Forgiving Debts

Matthew 18:21-35 (NIV84): 21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" 22 Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. (or seventy times seven) 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 talents 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 "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 denarii. 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 you 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 greatly distressed 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 turned 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 from your heart." First, let me say that I am very happy to be back in worship with you this week. I missed being in the midst of this special fellowship of believers. I missed seeing you and hearing you and speaking a word I had been given to you and to those who join us via the modern miracle of the internet. But it was good to have a Sunday off. It gave me extra time to be with Rhonda as she recovers from her surgery and it gave me time to catch my preaching breath, as it were, to prepare for this week, for this week seems to present, for me, at least, a rather difficult lesson, both to receive and to faithfully pass along - and it comes at a challenging time to hear it, as we have just celebrated the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks during a time of increasing divisiveness in our collective national life and in the closing eight weeks of an election cycle on the local, state, and federal levels. But God seems to have a knack for knowing what we need to hear and when. These verses from the first Gospel comprise one of Scripture's "hard teachings" and one that, I imagine, those who heard Jesus speak these words found equally confounding then, as it hits home hard, I would guess, for most all of us, regardless of time or place. But, as I had promised a few weeks ago, this season in the life of Old Rehoboth is one during which we will be getting back to basics and reviewing and reinforcing some of the core tenets of the faith - and as the gospel lectionary text for this morning speaks of forgiveness, it fits right in with this theme of addressing Christianity's historic, fundamental beliefs. Here, in the 18th chapter of Matthew, our reading from this morning comes right on the heels of Jesus' teaching his followers about the nature and importance of reconciliation and the role which prayer plays in the process. And reconciliation is bedrock in the covenant relationship which God has established between himself and his creation as well as between and among his creatures. But that doesn't mean it's an easy subject to ponder and discuss. Profitable, absolutely. But not easy. What makes it particularly un-easy, I think, has a lot to do with our innate bias against forgiveness. After all, doesn't it feel so much better to seek revenge or to hold a grudge? I've known people - and you may have, as well, who've spent much of their lives motivated by such misery. They felt as if since, once upon a time, life hasn't given me a fair shake, that's the way it's bound to always be, so why should I seek pleasure in anything other than unhappiness? Other folks spend their days scheming ways to get even with either a particular person or group of people or even everyone who isn't them, on account of feeling that they had somehow been "wronged". And most all of us, at one time or another, have felt an urge to return someone's unkindness with bigger and better unkindness of our own, in a sort of arms race. After all, he who laughs loudest laughs last, right? Well, yes, such is the wisdom of the world. But Jesus is teaching the people of God about the wisdom and the way that comes from elsewhere - from the One who has made and is reconciling the world to himself, through this very Jesus. As was often his habit, he does so through the use of a parable. Once upon a time, Jesus begins, there was a king. And when Jesus teaches in parables, he often includes within them a king. And you can pretty well bet that's God. This king had a servant, a slave, brought before him who owed him what amounted to a king's ransom. Now the author of the gospel doesn't say that Jesus explained how it was that any subject could be so deep into the king's pocket, but just that he was. And there was no way he could pay. The debt was far greater than his resources to repay it. And so it is with us, right? Our debt to God is far greater than our resources to pay it. If we were to audit the heavenly books, the ledger would show that the sum under the heading of "what we owe God for all that he has done for us" would include line items such as creating light from the darkness, the heavens and the earth, the waters and the land, the birds of the air, fish of the sea, beasts of the field - and us. It would include providing us food and drink, shelter from the elements, health of mind and body, and companionship. And it would include the covenant which the Almighty has made with our ancestors in the faith, the covenant which has continued on down through to us. That's the covenant which the one who is telling this parable has come to re-certify in a most generous, benevolent, and sacrificial way. On our side of the ledger, well, we'll find not so much has been entered. Even on humanity's very best days, what could compare to what God has done for us? So let us, then turn our attention to what Jesus says next. In the parable, after the first man is forgiven his debt, we are introduced to a second servant of the same king, and he also has a debt problem. But with this man, the story is different, for he owes a relative pittance, and he owes it not to the king, but to a fellow servant - in fact, he owes it to the one who was just forgiven. Now you might think that someone who had just been forgiven such a huge debt as this man would have been feeling relief and joy and overall be in a sort of footloose and fancy free mood, but he puts that assumption to rest by the ruthless manner in which he is depicted dealing with his fellow servant. If Jesus is holding this up for his disciples of a man who is acting quite contrary to the way he is advocating people act, it is reinforcing just what he had been teaching in response to the question asked of him at the outset of this exchange. How much forgiveness is enough? The long and short of it, I believe, is: there is no limit. The numbers used are not to be understood as precise figures. Some scholars believe that seventy times seven is a trope using a number to represent completeness, and also the antithesis of the avenging nature of man illustrated by the boastfully vengeful Lamech in our Old Testament reading earlier from Genesis 4 - in a passage sometimes referred to as the Song of the Sword. But the Song of Forgiveness that comes from God comes most sweetly to our ears in the key of Jesus. And the lyrics of this song tell Peter and the rest of us who hear it, that there is no limit to the length or depth or width or height of forgiveness. And the reason there is no limit is because the King, God, has put no limit on it. If God is willing and able to forgive mankind for all our collective disobedience - generations and generations of covenantal neglect and amnesia, for the trivializing, mocking, abusing and murdering of his beloved, only begotten son - we have ample evidence to show that our King is far more lenient with us than we could expect or hope for. The degree of this forgiveness is a sign of the depth of the love that he has for us. Though he is well aware, we do not have the capacity to love as deeply as that, but, within the limits of human abilities, we have the capability to emulate this forgiveness, even if it is only amounts to a fraction of the magnitude which God has shown towards us. Before I continue, let me pause here to make a very important point concerning forgiveness that could easily get lost in the conversation about the forgiving of debts. And that is, not only is forgiveness of the other a vital part of the Christian life, so, too, is forgiveness of self. And this can often be even a more difficult calling to fulfill. But, if God has found it in his Divine heart to forgive us, who then do we think we are not to offer forgiveness to ourselves. So as we consider the merits of forgiving others as we have been forgiven, may we also remember that God sent his Son to set us free for forgiveness without partiality, without discrimination, without exclusion. In the conclusion of his parable, Jesus warns his hearers that they are to give as freely as they have received - or else. The King who had forgiven his servant his great debt is very upset with the way this fellow then lives out the gratitude that ought to have flowed from the great act of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness he was blessed to receive. Hearing the report of the way he has treated his fellow slave, his actions are akin to those described by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the first phrase of his definition of "cheap grace". "Cheap grace", he wrote, is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance,..." This does not compute with the Divine math, and a just God, it seems, is not pleased by such acts. So where does that leave us? Well, I think it leaves us with free will. We can choose to be more forgiving, after the manner of the Almighty, or we can choose to be less forgiving, after the manner of the world. But our choices have consequences and we are informed that it is in our best interests - and the best interests of the rest of the world, should we choose the more difficult, more sacrificial path exemplified by Jesus. Bonhoeffer ultimately went to his death in a Nazi prison camp for his refusal to live a life of cheap grace. While it may not be so dramatic for us, the act of forgiveness does require a degree of dying to self and living as a new creation, one who's nature is not set on self but on God and expressed in service to His good creations, our brothers and sisters, fellow children of God. In the days, weeks, months, and years to come, then, when we hear and reflect upon Peter's question about what constitutes enough forgiveness, may we be reminded of what has already been done for and what has already been given to us. And for that we may truly say, thanks be to God. 2