Forgive? Who Me?
Matthew 18:21-35
I remember this story about a famous person in American history, and for the life of me, I can’t remember who it was. Anyway, this person was asked one Sunday afternoon about the worship service he attended that morning. “What did the preacher preach about?” The answer was, “Sin.” “Well, what did he have to say about it?” The answer came: “He was against it.”
I am going to preach about sin this morning, and if anyone doesn’t feel the need to hang around because sin isn’t an issue for you, then you can go ahead and leave a little early… but most of you probably should stay. Actually, I’m going to preach more about forgiveness, but we can’t get to that point without first establishing our need for it.
The Scripture lesson this morning is set in Capernaum, a city on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. If you go there today, you will no doubt visit the ruins of an old synagogue, because all of the tour buses stop there. If I remember correctly, this synagogue was built in the second or third century and is said to have been constructed on the site of Simon Peter’s house. In the eighth chapter of Matthew, Jesus is found in Capernaum where he goes into Peter’s house and heals Peter’s mother-in-law. Later, in Matthew 17, the setting is again in a house in Capernaum. On this fairly circumstantial evidence, I am going to assume that the setting for today’s discussion about sin and forgiveness took place as Jesus and the disciples were in Peter’s house.
Again, this is just a guess, but perhaps Jesus and the disciples were resting up for a little while before they began their journey southward. You see, Jesus is getting ready to leave the Galilee for the final time. His next trip to Judea will be his last, as his death predictions will come true.
What we do know for sure is that they were all gathered together and Jesus told them a parable in response to a question by Peter. Peter asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to Seven times?”
According to the Revised Standard Version and the Good News Bible, Jesus said, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” The New International Version softens that a little by reducing it to “seventy seven times,” but it remains obvious that forgiveness is meant to be an unlimited offering.
As an example, Jesus offers up the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. “The Kingdom of God,” he says, “is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.” This is a parable of the absurd, yet drives home the point about the all encompassing, compassionate, abundant, never failing mercy of God.
The absurdity begins with a servant who owes 10,000 talents, or as the Good News Bible says, “Millions of dollars.” This is an incredible amount of money. The servant begs for mercy from the king, and the king in turn offers him forgiveness of the debt. You have to wonder what king in his right mind would write off a debt this large. What business person in his or her right mind would cancel a debt worth this much? Who would allow him or herself to be cheated out of that amount?
As absurd all that sounds, it is still a wonderful picture of the absurdity of the Kingdom of God. We are in debt to God more than we could ever know or even imagine. Yet God forgives us. In the world’s economy, that is absurd. But in the economy of God, that is the normal way of doing business. In the economy of God, the kingdom is built on mercy and not retribution. In the economy of God, forgiveness becomes the norm and not the exception.
I don’t know about you, but I really appreciate a God who goes out of the way to forgive me. I really appreciate a God who doesn’t get tired of forgiving me. I am really glad that God’s mercy extends beyond all reasonable expectations because I need it. You see, I realize just how great a sinner I am.
If we would take the time to catalogue my sins, we would find that they are numerous. I tend to be a sourpuss. I am grumpy more often that I would really like. I tend to be greedy and gluttonous. I’m arrogant and sometimes rude. I don’t pay attention or listen to others like I should. I’m sometimes short-tempered with my kinds. I forget about my wife sometimes. Get me in a group of preachers and I’ll gossip about my colleagues with the rest of them. I tend to expect the worst from folks. I’m lazy and self-centered. And I hate to mow my grass or rake my leaves…so much so that the lady next door yells at me.
And those are my good points! Those are all my little sins. My big sins are even more numerous than that. I really don’t pay close enough attention to God. I hear God calling and I turn away. I claim Jesus Christ as my Lord, but then turn around and forget about him. I give my life to Jesus, but then want to take pieces of it back. I’m ready to follow Jesus to the death…usually someone else’s death. I am ready to sacrifice for Christ as long as I’m not terribly inconvenienced. I promise to live for heaven and find myself twice as fit for hell as my enemies.
I recall the words of the Prophet Isaiah when he said, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). I remember the Apostle Paul who said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). I find a tremendous amount of relief in the fact that God wants to forgive me for all my sins. The Kingdom of Heaven is like the forgiving king, who cancels debts and forgets about transgressions.
If you are like me, and I assume you are, you too are glad to accept God’s forgiveness. If you are like me, you realize that without the grace of God, you would have no hope. If you are like me, you understand that your only chance to see the gates of heaven is to cling to the mercy of God.
Unfortunately, the parable doesn’t end with the forgiveness of the servant. It seems that this same servant went out and demanded a fellow servant to be thrown into jail until he could pay a debt of just a few bucks.
I tend to be more like this servant than I care to imagine. Though I have been offered unlimited mercy, I struggle with offering it myself. Maybe this isn’t an issue for you, but it is for me. I thank God for forgiveness, but I have so much trouble being forgiving to others. When someone sins against me, I have trouble forgiving.
Awhile back, I had some major disagreements with a fellow pastor which caused our relationship to be completely broken. I fretted and stewed about that for about six months and finally wrote him a letter. I told him I was sorry for anything I had done to contribute to the breakdown of our friendship and hoped that we could repair the damage. I asked him to forgive me for anything I had done to hurt him.
He never responded. He never called me on the phone, never wrote me a letter, never made an effort to reciprocate. And I have trouble forgiving him for THAT.
One of the greatest philosophers of our age is Andy Capp. I remember one comic strip several years ago in which Andy is up to his old tricks, always dodging his pastor because he is in the pub and not in church. One day after Andy’s wife Flo decided to take him back after one of his periodic expulsions from home, the pastor said, “Flo, I’m so glad you took him back again.” Flo answered, “There’s something about me; I just have to forgive and forget.” Andy replied, “There’s something about her, all right. She never forgets that she forgives.”
It is so hard to turn loose of a transgression that someone commits against you, isn’t it? Do you remember the day a number of years ago, when Pope John Paul II was shot? Do you remember that after he had recovered from his wounds, he visited the prison cell of the would-be assassin? Most of us marveled at his ability to sit with a man who wanted him dead. TIME magazine at the time had a letter to the editor which was just a short sentence. It said, “It is the Pope’s business to forgive.”
I admire and respect Pope John Paul, but he is not the only one who is in the forgiving business. He is, however, a good role model for all of us. If we are serious about calling ourselves Christian, then it is OUR business to forgive as well. If may be God’s business to forgive us our million dollar debt, but it is our business to forgive others’ debts seventy times seven times.
I know that is hard. I know it is uncomfortable. I know that we would often rather go out of our way to avoid offering forgiveness to others. But don’t forget that God has put a condition on our reception of forgiveness. Don’t forget that we repeat that condition every Sunday in worship.
I always worry that we say the Lord’s Prayer without really thinking about what we are really saying. I worry that, because the Lord’s Prayer is so familiar to us, that we forget exactly what it says. But remember that we pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Those two events are always linked together. Receiving forgiveness goes hand-in-hand with offering forgiveness. God has clearly stated that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive.
At the beginning of the sermon, I told you I was going to preach about sin. But more than sin, I have been talking about forgiveness and grace and the ways in which we respond to God’s forgiveness of us.
I speak to you this morning as one sinner to others. I stand before you today only because God in his graciousness has forgiven me. I am here only because Christ loved me enough to receive the punishment of the cross for me. I stand only because Christ stood in my place. I stand as one who struggles with doing the right thing. I struggle with forgiving as I have been forgiven. I struggle with the unlimited nature of the forgiveness demanded of me. Yet I stand here knowing that there is a better way. I know there is power in forgiveness. I know that there is grace in forgiveness. I know that for me to forgive others, while incredibly difficult at times, is my call as a Christian.
I also know that such is the way that we survive as a Christian community. Seeking God’s forgiveness for our sins and in turn offering forgiveness to others is the sign that we live as we profess. May we be more than a Christian community in name only. May we be a Christian community by the way we live, by the way we forgive.
