Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, usually when you hear a parable from Jesus, you have to stop and think about it carefully. What deep truth about his kingdom did the Lord weave into the story? How do the various elements of the parable apply to your faith and life? What lesson is your Lord teaching you?
Those are great
questions, but today’s parable isn’t like that. Jesus didn’t hide his intent at
all – indeed, the great challenge in this parable is not in determining what
Jesus was teaching, but rather in the sobering ramifications of that teaching.
Your Lord’s words leave no options or excuses for anyone.
A man owed a debt he
could not repay. That’s understated, actually, as this debt was so great that
only a few of the richest people who have ever lived in the history of the
world had those kinds of resources. Its equivalent worth today would be
billions of dollars. It was a debt on a scale that is usually reserved for
states and nations; not individuals. The debt was so preposterously enormous
that even the idea of one man being responsible for such a sum would ludicrous,
but that was a key aspect of the parable.
A man owed a debt he
could never, ever hope to repay. Unbelievably, though, it was completely erased
by the mercy of the king. That, in and of itself, is a remarkable story. It’s a
story Jesus’ hearers would have loved to learn. After all, it was pretty
obvious Jesus wasn’t really speaking about debt and finances, but about sin and
forgiveness. He was answering Peter’s question about the limits of forgiveness
toward those who sin against him. In a stunning way, Jesus basically taught
that there are no limits to that forgiveness.
But then the parable
took a discomforting turn. Another man owed a modest debt to the first man in
the parable. It was much more realistic; about 100 days’ worth of wages for the
average worker. Many people spend more than that buying a car or truck. When
Jesus introduced that man told of the debt he owed to the first man, his
hearers were probably expecting to hear the same thing you and I were surely
hoping to hear – we wanted to hear the “pay it forward” version of the parable,
complete with the satisfaction of a happy ending where the one man who had been
forgiven in turn forgave the other.
Yet that didn’t
happen! The absolutely staggering debt originally forgiven by the king should
have been the most unbelievable aspect of this parable, but that was totally surpassed
by the even more unbelievable audacity of that forgiven servant who would not forgive
the second man, even though his debt was comparatively miniscule! It was so
ridiculously unfair and unjust that it simply defies explanation.
How could he be so
cruel?
How greedy could he
be?
How could one who had
received so much mercy turn around and be so unmerciful?
Of course, when the
king learned what happened, he brought down the hammer! His unbelievable mercy
was withdrawn. The man was punished relentlessly. In fact, he got what he asked
for – he’d originally pleaded with the king, “Have patience with me, and I will
pay you everything.” In anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he
should pay all his debt.
Then, just when
things were starting to appear reasonable and just, Jesus brought the
consequences of the parable to bear on his hearers. Just when you were so
distracted by that great disparity of debts, that one was forgiven and the other
not, Jesus reminds you that he was never talking about money or debtors prison;
he was talking about sin and forgiveness the whole time. “So also my heavenly
Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from
your heart.”
This Gospel is about
you. Although you have God’s Word and you believe, and although you obey and
submit to his will, and you are fed and nourished by his gracious gifts in the
Means of Grace, you are not without sin. You still stumble daily because you
live in this fallen world among people who anger you and give you cause for
impatience, annoyance, and even thoughts of revenge. How forgiving would a
husband really feel if his wife had an affair? Would he forgive her? What if
she did it seven times? Or seventy-seven times? Or what if your children
disobey you the exact same way seventy-seven times? Or what if other
parishioners gossip about your family behind your back, or a robber takes your
wallet, or a monster kidnaps your child? Would you forgive them? Seven times?
Seventy-seven times?
The devil is after
you and me in exactly the same way, tempting you on every side. “Hold grudges
against those who do evil to you. Resent them. Hate them. Do not forgive them.”
There is a great
need, therefore, to call upon your heavenly Father and pray, “Forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” It isn’t that God
doesn’t forgive your sins already for Jesus’ sake, even before you pray; the
point here is that you whose sins are forgiven by God also therefore bear the
fruit of having your sins forgiven. Those who are forgiven cannot help but
forgive others.
Jesus’ purpose here
is to break human pride and keep you humble. When it comes to the debt of sin,
you and I are like that first servant in the parable. Our debt is so massive
that it is absolutely impossible for us to justify ourselves before our
heavenly Father. And it’s not only the number of sins that any of us have
committed, but rather that we have our inherited sinfulness from our parents, generation
after generation, all the way back to Adam. Therefore, anyone who boasts of
their goodness and despises others is directed by Jesus to remember that they
are no more righteous than anyone else, and that in the presence of God, all
people must fall on their knees and rejoice that they have forgiveness from
their merciful King.
Dear friends, do not
ever think that you will reach a point in this life where you will not need
this forgiveness; unless God endlessly forgives you, you are lost. Likewise, never
let your hearts harden to the point that you cannot forgive your brother or
your sister who sins against you and asks you, from the heart, for forgiveness.
Limiting forgiveness
was behind Peter’s original question – and it was understandable, given he had
just heard Jesus’ parameters for discipline and the removal of the unrepentant
from the fellowship of the church. What Peter did not realize, but Jesus
explained, was that punishment and judgment are not what God loves to do or
lives for; they are God’s alien work, it’s foreign to him. He
will do those things when he must, just as he announced at the end of the
parable, but God’s chief work is to give you life, and to give it eternally.
This he did by sending his Son in human flesh to bear your sin and be your
Savior on the cross. This he continues to do by granting and strengthening your
faith in his Son by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Means of Grace.
Peter got the
message, and so, too, must you and I. There is no room in Christ’s church for
grudges. Remember the love shown to you by Jesus Christ, your king, in
forgiving the insurmountable debt of your sin. Your Lord does not love you with
limits; rather, out of his love for you he forgives you through the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Spirit he provides the means
by which he delivers that forgiveness to you. He gives you faith in Jesus
Christ, his Son.
And what you heard
from Genesis today gives you an amazing example of the Holy Spirit at work in
the life of the patriarch, Joseph. Joseph looked forward to the salvation God
promised to Adam and Eve, and to Abraham, his great-grandfather. By that faith,
Joseph saw God’s hand at work when his brothers sold him into slavery, which
led to Potiphar’s wife falsely accusing him of adultery, which led to him being
a prisoner in Egypt. His brothers had meant it for evil, but God worked it for
good. Joseph forgave them.
This world is a war
zone for us as sinners who are, by the grace of God, also saints. One of the
battles in this war pits the urge to hold grudges against the free forgiveness
God has given for you to give to others. Only the reconciliation with God that
Jesus provided through his death on the cross gives you the victory! God does
it all – it is his forgiveness from the cross and resurrection that gives you
victory as you forgive one another now, and in eternity as you rejoice forever
with thanksgiving in the mercy and grace of God who has forgiven your greatest
debt.
To Christ be all the
glory, forever and ever, amen.
Many thanks to Pr. Jonathan Bakker for this sermon.
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