Sermon for the 22nd Sunday after Trinity

The Forgiven

Matthew 18:23-35

22nd Sunday after Trinity, 2009

Peace Lutheran Church

Sandusky, Michigan

Pastor Jonathon Bakker

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord, Jesus Christ, amen. The Holy Scripture for our consideration this day is the Gospel reading from St. Matthew.

"Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. “So my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this is an alarming Gospel to hear because it offers no hope to those who cannot forgive others. It gives an uncomfortable thrust to the 5th petition of the Lord’s Prayer, because we do not want God to actually forgive us as we have forgiven others. If our forgiveness of others is to be the standard by which God measures his forgiveness for us, we might as well present ourselves to the torturers of debtors’ prison right now and be done with it, just like the unforgiving servant in the Gospel. Though we strive to forgive and forget like the king in Jesus’ parable, we often find ourselves holding on to grudges, old and new.

Today’s Gospel does not include it, but Jesus’ words are actually a response to a question asked two verses earlier in this chapter of Matthew. Peter approached Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ And Jesus responded, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’ And, if that was not quite clear, our Lord goes on to speak the parable of our Gospel reading to illustrate what he means by such forgiveness.

Now, Peter didn’t ask this question out of the blue – there was a reason behind his inquiry. He had been listening to the Lord throughout his ministry and had grasped many important facts. Forgiveness, for instance, is not just a one time action, and moral perfection is not possible for sinful people. He also understood the implications of that fifth petition from the Lord’s Prayer. Yet he had also just heard Jesus speak earlier in this chapter of Matthew about restoring, and in some drastic cases, removing the unrepentant from the church. Peter logically concluded that forgiveness must have its limits, and so he asked Jesus what those limits were.

Now, what Peter really wanted to know, was what was the least number of times he had to forgive his brother to still be acceptable in God’s sight. The answer is obvious to us – there is no limit to how much we ought to forgive one another. Our Lord could have simply said that, but it would have ignored the deeper problem: the hardness of Peter’s heart which led him to ask that question in the first place.

Think about it. When a child asks their parents how much homework they must do before they can visit their friends, or when someone asks how much beer they can drink before they’ve had too many, or even when someone wonders how much work they really need to do to keep the boss happy, they are all after the same thing. They are taking a lowest common denominator approach to questions that should really be asked from a different perspective; from a perspective of love.

Consider it this way: have you ever wondered how many times you must hug or kiss your husband or wife in a month before they know you really love them? Or have you ever wondered how many times you have to tell your children that you love them for them to believe you? Of course not – you do all of those things and more for the people you love, for those God has placed into your lives. You don’t just tell your children you love them; you go and watch their team is playing, you help them with their homework, and you teach them the life lessons you’ve learned. You don’t just hug and kiss your spouse and hope that’s enough for them to know you love them; you fold the laundry, you cook dinner, fix the car, and get up in the middle of the night to make sure the front door is really locked.

Asking what’s the least you have to do so that your family knows you love them sounds almost absurd to our ears – we don’t do the things we do for our families because we hope that they will finally realize that we love them; we do all of those things and more because we love them. Who keeps count of hugs and kisses? Who keeps count of saying, ‘I love you.’ You don’t need a Law from God to tell you to love your children; you love your children because they’re your children.

Love is the fulfillment of the Law, but love was not behind Peter’s question just before the Gospel reading. Peter wanted to know the minimum number of times he had to forgive his neighbor before his sins were to be held against him. Peter was searching for the limits of love, but for Jesus, however, love has no limit. He says seventy times seven times, but then goes on to show just how pointless it is to measure and count when it comes to forgiveness – when it comes to love.

The man who had a debt of ten thousand talents is like Peter – he appealed to the king for the forgiveness of an enormous debt. Ten thousand Talents is comparable to a billion dollars today – it was an utterly insurmountable debt that the man could never repay even if he, his children, and grandchildren worked every hour of every day for the rest of their lives. The king who forgives that debt – and truly no earthly king could ever afford to forgive that debt – is like Jesus who forgives our sins. The man in the parable, forgiven by the king, had clearly missed the point of that forgiveness. He chased down someone who owed him 100 denarii – a hefty sum to be sure – somewhere in the neighborhood of ten-to-fifteen thousand dollars, but not an insurmountable debt for a man and his family. Instead of showing love to this man and forgiving that debt as he had been forgiven, he showed no mercy and demanded full payment. When his debtor could not pay and begged forgiveness, he threw him into the debtor’s prison until the debt could be worked off. It was particularly cruel, considering the great mercy of the king in erasing his own debt, which was incomparably greater than this little one. When the king discovered the way his forgiven servant had handled the situation he was furious – anyone who had received such love and did not likewise show love others, even in a comparatively small way, surely did not appreciate or even understand the greater love shown to them in the first place. When the King caught up with him it was clear what would happen: he would be delivered by the king into the hands of the torturers of debtors’ prison, where would stay until he paid his debt in full.

Jesus’ then ends the parable with these words, ‘So my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.’ Peter’s question had to do with limiting forgiveness. Having just heard the parameters for the discipline and removal of the unrepentant from the fellowship of the church, it is possible he was looking for the means by which he could exercise that discipline and removal over the other disciples and over others who followed Jesus. What Peter did not realize, just like anyone who wants to lord power over others in the church does not realize, is that punishment and judgment are the alien works of God, foreign to his nature. He will do those things when he must, but God’s chief work is to give life, and to give it eternally. This he did by sending his Son in the flesh to bear our sin and be our Savior on the cross, and this he continues to do by granting and strengthening faith in his Son by the power of the Spirit through the Means of Grace.

Peter got the message, or at least we can surmise as much from his own writings and the Scriptural accounts of his life after this point in the Gospels and Acts. He may have been a little overzealous at some points in his future, especially during the arrest and trial of our Lord, but he never again sought to use forgiveness as leverage over others. Peter was the one who was given to feed and tend Jesus’ sheep.

Friends, we too must get this message – there is no room in our Lord’s church for holding grudges and hardening our hearts against one another. Remember the love shown to us by our King, Jesus Christ, when our debt of sin was and is beyond the possibility of us repaying it. God does not love us with a checklist, working continually toward the point at which he will withdraw his gracious love and mercy from us – he loves us without conditions or limits, and through the Holy Spirit he provides the means by which he forgives us all our trespasses: he gives us faith in Jesus Christ, his Son.

Forgiving others is, therefore, no chore from God by which we make ourselves righteous in his sight; forgiving others is what we do in the church both to other Christians and the world. God doesn’t think better of you or me individually because we forgive others so many times – we can never forgive enough to make ourselves even with God. Rather, he rejoices with all of heaven when one sinner repents of his sins and receives forgiveness as a believer.

So, we need not listen to Jesus’ words this morning with fear; instead we can rejoice that our debt of ten thousand talents has been forgiven, and that God’s love for us in his Son is without limit.

To Christ alone be all the glory, forever and ever, amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, our Lord, amen.