Forgiven Abundantly, Forgiving Abundantly

Matthew 18:21–35

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for our meditation this morning is our Gospel reading from Matthew chapter 18.

Over the last two weeks, we've been learning from the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 18 about forgiveness. Last week, we learned about how people who are forgiven by Christ are then also called to forgive others. Jesus is like that good shepherd who seeks out the one who is lost and leaves the 99, and then brings that lost sheep back rejoicing. And then He said, "In the same way, we are supposed to seek out the brother who is lost and reconcile him to us and bring him back into the fold of the church."

When Jesus said, "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault," the purpose is not some kind of boasting or showing that we're better than somebody else. The goal is always gaining the brother, reconciling him to us, that he might be reconciled to God as well.

And today we talk more about forgiveness, particularly about what is the extent of this forgiveness. How much do we forgive? Because that's always how we think as humans. There must be some limit, right? Either in the number of times that I would forgive or if something is bad enough, then I wouldn't have to forgive it.

That's the question that Peter comes to Jesus with at the beginning of our Gospel reading for today. Peter came up and said to Jesus, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but 70 times seven."

And when Jesus says this, the point He's making is that the forgiveness of God toward us is abundant, and then our forgiveness to others is abundant as well. He's not wanting you to do the math on 70 times 7 and then have a number of boxes that you're checking off that you will eventually reach the end and say, "No, I'm not going to forgive this person anymore."

When Jesus says forgiving 70 times 7, He's invoking the number of completion, the number of perfect totality. Think about the seven days of perfect creation in the book of Genesis. God's forgiveness is complete and total. Think about how Jesus on the cross says, "It is finished." And in the same way, the forgiveness that we share with our neighbor, the one who has sinned against us, is total, abundant, over and over again, and should have no end, like Christ's forgiveness is abundant and has no end to us.

And that's the message that our text has for us today from Matthew 18:21–35: that Christ's forgiveness for us is abundant. So then our forgiveness for others is abundant as well. Jesus wants us to realize just how much our forgiveness is supposed to be abundant by first showing us how abundant His forgiveness is to us.

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

So when He tells Peter not seven times but 70 times 7, He tells this parable:

"Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave his debt."

So what is the debt of that servant? Jesus said that he owed 10,000 talents. And if you read this in a Bible, you might find a little bit of a note on the bottom of what that actually means. A talent is a monetary unit that usually signifies 20 years of wages for a day laborer. Twenty years of wages for a day laborer. And then how many talents does this man owe? 10,000.

So this man owes many lifetimes of wages for a day laborer. The point Jesus is making there is that this is an infinite debt. This is not a debt that this man is going to pay with just a little bit of time, a little bit of hard work. This is a debt that this man never can pay off. This is a debt that this man cannot and will not pay off by his own power.

And notice what the man does. "Master, just give me a little bit more time and I'll pay it off. I promise." And isn't this the way of man? Always trying to justify himself. "God, I'll get it figured out. Don't worry. Just give me a little bit more time. It'll be better this time. I promise."

But then the master cuts him off. And just like St. Paul says in Romans chapter 3, that when we hear the Law, every mouth is stopped. Stop justifying yourself. Stop talking and just receive the forgiveness of Jesus.

The master forgives this man. He has pity on him. He has compassion on him, and he forgives this infinite debt and does not punish him at all. He does not throw him and his family in prison, but he forgives him of this infinite debt.

And Jesus wants us to realize that this is the state of all humanity as well. We all owe this infinite debt because of our sin. And there's nothing that we could do that can erase our sin. There's nothing that we could do that could bring us back to God or pay that debt. It is only something that could be paid by the precious blood of Christ.

And He paid it not with gold or silver, but with His holy and precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own, that He could redeem me, that He could buy me back, and I will be His treasured possession.

We owed that infinite debt that we could never pay. And Jesus, out of His abundant grace and forgiveness, went to the cross and poured out all of His lifeblood for your sake, giving you abundant forgiveness.

So the picture that He gives of that servant who has received abundantly is the picture of each one of us: that we owed an unimaginable, unfathomable, unpayable-by-your-own-power debt, and it was forgiven by the abundant grace of God.

Forgiving the Big Hurts and Joseph's Example

And then, because we have received abundantly, we're also called to forgive abundantly. But like Jesus shows us in the parable, that's not always the reaction of all people. It's not the reaction of the servant in the parable.

"But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii. And seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, 'Pay what you owe.' So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience with me until I pay you.' He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.

Then his master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?' And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt.

So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."

So the servant received that abundant forgiveness, and then he went around and found one of his fellow servants who had a debt against him and choked the man and ordered that he pay and then threw that man in prison. He did not show that same mercy, compassion, and pity that he had received from his master, but rather lashed out against that man who owed him something.

And sometimes we can diminish what was owed to the unforgiving servant. And I think that kind of defeats the purpose of what Jesus is saying in the parable. Sometimes we make it sound like, "Oh, this fellow servant owed him like $10, and he choked him for that and threw him in prison for that. That's just terrible."

And I think that kind of cheapens what's going on here because it says it's 100 denarii. And like we were saying before, a denarius is a day's wages for a day laborer. So do the math. You can think about it like he is saying this man owes him about a third of a year's wages. That's not nothing. It's kind of a lot.

And I think that makes the parable even more meaningful when we realize this: that Jesus isn't just talking about forgiving your brother in the trivial stuff. He's not just talking about forgiving in the small stuff. He's talking about forgiving in the really big stuff, too. The stuff that actually does hurt you, the stuff that was actually really genuinely harmful to you. We're even called to forgive then.

Why? Because we have received so abundantly. We have received the forgiveness of our infinite debt of sin. So anything that somebody does to us is not as bad as what I have offended God with, with my own sin. So I can forgive this person as well because God has forgiven me that great sin.

Think about Joseph in our Old Testament reading from Genesis chapter 50. And if we're thinking about human standards, thinking about Peter saying, "Jesus, how often should I forgive my brother? Just seven times, maybe?" We'd probably think if anybody deserved to not forgive his brothers, it was probably Joseph.

Remember what his brothers did to him? Plotted to kill him, first of all, then plotted to sell him into slavery. If anybody deserved to not forgive his brothers, it really seems like it was Joseph, wasn't it? When we're thinking in our own human standards.

But then what did Joseph do in our Old Testament reading? He forgave his brothers. He loved them, and he provided for them as well.

And Jesus is making this point in the parable that we're called to forgive those who sin against us. Not just in the small things, not just in the trivial things, but also in the really terrible things, like Joseph's brothers wanting to kill him and sell him into slavery. We're called to forgive even in an extreme instance like that.

And why?

Christ's Power in Us to Forgive

Well, think about Jesus on the cross. The people who He was sent to save were killing Him. And what does He say? "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Because you have received the abundant forgiveness from Jesus, you forgive others. And you can think about that statement in two ways. One, that you follow the example of Jesus, who forgives others and forgives you, so you can forgive others as well.

But you can also think about it in this way: that the forgiveness of Jesus that He has given you makes it even possible that you can forgive others. Because if it was up to us, if it was up to our own sinful human nature, we would not be forgiving anyone, and we could not.

But because Jesus has paid your debt, because He has taken your sins away, and because He has created a clean heart within you, redeemed you, and because He now lives within you and dwells within you, and His Spirit works in you, you can forgive others even in those terrible instances because Christ is with you. Christ is in you.

The forgiveness that Jesus has poured into you pours out of you toward others that have sinned against you. And Jesus enables this in you. He gives you the words, "I forgive you," because He has given those words to you about you and your sin. So that means you can say them to others as well.

Jesus forgives us abundantly, and we forgive others abundantly. Not because of our own power, but because Christ has done so many great things for us, given us His life, His grace, His forgiveness.

Amen.

And now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

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