Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity (2025)

Matt 18:21-35

Define an Unforgiving Heart and what it looks like to hold on to someone’s sins

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, what we have in our passage today is an important aspect of Christianity, the topic of Forgiveness, for that is what we hope for, and yet we also find that attached to this forgiveness are the surprising words, that this forgiveness is not just meant to be applied to us, but is also meant to be shared with our neighbor. For at the end of the Lord’s Prayer, and here at this parable is a stern warning that if you refuse to forgive your brother from your heart, God will not forgive you. For how can you receive the forgiveness of sins that was won for you, and rejoice in its gift and then turn around and demand your brother pays what he owes, when God has so blessedly should you nothing but grace? So let us speak on this issue and understand what Christ has given us that we might not fall into the snares of Satan.

Being Sinned Against

When someone sins against us it hurts.

There is betrayal, a loss of trust, and it stings. Now in some things it is easy to move on. They can be understandable mistakes. Now to a certain point we become numb when it is a stranger that does this to us, but when it is family, or friends that cuts a bit deeper. In truth it doesn’t matter who does it. To understand this a bit better,

The Scriptures connect sin with debt.

That is why this parable here is so vital to help understand the importance of forgiveness we have received as well. For when we speak in terms of debt, that is something we know a bit better. For we have been in debt, and had debtors. We have also known what is to have our debts build and our debts paid, and debts forgiven. According to the Law,

Everyone owes their neighbor love.

It doesn’t matter who they are, or where they come from you are to love your neighbor just as yourself. Be it your brother, your sister, your parents, you child, the person you’ve just met, even the person who doesn’t like you. Just as you owe this to your neighbor, your neighbor owes this to you as well. This is why we can call people out on their behavior when they fail to love.

Our Debtors

The World wants debts paid.

For it wants to make sure that what ever needs to be paid is and we don’t want to be cheated. To often have we had to go without because someone took advantage of us, and we detest that feeling. So what does the world do to make sure that debts are paid?

They make sure there is interest.

You don’t just pay back what you owe, but you pay a bit extra. This way you don’t dawdle on repaying loans, or favors, for the banks, your friends, and your neighbors don’t want to be left in your debt because they need you to pay it all back. This is because

The World doesn’t understand forgiveness.

The idea that you would let go of a debt that was owed to you, without any strings attached, that you would eat the cost on your own and instead demanding back what was owed. That is foreign to the world, which is what makes the first part of the parable so surprising that the man’s master is willing to forgive such a great debt. That is the surprising part, not that the man goes out and seeks what is owed to him that makes sense, and the reason is

The Unforgiving Heart

We are born with this heart.

That seeks to settle the debts that are owed to us. That desires to be repaid, for our heart is of the world. While we might hope that others will forget or let go of our debts, there is a desire to make sure that we get paid what is owed to us. So that we can get ahead. Because when people don’t repay their debts, what happens in our heart?

It holds grudges, and never let’s go.

To bear your neighbor a grudge is to hold on to a debt that is owed to you and hold them accountable for it. If they have sinned against you, you make sure to get what you are owed, and you want to make sure they don’t forget the lesson for next time. It is about making sure that you get what is yours and should anyone try to take it from you, you ensure they can’t. This

It always keeps people in debt.

It never lets go of any wrong that has been committed against it, it keeps a list of all of those who have sinned against us, and the ways. This heart may even say its forgiven or don’t worry about it, but the next time that person wrongs them, they pile on not only that sin, but begin to list all their failings and shove their face in their and refuse to let go. It should be no surprise that

These hearts end up in hell.

For we are taught to pray, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. If that is how you treat your neighbor, counting and numbering their sins, and instead of forgiving settling all of the debts that are owed you, then that is how God will deal with you. For if you cannot show mercy, then what room is there for you in the house of a merciful God? This should concern everyone of us here. But this will not change our hearts, and that is what everyone of us needs. For we need a heart that is cleansed, that is no longer covetous, and that doesn’t grab hold of our neighbor and demand, pay what you owe! This is why

The Heart of Jesus

Jesus became our neighbor.

He took on our flesh, but more than that. The Bible tells us that Christ came to cancel the record of debt that stood against us, by the paying the price himself, and securing for us an eternal redemption. So our debt, our sins, our failures, and everything that we owed, not to our neighbors, but what we owed to our true Master the Father in Heaven.

We sinned against Him, but He loved us.

For that is ultimately what each sin is, its against the Lord, for we reject Him. When you go to seek revenge against your neighbor who has wronged you, what does the Scripture say? Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. So when you seek revenge against your neighbor, you are saying God’s Word isn’t good enough, but he is incapable of settling this issue, and I will right the wrong without involving him. How much debt are we in? How deeply have we fallen. Yet,

Jesus forgave our debts.

Who would have say that he would have been wrong as he hung there on the cross, suffering for our debts, our failures, our sins, because when you forgive a debt, the debt doesn’t just vanish magically. There’s nothing that is free, there is a payment that has to be made. If a bank forgives your debts, where does the money come from to do that? When governments provide free food, free education, etc. it is really funded by the the tax payers. So to settle our debt with God, to settle our sins, the Son of Man, descended from heaven, became flesh, and suffered and shed His blood there upon the cross so that he might say, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. He pleaded that our debt, may rest on his head, and that’s why the sinless son of God died.

The Children of God

God paid our debt, and adopted us.

For the Father in heaven didn’t desire the death of the wicked just as the master in this story did not desire that His servant and his family be sold off into slavery. God wants you as His child, and should you ever doubt it, look there upon the cross, and see what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit did to save you. For the Spirit

The Spirit filled our hearts.

Hearts that were corrupted and destroyed by the world, and washed them clean that they might beat again purely and instead of demanding pay what you owe from our neighbors, that we might learn to say what Christ has said to us, I forgive you. No matter how awful your sins are, no matter how great your debt, you are forgiven by the blood that Jesus shed for you.

So we gladly forgive as we have been.

For we are children of our father in heaven, and are like Christ who became flesh, that he might call us His brothers and sisters. For when we consider all that our Father and Brother have done for us and how great the debt they were willing to forgive, how can we not also forgive our neighbors? How can we not wish for their restoration so we will gladly forgive not just 7 times, but as many times as Christ has forgiven you.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this is an important passage and a serious issue. For there are many who have been denied heaven even though on the outside they look good, but if they refuse to forgive their neighbor, then they throw away everything that Christ had done for them on Calvary. So let us cherish the great mercy that has been shown to us by God in heaven, and consider the great forgiveness that has been show to us. For then when our neighbor sins against us, it hurts and we wonder how can this every be forgiven, but then look at Jesus, and see His heart, and His sacrifice for you, and then you too will be say to your neighbor I forgive you, and settle the debt yourself.