Sermon Recording:
http://www.rcac.ca/members/media/371.mp3
Sermon Script from Rev. Jason
Forgiven Forgivers – A Sermon on the
Apostles’ Creed
“The Forgiveness of Sins” from Matthew 18:21-35
We
live in a world where people hurt people.
You know this, you don’t need me to tell you this…this is a fact of
life. It’s not the way God designed it
to be. But, it happens all the time. And
we have many ways to deal with it. These
are the things people do, after being offended by others: We
ignore it. We brush it off. Or we get even.
Now,
some of us have been hurt by acquaintances or strangers—people we don’t know
very well, and yet we could have things stolen from us, our feelings hurt with
an off-the-cuff remark, or simply just being ignored by people we want to
belong to—people in our workplaces, our schools…perhaps even our church.
Now,
I know some of us here have been hurt by our friends, even the closest of our
friends. For one example, some of us
have been betrayed by them. Our friends,
who we thought would stand by us through a difficult, turbulent time in our
life, but never showed up: they never came to see us, to visit us, to
comfort us—this hurt, this was deeply
painful. I say this as an example, but I
know this is a real pain—I have seen it, and the deep pain it has caused.
Some
of us have been deeply hurt by our own family—those closest and dearest to
us. They’re supposed to be the ones who
love us! Not hurt us. And yet, some of deepest sufferings inflicted
from one person to another come from a father or a mother, a husband or a wife,
a brother or a sister…
And
how do many people often deal with these pains, these deep hurts: We
ignore them. We brush them off. Or we get even. [Pause]
Our
Parable before us—in Matthew 18:21—doesn’t let us do any of these things, with
these deep pains and deep hurts. It
doesn’t let us off easily; rather it requires of us something more, something
seemingly impossible, and heartless even, because, remember, we are the victims here…and yet we are
the ones called to grant forgiveness!?
Forgiveness?!
Yes,
forgiveness.
I
should add to what I said earlier. I
said that often people deal with sins against them and the resulting deep
pain—by ignoring it, brushing it off, or getting even. What I must also add, because I know this is
an honest reality as well, is that many of us try very hard, to truly forgive
our offender…and yet(!) no matter how we do it, or how hard we try, we never
are really able to totally and completely forgive. Do you
relate to this? The grudge
remains. The sting of the pain
recurs. Soon, even long after, our attempt
to forgive…we find in actuality…we are still held in this prison by withholding
forgiveness.
Peter
relates to this. He knows forgiveness is
the right thing to do. He knows that
forgiving an offending brother is what is required of him. And so he asks Jesus this very interesting
question…and the reason is because Jesus has just taught very plainly how to
deal with a brother who has sinned against you (Matt. 18:15ff). Peter asks
Jesus,
“Lord, how many
times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Seven? Why seven.
Well, Peter, it seems, is boasting a bit here. The expected and sufficient number of times
to forgive a brother, within Judaism, is three times. And so for Peter to ask Jesus this question
in such a way, it’s as if he’s saying, “I hear you Jesus, let me get this
straight. You want us to forgive? I can forgive. Up to how many times? Seven times?”
And
so this makes Jesus’ response to Peter all the more amusing and shocking. Right as Peter thinks he’s being
generous—Jesus puts him in his place and says, in effect, You’re not even close
Peter. “I tell you, not seven times, but
seventy-seven times.” Now, it’s
not the actual number, here, of most importance…but the idea that the forgiving
is to go on, infinitely. That is the
idea.
Now,
this number “77” Jesus echoes from Genesis 4, in which we meet Lamech a
descendent of Cain—known in Scripture, not just as the first brother, but the
first murderer of his brother, Abel. Now
this is an interesting connection, that I learned from a preacher named
Christopher Ash. He says, Lamech now, a
descendent of Cain, is pictured in Gen. 4 as boasting, and he sings this to his
many wives: “If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven
times.” You think Cain is great, that’s
nothing compared to what I can do. And
so, 77 is connected, it is associated with revenge. And that is how our world and our hearts are
wired to, is it not? When I am hurt, I
hurt back. When I’m hit, I hit
back. When I’m inflicted with pain, I
inflict back pain. This is the way it is
on the playground, on the ice rink, in the law courts, in the kitchen, in the
battlefield…with words, with glares, with shoulder checks and with bombs.
But
when Jesus uses the number 77, he picks up on this idea of revenge, and he
reverses it—he turns it on its head. And
in effect what he says is I want the church to be the place where it takes this
outrageous idea for revenge in the world, and to replace it with the
extravagant idea of forgiveness. And the
church, is where this will happen. The
church!
How
on earth is this possible?
Well,
Jesus gives help by way of this parable.
So let us enter into this story:
24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.25 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.
Now exactly how much is ten thousand talents? I’ve read a number of calculations. One read $6 billion, and in another place it was believed that the number reached the trillions. Now, the exact number I imagine, can be hard to estimate…but the impression is undoubtedly this: the amount is crazy, it is beyond comprehension. Ten thousand in the Greek world was the largest number, and talents were the largest unit, and so this was the largest number that could be expressed. And so, this king is owed this outrageous amount—we don’t know how his servant racked up such a debt—but this is what it is. The servant, of course, is unable to pay this back and so the king settles on selling the servant, including his family and all that they had owned in order to repay the debt. At this…
26 “The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.
Picture this: The servant out of an act of desperation for he knew and the king knew and the king’s accountant knew—heck, even the shepherd boy down the road knew—that this debt was way beyond what anybody could pay back. But out of desperation, the servant falls on his knees and begs the king for mercy. “Be patient with me, and I will pay back everything.”
What the king does next is sheer grace. You have to take a good look at this king’s response. He is looking at this sad servant of his, and the description of the king here is “he took pity on him.” He took pity. The actual word here conveys that his gut is moving with compassion. What is at the seat, the core, of his inner being—his gut—the king is moved with compassion. And so, because of this, he cancels the debt. Just like that. This incomprehensible debt is, in a moment, completely wiped out. Take note of this: The king doesn’t even retain the servant to do some other task—you know, keep him around to wash the dishes, clean the stables…or something like that. No, he lets him go. He’s completely free.
[This is what it looks like: my Visa bill…ripppppeeed!]
This is grace: Complete. Unmerited. Undeserved. Pardon.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.[c] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
Now, I know you’re thinking, “The nerve of this guy!” And, I think that’d be the right reaction—exactly what Jesus wanted to evoke. But two things I want you to notice here. First, notice that the person he’s throttling at the neck is a “fellow servant!” This isn’t a person with a different status, not even someone of lower status…this is someone just like him. And he doesn’t even say anything to him first: he sees him, goes up and grabs him, and starts choking the poor guy. And the second thing to notice is this: a hundred denarii is not an insignificant amount. It’s quite a sum, actually. The amount is equal to about $12,000, or about a third of one’s annual income. So…it’s not just pocket change. But of course, and this is the whole point: it’s nothing close, even remotely close, to the amount the servant once owed.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him,
Do you recognize the posture? It’s exactly how the first servant pleaded before his king…. And what does this servant say, while begging? The exact words the first servant used:
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
Now, there’s a moment here. A window of opportunity for grace to keep flowing. The first servant—we hope—would see that the servant on his knees now before him, begging just as he had, pleading with the same words he used, we’re hoping that this first servant would see that his fellow servant…was in fact him! This was him, just moments ago.
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.
[Pause]
31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
And Jesus—remember he is telling this story—concludes with a stern warning:
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
And
the story ends here. The impact of
course is that we are compelled to forgive.
We hear the lesson of the story loud and clear: we should forgive, we
must forgive, we have to forgive! Why
would we not!? We would never want to be
sent to the torturers by our heavenly Father, to anger him, to have placed back into our accounts this
insurmountable debt that was once cancelled!
But
this is not the point of the parable.
This is not how Jesus, I believe, ultimately aims to compel us to
forgive.
The
point of this parable is not that the servant could not forgive, the point of
this parable is to expose the reason why
the servant could not forgive: He
could not grasp God’s grace. Do you
see this? It happens between verse 27
and 28. He simply could not grasp and so
fully receive the extent of the king’s grace, his mercy upon him. And so, though he was released outwardly,
inwardly, his heart was still in chains.
And so that’s why after the king took pity on him, after the king
cancelled his debt and let him go…what he did was he went right back to the
debt, went back on his knees and picked up the pieces of his debt—and he kept
it, he put back together; his pride and his inability to receive the grace from
the king kept his debt in place! And so
the moment he sees his fellow servant who owes him something, his heart
immediately reaches out to condemn: I must pay back my debt, and so everyone
who owes me must pay theirs too. [Pause]
There
are many of us here who have deep, deep hurts and wounds that have scarred our
lives, that have limped our walk, that have hardened our hearts, for a very
long time. Some of you have held a
grudge so long, you don’t even remember the offense; but the hate has crept in
and made a home in you, and you’ve accepted it.
And you want freedom from this.
Some of you have been abused…verbally, perhaps physically. And not many in your life know about this;
perhaps no one knows about this. And you too desire to be released from
this. Some of you have had something or
someone very very close to you taken away unfairly. Out of the control of your hands, but in the
hands of another, you lost something that can never be returned. And you resent the person who has done this
to you. And you desire to forgive this
person also…but it is so difficult.
These hurts are so deep and personal.
You hear clearly this call to forgive others, but you simply cannot…you
can’t! And this is what I want to say to
you: God knows that you can’t…he knows!...and so he gives us help.
God
the Father Almighty, maker of heaven an earth took pity on you, he cancelled
your debt and has let you go.
You
see, what this parable teaches is this (in the words of Christopher Ash): If we are to forgive we need to have
brought home to our hearts, by the Spirit of God, the fact that however deeply
you or I may be victim, in the sight of God we are offender a thousand times
more. No one can inflict on us anything approaching the pain we have inflicted
on God. This is the point of the
parable.
The
problem we have is that we don’t really, truly believe we have been forgiven
our ten thousand talents. Only when we
begin to grasp this, will forgiveness begin to flow…and to flow freely.
Now,
you see, this in a certain sense, sounds very harsh…but this is the way of
God’s love. It seems harsh because what
it means is in order for us to forgive, we must first see the great gravity of
our own sin. To see our trillion dollar
debt—truly as it is—and in comparison to the thousand dollar debts owed to
us. And for us to then realize, that if God
can forgive me of my debt, how can I not…How Can I not! with his Spirit in me,
and his grace rooted in my heart, How can I not forgive my offender?
This
is the power of forgiveness from the Cross.
For us, and then for us in which we can have such strength in which to
truly forgive others. This is the only
way.
Is
forgiving another person every easy.
Never. Is fully forgiving someone
possible and what God asks of us.
Absolutely.
Conclusion
-
Invitation
to deal with God:
- Has God lead you to think of someone in your
life you have
yet
to truly and completely forgive? What is
God asking of
you?
- Have you come to realize the full extent of
God’s forgiveness
to you?
If not, why not?
-
Can
you imagine what your life would look like, how it would be different, if the
weight of unforgiveness in your life were lifted by the grace of forgiveness?
-
“What
would it look like for a church to be forgiven forgivers?”
-
Quiet
reflection
-
Prayer
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