Matthew 18:21-35
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
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 bags of gold 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 “At this 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 silver coins. 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 it 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 outraged 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 handed 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 or sister from your heart.”
How bad do you think you are? Maybe you don’t think you are bad at all! Maybe you would be willing to say you are a little bad sometimes. Or maybe you are more aware of your shortcoming than most and would be willing to put yourself in the middle somewhere. Wherever you instinctively place yourself, all of us, by nature, see ourselves better than we are. The reality is this, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
This was the problem Jesus was trying to help his disciple Peter see when Peter asked Jesus the question, “how often should I forgive my brother? 7 times?” Peter thought he was being a pretty great guy offering 7 whole times! But Jesus doesn’t commend him. Instead, he calls him to multiply his forgiveness. Peter, I’m sure, was reacting just like we do, “Seriously, Jesus?! I’m supposed to forgive them that many times!” Behind that statement is this thought, “They don’t deserve that from me.”
It is that thought behind the reaction that Jesus attacks with the parable he tells of the unmerciful servant. Jesus describes a king who has a terribly bad servant who has poorly managed the kingdom’s wealth. This was not a small mistake. He owed trillions of dollars! But when that servant begged for mercy, the king had compassion and forgave the whole debt. What grace, right?! What a cost to the master and the rest of the kingdom! And yet, just like that, this bad servant was forgiven much.
But here is where the story really gets interesting. That forgiven servant goes out from the king’s presence and immediately finds one of his own servants. That servant owed him about 3 months wages. The forgiven servant demands that the lesser servant pays up right now! He can’t and begs for mercy just like the other servant just did before the king. But the forgiven servant refuses to forgive the debt of this other servant, and instead orders him and his entire family to be put into prison until the debt is paid.
Jesus couldn’t be painting a more hypocritical and evil servant, right?
Inside the story, the other servants also see this and are appalled and what they just witnessed. So they go to the king and tell him what has happened. The king is appropriately enraged at the lack of mercy this recipient of his mercy has for his fellow man. He calls him in, reinstates his debt and throws him into prison to be tortured until he can pay back every penny which, everyone listening knows, will never happen.
So what is the point of the story? What was Jesus trying to teach “good boy” Peter about forgiveness? You can always forgive more because God has forgiven you the most.
Just like Peter, we can justify to ourselves that our grace stores have run out for our fellow man. We see the injustice they have done to us. We have felt it. And sometimes, I know, we have been hurt badly and the wounds go deep. Jesus is not excusing those wrongs. Jesus is not invalidating your pain by asking you to forgive. What he is instead calling you to do is live in His grace instead of dwelling in a place of vengeance, eat or be eaten, or a “never enough love” state of being.
Yes, this world does take and take. Yes, many people do hurt and steal. Yes, our own goodness is not as good as we make it out to be. Yes, we have been nurtured to hit back and to refuse grace to others. But Jesus calls us out of this dog-eat-dog world, and he does that by giving us more grace than all of those things combined. He forgives us a debt so much greater than any debt taken against us. Jesus paid the price for the sins of the whole world, and yes, our sins too! He wipes the slate clean. He calls us his brother, and his Father calls us his child. We are heirs of eternal life and the kingdom of God forever. We will dwell in the land of the living, made perfect and able to enjoy the very presence of the king. We have been forgiven much, and therefore we live in a blessed state of grace here and hereafter. We are that servant forgiven more than we can even comprehend when we didn’t deserve it at all.
So Jesus calls us to reframe our question, “How many times should I forgive my brother? 7 times?” to “How many times will I get to forgive my brother? 77 times or 70 times 7 times?” Now we are asking the right question because we are living in a state of grace, not a state of starvation. We are living as one forgiven too much for what we deserve, so we can gladly forgive a little to those from the abundance we have been given.
How much have you been forgiven? Are you living in a state of grace or a state of starvation? Who do you need to forgive? Again? May we by meditating on God’s grace to us find the ability to forgive as we have been forgiven. God grant this ability by the power of the Holy Spirit and the new life in us created to be like our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen!