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St Matthew 18:21-35
“Forgiven and Forgiving"
Morning Service
Hope Lutheran Church, Aurora, CO
Pastor Wolfmueller
Dear People of God,
“How many times should I forgive my brother?” Peter asks Jesus, “Seven times?” This is how it is with the law, it is measuring, counting, tallying up. “I'll forgive you now, but this is the fifth time, two more strikes and you're out.” But this is not the way it is with Jesus, and this is not the way it is in His kingdom. We ought to lose count of how many times we forgive one another. “I do not say to you seven times,” says Jesus, “but up to seventy times seven.” And this does not mean four-hundred and ninety. If we say, “I'll forgive you now, but this is the three-hundredth and sixty-first time. One-hundred and twenty-nine more strikes and you're out,” we're not getting the point. Grace loses count. Forgiveness doesn't keep a tally of sins and wrong doings.
Jesus tells a parable to drive the point home.
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.
Ten thousand talents is a ridiculous amount of money; it's so much that it's silly. It's difficult to put an exact number on it because the value of money is always changing, but as I looked into the text a little this week, I saw that the entire tax burden for the Roman province of Egypt in the first century was 500 talents a year. All of Egypt, which is no small place, owed 500 talents in taxes to Rome, and this servant owes his master 10,000 talents. Imagine owing twenty years of California's taxes. You get the idea of the huge debt owed.
And so we are not surprised when the text continues, But as he was not able to pay. This is a very important part of the parable. The master in the parable symbolizes God, and we are the servants, and we, because of our sin, are in debt to God. That debt is huge, vast, monstrous, so gigantic that even the thought of repaying it is ridiculous. The debt is huge and the punishment for not paying the debt is severe.
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 man and his family would be slaves, would have nothing, no freedom, no possessions, that is the punishment for his inability to repay. All is lost. So, too, for us sinners. Because of our sinfulness, all is lost. We are born slaves to sin, death and the devil. It's true, the devil makes hims slaves live under the delusion that they are free, that they can do what they want, that they don't need to live bound and enslaved to rules. But the Bible gives it to us straight, “Who ever sins is a slave to sin.” [John 8:34] We are born and die as slaves, and that death is eternal, bringing on the unbeliever the eternal wrath of God, paying and paying the debt that cannot be paid. This is how it is with sinners, would that God would show us, that He would give us the divine insight that the debt of our sin is unpayable, the wrath of God unquenchable.
Normally we don't think so much of our sin. We might make a mistake here and there, we might mess up or slip up every once in a while, but we're not that bad, not as bad as the next guy. “At least I've never murdered anyone.” And now we're safe, a few good works sprinkled with good intentions and we think the debt is paid, settled. “Sure God will let me into heaven, I've lived a pretty good life.” We're like the slave in the parable, The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, “Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.” Yeah, right. We know there is absolutely no way that this debt can be paid or satisfied. The idea of repaying this ridiculously huge debt is itself a ridiculous idea, and so are we sinners who think that we can get to heaven by our own works, as if our sin didn't matter that much, as if we could make it right.
Human reason is always thinking of ways to pay God back, to make it up to Him. The words of this servant in the parable could be the theme of every false religion in the world. “Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.” Call this moralism, works righteousness, unitarianism, really, what ever you want, all of them are religions of the law; all of them say that if you're good enough or do enough good works or reach a certain state of perfection or holiness or enlightenment, then you will be right with God. The debt, so to speak, will be paid, and you will obtain heaven, or nirvana, or bliss, or whatever comes from overcoming our weak shortcomings.
But all of this is false religion, idolatry, blasphemy, a claiming to be god, the naive dreams of men who imagine that their sinfulness is trite, minor, not a big deal. But the Scriptures show us the insurmountable debt of our sinfulness, that it can never be paid, that the fire of God's wrath that burns against us sinners can never be quenched or put out by our own efforts or works. Let me be absolutely clear, if you think that you can pay off God, or somehow make things right with Him by your own good works or deeds, if you think that you will go to heaven because you are a good person or because you try to be, you are living under a delusion. Being ignorant of the depths of your own sin, you blaspheme God, and make a mockery of the sacrifice of His Son Jesus on the cross. There is no paying off our debt, there is no making self-satisfaction for our sins. We cannot save ourselves.
Would to God that He would cut all of the sinful self-righteous thoughts of earning heaven out of our hearts. That we would never pray, “Have patience and I will pay you all,” but that we would rather confess our sins, that we can do nothing to save ourselves, that we need another, a Savior. That we would look outside of ourselves for salvation, and that we would look to the One who can save us, Jesus.
This is the religion of the Bible, it is entirely different than this false religion of self-righteousness. Instead of works and efforts the Bible gives us Jesus, His work, His life, and His bitter suffering and death on the cross. He, Jesus, lives the perfect life, and He, in His death, suffers God's wrath in our place. He redeemed us, that is, paid our debt. Yes, the debt that we could never pay by ourselves or our own works, He paid for us. “You were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” [1 Peter 1:18,19]
Jesus has done all the work, paid the price in full. “It is finished” He said on the cross, and it was, your salvation was secured, death was defeated, heaven was opened. This is the good news of the Gospel on which the church is founded. Now, instead of works righteousness there is faith, and instead of sin there is forgiveness. This is what rules and reigns in the church, in Jesus' kingdom, the kingdom of heaven: the forgiveness of all sins.
In the parable the servant promised to pay all that he owed, that he would pay the unpayable debt, but the master would have nothing of it. Instead of sending the servant out saying, come back with the money, the text says, “Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.” Nothing else is demanded, the man is set free. The master, again, is God our Father who looks with compassion on us because of Jesus' death on the cross, and instead of demanding payment for our sin, He forgives us all of our sins. What a beautiful word: forgiveness. It means freedom and peace and life and salvation and reconciliation with God. It means heaven and life everlasting and no fear of death and the grave. Forgiveness is the delivery of all of the gifts of heaven. There is no greater gift, no greater treasure.
When we see our own sinfulness and the size of our debt, and then we see the price that God paid to free us from that debt, even the death of our Lord Jesus on the cross, our only response can be overwhelming thanks and praise to God. Forgiveness, and the faith that grasps and receives forgiveness, brings the Holy Spirit and produces a new life in our hearts. It brings peace; it sets the heart at rest. Knowing by faith that Jesus has died for our sins changes us, it makes of us new creatures. Now we can truly love God who has loved us and given us such undeserved gifts. And now we can love our neighbor as ourselves.
Knowing the love of God for us, we don't need to love ourselves, but can live our lives in love for our neighbor. Knowing God's mercy for us, we can have mercy on our neighbor. Knowing how much the Lord has forgiven us our vast and great debt, we can forgive those who sin against us. This is how the Christian lives, all those who have faith in the forgiveness of their sins, they live their lives loving and forgiving their neighbor.
That is what the Christian life is supposed to look like. But listen to wat appens in the rest of the parable. After the master had forgiven his servant's debt, “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 we, and I will pay you all.' (These are the exact same words that the servant had prayed to his master. But instead of acting as his master did, and having compassion, and forgiving the debt, we hear a different story...) And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt.” Having been forgiven the monstrous unpayable debt of ten thousand talents, this man demands the life of his fellow servant for the price of an hundred denarii. Now this is no small amount, maybe ten thousand dollars, but compared with the debt that had just been forgiven, this was peanuts. And that is the point. It is absolutely crazy and ridiculous, in light of the tremendous gift of forgiveness that Jesus has won for us on the cross, to bind each other in our sins, and demand payment and withhold forgiveness.
You, dear Christians, cannot do it. You cannot refuse forgiveness. It makes a mockery of Jesus and His cross. Every time we refuse to forgive each other and forgive our neighbor, we make ourselves out to be a god. “Well, Jesus might forgive you, but I won't. I have much higher standards.” We are free from this type of life, free from this sinful pride that has the necessity to get even and demand justice. We are set free from this bitterness and meanness and vindictive spirit. We are free from tallying and counting up all the times we are hurt and sinned against. By faith, and only by faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, we are free to lose count, free to forgive.
We are forgiven of all of our sins, and now we can, indeed, we must forgive all who sin against us. Forgiving our neighbor is the joyful and thankful response of the Christian who knows that they are forgiven. And so we are forgiven and forgiving.
The servant in the parable should have said (and so we should say to those who sin against us), “You do owe me one hundred denarii, and yes, it is my legal right to demand that of you. But I, too, was once a debtor, and I owed a debt far greater that the debt which you owe me, and yet my master, who had claim on my life and could have destroyed me, instead forgave me my debt, and set me free. Therefore I also forgive you. Go, you are free.” But no, he bound his debtor to his debt, refused to forgive, and listen to the terrible end of the parable, “So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were 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 the 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 people of God, do not be deceived, God is not mocked. Jesus is teaching us in this parable what t means to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” If the Lord's forgiveness of all of our sins means so little that we are loath to forgive others, the master has these words, “You wicked servant.” Would to God that we would never hear those words, but that we would instead treasure the wonderful forgiveness that the Lord freely gives to us. That we would rejoice in being forgiven, and that we, in thankfulness to God that He does not hold our sins against us, would forgive our neighbors and those who trespass against us. May God grant that we would be forgiven and forgiving.
And now may the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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