FORGIVING—WHEN YOUR WORLD FALLS APART
(Matthew 18:21-35)
(Review the Gospel lesson, Matthew 18:21-35. Peter asks, “How many times should I forgive?” Jesus gives a number, but his point is that we should ask another question: “How many times does God forgive me?” Put yourselves in the shoes of the common man in Nazi Germany…)
Intro. Can you imagine what would it have been like to be going to church in Stuttgart, Germany, in the last days of WWII? Occupation was imminent. Destruction was everwhere. As if waking from a bad dream, people now struggled with the problem of immense guilt, which accompanied the already unbearable grief which was all too common. It was to such a congregation that a man named Helmut Thielicke preached these words: “Now of course there can be no doubt that there are war-mongers among us who are guilty in high degree. But at the same time we also divine that when we are dealing with a world event of such elemental proportions as this apocalyptic war, we cannot saddle the burden of guilt upon any individual or group of men, as if we had to put handcuffs on a few criminals and their cliques in order to restore the peace of paradise to humanity. For today we sense that something is wrong with our world itself and therefore this cannot happen. Somewhere in the background of this world there must be a terrible rift that is cracking its foundations and precipitating recurring catastrophes and breakdowns…”
I. Our natural tendency is to try to look for guilt in others… to blame. (Example: we are familiar with Adam and Eve trying to blame the serpent, each other. In today’s Old Testament lesson, Joseph’s brothers are afraid that he will finally get even with them now that their father is dead. One interpretation of this is that he was upset that his brothers would think such a thing of him. However, it is equally possible that somewhere deep in his heart, so deep that perhaps he hadn’t even realized it was still there, there was a smoldering ember of resentment. The tears then would have been tears of joy as finally he forgave his brothers completely!)
A. It’s a deadly cycle. One person is hurt and retaliates against the other. The other person, in turn, is hurt by the retaliation, and makes a retaliation of his own aganst the first person. “You hit me and I hit you, and the petty offense (perhaps only an unswept stair) swells and condenses into a poisonous atmosphere that can settle down upon a house, upon whole clans, and whole continents.” (Thielicke) It’s like a screw that turns and turns, only to go deeper with each ensuing rotation.
B. Our world will never find peace as long as the only cry is the cry of vengeance. But there is another cry, the cry Jesus taught us to pray: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” There are calls for divine retribution in some of the Psalms, but such language is not in the prayer that Jesus gave his disciples. Instead, He would have us begin by saying, “Forgive us our debts.” This is not just a prayer for personal forgiveness. It is a prayer that actually covers all the sins ever committed anywhere in the world!
II. In confronting sin, I must first confront myself.
A. My own heart is like a slide in a slide projector, or a transparency on an overhead projector. All the horrible world events that we see in the world today are a projection, though greatly magnified, of the very things that are going on inside of me! To look at it another way, I am an echo. If somebody is nice to me, I feel like smiling at everyone I meet. If someone mistreats me, I feel like kicking something! This is something we can see every day. Just think about a traffic! One rude driver suddenly becomes a highway of honking, irate motorists. But someone who lets someone else in ahead of him can produce a chain-reaction of kindness.
B. Therefore, any discussion of evil in the world must begin with me and my own sin, me and my own guilt. It is so easy to curse the darkness without tending to my own candle which, in the meantime, has grown pitifully dim—if lit at all!
1. The problem isn’t a lack of information. I could fax a copy of the Ten Commandments to every government on the face of the world, with rules and guidelines as to how they should be kept, and a reasonable explanation of how good and beneficial they are. They could agree and pass them as laws in their own countries, and distribute them to each and every citizen. Would that get rid of the problem of evil? No. If that could do it, then there would never have been a need for Christ to die for me.
2. Now, there couldn’t have been a greater gap between two opposing parties than there was between a perfect, holy, God and sinful, mortal, humans. But Jesus changed that. True God from eternity, he became one of us. He saw through the fake outer layer we use to hide our sinfulness from ourselves, others, and God. He saw us for who we really are—as sinners. But he also looked at us with the eyes of love: eyes that saw the Pharisee, the tax collector, and the prostititue alike as children of God for whom he was even willing to die! Even more amazingly, he now looks at me with those same eyes, and calls me his brother! (Hebrews 2:11) Some people criticize Christianity for all this talk about sin. The consider it to be demeaning, but they miss the point. There’s sin, yes. But there’s also forgiveness! So we can gladly respond, “Better to be a worm in the eyes of Jesus than a ‘god’ in the eyes of men!”
C. How do we respond to terrible tragedies like the events of 9-11? Certainly, there is much that can be done by our lawmakers and our government. But the heart of the answer lies in the hearts of people like you and me. Creation itelf came to ruin by the desires of our sinful hearts. There’s only one thing that God could do with such cold, unloving hearts—love them and forgive them through the death of Jesus, His Son, who lives forevermore! Only Christ’s love enables the healing that forgiveness gives.
III. I also realize that forgiveness only works if it’s genuine—and genuine forgiveness can only come from God.
A. First of all, I can’t “fake” forgiveness by simply repressing my anger, forcing myself to love another person. That doesn’t remove the problem—it buries it, only to be resurrected as an even greater problem years later! Instead, I recognize the problem as sin—of which I also am guilty—and bring it to God (Ps. 90:8).
B. Secondly, I am actually unable to forgive another person on my own. Forgiveness isn’t some kind of psychological trick, nor is it some kind of clever manipulation. It isn’t as simple for us as just “forgetting” something. True forgiveness is, and can only be, a miracle of God! So I mut face the fact that forgiving someone once does not mean I will never have to forgive them again. My forgiveness doesn’t make the person I’m forgiving perfect. Me forgiving someone doesn’t mean I’m suddenly perfect, either! Forgiveness simply means that the relationship has been restored, as only God can do.
1. Example: when a mother forgives her child or a wife forgives her husband for a lie. There is something “between” them that separates them. When the wife or mother forgives, she does not mean, “I forget.” In fact, she may still have to deal with the painful memory the rest of her life! What forgiveness means is: this won’t separate us. The bond of our love still remains.
2. How can someone forgive someone in such a way? You and I can’t! But Jesus can, and He did. For the sake of His Son, our brother, who shed his blood for us on the cross, the Father is now willing to say once more to us, “You’re mine. You belong to me. Nothing can keep us apart. You will be with me forever.”
C. The answer to Peter’s dilemma, “How many times shall I forgive my brother?” is that true forgiveness can only flow from true faith in Christ. True forgiveness means that, even though I don’t trust myself to keep forgiving my brother over and over and over again, I know that this is what God does for me—and for him (or her)—each and every day! And so, when I forgive someone, I’m really just acting on faith—my faith in Christ. It’s not possible for me to forgive, but all things are possible with God, through Jesus my Savior. Indeed, without true faith in Christ, which only God can give, there is and can never be forgiveness for me or for my brother. That’s why in Jesus’ parable the unmerciful servant was denied his master’s mercy. What we have experienced of God’s forgiveness leads us to become forgiving of others. My load (my brother who’s a sinner like me) is light. Christ’s load (the sin of the world on His innocent shoulders) was heavier than I could ever imagine. When God is so generous with the treasure of heaven, why fuss over the few small coins? When we are so forgiven by God, who can help but to forgive the brother?!
Conclusion: “We are always echoes. The only question is: echoes of what?” The meanness and rottenness of evil in the world, or the forgiving, renewing love that comes from the Father? Jesus, our Savior, breaks the cycle of revenge, that twisting, deadly screw. Instead, he starts in us something new: a cycle of healing and forgiveness that began at the cross and continues to work its way through our lives and the lives of all believers. We can respond out of a grateful love for the One who first loved in such amazing generosity. Amen!
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Note: This sermon owes a great debt to Helmut Thielicke’s Sermon VIII in Our Heavenly Father, “Forgive Us Our Debts, As We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors—Part Two”, pages 101—114. (Published by Harper and Brothers, New York, Copyright 1960 by John Doberstein, translator.)
