The Pattern Of Forgiveness
St. Matthew 18:23-35
(Most of this material was borrowed from The Rev. Paul Rydecki)
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Matthew 18:31-34 31 So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. 32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ 34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… Today’s Gospel is not difficult; at least it is not difficult to understand. It really is very simple. It is about forgiveness. The world around us has many things to teach about forgiveness, like the statement that says: “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”
That sounds nice, doesn’t it? Perhaps you’ve heard it; perhaps you’ve even said it. It was written by a rather famous Christian author, Lewis Smedes. But that statement is completely wrong; it amounts to nothing more than psychobabble. People tell you you’re supposed to forgive people for the good it will do for YOU! How self-serving is that? They tell you that you’re just supposed to go around forgiving everyone who has harmed you, so that you can feel better about yourself. Christian friends, that is not the pattern of forgiveness set forth in the Holy Scriptures, for some of the most dangerous things are things that sound biblical but are not. And if you don’t know what the Bible says, you are ripe for the picking.
Jesus has a lot to say in Matthew 18 about forgiveness. He begins by pointing out how terrible it is to sin against another person, especially “one of these little ones” (Mt 18:6) Better to have a millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea than to cause one of them to sin. Better to chop off your hand or foot or pluck out your eye than to allow yourself to be led into sin.
But then, in verses 10-14 Jesus describes how eager God is to have sinners back in His kingdom. He goes searching for the lost sheep and rejoices to bring it home. He wants to forgive sinners and doesn’t want any of them to perish.
But wanting to forgive and forgiving are not the same thing. God wants to forgive everyone. He is merciful toward everyone. But He has set a pattern for how He goes about forgiving. He preaches His Law. He shows the sinner his fault. He preaches His Gospel, pointing the sinner to Christ Jesus, who suffered for all sins on the cross, calling sinners to believe in Christ for forgiveness. Where there is repentance and God-given faith in Christ, God forgives sins for the sake of Christ. But where there is no repentance or faith, God does not forgive sins; for as much as He wants to, for as much as His merciful heart desires that all men should come to repentance and be forgiven, only faith justifies and receives forgiveness.
That is the pattern of forgiveness set by God Himself. And Jesus goes on in Matthew 18 to show His disciples how we, too, are to imitate this pattern with one another—with our brothers, our fellow Christians – when they sin against us. Show your brother his fault. If he repents, forgive him. If he won’t repent, keep trying to get him to repent by confronting him with one or two others. If he still won’t repent, keep trying to get him to repent by taking the matter to the Church. And if he won’t listen to the Church, then, says our Lord, “let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.” (Mt 18:17)
Boom. The pattern is set. But then, in the words right before our Gospel, Peter looks for a loophole in the pattern. “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” (Mt 18:21) In other words, what if this whole pattern plays out seven times? Seven times my brother sins against me, hurts me, causes me pain… Seven times I confront my brother with his sin…. Seven times he repents… And seven times I forgive him. Isn’t that already going above and beyond? Haven’t I done more than enough in forgiving him seven times? After that, should I – may I please? – tell him that he has reached his quota of forgiveness and then – may I please – be done with him?
Our Lord Jesus makes it painfully clear to Peter that he is wrong. “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” (Mt 18:22) In other words, Peter, you shall never refuse to forgive your brother if he repents! Far be it from you to withhold forgiveness from the penitent! And then Jesus speaks the parable that drives this pattern home.
The king wants to settle accounts with his servants. He brings in the one who owes him 10,000 talents—an astronomical figure, let’s call it the equivalent of $150 million. The king demands payment and threatens severe punishment if payment can’t be made. That’s the Law, telling the sinner he has sinned against God and must suffer eternal death, because he can never repay his debt.
The servant then begs for patience on the king’s part and promises to pay it all back. That’s repentance and faith. The sinner acknowledges the enormous debt he owes. He knows he deserves to be thrown in prison forever because he can’t pay his debt. But Jesus has died – the Righteous for the unrighteous – to bring us to God. He offers His righteousness and His own blood as the payment for our sins, and says to us, “Here, use this! Use this to settle accounts with My Father, the King! He will accept this payment, because it is the very reason why I was sent in the first place, to give My life as the payment for sins, so that all you debtors might have something to pay back your debts with. Not with your own money, not with your own works, but with My works and with My blood.”
The King has compassion and forgives the entire debt. The sinner no longer has to suffer anything in punishment for his sins. The sinner no longer has to come up with his own payment, his own atonement – not that he ever could – because the Father accepts the atonement made by Christ and applies it to the sinner’s account by faith. You no longer owe anything. You are free to go, free to live as children of God.
And there it is: the pattern of forgiveness.
But the pattern breaks down when the forgiven servant leaves the presence of the king. It starts out the same; the servant finds a fellow servant—his brother in Christ—who owes him a hundred denarii—let’s say $50.00, which is nothing compared to the $150 million that the first servant owed the king. But the servant doesn’t just demand repayment. He laid hands on his fellow servant and took him by the throat. Already you see a great difference between the behavior of this servant and the behavior of the king. The servant is not just angry; He is enraged. He is not desiring the repentance of his fellow servant but wants to see him burn.
Now, the fellow servant begs for patience and time to repay, just as the first servant begged the king. The man’s brother is sorry for having sinned against him. He admits his fault. He asks for a chance to make it up to him.
But the first servant refuses and throws his fellow servant in prison. No mercy. No compassion. No desire to forgive. And no forgiveness given.
So, what happens to that unmerciful, unforgiving servant? The king is informed of the servant’s behavior and is appalled by it. ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
Dear fellow redeemed, we cannot reject the pattern of forgiveness toward our fellow Christians and at the same time keep enjoying the pattern of forgiveness for ourselves. Our brother’s sins against us may be serious. They may hurt. Or sometimes, they may not be very serious at all and yet we are still inclined to take offense and stay angry and to refuse to forgive.
In any case, Jesus puts it in perspective for us. Our sins against God cannot be counted, they cannot be measured. They are far more serious than anything any man could do to us. Take the most heinous crime a human being can commit against another human being, and then realize that your crimes, your trespasses against God, in His judgment, are many thousands of times worse than that, to use Jesus’ analogy. Our only hope of salvation is in the mercy of God and in the pattern of forgiveness He Himself has established and embraced.
That pattern never fails because God never changes, a fact for which we give Him thanks always. We love because He first loved us.
Your debt of sin is infinitely enormous, crushing, even damning. But Christ paid for all of your sins in His body on His heinous cross. And by God’s gift of faith you receive the full benefits of His death faithfully and wonderfully delivered to you through your Baptism, through the preached Gospel, through Holy Absolution, and through His body and blood under the bread and wine in His holy Supper. God’s gift of faith is that thing by which you are able to grasp and receive His forgiveness and strength and blessings.
Thank God for His full and free forgiveness.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
