This morning, we continue our journey through the parables of Christ. Parables, as I’ve noted before, are short and simple. They don’t have complex plots, or dozens of characters, like a Russian novel. You don’t need a Ph.D. in theology or Hebrew literature to understand them. And yet, despite their brevity and simplicity, or perhaps because of them, they pack a terrific spiritual punch. They hit us right in the gut. On the surface, they seem so benign, so inoffensive, so harmless. They’re just stories, after all. A child can understand them. But the more we think about them, and meditate on them, and listen to God’s voice speaking to us through them, the more we experience their power to expose our inner thoughts, to reveal our motives and our hidden sins.
When I consider the power of these little narratives, I’m reminded, on this Memorial Day weekend, of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, a speech he gave in 1863 to dedicate a portion of that battlefield as a cemetery for the Civil War dead. It begins: “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” The whole speech, from beginning to end, is only 272 words long. It took Lincoln barely two minutes to deliver. But what most people don’t know is that Lincoln wasn’t the only speaker that day. A man named Edward Everett, who was considered to be a great orator, came before Lincoln in the program and gave an address that lasted a full two hours. It contained over fourteen thousand words, and it began like this: “Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields now reposing from the labors of the waning year, the mighty Alleghanies dimly towering before us, the graves of our brethren beneath our feet. . . ” blah, blah, blah, etc., etc., etc. Now, let me ask you, which of those speeches is familiar to every one of us here, over a hundred years later? Lincoln’s, of course. Why? Because in just a few short sentences he captured the terrible significance of that occasion. It was not the actions of the living which would consecrate, or hallow, the ground, but the actions of those who had given their lives to defend it.
I say all that by way of introduction. Don’t be fooled by the fact that these parables are short and simple. They have greater power than you know. Listen to them, and listen to God speaking to you through them.
Today, we’re considering the parable of the unmerciful servant, from Matthew, chapter eighteen.
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
"The servant fell on his knees before him. ’Be patient with me,’ he begged, ’and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ’Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ’Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
"Then the master called the servant in. ’You wicked servant,’ he said, ’I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
This is a sobering story, to say the least. But I think it would be easy for us to ignore it, to disregard it as having little application to ourselves. After all, we aren’t slaves. In America, we don’t have to worry about being thrown into jail because of a debt; if it ever came to that, we would just file for bankruptcy protection. We don’t live in a world where people can be forced to sell wives and children in order to pay their bills. And besides that, the actions of the main character are just too outrageous. Being forgiven an astronomical amount of money, and then immediately going out and assaulting someone who owed him a relatively paltry sum. We can’t identify with someone who would act in such a callous manner. And that’s the problem. This parable is holding a mirror up to our hearts, and yet we can’t see our own reflection. We can’t admit that this ungrateful wretch looks a lot more like us that we care to acknowledge. We refuse to recognized the parallels – being forgiven an immense debt by our master, but then turning around and refusing to forgive a much smaller debt. Being forgiven all of our sins by God, and yet refusing to forgive others; holding grudges; nursing resentments; consoling ourselves with thoughts of revenge. And as Jesus warns us, those who persist in such attitudes will pay a terrible price.
Let’s start at the beginning. Peter asks a question: “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Now, we have to give Peter some credit. He has begun to realize that the traditions of Judaism, and the teachings of the scribes and pharisees, are inadequate. Those traditions held that a person might be forgiven three, or at the most four times, but a repeat offender could not be forgiven. However, Peter has been listening to the teachings of Christ, and he discerns that this isn’t right. We shouldn’t be so quick to close the tap of grace and mercy. The true limit must be higher than this, he thinks, and so he asks Jesus what it is. He suggests seven times as a possibility, probably expecting that Christ would praise him for his wisdom and astuteness.
But what Peter failed to grasp is the nature of love. Love doesn’t say, you get seven chances to mess up before I reject you, instead of three. Love says, I won’t reject you, no matter what. No matter how many times you mess up, or how badly you mess up, or how much suffering it causes me. Peter was thinking in terms of laws, rules, acceptable standards of behavior. But Christ was thinking in terms of love, and grace, and mercy. And so he answered Peter, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” In other words, an unlimited number of times, because love doesn’t keep track of such things. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13, love “keeps no record of wrongs.” But if you aren’t keeping track of how other people have wronged you; if you don’t keep mental notes on all the sins committed against you, how are you supposed to know when enough is enough? How are you supposed to know when it’s time to say, “I refuse to forgive you any more?” You aren’t. That’s the point. For a Christian, that day never comes. And to explain why, Christ gives us this parable.
The scene is the king’s throne room. One by one, his servants come in to settle accounts. Perhaps these servants were high-ranking government officials of some kind. Precisely who they are, and how one of them came to owe the king such a great sum, we aren’t told. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that this man’s debt far exceeds his ability to repay. How much does he owe? Ten thousand talents. One talent equaled six hundred denarii, and a denarius was one day’s wage. And so ten thousand talents would be equivalent to twenty thousand years’ of earnings, or something like a billion dollars. An incredible amount! But there’s a problem. The slave is bankrupt. His debts far exceed his assets. And so the king orders that his property be seized and sold. The king even orders the servant and his family to be sold into slavery. Not that even this would be enough to cover the debt; at the going rate for slaves, it would raise at most ten talents, a mere one-thousandth of what he owed. But it illustrates just how desperate the servant’s situation was. Even if he liquidated all his possessions, even if he and his wife and children were sold into slavery, it wouldn’t be nearly enough. The same goes for his offer to work, and pay back the debt. It was both desperate and ridiculous. He could labor for a hundred lifetimes, and still not have enough. His situation was truly hopeless. All he could do was beg for mercy. And then what happened? A miracle! The king took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go free. Just like that. No punishment, no seizure of his property, no slavery, nothing. The king simply wiped out all his debt and let him go free.
Now, in order to appreciate the point of this parable, we need to understand that every one of us, every person who ever lived, is in the same position as this slave. Because of our sin, we also owe a great debt, which is far beyond our ability to repay. Our only hope is to have the debt forgiven. The good news is that this is just what God has promised to do. Through the sacrifice of his life on the cross, Christ paid the penalty for our sin. And so He is able to completely forgive the debt of anyone who places their faith in him. Their guilt will be utterly wiped out, and they will be reconciled to God. No punishment. No need for “good works” undertaken in a vain attempt to pay for our sin. Just forgiveness, utter and complete.
I expect most of us here this morning would agree with what I have just said. We know that forgiveness of sins comes through faith alone. We know that we can’t pay for our sin by doing good works, that there’s no cosmic scale on which God is going to balance the good and bad of our lives to see which is greater. In God’s eyes, we’re all guilty, all deserving of condemnation. As Paul teaches,
"As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one.’ . . . This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. " – Romans 3:10, 22-25
There is no one righteous. We all have sinned. We all fall short. We all are guilty. And the only way for us to be justified, that is, judged to be without guilt, is by placing our faith in Christ, who gave his life as a sacrifice in order to make atonement, to pay for our sins. That’s fundamental, and I don’t expect anyone here will object to anything I’ve said. But in my view, the problem is not that we doubt the reality of our sin; the problem is that we don’t fully appreciate the enormity of our sin. It’s no accident that when Jesus was describing this character’s debt, he chose a huge amount, an almost incomprehensible amount. He wanted us to realize just how much evil and wickedness in us needed to be atoned for on the cross. But we tend to minimize our own sin; we excuse it, we overlook it, we plead extenuating circumstances. It reminds me a bit of Lucas Helder, the college student who was arrested a few weeks ago for planting pipe bombs in mailboxes across the Midwest. When he was allowed to see his parents, he reportedly asked, “Mom, do you think I could go to jail for this?” He just didn’t get it. And like him, we don’t fully comprehend the depth of our sin and guilt before God.
Why does that matter? Because the less we appreciate how much God had to forgive in us, the less we love him. As Jesus said,
"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said. " – Luke 7:41-43
The point of this passage is not that it’s acceptable for us to love God less if we aren’t as sinful as other people. The point is actually the reverse: if someone loves God only a little, like Simon the Pharisee, it’s a sign that they don’t understand the depth of their sin. Their gratitude and thankfulness toward God are small because they think that what God has to forgive in their lives is small.
So what do we do about it? If we suspect that our comprehension of our own sin is small, and that our love for God is small as a result; if we suspect that our thankfulness, and gratitude, and joy in salvation is low because our sense of personal sin is low, then what do we do? First of all, read the Bible, especially the New Testament. Take note of the teachings and example of Christ. The more you understand what holiness looks like, the more you’ll be able to see how far you fall short. Second, practice confession of sin. Every time you pray, which should be daily, spend some time in examining your heart and confessing your sins to God. And finally, ask God to open your eyes to see your sin, because only the Holy Spirit can bring about the kind of change of heart that’s necessary to produce conviction of sin and repentance. Not only that, but the less we appreciate the magnitude of our sin, and the magnitude of God’s grace toward us in forgiving our debt, the less forgiving we will tend to be toward other people. As we see in the parable,
"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ’Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ’Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt."
And that’s exactly what we often do, isn’t it. When we fail to forgive, we forget how much we’ve been forgiven. We hold grudges; we harbor malicious, hateful thoughts; we plan how to hurt those who have hurt us – in short, we act as if we’ve never needed forgiveness ourselves. But what does Christ call us to do? Something very different. As Paul writes,
“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” – Ephesians 4:31-32
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” – Colossians 3:12-13
Why are we to forgive? Because we’ve been forgiven. It’s that simple. God has forgiven us; therefore, we are to forgive one another. But what if we don’t? What do we make of a person who claims to belong to Christ, and yet refuses to forgive? The parable warns us, in the most chilling terms:
"Then the master called the servant in. ’You wicked servant,’ he said, ’I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
Those who have been forgiven, forgive. Those who refuse to forgive reveal by their conduct that they don’t belong to God and never have. Remember what the Lord’s Prayer says? “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” (Luke 11:4). If we fail to forgive those who sin against us, then we have no right to ask God to forgive our sins. Likewise, James warns us, “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.” (James 2:12-13) If you refuse to extend mercy and grace and forgiveness to those who have wronged you, even if it’s only in your heart, you will be judged without mercy. Just as the parable states, you will be cast into jail (that is hell) to be tortured “until you pay all that you owe”, which means for eternity, because you can never pay for your sin, even by suffering the torments of hell. Listen again, and heed the warning of Christ: "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." Friends, this is not an idle threat. We cannot afford to be complacent. If we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven. It’s that simple. You say, “Alan, you’re scaring us.” Good. Better to be frightened now, and repent, than to stand before God on the day of judgment and hear Christ say, “I never knew you. Depart from me, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
So who do you need to forgive this morning? Even if it happened a long time ago, even if you’re not in contact with that person any more, even if you’d rather not think about it, even if they have no idea of how you feel, even if they have wounded you over and over – if you’re harboring resentment, or bitterness, or malice against someone, then you need to repent and seek God’s power to forgive them before it’s too late. Not superficially, but sincerely and genuinely from the heart. Maybe it’s someone in your family. Maybe it’s even someone here in this congregation. No matter who it is, if you’ve never forgiven them; or if you’ve tried, but you still feel angry and bitter toward them, then you need to go back to God in prayer today and seek the grace and power to forgive.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
