Every once in a while, you will hear a story about good deeds being passed on and on and on. I can remember about a year ago hearing about a chain reaction of good deeds at a McDonald’s restaurant. Someone in the drive thru decided to pay for the person waiting in line behind them. Touched by this person’s generosity, the person who was paid for, decided to pay for the next person. Touched by that person’s act of kindness, the next person decided to pay for the next person, and so on and so forth. According to a CNN article, 167 people paid it forward that day before the chain was broken. Kindness and compassion begat kindness and compassion. Every once in a while such stories break forth and help us see the goodness of humanity.
At such times, the Golden Rule seems to come to life, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Most of us whole-heartedly agree that this is the way it should work. This is the way the world should operate. We see that ideal looming before us. Sometimes we catch glimpses of it actually happening, but then, we also are reminded of just how far we have to go. We see things that make us shake our heads in bewilderment. We see man’s inhumanity toward man. We see that acts of kindness are met with acts of hatred and enmity. Sometimes such acts make us think deeply about the world that we live in, and we ask, “What is wrong with people?” It is an age old question. It has been wrestled with for many, many centuries.
The Bible wrestles with this question as well, but the Bible does not lead those of us who follow its teachings to say, “What’s wrong with people?” No. The Bible makes it more personal. The Bible leads us ultimately to ask the question, “What is wrong with me?” That’s not a popular question. It’s not a popular question at all. For the most part, we don’t like looking at ourselves and seeing that we might be flawed. We don’t like looking at ourselves and admitting that we are broken individuals and that we are capable of causing pain, grief, and harm to others. But if we delve into the Bible, if we consider it’s teachings honestly, there is no escaping what it says about us. I cannot escape the Bible telling me, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You, Kevin Haug are a sinner who has fallen short of God’s glory.” This means that the relationship that I have with God is not where it should be. This means that there is a strain in my relationship with the One who created me. And if that relationship is to be maintained, forgiveness will need to enter into the picture–not on my behalf, but on God’s behalf. God hasn’t messed up the relationship. I have. I need forgiveness.
This is a very crucial point in helping all of us become better at forgiving one another. As we have worked through this topic we have learned a lot. We have learned that forgiveness is very beneficial to our health and well being. Science has confirmed this through numerous studies. We have learned that God expects us to forgive one another, and that if we don’t forgive one another, we will not be forgiven. We have also learned that despite these benefits and warnings, we still have an extremely difficult time forgiving because when we forgive someone, we absorb the cost of their wrongdoing. No one really wants to pay for someone else’s wrongdoing–it flies in the face of justice as we know it!! Forgiveness is extremely difficult because of this.
Yet, as Christians, we are called to practice forgiveness, so we must learn how. Unfortunately, we have discovered that the Bible does not give us a step by step program on how to forgive. But, we did learn that Jesus gives us a step by step program on how to try and get someone to take responsibility for their sin. This means we wouldn’t have to pay the cost ourselves. Yet, the process does not always work, therefore we learned that we must move into the hard work of forgiveness. And the first step we took in that endeavor was to look at God. Jesus told a story of a Lord and Master who was unimaginably wealthy; who was unimaginably compassionate; who was unimaginably just. We finished our time together last week holding in dynamic tension God’s great love and God’s great justice.
Today, we look at the unforgiving servant in that story, and it’s not exactly the most pleasant thing to look at. Why? Well, in every story that Jesus tells, He expects His audience to find themselves in that story. He expects us to relate to at least one or more of the characters. It is quite obvious from this story that we are not the Lord and Master. That spot is reserved for God. We are also not those who are standing around watching. That’s a bit part to move the story along. We certainly can find ourselves like the second servant–at the receiving end of someone who fails to forgive us; however, I don’t think Jesus means for us to identify with this servant because He is answering Peter’s question: “How many times must I forgive someone who sins against me?” We are put in the place of someone who is owed a debt. As far as we know, the second servant is not owed anything, therefore, we are not to relate to this man. Given all of that, Jesus tells this parable with the idea that we will be most closely associated with the servant who was forgiven a massive debt but then fails to forgive.
Now, before I go further, I would like to ask you to hang in there through this whole sermon series. I’m not up here to scare the living daylights out of you. I’m not here to suggest that you and I have a one way ticket to hell. I am not up here telling you that fear is the ultimate motivation for forgiveness. No. That’s not it at all. But as I said last week, if we understand this parable and what it is pointing out, then we will understand forgiveness and we will be better able to forgive. We simply need to hang in there, and once we wade through everything, things will become much more clear. So, with that being said, let’s now look at this servant in the parable.
Sometimes, you can read something over and over again and never notice things until someone else points that thing out. Such is the case with me with this parable. I had never really noticed the fact that this servant was brought before the Lord. I’m not too sure he willingly came before his master. He had to be dragged there. Why? Well, because he knew how much he owed the Lord. He owed the Lord 10,000 talents. Last week we put a modern dollar figure on that amount. This servant owed $6 billion. If you know you owe that much and you know your Lord is settling accounts, you don’t want to appear in front of Him. You don’t want to face the music. You are scared out of your mind. You wouldn’t voluntarily head into such a meeting. You’d do everything possible to try and avoid it. So, this servant had to be brought before his Master.
And the Master demanded a reckoning. The Master demanded repayment. At this point, I can’t help but ask this question: who in the world can rack up $6 billion in debt? I mean, that’s a staggering amount. How do you do that? I mean, I was crunching the numbers on this. Do you realize that you would have to spend $1 million per day for 16 and a half years before you spent $6 billion? How do you do that? I cannot even begin to fathom that. That number is almost beyond my comprehension. And yet, this guy owed that much money.
Now, of course, this parable isn’t about money. It’s about sin, so the point of this comparison is that we are in debt to God in a similar fashion. We have sinned against God in an amount that is beyond comprehension. As I read this parable, Jesus is saying to me, “Kevin, you have racked up a debt towards God that is comparable to $6 billion dollars. Your sin is overwhelming.” That is not a comforting thought. How can I rack up so much sin? How can I be in debt to God that much? Haven’t I tried to be a good person? Haven’t I worked for God in the church? Haven’t I been a Christian all my life? How could I rack up so much sin? And then I remember the confession and forgiveness that we do each and every Sunday. “We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed; by things that we have done and by things that we have left undone.” Sin takes the form of thought, word and deed. Whenever we think an unholy thought, we sin. Whenever we speak an unholy word, we sin. Whenever we do an unholy deed, we sin. But it goes beyond what we do. It is also the things we don’t do. Whenever we don’t feed the hungry, we sin. Whenever we don’t speak well of our neighbor and defend him or her, we sin. Whenever we allow injustice to continue, we sin. Whenever we keep more than we need, we sin. Whenever we fail to give to God the things that are due God, we sin. If we honestly look at what God commands, and if we honestly look at ourselves, we begin to see just how sinful we are. We begin to see just how in debt to God we are. We resonate deeply with St. Paul when he says in 1 Timothy 1:15, “15The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost.” Yes, I am in debt beyond imagination.
And the Master demands an account. The Master demands repayment. “You will be sold along with your family and all your possessions as payment for the debt.” This is far too little to satisfy the debt, but it is everything that the servant has. The servant sees what is happening. He knows that he will never experience any sort of freedom again. He sees that his family will be gone; that his possessions will be taken. He knows that the only thing he can do is plead for mercy. And so he does. He falls face down in front of the Master; he kisses the Master’s feet. And he lies. Yes, he lies. “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” This servant owed 10,000 talents. At best, a slave could expect to earn one talent in his entire lifetime. This slave owes 10,000 lifetimes worth of debt. There is no way he could ever repay it. There is no way he could ever come close. But he is desperate. He needs a way out. He wants salvation. He will do whatever it takes to get it in light of the alternative.
But what the servant does not realize is the grace of his Master. The servant does not realize the compassion the Master has. The Master is moved with pity for the servant, and in a move of sheer grace, the master releases the servant and forgives the debt.
Now, the important question comes forth. What would you do if you had been forgiven such a debt? What would you do if the Master looked at you and said, “You know that $6 billion you owe me. It’s gone. You don’t have to pay it. You are free to go.”? What would your insides do? What would you feel down deep? What would your heart do? And how would you feel toward the Master who had just paid that debt for you? What would your thoughts be toward Him? What would you think about the One who just lost $6 billion of His own money because you pleaded with Him?
These are vastly important questions. They are the crux of the whole problem of forgiveness. They are the lynch pin on helping us to forgive. Therefore, we will focus on them in depth next week.
What we do know now is the direction this servant took. What we do know is that unlike those 167 people in that McDonald’s drive thru, this servant does not pay things forward. Instead of passing on what he had received, he sought out a fellow servant who owed him money. Please note that Jesus purposely tells us that this is a fellow servant. This is an equal. This is someone who has the same status as the servant who was just forgiven. And in a scene of horror, the forgiven servant refuses to forgive. The one who was forgiven 10,000 lifetimes of debt, refuses to forgive three month’s wages. Even though his fellow servant begged and pleaded with him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.” You will note that the only difference between what this servant said and what the unforgiving servant said to the Master is only one word. “Everything” is missing. Almost the exact same words produce vastly different results.
Why? I mean, we know what happens next. We know the Master finds out what happens and reinstates the debt; throws the servant into prison; and allows him to be tortured. It’s not a happy ending. But why did it get that far? Why did the one who was forgiven fail to forgive? Answering these questions will bring us to the heart of forgiveness. Answering these questions will help us see how we can forgive. But I do not have time to answer them now. They will have to wait until next week. I don’t like leaving you hanging out there with little direction, so I’ll give you a little bit to think about in the week ahead. Why does the servant focus on what is owed him instead of focusing on what he was forgiven? Consider that question as next week we bring things full circle. Amen.
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