Forgiveness, the unforgiving servant.
At the beginning of my sermon I will ask a question. Why is forgiveness so important? Why is forgiveness the master key of all human relationships? Why is forgiveness absolutely necessary in order for you and me to live with any degree of happiness at all? The answer is obvious. … In order to live with normal people like you and me, normal people who are irritable, moody, angry, imperfect, selfish, impertinent, you need the gift of divine forgiveness to live with each other. O, you can live in conflict, frustration and anger with all those normal and imperfect people around you, but you cannot live happily with imperfect people without the divine gift of forgiveness. People do not change: that is, people will always be imperfect. People will always be irritable, moody, angry, selfish and impertinent. People will always be imperfect, and the only way to live with imperfect people like you and me is through forgiveness. … Forgiveness is as necessary for life as is air, water and bread. You cannot live without air, water and bread and so also, you cannot live life happily nor effectively in this world of ours without the gift of God’s forgiveness.
It is with these images that we approach the profound gospel lesson today. Peter asked Jesus, “How often should I forgive my brother or sister? Seven times?” Peter thought that he was being rather generous in his question. That is, the morality of the Old Testament and the rabbis who interpreted the Old Testament taught that the maximum forgiveness was three times. Three times and you are out. “Three strikes and you are out.” So by suggesting that forgiveness was seven times, Peter was being rather generous.
And what was Jesus’ response. “Not seven times, Peter, but seventy-seven times.” Infinitely. Limitlessly.
Further, to illustrate his teaching about our infinite need for forgiveness and our need to infinitely forgive, Jesus told a story about a king whose servant owed him ten thousand talents.
The generous king forgave his servant some ten thousand talents and that same servant then refused to forgive another servant for merely one hundred denarii. Jesus was using humour and hyperbole and exaggeration to make a point. In today’s language, ten thousand talents would be equivalent to approximately £50,000,000; one hundred denarii would be equivalent to about £100 or a day’s age. Today, the owner of the business would have lent his employee £50,000,000 and then forgiven the £50,000,00. The amount of money of £50,000,000 was staggering, incomprehensible, beyond our wildest imagination and could in no way be paid back. The employee whose incredible debt of £50,000,000 had just been forgiven then refused to forgive the debt of a fellow employee for a mere £100. The employee was willing to receive a vast amount but was willing to give away only a meager amount. The owner of the company, hearing about the stinginess of the first employee, canceled his original gift of £50,000,000. The parable ends with Jesus’ statement, “And so it will be with you if you do not forgive your brother and sister from the heart.” So what does this mean for us?
First, God’s forgiveness is overwhelmingly abundant, and there is no way that a human mind can comprehend the magnitude of God’s forgiveness. There is no way to comprehend the height and the depth of God’s forgiveness and there is no way that we could repay God for the enormous debt that God paid for our sin. God persistently forgives us for our temper tantrums, our irritability, our losing our temper, our rage, apathy, selfishness and impatience. The list of our sins goes on and on and God repeatedly forgives us for our sins. There is no bottom to the well of God’s forgiveness. This parable tells us about God’s overwhelming and abundant forgiveness.
God forgives not only our individual sins but our social sins and social injustices as well. We hear of people dying of hunger and starvation, millions go to bed hungry at night. We do nothing or close to nothing. And God repeatedly forgives us: again and again and again, day in and day out during our lives.
The magnitude of God’s forgiveness is overwhelming. Is it 50 million pounds? 50 billion pounds? Trillion pounds? Quadrillion pounds? Quintaquillion pounds? The number is beyond our imagination. That is what Jesus intended.
The purpose of God’s magnanimous generosity is inspire us, lift us up, and motivate us to be forgiving people in all of our relationships. We are to forgive…what your husband or wife did to your marriage some fifteen years ago and you cannot really get over it. What the drunk driver did to your child or spouse when that child or spouse was killed in that car accident so long ago. What your brother or sister did to you when you were growing up? What your mother did to you? What your father did to you. How your children repeatedly did not live up to your expectations. How your friend talked painfully behind your back. How that person at work repeatedly hurts you.
The purpose of God’s overwhelmingly generous forgiveness is to motivate us, lift us up, and inspire us to be forgiving people, so that our souls do not dry up with the white heat of rage, anger and bitterness. We are not to be stingy or frugal with our forgiveness to others when God’s forgiveness towards us is so incredibly generous.
But the second point in this parable is also true. That is, we are not only inspired, motivate and lifted up to be more forgiving people, but we hear that we are commanded to be forgiving people. There is a threat in this parable, and the threat is not veiled. When you come to the end of the parable, Jesus clearly says, “And God will not forgive you if you do not forgive your brother and sister from the heart.” The threat from God is clear.
This same threat is found in Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer. We pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Matthew adds at that point, “For if you do not forgive the trespasses of others neither will God forgive you your trespasses.” I sometimes wonder how life would have changed if we had memorised and recited Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer on a daily or weekly basis. “Neither will God forgive you if you do not forgive the sins of others.” Ouch.
The same threat is found in the Biblical story about bringing your gifts to the altar. If you bring your gifts to the altar or come to Holy Communion and kneel at the altar to receive God’s gift of forgiveness; and while you are at the altar, you suddenly remember a conflict you are having with your mother, father, brother, sister, child, friend, neighbour or work associate, leave the altar and the church, go and find that person with whom you have a conflict, reconcile, and then come back to the altar to receive God’s forgiveness. It is rather ludicrous to come to the altar and ask for God’s abundant forgiveness for your sins if you are unwilling to forgive the comparatively petty sins of others. It is ludicrous to ask God’s forgiveness when you are unwilling to forgive others.
In this story, we discover that we have to option whether or not to forgive. We find that we have no choice whether or not to forgive. We discover that we cannot cling to our grudge that says, “I am going to hang onto my feelings of revenge no matter what. ‘They’ won’t change and so I am going to hate and burn with anger inside.” We discover that we cannot cling to feelings that say, “I am going to hang on to this grievance until they say they are sorry and are sufficiently penitent.”
When people do not let go of their legitimate anger, revenge and grievances, those feelings turn even more sour and the soul dries up inside. Feelings of anger, resentment, and revenge turn bitter, and bitterness overwhelms the soul within. If more people understood the threat of Jesus; that is, if you do not forgive, neither will God forgive you, perhaps the world would be a little different.
Sometimes, people interpret this saying about seventy-seven times personally rather than nationally. Sometimes people say that forgiveness is intended to speak to individuals but not to nations. I feel differently about this. I see the cycle of violence and revenge repeated between ethnic groups and nations. We clearly see this escalating cycle of violence and revenge between the Palestinians and the Israelies, between the nations of Pakistan and India and in other conflict zones in the world. So many nations get into this pattern and cycle of escalating revenge and violence. “You bomb me and I will bomb you back even worse. You kill some of my citizens and I will kill even more of your citizens.” We witness a gradually escalating scale of violence. Sometimes, people can use the language of justice simply as verbal cover-up for revenge.
I believe that Jesus’ words of Matthew 18:22 intentionally reverses the cycle of revenge between individuals, families, clans, tribes, ethnic loyalties, and nations. Today, we see the cycle of revenge especially between people with their ethnic loyalties. In the Balkans, in central Africa, the Middle East, and all over the globe. I believe that Matthew 18:22 speaks to the whole world of human relationships and is not confined to conflicts with individuals, but refers to tribes, clans, ethnicities and nations as well.
The last point of the parable is also true. That is, forgiveness is for heroes, because true forgiveness takes great courage of heart. Thomas Kepler once wrote that “forgiveness is for heroes.” Lawrence Stern, the eighteenth century novelist, wrote that “only the brave know how to forgive.” Only the brave know how to forgive because forgiveness takes great courage when everyone around you is shouting for a “pound of flesh” and revenge. C. S. Lewis wrote that “everybody thinks forgiveness is a good idea until they have something serious to forgive.”
God’s forgiveness is not for small hearted people but for people with great hearts. For people with the heart of Jesus. Forgiveness is for big hearted people like Jesus who on the cross said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Forgiveness is for big hearted people like the first martyr Stephen, when being killed by stones thrown viciously at his head and body, said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Forgiveness is for big hearted people like Abraham Lincoln, when others want to inflict revenge on the Rebels of the South. “In a speech Abraham Lincoln delivered at the height of the Civil War, he referred to the Southerners as fellow human beings who were in error. An elderly lady chastised him for not calling them irreconcilable enemies who must be destroyed. “Why, madam,” Lincoln replied, “do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
The people of Christ have a different spirit than the popular spirit of revenge.
What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is an attitude of the heart. Forgiveness is having the heart of Jesus living in your heart. Forgiveness is “letting go” of how people have hurt you in the past.