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“How Many Times Shall I Forgive?
Matthew 18:21-35

 

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost—August 20, 2017

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

One of the important distinctions in the Bible is between what we call the kingdom of heaven and the kingdoms of this world.  These two spheres are represented by the flags at the front of our sanctuary.  The Christian flag represents the kingdom of heaven; the United States flag represents the kingdoms of this world.

When we speak of the kingdoms of this world, we don’t mean just the government, but all the institutions we live under in this world, such as family, work, school.  The kingdom of heaven is God’s Church, here on earth, and in heavenly glory.  The kingdoms of this world will all come to an end one day.  But, the kingdom of heaven exists, as Martin Luther says in the Small Catechism, “here in time, and hereafter in eternity.”

On the one hand, Jesus promises his followers, “Yours is the kingdom of heaven.”  On the other hand, Romans tells us, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”

So, in this life we are caught in this tension between these two kingdoms in which we now reside.  The kingdoms of this world function on the basis of rewards and punishments.  But, the kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of grace.  Sometimes this can be confusing for us.

Perhaps one way to understand it is to imagine that a member of our church is a police officer and he stops me for speeding.  “I hope you’re going to forgive me for this,” I say to him, trying to prod him into letting me off.  And he replies, “Yes, Pastor, I forgive you.  And here is your ticket.” 

In that case, he would be a better theologian than I.  Because, even though, according to our relationship as fellow members of the kingdom of heaven, to do God’s will he must indeed forgive me, yet at the same time, according to the kingdom of this world, in which we also both reside, to do God’s will he still must give me a ticket.

The mistake we make is mixing up these two kingdoms, trying to misapply governing principles from one to the other.  So, for example, it would be a mistake for me to think that a Christian officer should not write me a ticket because he must forgive me.  That’s misapplying a governing principle from the kingdom of heaven to the kingdoms of this world.

But, Christians also very often make the opposite mistake.  Instead of following God’s grace, we try to apply to the kingdom of heaven the world’s way, of rewards and punishments, and getting what you deserve.  That’s the mistake Peter is making in today’s Gospel Reading.

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?’”

In a previous chapter, Jesus has just given to his followers the Office of the Keys, the power to forgive sins in his name: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  Peter is now asking for a clarification about this.  “Okay, you say we have power to forgive the sins of others in your name.  But, how many times shall I forgive?  Up to seven times?”

In the kingdoms of this world, there is limit.  Many states have adopted a law called, “three strikes, you’re out.”  Commit three crimes of a certain type in those states and you get a life sentence with no leniency. 

Peter thinks it would be a good idea to have a similar policy for the kingdom of heaven, a limit to how many times you must forgive.  He suggests “seven strikes, you’re out.”  “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” 

Peter wants to operate the kingdom of heaven according to the principles of the kingdoms of this world.  He probably thinks he’s being very generous.  Like some states today the Jewish rabbis of that day set the limit at “three strikes, you’re out,” only three times you are required to forgive.  Peter doubles that, and adds one for good measure.  He probably thinks Jesus will commend him for being so generous.  “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.”  Jesus’ answer has a symbolic significance that isn’t obvious to us, but would have leaped out to Peter and the other disciples, and early readers of this text.  Just as the number thirteen to us stands for bad luck, in their culture many numbers had a deep symbolic significance. 

Seven and ten were both numbers of completeness and wholeness, as in the seven days of the week, in which God completed creation, and the Ten Commandments, the whole Law of God.  It is no accident that “seventy times seven” is one number of completeness—seven—times another number of completeness—ten—and then times seven again.  That phrase “seventy times seven” is like the mathematical symbol for infinity (∞), a symbolic way of saying a complete, total, unlimited, infinite number—that’s how many times you must forgive your brother who sins against you.

Peter thinks he is being very generous when he offers to forgive “up to seven times.”  “No,” Jesus says, “not up to seven times.  Take that times ten and then times seven again!”  Just as we naturally understand why some buildings don’t have a thirteenth floor, Peter and the other disciples would have understood the symbolic meaning of “seventy times seven”: complete, total, unlimited, infinite forgiveness.

Jesus is saying, “When it comes to forgiveness, you’ve got to throw out the whole idea of counting the number of times.  That may be how it works in this world, but that’s not how it works in the kingdom of heaven.”

To drive home this point, Jesus tells the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant.  If you do the math based on the amount of gold in a talent, in today’s dollars the unmerciful servant owed the king nearly $19 billion.  The startling thing about the first part of this parable is that the king shows such leniency.  Governments aren’t in the habit of being lenient when it comes to you owing them money.  Do you think the IRS would just let you off if you just owed them $19,000, let alone $19 billion?

How could a servant amass that kind of debt? He was not just any servant, but a regional governor, whose job it was to collect taxes on behalf of the king.  He had obviously been skimming off the top for years, and the king had finally caught him and demanded it back.

“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.  As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.  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.  The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’”

Like “seventy times seven,” the 10,000 talents also has a symbolic significance.  The Greek word translated “10,000” is “myriad.” Sometimes it does mean literally “10,000,” which in their more primitive culture was an extremely large number.  But, really “myriad” was their version of “zillion,” “GAzillion,” “BAzillion.”  Technically, they’re called “fictitious numbers,” used to represent an inconceivably large amount, really too big to actually count.  “A man who owed him a ZILLION talents was brought to him.”  It’s another way of representing infinity.  That debt represents our sins, an infinite, incalculable SPIRITUAL debt that we could never possibly repay, for which we deserve to be thrown into hell.

“The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.”  That is exactly what God has done for you.  Because his Son paid the price for you, God has canceled your spiritual debt and set you free.  That’s why the king in the parable acts in way that seems so inconceivable for any earthly king or government.  The forgiveness of the debt symbolizes God’s undeserved grace, how God treats us in the kingdom of heaven.  As Psalm 103 says, “He does not treat us as our sins deserve, or repay us according to our iniquities.”

The next part of the parable is also not really at all about money and financial debts.  Those are again symbolic for SPIRITUAL debts, in this case, sins that others commit against you. 

“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’  But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.”

If God forgives you all our sins, not because you’ve earned it or deserve it, but because of his grace on account of his Son’s sacrifice for you, how then will you treat others?  Jesus taught to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  And Jesus himself put that principle into practice in his own life, when he cried out for forgiveness even for those who were nailing him to the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Paul puts it this way in Ephesians, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger . . .  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as an offering and sacrifice to God.”

And he writes in today’s Epistle Reading from Colossians, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” 

“Beloved,” John declares, “let us love one another, for love is from God; everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  He that loves not, knows not God, for God is love.  This is how God showed his love for us: He sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we would live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Jesus closes the parable with a warning: If despite God’s grace to you, you still insist holding others’ sins against them, like a debt you are owed and you will not forgive, then you are in danger of losing your saving faith in him, and thereby forfeiting your own right to be judged by God, not according to what your sins deserve, but according to his grace in Christ Jesus:

“When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.  Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.  Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’  In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.  This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Amen.

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