Today, the rubber begins to hit the road. Today we come to the pivotal biblical teaching on forgiveness. This teaching is actually so deep and rich that we will spend three Sundays delving into it, and hopefully, at the end of it all, we will come to a deep and full appreciation of forgiveness and find out how indeed we can forgive.
But before we get there, let me take just a moment to recap where we have been so far for anyone who might have missed the first two sermons. First, we delved into what forgiveness is. We found that it has scientifically proven health and mental benefits. We also found that it is commanded by God. We found that if we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven. Yet, despite all of this, we also found that forgiveness is extremely difficult because it means that we pay for the wrongdoing of someone else. We bear the cost of someone else hurting us. Our working definition of forgiveness for this series then is this: the change in our emotional state when we choose to absorb the cost of someone else’s actions that have hurt us.
Last week, we discovered that the Bible doesn’t give much instruction on how we can forgive. We found that it commands forgiveness; that it expects forgiveness, but there is no direct process on how it can be accomplished in our lives. Instead, Jesus begins his teachings on forgiveness with an emphasis on first getting those who have hurt us to take responsibility for their actions. We are called to seek out those who have hurt us to win them back–win them because they are in danger of losing their salvation. Jesus outlines a process in doing this, but if that process doesn’t work–if those who have wronged us fail to take responsibility, then we must move on to the hard work of forgiveness. We must move on to shouldering the cost of how we were wronged.
This leads us straight to our Bible lesson this morning from Matthew chapter 18. Peter, the spokesman of the disciples picks up on what Jesus is saying. He understands what Jesus is saying about forgiveness. He knows that Jesus is asking them to pay the cost of another’s wrong doing. So Peter asks, “Lord, how many times must I forgive someone? Seven times?” Now, Peter thinks that he should receive a pat on the back or two for this question. The religious teachers of his day had talked of forgiveness as well. They had decided in their deliberations that one was obligated to forgive another person two times. After the third offense, one was no longer obligated to forgive. Does this sound like someone playing baseball? Three strikes, and you are out!! Peter is going well above what the religious authorities taught. He has doubled their number and then added one: seven. Seven is also considered the perfect number–the number of godliness. Surely this is accurate.
Jesus actually will have none of it. Jesus says, “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Now, the Greek is a little bit difficult to parse here. You could also translate this seventy times seven–which some of you may have been exposed to in other translations of the Bible. Either way, Jesus is purposely expanding the number greatly–so much so, that Jesus is truly saying, “Look Peter, you don’t keep count.” If you are keeping count; if you are keeping score; you have not yet understood the idea of forgiveness.
I am quite sure that Peter was taken aback by Jesus reply. I am quite sure that Peter looked at Jesus with those deer in the headlights eyes. I’m sure Peter stood there for a moment with his mouth agape before trying to form the words, “But...how?” How can I forgive someone like that? How can I bear that much cost? How can I bear that much pain? How can I do such an impossible thing?
Like the Master Teacher he is, Jesus responds with a story. It is a powerful story. A frightening story. A story packed with imagery and detail and a wallop of a punch. And within this story, when we come to understand it. When we come to understand all that is being said. When it clicks within our minds and our hearts, then, yes, then we will understand and know how to forgive.
Oh but we need to spend some time in this story. We need to examine it. We need to see what this story tells us about God, about ourselves, and then about forgiveness. And to do this, we will spend today focusing on the Master. We will spend next Sunday focusing on the servant, and we will spend the last Sunday putting it all together.
As we look at the parable Jesus told, we first see that the Lord and Master in this parable is unimaginably rich. How do we come to this conclusion. Well, we come to this conclusion by seeing how much the servant owes him. This servant is in debt to his master 10,000 talents. Now, how much is that? Anyone out there who is a mathematician will appreciate this. One talent is worth 6,000 denarii, and one denarii is a day’s wage. Day laborers generally work for $100 a day, so let’s do all the multiplication. One hundred times 6,000 is $600,000. $600,000 times 10,000 is six billion. The Lord’s servant owes him six billion dollars!!! And this is not the only servant. There are more servants to go, and we know from the outset of this parable that they owe the master money as well. Who has that kind of money to loan? Only someone who is unimaginably rich!
This is an important part of this parable because it leads to an important tenet of the Christian faith. We believe and proclaim that all sin is a sin against God. Yes, when we sin against another person, we wrong that other person, but we also wrong our Heavenly Father. There have been a few folks in my time who I have heard who have a hard time wrapping their heads around this. They will say, “Sure, I may have sinned against this person, but it wasn’t against God.” I get that argument. I understand it, but you’ve got to expand your thinking a bit. For it’s like this: let’s say you drive down to Houston to do some shopping. You pull into Memorial City Mall, and you see a parking spot open up–that’s a rare thing, you know!! So you speed up a little bit, and you pull in just in time. But another patron, who had also seen that parking spot bumps into your car and dents it. You are not happy with the situation, and you confront the person who hit you. You demand an apology and payment for the damages. The person looks at you and says, “You know, I didn’t hit you. I hit the car. I don’t owe you and apology. I owe the car an apology, and I don’t owe you damages. I owe the car damages. What is your car’s name so that I can make a check out to it?” I know that sounds stupid. Why? Because we all know, that if you own the car, you are due the damages. If you are driving the car, they hit you. As the owner, you are the one who was sinned against!!!
So here is the question: what does God own? What belongs to God? God is unimaginably wealthy. God owns everything–including you; including me. When we sin against one another, we are sinning against the one who owns us. We are sinning against God. We will need to remember this next week as well as we talk about the servant, but for now, let’s move on.
The second thing we see about the Lord and Master is that He is unimaginably compassionate. He is unimaginably gracious. The servant who owes him six billion dollars is brought before Him, and He demands payment. The Lord has kept an account of everything owed to Him. He knows every cent due. He knows what is rightfully His. Just like us when our car is damaged and we want things set to right; the Lord wants things set to right. It is only just. It is only fair. You can’t have people squandering your wealth without an accounting. You can’t have people causing damage without demanding responsibility! Imagine the chaos such things would cause!! Payment for the debt must be made!!!
But how can $6 billion be accounted for? The only way the Lord can recoup the debt is by selling the servant, his family, and all his possessions. This is only a drop in the bucket, but the debt must be paid.
Such a thing is devastating for the servant, so he pleads with the Lord not to do such a thing. “Give me time, and I will repay everything!!” We’ll talk more about this next week.
What is important to us today is to see the Lord’s response. The Lord has compassion. Literally, in the Greek, the Lord’s insides melted. When the Lord heard His servant’s plea, He was moved deeply. How deeply. The Lord released the servant and wiped out the debt. The wording here is very important–the slave was literally a prisoner. He was in bondage, but he is now freed. He is now released, and his debt is gone; wiped out; completely erased.
But that forgiveness wasn’t cheap, was it? Oh, it was cheap for the slave, but it wasn’t cheap for the Lord. The Lord just incurred a $6 billion expense. The Lord just had $6 billion erased from His net worth. Can you imagine swallowing that much? Can you imagine doing that for someone? Can you imagine the generosity? The compassion? The grace? That is unimaginable. No one does this. No one. No one cancels that much debt. No one pays that cost themselves. Except for this Lord. Except for our Lord. Can you see the generosity of God? Can you see the compassion of God? Can you see what God is willing to do for His servants? Oh ponder the depths of God’s grace and love and mercy!!!
Oh, and if the parable would have ended here, perhaps we could be happy. Perhaps we could simply revel in the glories of God and His generosity. But Jesus doesn’t simply stop with the forgiveness of the debt. There is more.
The servant who was forgiven–who was released, seeks out a fellow servant who owes him money. Using the mathematics of earlier. This fellow servant owes the forgiven servant $10,000. Not insignificant, but completely manageable. But there is no scene of forgiveness to be played out. There is no release. There is imprisonment. We will speak of these things further next week, but for now, let us simply see that the one who was forgiven refuses to forgive, and that initiates another sequence of events–a sequence of events that takes us right back to the Master and Lord.
The Lord is told about the actions of the forgiven servant. The Lord is told of how the one who was forgiven refused to forgive. The Lord is told of how the one who was released turned around and made a captive. And the Lord’s wrath is kindled. “You evil slave!” Yes, that’s the Greek word. Wicked seems to tone things down a bit. A judgment is rendered here, and it is not pleasant. “You evil slave! I forgave you because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have done the same?!”
God is not mocked. God’s forgiveness is not mocked. God’s righteous anger burns against those who have been forgiven and who fail to forgive. God’s wrath falls upon them with the heaviest possible consequences.
The $6 billion debt is reinstated. The slave is thrown into prison. And the slave is tortured. That might make us squeamish hearing Jesus say those words. That may makes our stomachs turn. We like hearing about God’s love. We like hearing about Christ’s love. But judgement? Torture? Really? Surely this is just over the top language. Surely this is just an interpretation. Surely this isn’t the “real” Jesus.
Yes. It is. It is the real Jesus talking about the real God. We must remember that God is a God of justice. God’s anger and wrath burns hot against sin. God will not let sin go unchecked. And if you have been forgiven $6 billion dollars, it is unjust to demand payment of $10,000. Look at it this way–if you were lucky and a hard worker, you could expect to make one talent in your LIFETIME. This servant was forgiven 10,000 lifetimes’ worth of debt, and he refuses to excuse three month’s of wages! Do you consider that just? Do you consider that fair? Do you consider that worthy of the one who forgave $6 billion becoming angry? Of course you do. At a deep level, you recognize the injustice. You recognize that the punishment fits the crime.
And so, is this where we are left? Are we left here looking at God who punishes if we do not forgive? Are we left here now thinking, “Geez, I’d better think twice about holding onto my grudges. I’d better think twice about not forgiving someone else. I’d better start letting go of my anger towards others lest I end up in hell being tortured because I ticked God off.”
Stop. Breathe. The long answer is no. We do not forgive others because we are scared to death of God. We do not forgive others because we fear ending up in hell being tortured for eternity. There is no comfort in such forgiveness. There is no peace in such forgiveness. It is forced and compelled forgiveness, and it certainly is not from the heart. We will arrive there, but today it is sufficient for us to ponder both the love and the justice of God. Hold these two things in dynamic tension. For to see God’s love and God’s justice in tension in this manner is an important step in the process of learning how to forgive. Amen.
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