Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity

Peter came up and said to [Jesus], “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” (Mt 18:21). This is exactly the type of question that the followers of Jesus often ask. Jesus tells us about the abundant mercy of our heavenly Father, and we want to know who doesn’t qualify. Jesus tells us about the immeasurable flood of forgiveness that God gives freely to all and we want to know, “When do I get to cut my brother off?” These are the types of questions that Christians often wrestle with. We know we ought to forgive, but shouldn’t there be a limit? Someone once said, “As a Christian, I do forgive him, but there are some things one can never forget.” I imagine that everyone here can think of someone, a friend or relative, who has continually crossed the line. How much is too much? So Peter becomes the spokesman for all of us, “Lord, when do we have the right to stop forgiving?”

Peter often puts his foot in his mouth in the Gospels, but we should give him some credit here. He’s actually being pretty generous. Jewish law required that you forgive someone three times. This law was based on how the Jews read a verse in Amos, chapter 2: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment” (Amos 2:6). Three times was enough; then you could safely hold a grudge. But Peter had been listening to Jesus preach for a few years now, and at least some of Jesus’ teaching begun to resonate in his mind. Perhaps three wasn’t enough. So Peter more than doubles it. How about seven? Seven is the number of God, the days of creation, the number of completion. Surely God couldn’t ask us to forgive our brother more than that.

But Peter was wrong. Jesus answered, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22). Seven times seven to the tenth degree! Jesus is not saying that you can shut the door on your neighbor after 490 times. Instead, this number is meant to express that we should forgive all wrongs done to us, no matter how many they are. Remember that Peter was an uneducated fisherman. Maybe he didn’t even know how to multiply, and when you try to count to 490, you run out of fingers and toes in a hurry. God wants you to forgive your neighbor no matter how many times he sins against you.

To illustrate this point, Jesus tells a parable. “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents” (Mt 18:24). A talent was an ancient measurement of gold or silver equivalent to about $1.4 million today. This poor man has somehow accumulated a debt of 10,000 talents – which, if it’s even meant to be a finite number would be $14 billion dollars. The Greek word for 10,000 is literally “myriad.” The man owed a myriad of talents – uncountable, perhaps. One highly respected and scholarly Greek dictionary suggests that the best English equivalent here would be “a zillion.” That’s right, the man owed a zillion talents and it was time to pay up.

Of course he didn’t have the money. His master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything” (Mt 18:25–26). How much patience did the man hope his master would have? A talent was 20 years wages. If he saved every penny he made, he could pay off his debt in 200,000 years. You might ask, “How was it even possible to be in that much debt?” It must take a special kind of person to dig a hole that deep! Well actually, the man wasn’t special at all. He was just one of many debtors that was brought before his Lord. He was, in fact, an ordinary sinner just like you or me.

Remember, it only takes one tiny sin to earn eternal death and damnation. You could live for a hundred years as a perfect and good person, but if you committed just one tiny sin on your hundredth birthday, you would rightly deserve an eternity in hell. And if that’s the just punishment for one sin, what about a lifetime of sinful thoughts, words, and deeds? How much do you owe? A zillion talents. This is your debt. You are this man, and so is every other person who has even been born in the natural way and lived on earth. We are all debtors and beggars who live only by the grace of God.

The servant fell on his knees, imploring the Lord, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And what did God do? He did what he does for every person who cries out to him for mercy: Out of tender compassion and pity, the Lord forgave his servant the entire debt (Mt 18:27). This is nothing other than the Absolution which we received this morning. As God’s messenger, I stand as I am commanded and pronounce our Lord’s verdict upon all sinners who cry out for mercy, “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus I forgive you all your sins.” God doesn’t put you on the payment plan. He doesn’t garnish your wages. He doesn’t make you promis that you will never, ever do it again. He simply forgives. The whole debt. One zillion talents. All 200,000 years of back wages that are owed. Forgiven.

Now we come to the warning in this parable. What did this man who had been forgiven this incalculable debt do? He happened on a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii, 100 small silver coins. But he seized the man, began choking him, and demanded, “Pay me what you owe!” When his fellow servant pleaded, using the same words the man had just spoken to his lord, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you,” he refused and threw him in prison until he should repay the debt (Mt 18:29–30).

Jesus says that those who are forgiven much love much. How then could this man, who had been forgiven a myriad of talents, refuse to forgive his brother for a relatively small offense? I’ll tell you: unbelief. This is the one sin that could not be forgiven and it landed him in hell. Unbelief. Even though he had been forgiven all, he went out and lived as though he had not been forgiven. “Give me time, and I will repay my debt!” he had said to the Lord. Instead, the Lord forgave him. But the man did not believe that anyone could be so generous and forgiving. He did not believe in the goodness and mercy of God. Instead, even as he went out from his Lord, he was already planning how he would repay the whole debt. “I owe twenty year’s wages times a zillion. Well, here’s a man who owes me 100 days wages. That’s a good start.” The man was an unbeliever in the forgiveness of God. And because he would not receive forgiveness, he could not give forgiveness.

In the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer we ask God to forgive us our debts even as we forgive our debtors. This is not a transaction, where God promises to forgive us only if we forgive others. We don’t earn God’s forgiveness by forgiving others. Instead, we forgive others because God has already forgiven us so much more. Compared with our sins against God, our sins against each other are mere trifles. But just as God has forgiven our great debt, so we too, as Luther says in the Small Catechism, can sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us. Why? Because you have to? No. Because you can’t help it. When you get a good look at the depth of your sinful condition, knowing what you deserved, and how much God has forgiven you, how could you possibly hold anything against your brother, sister, or neighbor? Instead you joyfully forgive them from your heart. This is a mark of faith. You who have been forgiven much, now are free to love much. You can forgive your neighbor from your heart. You don’t need to hold his sins against him anymore. You don’t need to cut him off after the seventh offense, because God has promised that he will never cut you off even after seven times seventy. He will always hear your cries for mercy. Your sins have been removed from you as far as the East is from the West. Your incalculable debt was paid at the cross. The eternal consequences of sin have been taken away. Instead of what we deserved, our heavenly Father forgives every sin and gives us eternal life. Amen.