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INJ
St Matthew 18:21-35
'Forgiven Forgivers'
Divine Service
The 22nd Sunday after Trinity Sunday | October 19, 2008
Dear A.,
In your baptism your Jesus has clothed you with the white robes of His righteousness, the beautiful adornment of His saints, His children. Baptized into His name, you are His child, His precious daughter, His friend, and every thing that the Lord has, He has given to you. Today, in your baptism, the Lord has set you on the blessed path of His mercy that will end, one day, in the radiance of His face. We pray with you today, A., that the Lord would keep you on that straight path of His mercy and love.
To keep you, and all of His baptized children, abiding in Him, the Lord Jesus has given us His Word. And this morning we rejoice to hear the voice of the Lord in the parable He tells, the parable of the unmerciful servant.
The texts begins like this:
Then Peter came to Jesus and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” This is the question that we are to ask if we're to be ready for the parable that Jesus is telling.
If we've already worked out the answer; if we already know how many times someone has to sin against us before we start forgiving. If we've settled in our mind, that someone might sin against us three times, or five times, or even seven times, then that will be it. If we've so hardened our hearts against those who sin against us, if there are those that we have decided it's okay to hold a grudge against someone, a family member or a friend or a neighbor or an enemy, then we're not ready for the parable that Jesus is telling.
It seems that when we find the person acting strangely in any given parable, we're close to getting to the point. In the parable that Jesus tells there are two characters, the merciful king and the unmerciful servant, and it is the unmerciful servant that is acting normally.
There is a person who owes him a debt and he goes after it; he goes to collect his money. There's nothing unusual about this, it happens every day. Granted, this fellow is pretty rough; he takes his fellow servant by the neck and demands the money, but I understand that this is not a strange thing for ancient Roman collection agents.
You're supposed to collect the debts that are owed to you. You see that it is not strange human behavior to hold grudges, to not forgive people. You've heard the saying, “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Imagine if a person comes to you and says, “I don't know what to do, this person has sinned against me, deceived me, and hurt me, not just once, but five times. What should I do?” Would it be a strange thing to give the advice, “Don't let them hurt you again. Stay away from them.”
All I'm staying here is that to demand that someone pay what they owe, to treat you in a way that is right, this is not a strange thing. What, then, is coming on in the parable that by time we get to a man demanding what is owed it seems like he is acting crazy.
Everything changes because of the way the king in the parable acts. The servant owes millions and millions of dollars to the king, and the king has him brought in and says, “Pay the money you owe.” The man, who had no chance of paying this debt, falls down and begs for more time.
Remember how I mentioned that when we find the person acting strange that we're close to understanding the parable. Well we've found that when we see the king. Instead of having patience and giving this man more time, instead of giving this man a lesser sentence, instead of coming up with a kingdom sponsored bail-out plan, this king does something that is crazy, irrational: he forgives the debt, wipes it out. Clean slate.
We've been hearing a bit lately about the dangers of bad debt. Our own nation's economy, apparently, in on the edge of a cliff because of hundreds of billions of dollars of bad debt, and some of it has to be paid back. That much money can't just disappear or things will collapse. Anyone knows that. And yet that is what this king does to this servant, he forgives the debt, as if it never existed. This is foolishness, what St Paul calls the foolishness of the cross.
Remember, it is on the cross that Jesus pays the price that we owe, not gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood, His innocent suffering and death. It is on the cross that the burning hot wrath of God against sin is quenched, that His righteous anger at you and me is stilled. It is from the cross that the king do the utterly foolish and wonderful thing of saying, “Your sins are forgiven.”
This is not the normal way for a king to rule, but it is the way of our heavenly Father with us. He comes to us with forgiveness and life and salvation, with mercy and love and grace. He does not come demanding everything that we owe, but with the wonderful promise of debt forgiven, of sin forgotten, and this changes everything.
Seeing His mercy, we now ask the question, “How many times ought I to forgive the one who sins against me?” This is a question that is born out of the cross, out of the Lord's mercy. And the answer comes from the cross as well.
You see, before this king came with his forgiveness, it would have been normal behavior for the servant to demand repayment from his fellow servant, but not anymore. Not with this kind of mercy hanging around. In light of what the king did for this servant, this demand of repayment is the height of cruelty. And so it is with us: in the light of the Lord's cross, our lack of forgiveness for our neighbor is shown to be the height of arrogance and cruelty.
How can we, the children of a merciful heavenly Father who has forgiven us such a huge debt that would never be able to repay, how can we refuse forgiveness to our neighbors? How can we, who have received so much freely and without any work, refuse to give even the smallest amount? It is insanity. It is unbelief.
The forgiveness of Jesus matters, His cross makes a difference, we simply cannot go about business as usual, demanding respect, refusing forgiveness. To do so is to confess that we know nothing of the forgiveness which Jesus has given to us.
The Lord has mercy toward us, and He gives His mercy to others through us. His forgiveness sets us free to forgive other. Our debt is forgiven, we are set free. We are, by our baptism, by the Lord's word of mercy, made forgiven forgivers.
A., and all the baptized, may this freedom be your comfort and your joy, until the Lord has us in the company of His saints in glory. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO