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INJ
St Matthew 18:21-35
'As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us'
Divine Service
The 22nd Sunday after Trinity Sunday | November 4, 2007
Dear Saints,
If you're not in the habit of doing it, coming to church is a difficult thing to do. It's a bit scary, a strange place full of different things and strangers. I know this is hard to remember for a lot of you, but I talk to a lot of people who haven't been before the Lord's altar in the a while and they say, “I don't know what I'll do. I think I'll do something wrong.”
In fact, there was a man who woke up one Sunday morning and was having a lazy cup of coffee. “Aren't you going to go to get ready for church?” his wife asked. “No,” said the man, “I'm never sure what to do at church. I'm always afraid I'll make a mistake or say something wrong to someone. And the people are all so critical; if I make one little mistake people never forget about it. And besides, I don't think anyone likes me there.” “Come now,” said the man's wife, “It's not that bad. And besides, you're the pastor.”
Now the danger with a joke in the sermon is that we remember the joke and forget the point, but I don't what you to forget this, most people outside the church see the church as a house of judgment, a place of law, filled with critical people who are cold and hard and unforgiving. Sometimes this is simply a caricature, an excuse not to come to church, but sometimes, I'm afraid, it is true.
Do we forgive one another? Bear with one another? Love one another? We are, after all, Christians, the Lord's people, redeemed and baptized and adopted by our Father to be part of His family. But I am afraid that it is easier for us to be shocked and dismayed with each other's sins, and the sins of our neighbors. It shouldn't be so. When we come in here, gathered at the Lord's name, the very first thing we say to God and before each other it that we are poor, miserable sinners. But then when someone acts like a poor miserable sinner we are surprised, shocked, scandalized. “I can't believe he did that. Did you hear what she did?” And if we are scandalized when we see some one sin against someone else, look at what we do when we are sinned against!
“I can't believe they did that to me! They said that about me! They looked at me like that, they didn't say hello, they're acting rude, they forgot my birthday.” And on and on and on. Seventy times seven my brothers and sisters have sinned against me, and we are hurt, and now we are defensive, and now I don't even want to be in the same room with that person, in the same church with that person.
It's one thing for us to say that we are poor miserable sinners, that's all well and good, we can endure that, but if you prove to me you that you are a sinner by sinning against me, whoa, what out. You think God is angry with sin, wait until you see my wrath.
Our sinful flesh always tempts us to be defensive, critical, unforgiving, holding our brothers and sisters in a manipulating grasp of un-forgiveness.
And so it is for us that Jesus tells the parable of the unforgiving servant. This parable is to expose the shame of our sinfulness, the silly childishness of our lack of forgiveness.
There is a servant who owed a king 10,000 talents, that's 10,000 day's labor, a ridiculous amount of money. The man was unable, and as the king was arranging a sentence for him, the man begged for a little mercy, time to pay back the money. Instead of granting his request and giving his servant more time, this king does the unexpected: he totally forgives the man, wipes his slate clean. This servant is really given his life. Goods, fame, child and wife, these all he still has; he tasted mercy in its fullness.
And now this forgiven servant goes outside and finds a guy who owes him a few bucks. He demands his money, and when this little debtor can't pay him back, he begins making plans for judgment. The debtor begs for mercy, but this man who was given mercy beyond comprehension has no mercy to give; he demands every cent, and throws the guy in jail until he pays him back.
He is forgiven millions of dollars and then a minute later has a friend thrown into jail for ten dollars. What would you call such a man? A jerk. The worst type of person. This is someone who is so fantastically self-centered that you can barely stand to be around them; the type of person that you are embarrassed to know them or are ashamed that they are part of the family. This is you. This is me. Jesus is putting us on the examination table, and it should make us squirm.
How can it be that the Lord Jesus spills out His holy and precious blood to redeem us from sin and rescue us from the depths of hell. Jesus gives up everything and goes the the bitter agony and shame of the cross, He suffers the wrath of God and tastes the dregs of man's destruction for us, that we might know the Lord's love, that our sins might be forgiven. The debt we owed to God for our sin is beyond counting, beyond comprehension. If you were to try to pay off the debt of your sin by your agony it would never be finished; hell is eternal. This is the debt, your debt, that is forgiven.
If we then, would go and demand that others pay their debts to us, treat us like we think we should be treated, when we hold other's sins against them and refuse to forgive, or when we are angry because we have been mistreated, then we are the worst type of people. Jerks. Embarrassing. So fantastically self-centered that we are hard to be around. Repent.
Our holding on to the sins done against us and our refusal to forgive each other is unbelief in its ugliest and most pitiful form. It is shameful and embarrassing because it says to heaven and earth that the price Jesus paid and the debt He forgave me means nothing. Repent, and believe the Gospel.
When we beg the Lord for mercy He hears us. Like the king who forgave the servant, Jesus forgives us, not just 10,000 talents, more, eternally more. And He forgives us knowing that we would think it nothing, knowing that we would treat it lightly. Still He came, and died, broken body and spilt blood for the forgiveness of all of our sins, to set us free, and to have us as His won dear children.
So great is the Lord Jesus' desire to distribute His forgiveness throughout the world that He established His church for this very purpose. The church is the house of forgiveness, the Lord's hall of mercy and grace.
Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered to the end that we shall daily obtain there nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here. Thus, although we have sins, the [grace of the] Holy Ghost does not allow them to injure us, because we are in the Christian Church, where there is nothing but [continuous, uninterrupted] forgiveness of sin, both in that God forgives us, and in that we forgive, bear with, and help each other. [Martin Luther, Large Catechism, Creed, 3rd Article. 55]
“I'm afraid to come to church, afraid I might do something wrong.” Cast fear aside. This is the Lord's church, the Lord Jesus who hung dead on the cross, spilling out His blood to cleanse us and make us His holy and forgiven people. This is the house of God who spared not His only Son but gave Him up for us all. This place and this time and these people (you and I) and this church all belong to the God of all mercy and grace, who even now has prepared His meal of mercy and grace for us.
May the Lord grant us to eat in freedom and faith, and to live before Him and with each other in the joy of sins forgiven. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO