Text: Matthew 18:21-35
Grace
and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
So
how many times are you to forgive someone that sins against you? You know what I am talking about. How many times are you to “release someone
else from the retribution and retaliation that, according to normal human
relationships and even God’s Law, they very well may deserve to receive?”[1] Yes, how many times are you to forgive loved
ones when they hurt you? How many times
do you erase a person’s record of sin against you? How many times are you to
free people of their bondage of remorse, shame, and dejection? What is the secret number? Three times?
How about seven times? How about
seventy times? What about 490
times? Just what is the numerical standard
for this? Is there a mathematical
formula in calculating this? Could there
possibly be a spread sheet and situation calculator that will determine this
for us?
In
today’s Gospel reading, “Peter tried to set what he regarded as a generous
limit to the practice of forgiveness.”[2] He questioned Jesus if forgiving a brother
seven times was enough, for seven times is indeed generous. In response to this, Jesus shares with Peter
that a Christian is to forgive seventy times seven. Yes, Jesus clarifies that “unlimited
forgiveness is characteristic of the Christian Gospel.”[3]
It
is rather striking to hear this from Jesus.
Jesus does not affirm Peter’s submission of seven times and he doesn’t
even provide some sort of forgiveness formula for dealing with being sinned
against. Rather, He intensifies Peter’s generous
number of ‘seven’ by saying that a Christian shall forgive seventy time seven. That is, Jesus is not setting a limit but
showing that there is simply no quantitative number that one can ascribe to the
practice of forgiveness. Yes,
forgiveness is unlimited; it is not a numbers game. Forgiveness has nothing to do about keeping
score.
Now,
if it is true—and it is—that there is simply no limit to the amount of times
that we should forgive a brother or sister that sins against us, we are then
faced with a pretty profound dilemma.
You see, “relationships between sinful people are often marred by sinful
words and actions, some recurring over and over again. In every marriage, in
every family, in every friendship, Christians will be faced with the situation
in which forgiveness is requested of them—again. We too may wonder with Peter whether
our forgiveness toward others has limits. [Furthermore,] our own [sinful] nature
leads us to want to limit forgiveness, [as well].”[4]
That
is just typical of our sinful nature is it not?
The old Adam, that is our sinful nature, will tend to limit forgiveness
to others, while Jesus on the other hand says that it is limitless. The reason why this is true is that our
sinful flesh is all about justice and keeping score of other people’s wrongs
towards us, but rarely wants justice for ourselves. That is the way that it is with the old
Adam. We want to be let off the hook,
but rarely apply that same standard to others.
We don’t want to pay our debts, but expect others to pay theirs. We want free handouts but expect others to
dig themselves out of their own graves.
Dear
friends who have you withheld forgiveness from?
Who is in need of your forgiveness?
Has the old Adam had his way with you?
Keep
in mind that forgiveness is not merely attempting to forget the wounds, sin,
and pain that have been done to you as if they never happened, though this is a
possibility. Furthermore, forgiveness is
also not a dismissal of someone’s sin towards you, as if this sin was not a series
offense. Forgiveness is also not turning
a blind eye towards someone; it is not giving someone the silent treatment like
some immature schoolgirl.[5] Forgiveness is also not getting someone out
of trouble with the law scot free, as they say.
Finally, forgiveness is not something that the sinful nature can do or
wants to do. Forgiveness is none of
these things. Rather, forgiveness is an
action that is done by you through the leading of the Holy Spirit by the
Gospel. It is releasing someone from
your vengeance, your plans of revenge, and your retaliation agendas.
Frankly,
even though it is tremendously important for others to be forgiven by you, this
granting of forgiveness is just as important for you as it is for them. You see, according to John Kleinig, when “Satan
gets another Christian to sin against us in deed or word . . . Satan gets us to
brood over it, like a stuck track or a video loop, repeatedly and obsessively
in our minds, with every greater emphasis on the gravity and injustice of it.
As we process the offense and its effect on us, Satan gradually distorts our
remembrance and our assessment of it. He uses this offense to encourage us to
bring our mental accusations against the offender in the court of our minds.
There he presides over the proceedings as we hold a secret trial in which we
both prosecute and pass judgment on the wrongdoer.”[6]
“The
more we brood on the offense, the angrier we get against the offender. We
remember all the other offenses that we have ever suffered from that person and
all the other people that have ever hurt us. And that fuels our anger and our
desire for justice. We maintain that we are in the right; we are justified in
our judgment of them. We hold the moral high ground against them. Then, before
we know it, anger leads to bitterness and resentment. This, in turn, leads to outrage,
hatred, and lust for revenge. And so we end up stewing in our own poison.”[7]
“When
we begin to hate those whom we should love [and forgive], Satan has us where he
wants us. Once hatred sets in, he can slowly and patiently dislodge us from the
Church and from Christ.”[8] My friends, this “Hatred is spiritual
suicide. It marks the end of eternal life, the new life we have in Christ.
Anger is seductive because it makes us feel justified in hating those who have
hurt us. We are right and they are wrong. We are right in hating them and
taking revenge on them because they are our enemies. The revenge that we take is subtle and
hidden. We don’t usually attack them physically or verbally, but emotionally
and spiritually. We write them off and give them the cold shoulder. We reject
them in our hearts, dissociate ourselves from them, and treat them as if they
were dead to us. Sadly, by cutting
ourselves off from our brothers and sisters in Christ, we cut ourselves off
from Christ as well. The upshot of that is withdrawal from the family of God
and increasing isolation in the darkness of hatred. That is a kind of spiritual
suicide, for hatred opens up a secret place for Satan in our hearts.”[9]
Baptized
saints, this lack of forgiveness wreaks havoc in the lives of Christians,
churches, and communities. It is
destructive. It is the wishes of Satan
and the results of our sinful nature.
Indeed,
today’s Gospel reading causes us to ask the question, “Who have you and I
withheld forgiveness from? Who has been
tried in the courts of our mind? Who has
been damned by us resulting in our withholding of forgiveness?”
While
these questions are indeed right and true and good for us to ask, what we have
uncovered today is that first and foremost it is you and me who are in need of
forgiveness. The reason why this is
so? Are not our debt, sin, and failures
greater than all of these insignificant, stupid, and trivial things that have
been done to us by our brothers and sisters?
Thus, who are we to withhold forgiveness from those who Christ died
for? But what of serious offenses of
sin; what about those sins that were committed against us that are too dark and
too painful to mention in the light of day?
Whatever has been done to you or not been done to you, you do not have
the right to reign down eternal damnation, hell, and vengeance upon these
individuals so as to separate them from the Lord, for you are not the Creator. You who have ears repent.
You
who have ears though, listen to another word. Consider the beginning of today’s parable in
our Gospel reading. Yes, in today’s
Gospel reading we hear that you and I have been “rescued and released from an
unfathomable, crushing debt that, by legal right, would otherwise have
condemned”[10]
us to a lifetime in hell. Yes, your sin
of withholding forgiveness is forgiven by the one who does not withhold
forgiveness from you—Christ forgives you.
Yes, your sin of putting people on trial in your mind is forgiven by the
one who was tried and condemned guilty on your behalf—Christ forgives you. Yes, your sin of limiting forgiveness from
others is forgiven by the unlimited forgiveness of Christ-crucified—for you. King Jesus cancels all of our whopping debt
of sin-a liability that you and I could not possibly recompense and He does
this for you and me because He is rich in love and abounding in grace. He forgives you and me and considers it well
worthwhile.
By
the way though, as forgiven people, you can and will forgive. Indeed, “only forgiven people can really
forgive.”[11]
This is so, because the Holy Spirit through this Gospel will lead you and me to
forgiveness while granting grace and peace to our sometimes confused
emotions. Indeed, as forgiven people we
pray that the Father would set us free from harboring grudges and withholding
forgiveness, for Christ sake. As this
happens, we rejoice in the forgiveness received by us and given to others. As we fail, we rejoice for the forgiveness
given by the Lord and received by us.
Baptized
saints, because of the Father’s merciful nature, you and your neighbors have
been forgiven an insurmountable debt of sin, ransomed by the death of
Christ. This is true today, is true for
the next seven days, and will be true until He comes again—for you.
The
peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Matthew 11:2-20:34: Concordia Commentary (St. Louis, MO: Concordia
Publishing House, 2010), 940.
[2]
Francis C. Rossow, Gospel Handles:
Finding New Connections in Biblical Texts (St. Louis, MO: Concordia
Publishing House, 2001), 67.
[3]
Ibid.
[4] Balge, R. D., & Ehlke, R. C. (1989). Sermon
Studies on the Gospels (ILCW Series A) (p. 306). Milwaukee, WI:
Northwestern Publishing House.
[8]
Ibid.
[10]
Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Matthew 11:2-20:34:
Concordia Commentary, 938.
No comments:
Post a Comment