Matthew 18:21-35; September 17, 2023; Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
21 Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ 22Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.
23 ‘For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; 25and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. 26So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” 27And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. 28But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow-slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, “Pay what you owe.” 29Then his fellow-slave fell down and pleaded with him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.” 30But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. 31When his fellow-slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. 32Then his lord summoned him and said to him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?” 34And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he should pay his entire debt. 35So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’
Yikes. You see now why I broke up the text the way I did. To have our kids leave before hearing all that. To spare them the words and images of slavery, incarceration, retribution, and torture; and the notion that God is sanctioning if not threatening the same against us if we too don’t behave. If we don’t forgive.
Now I imagine some of you are asking, well why didn’t you spare us as well, Pastor? Sheesh. I could have done without hearing that message too. Well, sorry. For even though it isn’t always convenient, I think it’s important to read scripture in full. To get into it. To study it. To deal with it, even question it, and then interpret it. And not just because it’s a good practice so to deepen our faith (it is!), but because like Jacob did in Genesis (32:24), and Job did throughout the entirety of his book, I believe we are allowed and encouraged to wrestle with God from time to time. So to figure out what God wants of us, and what God is calling us to do, even if it’s difficult, even when the situations in our lives are unclear or even tortured.
So, attempting to do just that, let’s get into it and state up front that Matthew’s Gospel, unlike say Paul’s letters, especially to the Romans (3:28, etc.) and to the Galatians (2:15-16), is focused on the necessity of good works and deeds. That what you do and how you live your life matters, at least according to Matthew in his recording of Jesus. For Matthew thought that good works were not only the mark of a proper faith in accordance with the law, but also the entry point into Heaven itself (as exemplified here in our text and elsewhere in 5:20). Just the same then, at least for Matthew, bad works and evil deeds secure a one-way ticket on hellish train ride to damnation.
Unlike the message of one of our most important doctrines in our Presbyterian tradition, Matthew doesn’t seem to want to emphasize that we are saved by grace alone. For Matthew, it seems that we are instead saved, or enterally tortured, by the merits of what we did in our lives. In how we treated others, in how we treated ourselves, and thereby, in and through both, how we treated Jesus and therefore God (see, especially, Matthew 25:31-46). And even though that’s foreign to our tradition, that’s honestly not so bad of a take, as it could inspire real change in the here and now; in saying that what we do, and don’t do, does and will matter.
In our text today, Matthew makes the difficult case that neither our societal standing (of being free or even being a slave), nor our human condition (of being naturally sinful) can work as an excuse before God. That just because we appear destined to be self-serving hypocrites (see, verse 30) and altogether sinful, that does not mean that we will also be pardoned for acting that way. For everything that we do, according to our text in Matthew, is being recorded above and will be used as testimony for or against us when we eventually meet our maker. Which, admittedly, is quite unsettling. I mean come on Matthew, throw us a bone filled with some grace.
It is odd though isn’t it, that we get this fiery message in a parable from Jesus on none other than the topic of forgiveness – I mean, it’s not how I would have gone about talking about it – but inescapably this is what Matthew gives us all the same. So, again, if we are serious about wanting to study this word seriously, then we have to seriously deal with it as it seriously comes to us. To wrestle with it, whether we want to or not, whether we agree with it or not, whether we want to preach on it or not! And trust me, I didn’t.
For instance, the optional, complimentary text in the lectionary for this Sunday was this wonderful little story in Genesis on Joseph and his brothers (remember them? And how they threw him into a pit and sold him into slavery?); well, in this optional Genesis text, the brothers finally face up to their evil ways and come to Joseph asking him for his forgiveness. And when they do that, Joseph cries and weeps and makes provisions for them and their children in a sweeping act of forgiving love (you can read about it in Genesis 15:15-21). And man, I thought, wouldn’t that make for a nicer sermon today, for you, my deserving, happiness-inclined people. But then the Spirit got a hold of me and said, “You coward!” Deal with Matthew you coward and see what together everyone can find.
Okay then, Spirit, I said, okay, here we go.
So, returning to our text, even if begrudgingly, we are told in the beginning of it that what Jesus wants us to do is forgive…and anyone remember how many times? 77! That’s right. Not seven, the perfect number, but the exponentially perfect, seventy-seven. Which is probably a direct reference to another story in Genesis about Cain and his great, great descendants; where in it, God says it would be unwise to harm Cain, for if anyone did, they would suffer a seven-fold vengeance; to which Cain’s descendant Lamech adds a seventy-seven multiplier (you can read about that in Genesis 4:14-24 – I’m full of refences today).
And what’s interesting about that, is that here in Matthew, Jesus seems to be recalling this story about Cain’s retribution, but is instead changing its ending so to result in forgiveness. Forgiveness! Not vengeance, but forgiveness, and thus hammers home the point. As he does elsewhere then, Jesus masterfully takes the scripture known to him, wrestles with it, and then reinterprets it so to convey a new meaning to study and learn from.
A new meaning specifically which tethers itself to last week’s lesson where Paul and Jesus talked about what it meant to both love and reconcile with each other.
As I said last week, love doesn’t last easily; for love is often sustained by difficult moments of small and great acts of forgiveness and reconciliation. And forgiveness let me tell you is no walk in the park. For often with forgiveness comes tidal waves of emotional beatings, if not torture, where we are forced to swim against old currents of pain or present swells of wrongdoings and injustice. In forgiving others (and ourselves) then, we are tasked to wrestle with the harm done to us, and to somehow find a way to move past and onward from it.
And none of that is easy, my friends. No. Forgiveness takes work. It implies vulnerability. And it is never accomplished in a single exchange, like “I’m sorry”/“Oh, it’s okay” but rather through a difficult three-step process multiplied by seven, if not seventy-seven; where we often need to place exponential value on someone else and something other than our own personal feelings.
Now, it should be said, here near the end, that Matthew doesn’t want any of us to forgive so much, such that we become a doormat. And neither does God. God doesn’t want doormats, unless they say “Welcome.” For remember, last week Matthew through Jesus gave us instructions on how to deal with someone who has wronged us. And none of that rendered us as pushovers, but instead, encouraged us to do something brave, facing our wrongdoers head on in earnest and with strength.
God then doesn’t want any of us to be tortured, emotionally or spiritually, singly or eternally. It’s just that God knows that to not forgive also means we will forever be burdened and we will never be free; free to live into the love and the life that God originally and still destines for each of us.
And so, like love, forgiveness is a commandment that we are given by God, through Jesus, to do; to do, not just to talk about, but to do, because it matters. It really does. At least according to Matthew, for Jesus says forgiveness is the very key for our entry into the Kingdom of Heaven. A Kingdom, he says, that we will never be able to enter if we can’t learn to forgive.
So, forgive or else, my friends. Forgive or else.
If you can offer nothing else to God or to others, how about you try to forgive.
Amen.
