Forgive!

INTRODUCTION

Today we’re looking at a passage about forgiveness. It may be the longest passage about forgiveness in the Bible and it’s extremely important. Forgiveness is a God-quality. It’s at the heart of what God is like. We find it very tough to do. But in this teaching, Jesus demands that we do it.

CONTEXT

Let me set the passage in context. We’re coming to the end of Matthew 18. Matthew 18 contains the fourth major block of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew – the fourth discourse, as the Bible scholars call it.

This discourse is about relationships IN THE CHURCH. Curiously, sin comes up at every point.

Jesus taught that we must not lead others into sin.

Then he taught about what we do if we see others falling into sin.

He first told the Parable of the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd goes in search of the straying sheep. The straying sheep represents the straying Christian – someone who is falling into sin and straying from God.

Then Jesus went on to apply the parable to us. In the following section, MOST English Bibles say something like ‘If your brother sins AGAINST YOU’. But a FEW English Bibles leave out the phrase ‘against you.’ I spent quite a bit of time on this last week and I don’t want to go over it again. But briefly, my view is that ‘against you’ should NOT be there. The good shepherd goes after the straying sheep. The Christian goes after a brother or sister who is falling into sin and falling away from God. It doesn’t matter if the sin the person has fallen into is against him or not. He does his very best to bring the straying sheep back to the flock.

In today’s passage, Jesus goes onto the subject of forgiveness.

FORGIVENESS

As Jesus is teaching his disciples, Peter asks him, ‘Lord, how often will my brother SIN against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?!’

Once again, the word sin has come up!

Peter obviously imagines that forgiving seven times would be A LOT! But Jesus says no. We are not to forgive seven times but seventy times seven times! That means an unlimited number of times!

But Jesus’ answer begs another question. Why?! Why should we forgive so much?!

To answer this, Jesus tells a parable. In the parable, there’s a king. The king is settling accounts with his servants. A servant is brought to him who owes him 10,000 talents. I’ll call him Servant A to save any confusion later on. A talent was worth about twenty years’ wages for a labourer. If we put this in modern-day terms the servant’s debt would be something like five billion pounds! A colossal sum!

Servant A doesn’t have that much. There’s a surprise! So, the king orders that he be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he has, and payment be made. Servant A begs the king, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ That won’t happen, but the king is merciful and cancels the debt. Wow! What a kind king!

Servant A leaves. He then bumps into a fellow servant who owes him a hundred denarii. I’ll call him Servant B. If we put that in modern-day terms, Servant B’s debt would be about £10,000. £10,000 isn’t a small amount but people can often find that much if they have to.

Servant A demands that Servant B pay him what he owes. Servant B begs, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But Servant A refuses and has Servant B put in prison until he pays back the debt.

Some of the king’s other servants see what has happened and bring the matter to the king. The king, understandably, is furious. He demands, ‘Should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’

The king then hands Servant A over to the torturers, ‘until he should pay all his debt.’ Given how large his debt is, that will never happen.

THE MEANING OF THE PARABLE

There’s no misunderstanding what Jesus is saying in this parable. In the parable, the king is God. Servant A is me. God has forgiven me an unimaginably huge debt. Servant B is someone who has a debt to me; someone who has wronged me in some way.

Jesus’ point is that if God is willing to forgive my huge debt to him then I have a fundamental moral obligation to forgive other people’s tiny debts to me.

At the end of the parable, the king hears how Servant A has treated Servant B. He’s furious and hands Servant A over to the torturers, ‘until he should pay all his debt.’ Jesus warns, ‘So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.’ In other words, you were forgiven, but God will withdraw his forgiveness. That is very scary indeed! This is a salvation issue.