Matthew 18:21-35
Grace peace and mercy from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm sure you realize the gospel reading is about forgiveness. Jesus tells a parable about a king that wants to settle his accounts. He forgives the debt of a servant with a very large debt after the servant pleads for mercy. The servant then goes to another servant that owes him a debt and instead of forgiving the debt after his brother pleads for mercy the first servant attacks the second. The king hears of this wicked behavior and reinstates the large debt of the first servant.
So what's this parable really telling us?
If we dig deeper we find some interesting things that help us understand this parable from the disciples' perspective.
The wicked servant's debt is enormous, 10,000 talents. A debt equivalent to what we think of as a national debt. The Athenian League kept good records of the tax income for the member city states it was rare for the payment in talents to be in the double digits. A talent is as much gold or silver as a slave can carry on his back for a day, about 35 pounds. 10,000 talents of gold could fill Fort Knox!
The wicked servant pleads for some time, and the king has mercy. He does not grant the request of time, but he gives much more, he forgives the debt.
The wicked servant then goes out and encounters another servant who owes him 100 denarii. In today's terms that would be about $8,000 dollars a denarius was what a laborer earned in one day. He grabs the man and demands the money. When his fellow servant pleads for time using the same words said to the king, the request is denied.
The king reinstates the debt against the wicked servant. The implications are very dire, when accounts were called in if the debt couldn't be paid then the debtors property was taken and sold, if that still didn't cover the debt the debtor and family were sold as slaves.
What did we really hear in this reading?
A king with a great deal of mercy for his subjects forgives the impossibly large debts of his subjects. The king expects the subjects to forgive their brothers and sisters in turn. The debt of fellow servants to each other is insignificant in comparison to the debt owed the king. Yet the wicked servant can't find it in his heart to forgive the debt of a fellow servant.
Why would the first servant not forgive the other servant? Maybe he didn't believe the king really forgave his debt and he wanted to make sure he had funds to pay when the king called again.
Maybe this is a root problem in the church. I think we all know of a cranky person that is never satisfied. Someone who finds fault in others and can't let it go. They quickly point out the acolyte that lights the candles in the wrong order and makes it known that training is not up to snuff. I'm sure there are many other examples running through your minds.
You sit back and ask yourself why are they so unhappy, and why do they feel everyone else must be unhappy as well. Perhaps they really don't believe they are forgiven by Jesus. They feel their sins are so much worse than everyone else. They feel they really can't be forgiven for such grievous errors.
Look back at our Old Testament reading the brothers of Joseph didn't believe that Joseph had truly forgiven them. When their father, Jacob, died they were certain that Joseph would take vengeance on them. The response of Joseph is that he wept and reassured his brothers they were forgiven.
I wonder if the rejection of forgiveness is as hurtful to Jesus. We know he wept during His time here on earth. I'm sure He doesn't feel hurt like we do but I'm certain it doesn't please Him. And what about the person that continues to reject forgiveness to their last breath, is it even harder for Jesus that they would not accept him even at their last breath.
Let me share two thoughts here. First it is a sin to think that the death of Jesus Christ can't cover every sin you have ever done. That thinking puts limits on God's power, as if we could have any impact on the power of an all powerful being. Second if I didn't believe I was forgiven for every sin I wouldn't have the guts to stand before you this morning. And I don't care to elaborate or tell war stories to prove my point.
What I will say is that the sin of each of us is an enormously large debt, 10000 talents plus. Did you ever give a thought to the pain each of us caused Jesus that day on the cross?
Why do we find it so hard to accept forgiveness from Jesus? In our world everything has a price; there is a catch to every free promotion. We don't live in a world where things are truly given to us freely. Plus we are basically selfish we want things handed to us on our terms. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say I know some people that could be given a million dollars and they would complain about the denomination of the bills.
It takes spiritual growth to really start to accept forgiveness for what it is a supernatural gift from God the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The gift becomes apparent in people transformed to accept forgiveness because they begin to forgive. They also begin to see the bigger picture. They realize that all around us there are people that need to hear the transforming message of God's grace.
If I were to ask you what measure we could use to say this congregation is transformed and spreading the message of Jesus Christ what would it be? Is it attendance? Is it the amount in the offering plate? Is it how many attend Sunday school? Is it how many children attend the day school? All of these are measures used here and in other congregations. They are very good ways to measure the movement of Christians from one church to another.
In truth the only good measure of the effectiveness of any congregation is the number of adult baptisms. The only way the numbers will increase is if we are all engaged in outreach.
The Lutherans of 500 years ago were known as the first evangelicals. Many Lutheran churches in Europe are called still called evangelical rather than Lutheran. Somehow over 500 years the church became focused on the temple. If we build it they will come. That clearly doesn't work. We need to be back in the apostolic mode of 2000 years ago. We need to be out there talking to be people.
As Jesus said, Go!
In the name of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
