There’s Mercy in the Air

Introduction

A. Breathing God’s Forgiveness

We all probably know the fear and self-loathing that comes with blowing it.

Maybe you messed up at work and you know your mistake will cost the company a lot.

Maybe in the heat of an argument you said something that was intensely hurtful for someone you love and you can’t unsay it.

Maybe there’s an addictive behaviour that you thought you had beaten, but it’s once again reared its ugly head..

We all sometimes find ourselves in places where we need mercy to get on with life.

If we’re fortunate, we’ve experienced the unconditional love of others as it covers over our sins.

There is something truly liberating about knowing that God knows the darkest places of your heart, your worst actions, your most unholy temptations and he still loves you.

The Church is supposed to be a community of people who have experienced God’s forgiveness.

If you are a Christian, after all, you have to have admitted that you’ve fallen short of God’s standards,

But you’ve also found that God offers grace when we humble ourselves before and repent of our sins.

So, to be a part of a this community of forgiveness means that mercy is the air we breathe

We breathe in God’s forgiveness, allowing us to move beyond our past sins

And we breathe out God’s forgiveness to those who have sinned against us.

Just as breathing requires a regular rhythm of both inhaling and exhaling so our life of faith must likewise contain both.

It’s impossible to breath in forever (you’d pop!) and it’s also impossible to continually breath in God’s mercy for us without breathing out his mercy to others.

We see this dynamic at work in a parable that Jesus teaches in Matthew 18:21-35

B. Scripture

Matthew 18:21–35 NIV

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. 23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold 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. 26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. 28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. 29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ 30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

C. Context

The first servant owes 10.000 talents. A talent was 6,000 denarii. A denarius was a day’s wages for an unskilled labourer.

To put that in our context:

With minimum wage at $17.20 an hour and an 8 hour work day, we could set a denarius at $137.60

So the value of a talent would be $825,600

10k talents would be worth a bit over 8 billion dollars (Yep, that’s billion with a B).

But this is really just meant to symbolize an unpayable debt.

A talent was the largest unit of money and 10,000 (myriad) was the highest number used in Greek.

It’s as if this man owes all the money in the world.

The second servant’s debt is 100 denarii. That would equal about $13,000 using the same calculations.

For most of us $13,000 isn’t pocket change. If someone owed it to us, we’d like to get it back, but it’s not an unpayable debt.

The story is really about how the immense debt we have been forgiven by God must shape the way we have mercy for one another.

Because the offenses against me are puny compared to my offenses against God, for which I have been generously forgiven.

God’s has been so generous with his mercy, that we have an obligation to be generously merciful with others.

To use the metaphor we discussed earlier, we can only breath in God’s mercy for us without also breathing out God’s mercy for others.

1. Inhaling - Breathing In God’s Mercy

Forgiving others is hard work. We couldn’t be forgiving, in the way God requires, if we weren’t first forgiven by him.

In other words, God doesn’t ask something of us, that isn’t something he’s willing to do himself.

Not just that, but God has forgiven us far more than we could ever have to forgive.

A. Our Sin is Greater Than We know

In Jesus’ parable, the first servant’s debt is astronomical, incomparably larger than the debt owed by the second servant.

Jesus is telling us that our offenses against God—which he has forgiven—are infinitely greater than the offenses someone might have done to us.

But I’m going to guess that if we honestly examine our own assumptions, we don’t always believe this is true.

Imagine this situation: You’re a good Christian who grew up in church, and always tried to do the right thing. Of course you’ve sinned: you’ve been proud, you’d told the odd white lie, you let your eyes linger a bit long on an someone you found attractive, standard stuff. You know you’ve never done the big stuff: murder, adultery, or bank robbery.

Then imagine a drunk driver smashes into your car, killing your child. God’s call to you to forgive that drunk driver likely seems too great. “God you’ve forgiven me for the little things I’ve done, but this person has taken from me the most precious thing I have. How can you ask me to forgive that!?”

The reason I might think this is because I have drastically underestimated the offensiveness of my ‘little’ sin before God.

If my sin may seem trivial compared to someone else’s, its because I’ve never reckoned with my sin.

We might believe that the world is messed up mostly because of the exceptional sin of a small group of people

megalomaniacal dictators, serial killers, child predators and phys-ed teachers

These people certainly do more than their share to make the world a worse place

But we often underestimate how much we’re to blame.

Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of people tell me their stories, and share their hurts.

Many times, I’ve heard how a teacher or a parent’s careless word, deeply impacted a person.

Cutting to the heart of their deepest insecurities and reshaping their life in profoundly negative ways.

So my thoughtless expression of frustration—the one I forgot as soon as it passed my lips—may have injured someone for life.

We also forget that every time we sin against others we blaspheme God.

If I were to go into a Hindu temple, go up to an idol (an image of the god) and I intentionally pushed it over and smashed it on the floor, I would need to beat a hasty retreat because, in desecrating the image, I would have just done something the worshipers there would see as blasphemy. (Obviously, I’m not suggesting that would be an appropriate thing to do).

In the second commandment, God forbids making images of him because he has already put his image into creation—us (a living God could only ever be represented by living images). So when I disrespect or mistreat other person, no matter who they are, I’m not just sinning against that person, I’m desecrating God’s image, which is an act of blasphemy against the God whose image they bear.

So when I gossip about that person at work,

when I pretend that panhandler who is pleading for help doesn’t exist,

when I curse that politician for what he stands for

I am desecrating God’s image and blaspheming God.

Our sin is not a trivial matter — Our sin is the reason God’s son had to die.

So going back to the analogy of the good christian whose child died because of someone else’s sin, God could say, “My child died because of your sin and I forgive you. Your child died because of someone else’s sin. I’m asking you to do for them what I have done for you.”

B. God’s Grace is Also Greater Than We Know

My intention in highlighting how our sin is great is not to inspire self-loathing.

It is only when we understand just how much we have offended God, that we can understand the depth of his love and mercy for us.

All of us are rebellious blasphemers, usurpers and scoundrels.

That realization is essential if we are to understand the depth of God’s mercy in accepting us as dearly loved children.

In Luke 7, there is a story where Jesus eats at the home of Simon the Pharisee.

A woman with a checkered past anoints Jesus’ feet, and Simon is scandalized that Jesus would let her.

Jesus tells the host a story (similar to the parable we’re discussing)

Two debtors who owe a master a debt. One a small debt, the other a large debt. When neither can pay the master cancels the debt of both.

Jesus asks his host which servant would love the master more, and Simon correctly surmises that it is the one who was forgiven the greater debt.

The one who has been forgiven much will love much. The one who was forgiven little, will love little.

When I understand the size of my debt God has forgiven, I will love him more.

The first servant in the story seems not to have understood just how great his debt was

Why else do you suppose he pleaded with the master for more time to pay a debt thatcould never be paid?

Because he failed to understand the size of his debt, he failed to comprehend the enormity of his master’s mercy.

Because he underestimated the mercy he had received, he failed to respond with love proportional to what he had forgiven.

It is only when we understand the magnitude of God’s mercy for us that we will love God appropriately.

We love God appropriately by extending his mercy into the world around us.

So the mercy God has graciously given to us becomes the basis for our mercy to others.

2. Exhalation - Breathing Out God’s Mercy

We have breathed in God’s mercy, but to keep doing so we must also breathe out his mercy.

A. God’s Mercy is An Expression of His Love

In our parable, the master has compassion on his servant and God has likewise had compassion on us.

God freely forgives as an expression of his character.

God is love, So God always loves.

But of course, if God loves because it is his nature, then it means he doesn’t just love me. He loves you. And he loves them (whoever them are).

Because God loves, he desires all his beloved flourish.

The vision of flourishing God gives us, as seen in the Garden of Eden, is one that involves connection not just with him, but with people:

“It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gn.2:18).

In other words, God designed us to live in community with others.

Sin fractures both the relationship between us and God and between us and other people

Adam tries to throw Eve under the bus when God asked what happened.

God’s curse describes the corrosive power dynamics that take hold in human relationships when he’s no longer at the centre of the community’s life:

“Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you” (Gn.3:16).

Because God loves us, his desire is to see us flourish.

B. Being Instruments of God’s Love

For flourishing to take root, we must experience reconciliation not just with him, but with each other.

When we refuse the second part of that equation, we stand in opposition to God’s great plan of redemption.

That is why the master is so furious with the unmerciful servant.

We cannot presume to accept mercy, while denying that mercy to others.

God has given us something that must be shared.

3. Breathing God’s Mercy

A. Practicing Breathing God’s Mercy

What does it look like, practically, for mercy to be the air we breath.?

Fist: cultivating humility.

Without humility we become like the Pharisees who opposed Jesus: We don’t understand our need for God’s forgiveness, so we can’t respond with the love he requires.

This means that we allow the Spirit to examine our hearts and we accept his conviction

Not with the goal of self-hatred, but in order that we understand the depth of God’s mercy for us.

When we know God has been so kind to us, it makes it easier to be patient with the failings of others.

Second: See others’ sin from the perspective of a sinner saved by Grace

When we’ve come to grips with our own sinfulness, it puts the failings of others in a different perspective.

When I know God will judge me by the standard I use to judge others,

and when I realize I’m in need of a lot of mercy

Then I will be eager to extend God’s mercy to others.

When we feel radically forgiven, we will want to see others experience that same freedom.

B. Forgiveness Vs. Trust

Two quick caveats: Forgiving someone is not the same thing as trusting them.

If a person has abused you, placing them back in a position to abuse you again is not something forgiveness requires

When we forgive someone,

it means we are willing to work for their good.

It means that, as far as we’re able, we want to relate to them in a way that is mutually beneficial.

Trusting someone who has broken trust without reestablishing it, isn’t loving, because it often sets them up for failure.

Eg. If a husband has repeatedly been unfaithful while away on business trips, his wife’s forgiveness doesn’t not mean, she has to tolerate him going solo on business trips in the future.

His wife may forgive him, but she’s not being unforgiving if she says he needs to look for a new line of work that doesn’t present him with the same kind of temptations (so he has a better chance of success).

Trust cannot be instantly given back when broken, it has to be re-established over time.

Forgiveness does not mean there aren’t consequences for someone’s past mistakes.

After all, God forgives us, but when we do something sinful, we still have to live with the consequences.

God forgave David for what happened with Bathsheba and Uriah, but he was clear that the problems in his family that follow (Amnon and Tamar, Absalom and Adonijah) were the consequences of his sin.

Forgiveness means that even in the new reality that exists, we are committed to remaining brothers and sister’s in Christ.

And that we hope for the other person’s redemption in the places they still struggle.

This is still true, when the person who has sinned against us doesn’t admit their wrongdoing and ask to be forgiven.

C. Forgiveness Is Ongoing

The second Caveat is that Forgiveness isn’t one and done, but it’s an ongoing reality.

Martin Luther said,

Forgiveness is not an occasional art, it is a permanent attitude.

Martin Luther (Founder of the German Reformation)

By ‘occasional’, he doesn’t mean ‘from time to time’ but something in response to a specific occasion.

Even after we’ve forgiven someone, there are times when old hurts rear their head again

When that happens, we must choose to forgive all over again.

The hypothetical person who lost their child in a car accident may forgive the driver today, but every missed Christmas, birthday or annivesary will bring that pain back into the foreground. When that happens, forgiveness needs to happen all over again.

Forgiving a person is an on-going commitment to moving past what they did to you.

Once you have forgiven, it’s not okay to take up the offence again.

Conclusion

We all need to be forgiven but many of us also struggle to forgive.

But God’s redemption of creation can only happen when we forgive as he forgives.

So God makes our forgiveness of others a deal breaker.

We cannot receive his forgiveness until is also extend his forgiveness.

We cannot breath in his forgiveness without also breathing that same mercy out on those who sin against us.

Let’s learn to breathe the fresh air of forgiveness in a new world where there’s mercy in the air.