Part 2: The Compassionate King
Short Stories of Yeshua • Sermon • Submitted
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· 4 viewsThe Main Idea: We are not let off the hook to let others off the hook, we are pitied to pity others.
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Fun Facts: Pity has fallen out of vogue, in Texas, according to Google Trends we are at the bottom of the list for inquiries about pity. On Google, in the US, the most searched for item related to pity “I pity the fool, meme.” The next most searched for item related to pity is a masterful poem by the Lebanese Writer Khalil Gabrin called “pity the nation.”
Introduction:
1. At the heart of the Gospel is a message about forgiveness.
At the heart of the Gospel is a message about forgiveness.
2. I want to say, in full and complete transparency, that I have a love, hate relationship with what we are going to talk about today in our next short story of Yeshua.
3. A love, hate relationship because there’s nothing quite as sad as a one-sided love. And, Forgiveness is a one-sided love.
4. Now, I wish I could lay claim to that statement but it really comes from the queen of Country, Dolly Parton in her song, “When someone wants to leave.”
And there's nothing quite as sad as a one-sided love
When one doesn't love at all and the other loves too much
It's a sad situation, I must say
When someone wants to leave
As bad as you want them to stay
And there's nothing quite as sad as a one-sided love
When one doesn't love at all and the other loves too much
It's a sad situation, I must say
When someone needs you to forgive them
As bad you want them to pay.
As bad you want them to pay.
5. Now, let me be even more emphatic about my love-hate relationship with forgivness: since, forgiveness is a one-side love it is always taking more from me than I can ever get in return. It makes demands of me when my emotional tank is empty. It takes and does not give back. And somehow, I am supposed to believe that doing this is good for me?
6. Honestly, I would reject this claim all together accept for this one little fact: God became one of us to forgive every one of us. This is one-sided love, he did this for us unconditionally. He became famous for just forgiving people!
7. Now, Peter, one of the first three disciples. Peter the guy who Yeshua is going to use to influence the shape of what would later be called Messianic Faith. Peter suspects that this forgiveness thing is a big idea. Let’s just think about the kind of people that are part of Yeshua’s entourage, Miriam the once demon possessed hooker, Matthew the Jewish born traitor, tax-collector, and a whole other group just called, “Notorious Sinners.” I mean, these are all the people that Peter’s momma warned him about “stay away.” And could you imagine what does Peter say to his wife about the company he keeps. But He knows that Yeshua values them at a crazy level, like they are royalty, like they are from noble jobs. If your democrat it’s like he is treating hookers as if they were Michelle Obama, if your Republican like they were Melania Trump and if your independent…well I have know idea…Anyway, the point is that Peter knows forgiveness is like a radical concept for Yeshua.
8. Remember, “Then Peter came to Him and said, “Master, how often shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Then Peter came to Him and said, “Master, how often shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
This is a great question. It’s the one I would ask. Really, how long until this one-side love stops. It’s funny, it’s like Yeshua does not even give Peter class credit for getting some of the answer right, partial credit, good attempt. He skips right over any applause and says, “No, not up to seven times, I tell you, but seventy times seven!” He is really saying forgiveness has no limits. He is really saying that forgiveness, this one-sided love, is a way of life that never ends.
This is a great question. It’s the one I would ask. Really, how long until this one-side love stops. It’s funny, it’s like Yeshua does not even give Peter class credit for getting some of the answer right, partial credit, good attempt. He skips right over any applause and says, “No, not up to seven times, I tell you, but seventy times seven!” He is really saying forgiveness has no limits. He is really saying that forgiveness, this one-sided love, is a way of life that never ends.
9. If you really think about that, it can wear you out.
a. Illustrate: Use the example of getting stood-up over and over again.
b. Are you really willing to keep going through this getting stood up? Human nature does not work that way. Get burned once, twice, thrice but endlessly, a lifetime of it? When someone lets us down again-and-again we start to turn our attention to more cost-efficient relationships in which there is a better rate of exchange. Where we feel like what we give and what we get are more nearly even. I know that is a crass way to put it, but you know its true. No one wants to be the person in Dolly’s song because there is nothing quite as sad as a one-sided love.
10. Yeshua challenges our desire for cost efficient relationships and He does so with a parable. Remember, last week we said that a parable is what you need to hear but don’t want to hear. And that the early followers of Yeshua with no army, no power, no political standing threatened empire with the short stories of Yeshua. I like how my friend Frederick Buechner says parables are short stores that pack a big punch.
11. This one today might pack the biggest punch. Grab your copy of the scriptures and say it me like you mean it.
Ha-Foke-Bah
Ha-Foke-Bah
De-Cola-Bah
Ha-Foke-Bah
Ha-Foke-Bah
Mashiach-Bah
Turn-it and turn-it, all you need is in it.
Turn-it and turn-it, the Messiah is in it.
Let’s hear this short story and let’s really hear with new ears how shocking this story really is.
Yeshua said to him, “No, not up to seven times, I tell you, but seventy times seven!
Matthew 18:22
So we have the context already of the conversation with Peter and Yeshua about how much forgiveness but don’t forget that in the larger context we are in the section where he just taught about how the community of faith is supposed to restore someone who sins against you.
“Now if your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault while you’re with him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother.
The c
So we have this whole conversation leading up to the parable about being a people who can hold each other accountable. Granted, I believe that has been so abused that 9 out of 10 people I know who have come under the jurisdiction of this text usually gave up on religion because of the abuse of power and ill motives but that is another sermon for another day. Here it is important for us to know that the context is believers holding one another accountable and restoring one another when something has gone terribly wrong in the relationship.
But, and this is where Peter is chiming in, what do you do if you go to your friend and they do apologize but then they do it again. And you go through this process several times.
Yeshua said to him, “No, not up to seven times, I tell you, but seventy times seven!
Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves.
Matthew 18:23
We need to pay attention to the cultural context. We don’t live in a cultural context with kings and slaves but this was normal talk back in the day. People understood what it was like to be an indentured slave to say a Roman General or High Ranking Jewish family. But, people also understood that a person became a slave because of one or two things (1) financially stupid decisions landed you there are (2) it was somehow God’s negative fate on you and kin.
When Yeshua stats this parable with a King and a slave, no one is rooting for the slave. No one is thinking “I am the slave” in the parable. Slaves, no way, sons of Abraham. He goes on
When he had begun to settle up, a man was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But since he didn’t have the money to repay, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
This is a sick amount of debt. Listen if this is 10,000 talents of silver this is 151 million dollars if it is gold talents it is, are you ready, 12 billion dollars. So he owes this King so much money it just is sickening.
Now, let’s be honest, this guy did not rack up a 12 billion dollar debt at one time. He did this over-and-over-and-over again. He has a track record bad investing, bad spending, and bad deals.
The King’s selling off of this man’s property and family will not even get close to settling the debt. It is more of a statement that he can’t get away with this then a way to get the King’s money back
If the debt is sickening, the promise the slave makes is just stupid.
Then the slave fell on his knees and begged him, saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll repay you everything.’
Patient!! If he worked 40 hours a week for the next 150,000 years he still could not pay back this debt. The absurdity of the debt, the absurdity of the promise is where the parable has us. First, that is what it feels like to be sinned against. Like something was taken from you cannot really be paid back. Secondly, we think we are the King and not the slave.
We have this self confirmation bias. You know where you feel like your sins against someone are not near as bad as their sins against you. What they did was horrible what I did was easily forgiven, spilled milk really, a minor mishap if you don’t mind. But they raped my soul, butchered my heart, killed me slowly with a dagger to the back.
And in a sudden and shocking twist in the parable
And the master of that slave, filled with compassion, released him and forgave him the debt.
All the sudden the King is out of the bookkeeping business and is now in the debt cancellation business. We don’t exactly the “why” but we know that the king had compassion.
Compassion - the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live in someone else’s skin. It is the feeling that I really cannot have joy and peace for me until there is joy and peace for you.
He just releases him and you remember the rest of the story:
“Now that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii. And he grabbed him and started choking him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe!’
“Now that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii. And he grabbed him and started choking him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe!’
“So his fellow slave fell down and kept begging him, saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’
Yet he was unwilling. Instead, he went off and threw the man into prison until he paid back all he owed.
“So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply distressed. They went to their master and reported in detail all that had happened.
Then summoning the first slave, his master said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave all that debt because you pleaded with me.
Wasn’t it necessary for you also to show mercy to your fellow slave, just as I showed mercy to you?’
Enraged, the master handed him over to the torturers until he paid back all he owed.
“So also My heavenly Father will do to you, unless each of you, from your hearts, forgives his brother.”
Matthew 18:
100 denarii, really, that is only $800.00 dollars. 800 dollars are you kidding me. This guy apparently spends 800.00 on his toast. He just was forgiven 12 billion in debt and he is choking out someone over 800 dollars.
Matthew 18:28-
You get that he does not have to call back any of his debts because all his debts are cleared. This slave went out and sought out the person who owed him the most money, 800 dollars.
Also, don’t forget the context is on what has been labeled the church discipline passage.
Let’s go on
“So his fellow slave fell down and kept begging him, saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’
Yet he was unwilling. Instead, he went off and threw the man into prison until he paid back all he owed.
“So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply distressed. They went to their master and reported in detail all that had happened.
Then summoning the first slave, his master said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave all that debt because you pleaded with me.
Wasn’t it necessary for you also to show mercy to your fellow slave, just as I showed mercy to you?’
Enraged, the master handed him over to the torturers until he paid back all he owed.
“So also My heavenly Father will do to you, unless each of you, from your hearts, forgives his brother.”
Matthew 18:29-
So we see the gist of the parable. The slave could have shown the same kind of favor that he was shown but instead he decided to act like a loan shark calling in petty debts. The King then responds in kind and revokes his previous mercy and does not just send him to jail but to the torturers. He will pay his debt in flesh and blood. It is graphic, it is dark, it is...
And then we get this little summary statement, “so also my heavenly Father will do to you, unless each of you, from you hearts, forgives his brother.” I guess if it is a sister you are off the hook. Just kidding, you know that.
That definitely makes the parable a Prickly Parable. I don’t think anyone there thought Yeshua was going to turn the story around on them and make them into a “potential” wicked slave who must now face the lex tallons of God’s wrath.
While I think this is shocking and a bit of a gut punch is it really teaching, “Do unto others as you have them do unto you?” Or probably more to the point, “Do unto others as you would have God do unto you?”
I have two problems with that interpretation of Yeshua’s parable. First, and most important, then your forgiveness is not based on the finished work of Jesus on the Cross but on your performance, on your behavior. Second, if I am forgiving my neighbor to save my own neck then I am not being motivated by compassion but by fear.
Frankly, I think that is a terrible reading of this text. Parables are supposed to pack a punch but they are not supposed to teach heresy nor make you serve God out of fear. After all, we have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind. Further, that just does not sound like Jesus to me. That makes me think we need to push in a little bit deeper.
When I think about my own understanding of forgiveness, clearly I am a student of my own experiences. If I am able to forgive at all it is because I have been forgiven, because thanks to someone else my debts were released. I know what that felt like. It felt someone took a hard-drive with all the records of my previous sins, and threw it into a vat acid where it just disintegrated into an unrecognizable gobly goo. And, then, put their arms around me and said, “lets have lunch.” It felt like a fresh start on life, a clean slate, a new beginning. And the person did it not looking for anything from me, not because they were going through some stuff themselves, they forgave me because they wanted to be in relationship with me more than they wanted to get even with me. Trully, it was a one-sided love.
That is, as best as I can say, what forgiveness is and is all about .It is pure unadulterated grace. When it has happened to you, it is hard to not think about on that moment without tears of joy, appreciation, and deep humility.
But anyone who has experienced it knows there are lots of imposters of forgiveness running around out there.
Make excuses for others and call it forgiveness.
We overlook sins and call it forgiveness.
We hide our feelings to avoid conflict and call it forgiveness.
We avoid people or go our own way and call it forgiveness.
We learn how to say things that sound forgiving but it is not forgiveness.
Much of what passes for forgiveness these days is just indifference, but not forgiveness. When that happens, the only excuse I can think of is that we forgot how stupily outrageous the debt we owed was.
Rather, your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.
Isaiah 59:
For sin’s payment is death, but God’s gracious gift is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.
Don’t we all remember that we were the slave who had a 12 billion dollar debt that repulsed our king and put a death sentence on us. But when you feel the words of
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
wash over you soul how could you not want to forgive. Why would you go and choke the life out of someone over a small matter when the debt of your sin was canceled against you.
I suppose that is why the King said
Then summoning the first slave, his master said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave all that debt because you pleaded with me.
Wasn’t it necessary for you also to show mercy to your fellow slave, just as I showed mercy to you?’
The King who stopped keeping records wants to know why the servant could not do the same. Or maybe to say it another way, “Forgiveness is not known until it is shown so why won’t you show it?”
The only answer I can come up with, and I think it takes us to the real punch in the parable, is that the servant missed the significance of what had happened to him.
The servant, when the king released him and forgave him that stupid debt must have somehow thought his performance is what caused it. His lip service. His reciting of all the right words. His stupid promise to somehow “make it up” to the King.
He thought that he had gotten away with something. He pulled a fast one. The king was a softy.
“So his fellow slave fell down and kept begging him, saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’
He could never pay this debt back. It was such an obvious lie. But if he could make the king feel sorry for him and get the king off his back about this whole debt, well who cares. Just say what you need to say, right?
He missed the experience of forgiveness all together. It never occurred to him that he was not being “let off the hook” or being patronized by some sentimental old monarch who needed to make himself feel good about himself.
It never occurred to him that he was being forgiven from the heart by someone who would absorb the enormity of his debt, to let it all go, so they could get to know one another again.
That is why Yeshua said
“So also My heavenly Father will do to you, unless each of you, from your hearts, forgives his brother.”
Real forgiveness comes from the heart. It is “one-sided love.” It costs you, you have to absorb it, you have to burn up the record, you have to put yourself back out there again.
The servant did not know forgiveness. He thought his lip service had won the day. So, when he saw his fellow servant, he just saw an overdue bill walking around.
You see the punch of the parable is discovered when we realize that Yeshua was not intending that we spent a lifetime in a perpetual cycle of seeing ourselves as the slave who has never experienced forgiveness but when we see ourselves as the compassionate king who forgives stupid debts even when people make stupid promises.
And the master of that slave, filled with compassion, released him and forgave him the debt.
“So also My heavenly Father will do to you, unless each of you, from your hearts, forgives his brother.”
You remember last week we said in the Parable of the Sower that the point is not the seed nor the soil but the Sower: Yeshua. The sower of Israel, YHWH in the flesh, was restoring his people to their land. In order to do that, He had to forgive them of much debt.
The Parable is not Teaching: Do unto others or the King will do unto you.
The Parable is Teaching: Do unto others as the King has already done unto you.
It is not a matter of earning your forgiveness or letting others off the hook so you can be let off the hook. That is not even the gospel, that just good old fashioned legalism and heresy.
It is a matter of compassion that flows from compassion.
Compassion - the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live in someone else’s skin. It is the feeling that I really cannot have joy and peace for me until there is joy and peace for you.
It’s the fact that the one whom I owed everything to, my life, my breath, my blue eyes, my fondness for Topo Chico and Popcorn with too much butter, my pleasure in beautiful poetry, all the loves of my life. He has given and given and given to me and has gotten next to nothing in return. I got a stack of IOU’s that you climb higher than a Texas thunderstorm cloud.
That someone sent His Son Yeshua to become flesh just to settle you accounts because He wanted to remain in relationship with you.
You want to know what someone means by what they say, watch what they do. God did not give us the best teaching on forgiveness, He gave us the only payment that could secure our forgiveness.
Conclusion:
When someone does something like that for you. Don’t you feel like seven times is kind of petty if that is the number of times you get stood up or sinned against. The fact that the King keeps forgiving you from the heart over and over again, does that not move you? Do you really want to take it all the way to the congregation, to the elders, and treat them like a tax-collector. Are you just waiting for the next slip up so you can “hand them over.”
You want to know what someone means by what they say, watch what they do. Yeshua did not come to give us the best teaching on forgiveness but the best example of forgiveness.
Without an army, power, or political position the early followers of Yeshua took a concept: forgiveness that most people thought as a sign of weakness of a way to hold power over others. They learned in Yeshua’s parable that a heart of compassion forgives people because I really cannot have joy and peace for me until there is joy and peace for you.