I think we can see it this way here. The crowd is only looking at jesus as a miracle worker. maybe a prophet or a great teacher. Their response specifically emphasizes their understanding of him as a Human, completely missing the fact he is also God, the Christ.

Paul mentions this in 2 Corinthians 5:16


  16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.


He says, there was a time when we didnt realize Christ was more than just a man. This is where the crowd is at here in Matthew.

So that is a protestant understanding of the verses in question. Very long winded, but had to cover a lot of ground to really give you a clear answer about it. i hope this helps.