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.
So, in summary, Jesus tells us that we MUST forgive. The fact that God has forgiven us so much creates a fundamental moral obligation on us to forgive others. And there is a frightening consequence if we don’t.
Given that it’s so important that we forgive, it’s something we should pray about. We need to regularly pray to God that he would forgive us. And it’s a really good idea to pray to God that he would help US to forgive others. One depends on the other!
So far, so good. Jesus’ big message is crystal clear.
DIFFICULTIES
But there are several things in this teaching which we may find difficult. I find quite a few things about forgiveness difficult! I certainly don’t have all the answers. But I’d like to talk about a couple of things where I think Christians often get confused and where I think scripture gives a clear answer.
The first thing is that we should be clear that we forgive for the sake of the other person.
FOR THE OTHER PERSON’S BENEFIT
The dictionary tells us that forgiveness is ‘the action of forgiving; pardon of a fault, remission of a debt, etc.’ [OED]. Forgiving a person benefits the other person.
Some Christians get confused on this point. They think that we should forgive FOR OUR BENEFIT. It’s true that we may benefit by forgiving someone. But that’s a by-product. It’s not the main reason we do it.
Listen to what some preachers had to say about why we forgive.
One preacher said, ‘Forgiveness … involves the conscious decision to release the negative feelings we have’ [Douglas Phillips]. Another said, ‘…forgiving is the only way to get ourselves free from … holding onto pain…’ [Douglas Nieuwstraten]. A third said, ‘Are you holding any grudges? If so, then you need to forgive and forget, otherwise it will eventually hurt you and tear you down’ [Ricky Burke].
These preachers are implying that we forgive someone to reduce our emotional hurt. We forgive for OUR benefit. Why should we let the person who has hurt us go on hurting us?
But forgiveness in the Bible is not about our emotions. Glen Pettigrove, who is Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, wrote, ‘One of the first things likely to strike a contemporary western reader who investigates New Testament discussions on forgiveness is how little it has to do with feelings and how much it has to do with actions and relationships.’
That’s what we see in Jesus’ parable. The king forgave the servant’s debt. Did the king do that to release his own negative feelings? No! He forgave his servant’s debt so his servant wouldn’t have to be sold!
My point here is that we forgive for THE OTHER PERSON’S sake, not for our own sake. Maybe there will be a benefit to us too. But that isn’t what’s driving us.
REPENTANCE IS NEEDED
My second point in trying to clarify what forgiveness is relates to whether the person who has committed the offence has to repent.
I’d like to introduce this subject by reading two verses.
The first is Proverbs 19:11. It says, ‘Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offence.’
The second is In Luke 17:3. Jesus says, ‘Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.’
The verse in Proverbs tells us that there are some offences we can simply overlook. In those cases, REPENTANCE IS NOT REQUIRED. But the verse in Luke contains the phrase, ‘AND IF HE REPENTS.’ IF he repents, forgive him. That implies that if he doesn’t repent, we will not forgive him. There would be no point in Jesus saying, ‘IF he repents, forgive him’ if we’re going to forgive him anyway. In those cases, REPENTANCE IS REQUIRED.
So, repentance is sometimes NOT required and sometimes IS required! That’s confusing, isn’t it? When is repentance NOT required and when IS it required?
The Bible doesn’t set out universal principles as far as I can see. But it does give examples.
Here are some examples of when repentance is NOT required.
Soldiers nailed Jesus to a cross. But Jesus asked God to forgive them. The soldiers hadn’t confessed their sin and repented, but Jesus didn’t require that.
Jesus taught, ‘If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.’ He taught, ‘If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.’ He taught ‘If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles’ [Matthew 5:38-42]. These are all offences. But Jesus didn’t tell us to expect repentance. He told us to overlook them.
What about in day-to-day life?
Let’s suppose someone at church leaves the kitchen a mess. We know who it is. Should we expect repentance? It would be nice! But even if the person doesn’t repent, we can just overlook it. Or we could have a quiet word with them. We don’t consider it as something we have to forgive.
Let’s turn now to some examples of when repentance IS required.
Jesus finds traders buying and selling in the temple. He makes a whip and drives them out. That was an offence that could not be overlooked.
There are several examples of this in Deuteronomy. Suppose someone is found guilty of murder. God says, ‘Your eye shall not pity him.’ That is not something to overlook. The same applies to someone who accuses his brother falsely.
Here's an example from history. In the Second World War, the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoffer joined a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. On July 20th, 1944, they exploded a bomb hidden in a briefcase. But the bomb wasn’t close enough to Hitler and he escaped with just minor injuries. Dietrich Bonhoffer clearly believed that Hitler’s sins could not be overlooked.
So, there are times when offences can be overlooked, when repentance is NOT required, and times when offences cannot be overlooked, when repentance IS required.
Let me give you some examples. See what you think. In these cases, should repentance be required, if we are to forgive?
On December 1st, 1997, a 14-year-old named Michael Carneal opened fire on a group of students at a school in Kentucky. He killed three people. Just a few hours afterwards, a handwritten sign was hung in front of the school. It read, ‘We forgive you, Mike.’
The people who put up the sign clearly believed that repentance was not needed. Were they right? No, they weren’t. This wasn’t something to overlook.
Let’s suppose the church treasurer steals from the church.
Is repentance required? Or can this just be overlooked? No, it can’t be overlooked. This is for the sake of the church and the person.
Jesus said, ‘If your brother sins, rebuke him, and IF HE REPENTS, forgive him.’ Jesus is not teaching us to unconditionally forgive. If the church treasurer repents then you must forgive him. But you don’t have to let him continue as treasurer.
SUMMARY
Let me recap.
We first looked at what Jesus taught. He taught that the fact that God has been willing to forgive our huge debt to him creates a fundamental moral obligation on us to forgive other people who have very debts to us. He also warned that if we don’t forgive others then God will not forgive us. We lose our salvation, in other words. This is very serious indeed.
We then looked at what forgiveness is. Forgiveness is pardoning a fault or releasing a person from a debt. So, forgiveness is for the other person’s benefit, not ours. We also saw that some offences can be overlooked. But some offences can’t be just overlooked. The person who committed the offence must repent. But if he does that, sincerely, then we must forgive.
TALK GIVEN AT ROSEBERY PARK BAPTIST CHURCH, BOURNEMOUTH, UK, 5TH MAY, 2024, 10.30 A.M. SERVICE.
