Forgiveness is easy to talk and read about in the Bible. It’s when we have to put it into practice that it can be tough! Forgiveness is wonderful idea, until there’s something to forgive.
At a New Year’s party in 1982, Kevin Tunell got very drunk; his friends urged him not to drive but he insisted. On the road, he lost control of the wheel, and smashed into another car, instantly killing eighteen-year-old Susan Herzog. After pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and drunk driving, Kevin was sentenced to three years’ probation and one year of community service.
But Susan’s parents, understandably, did not feel that this was sufficient punishment. They sued him in civil court for emotional distress, for $1.5 M.
Then quite unexpectedly, Susan’s parents offered to settle out of court for $936, with one big condition: Kevin had pay the $936 by sending a check for $1 every Friday for the next 18 years - one for every year of Susan’s life.
The burden of guilt soon proved too much for Kevin to bear. He tried to give the Herzog’s two boxes of pre-written checks, but the couple refused. After 7years, Kevin began to miss a few payments and was dragged back into court. Giving an account before the Judge, a teary Kevin admitted the unbearable and agonizing guilt he felt each time he filled in Susan’s name.
You get to a point where you kind of snap - and you say, it hurts too much. I used to lie in bed, and if I heardnoises, I used to think Susan was coming to visit me. Susan’s dad testified, Susan’s death is there every waking moment, but every time we don’t get a check, there’s only one thing we think: He doesn’t remember.
For Susan’s dad, can 936 checks, mailed weekly, heal his broken heart? I’m turning this around because that’s what Jesus does to Peter. Peter asked Jesus Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times? And Jesus turning it around addresses the real problem, how we can find real healing, and why we need to help others to find it.
To defend Peter for a second, the rule of the day was to forgive three times. Not only does Peter double that, but he also adds. That’s good, right? But Jesus says “No Peter, not 7 times, but 70x7 times.” Because grace doesn’t keep count, as there is no 2, if you have forgiven and put 1 behind you, it’s always 1, or as 1 Cor. 13 says, “Love keeps no record of wrongs.” And the reason Jesus gives is that an unforgiving heart keeps the unforgiver in jail.
Now, so you don’t get sidetracked as we walk through the parable, I’ll say this now. Forgiveness does not mean I put myself in circumstances and with people I know will hurt me. Forgiveness doesn’t make us fools, just healed.
To teach Peter, Jesus tells a story: The servant in our story owes the King 10,000 Talents. A Talent was the highest currency in the economy. 10,000 was often a placeholder for the highest number in 1st Century arithmetic.
So just like when you see 40 of something, like years, they use it like we use 5 minutes. 10,000 is a Bazillion. But for fun, 10 K talents would be around 3 billion dollars or so in 2024. So, it’s a rather absurd when the servant asks the king for time to earn the 3 billion. 2 weeks?? Jesus is picking a number this big to give us an understanding of the cosmic proportions of God’s forgiveness in relation to the ugliness of our sins. Since we understand our sin so well, (we were there, and we excuse ourselves quite a bit) we give ourselves way too much slack.
The man’s debt is far greater than his ability to pay…he is ordered to be put in jail. His wife, his sons and daughters are to be sold as slaves to the highest bidder. Everything he owned will be sold. But when the servant begs for forgiveness, the King cancels the debt and completely clears the ledger.
And though we like to make excuses, every lie, every lust, every hateful word, every unkind judgment, if each were a talent, I am sure it would certainly break that mark of 10K. To be forgiven, first we must admit we have sinned. God’s Word tells us that every one of us have accomplished this first requirement. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Our pockets are empty and our debt is millions, and tripling our salary won’t help. But God pays our debt. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21:
God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
And if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive… The wages of sin are death, but Jesus paid our wages! And Jesus payment releases us from the grips of death and hell. His righteousness becomes our righteousness.
But accepting forgiveness and grace results in a change of hearts and lives, or we end up in a worse prison than before, a prison of an “unforgiving heart.” This story from Jesus is about forgiveness, but not just God’s forgiveness of us, but our need to forgive others just like He forgave us.
when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, (10K) and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’
That’s almost unbelievable, if it wasn’t so common. How can someone who has just been forgiven 3 billion choke another man because he owes him ten thousand dollars? Are these the words of someone who’s really been set free?
If you come to the cross and understand and accept what God has done for your debt of sin…you can’t leave with the same heart. The ungrateful servant in our parable has the other servant who owed him money thrown in jail. And some who saw both things go down say, “This is wrong” and they go to the Master.
Unforgiveness blinds us…and it destroys our witness as Christians. We want those 936 payments, we demand that apology.
The writer to the Hebrews says, See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defiles many. When we miss the grace of God like that first servant, bitterness is our jail.
It’s said that when cornered, rattlesnakes can become so irritated that they bite themselves. That’s exactly what harboring resentment against others is - a biting of oneself. It’s trying to drink a poison to make someone else sick. And in the parable, it ends up putting us in a jail where torture and chains bind us until the debt is paid.
Jesus says, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Forgiveness does require I choose grace…and want grace for them…including in my prayer life. Forgiveness, easily put, is to desire for others what Jesus wants for them.
