Seventy Times Seven
Matthew 18:21-35
Pentecost 16 (Proper 19)
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost is the Gospel reading Matthew 18. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” That is the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. We pray it often. We pray it at the end of meetings. We pray it at the end of Bible classes; we pray it during every service. I am sure you pray it on your own. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” It is the petition in the Lord’s Prayer that talks about forgiveness. We pray those words so often you would think that we would always remember them. But that may not always be the case. Is it possible that we might forget to trust and practice those words about forgiveness that we so easily speak? What are we more likely to forget – to forgive those who trespass against us or that God has forgiven our trespasses? Forgiveness is something that is very difficult to actually do. When someone sins against us we will be tempted to respond with avoidance, bitterness or even revenge. When we fail to forgive others what we are doing is forgetting that the Lord has forgiven us.
In our Gospel reading for today we hear our Lord’s teaching about forgiveness. Peter wanted to know if there was some sort of upper limit to forgiveness. So he asked the question. “Lord how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” It is very likely that Peter thought he was being quite generous by suggesting seven times. After all, don’t we often say three strikes and you’re out! Surely seven would be plenty. Our Lord’s answer raised the number quite a bit. Jesus said to Peter, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. Jesus is not telling us to forgive 490 times. He is simply telling us to forgive and never stop.
Jesus further illustrated this idea with a parable. In this story a king is looking over his books and discovers that one of his servants owes him 10,000 talents. One talent would take the common worker twenty years to earn. The man in the parable owed 10,000 talents. The main point is that it was an enormous sum of money, a sum that could never be paid back. The king decided to sell the servant and his family into slavery and confiscate their belongings. This act would not make up the debt, but it would set an example. Great financial debt is a horrible burden to have. This man in the parable suffered from a debt he could never pay back. That is why he threw himself at the king’s feet and begged for more time. The king responded by doing something no earthly king would do. Out of pity for him the king released him and forgave his debt. The king forgave a debt that amounted to millions and millions of dollars. Can you imagine what it must feel like to be released from a financial burden that would never go away unless it was pardoned?
So how does this forgiven servant respond? He meets a man who owes him far less money and refuses to have mercy. He refuses to pardon the debt even though His much larger debt was just forgiven. He does not forgive even when the man who owed him money falls on his knees pleading for mercy. Instead he seized him, choked him and threw him into prison. When the king heard what the wicked servant had done, he was very angry. “Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.” Jesus concludes his story with these words, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart”.
Our Lord’s message applies to our relationships with God and with others. And it all has to do with forgiveness. First, the parables message applies to our relationship with God. The point is that God forgives us the immense debt of our sin. When we break God’s Law, we violate His will and offend Him. We come under debt to God owing Him a penalty for our infractions. Justice demands that somebody’s got to pay for wrong. We have done many wrong things called sins and we are accountable to pay for them. Our wrongdoing before God put us in debt to Him. The penalty for sin is death. That penalty is not only physical death but also eternal death that is eternal separation from God. This is why our debt is so immense. And like the servant in our Lord’s parable, there is no way we could pay it on our own. It is an impossible debt for us to repay.
So who pays the debt? God does. In the parable, the king freely forgives the entire debt of his servant. In forgiving ten thousand talents, the king paid ten thousand talents. All that money came out of his pocket. This points to the gracious act of God to forgive our immense debt of sin. It freed us, but it cost Him. It cost Him the life of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus takes our sin and bears our debt and pays for it by His death. He goes to the cross and suffers hell itself, for us and in our stead. Paid in full is stamped in Jesus’ blood. Your debt of sin is canceled in Christ.
First, of all, this parable applies to our relationship with God. But it also speaks to our relationship with other people, especially those who have sinned against us. It illustrates what the appropriate response is to being forgiven an immense debt. The response is to forgive others. In response to God’s unlimited forgiveness in Jesus Christ, we extent forgiveness to others. Our forgiveness of others is not a condition for God to forgive us, but it is the result of God forgiving us. To receive forgiveness from God is to become a forgiver of others. When we fail to forgive, we are forgetting that the Lord has forgiven our enormous sin debt.
One point about forgiveness is important to mention. We forgive each other even when we don’t feel like it. We forgive others even though it may take our emotions longer to get on board. We don’t forgive others based upon what we might be feeling we forgive because the Lord has forgiven us
We see an example of forgiveness in our Old Testament reading for today. Joseph’s brothers hated him so much that they sold him into slavery and sent him to Egypt. The brothers covered up their malicious act by telling their father that Joseph had died. Great evil was done to Joseph, but God took what was evil and made it good. He protected Joseph. God’s hand eventually led Joseph to be a ruler in Egypt. Joseph eventually saved his family from famine. He forgave and saved the same brothers who were so cruel to him. He was moved to forgive his brothers and care for his family because God had been gracious to him. Joseph knew that his sins had been forgiven by the Lord. Joseph knew that God had blessed him and had worked everything for the good.
Jesus sacrificed himself in order to give us forgiveness, new life and salvation. Through Christ, God has pardoned our debt and rescued us from death and hell. He has forgiven our sins and gives us the gift of eternal life. Now that we have been forgiven by God through Christ Jesus, we are indeed moved to forgive each other. It reminds us of the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. Amen.