FORGIVENESS Matthew 18:21-35
04/09/05 Duncan Leake
1. Jesus had twelve disciples… how many of them used to snore, do you think? Did Jesus snore sometimes?
You see… As they travelled from place to place they weren’t all stopping in hotels every night! Sometimes they would be sleeping out in the open, but sometimes in a house where they could find a welcome. Sometimes they must have been crowded into a room that was never designed to sleep thirteen people. Do you think that occasionally they must have grumbled to one another… I couldn’t get a wink of sleep last night because of you!
Or did any of them have irritating habits? Maybe Andrew used to crack his fingers, or bite his finger nails when he was worried? You know the sort of thing that makes you want to say, “Stop it!... that really gets on my nerves”.
Imagine the disciples as they sat around and talked together, was there one of them who had a habit of talking too much… or another one who used to get on somebody's nerves because he kept interrupting… or somebody else who really irritated everybody because he never said what he was REALLY thinking.
Maybe there was one of them who was always making plans, always talking about what they were going to do, maybe another who had a really annoying habit of telling the others what they should be doing;
maybe there was one of them who was always talking about how things used to be… when he was back home in his own village.
And there were many times when this group of disciples were under pressure… and maybe there was one of them who always worried too much,
who was over-anxious about even little things.
Jesus told us to go and pick this donkey up… I don’t know how to get to the house, what if I get lost, what if we’re late… and anyway I haven’t got a clue about donkeys… wouldn’ t he be better sending somebody else…
and there was probably somebody else who couldn’t understand this and was always saying, “Don’t worry, things will sort themselves out”… and some of the other disciples found this really irritating because they thought, “No, he never worries about anything, he’s so laid back he's horizontal”.
Now I don’t know any of any of that. It’s imagination. But what I do know is that this particular group of people who shared their lives with Jesus did not always find it easy to get on with one another. The bible tells us that there were times when they ARGUED among themselves.
Yes they were all following Jesus… but sometimes they got on one another's nerves… sometimes they hurt and upset one another.
That’s why Peter comes to Jesus one day and says
Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me?
I wonder if Peter expected Jesus to be pleased with him when he said he would forgive his brother up to seven times. And I wonder how he felt when Jesus came up with an impossible answer… seventy times seven.
2. Jesus went on to tell a story about a servant who owed his master, the King… ten thousand talents.
A talent was a measure of silver or gold. Just to give you an idea of how much a talent was worth… a talent of Gold weighed two hundred pounds.
(+14 stone) (95kg)
The value of one talent of Gold then was roughly equivalent to 16.5 years wages for the ordinary working person. So in modern terms… taking the national average wage… ten thousand talents comes out at around 2.5 BILLION pounds.
Just imagine seeing that on your Barclaycard statement at the end of the month!
You will be pleased to know that we have increased your credit limit to 2.5 billion pounds. Your first payment of £150 million must reach us no later than September 23rd. If payment has not reached us by this date your card cannot be used again, and we will take steps to recover the outstanding debt.
The idea of a servant being so much in debt to his King is just ridiculous… and Peter and the other disciples must have laughed out loud when Jesus said this.
But Jesus went on with his story.
The King holds an inquiry… says, “OK you must be sold into slavery… along with your family in order to repay the debt”. The King was simply doing what everyone would expect him to do. He was applying the law, dispensing justice.
Now this is just silly.
Even the Roman Emperor himself couldn’t get his hands on that much money.
3. And perhaps Jesus waited until they had all finished laughing - and he looked at the disciples and said Then the king was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
Took pity on him... literally was filled with compassion for him. (same word which Jesus used to describe the Father who when he saw his son coming home ran out to meet him and threw his arms around him. He was filled with compassion)
The servant had every reason to expect to receive justice from the King… and the King had pronounced the sentence that his dishonesty and greed deserved. But then instead of JUSTICE the servant received MERCY and FORGIVENESS from the King.
Why should the King let him off?
Have you noticed by the way that the servant didn't even say he was sorry!
I think Jesus meant us to understand that it wasn’t because of his words, that the servant was forgiven, it wasn’t because he fell at the King’s feet,
And it certainly wasn’t because the King was impressed by the servant's promise to pay.
There was no way that this servant could repay such a great debt.
The servant received forgiveness because the King chose not to look at the foolishness of the servant… instead he looked into his own heart… and there he found pity, love and compassion.
It was because the King had a loving heart
that he cancelled the servant’s debt.
4. That could have been a perfect place to end the story. This would have been remembered as one of the great parables about the forgiveness and mercy of God.
God who in his justice has to judge all our wrongdoing... but who because of his great love and compassion for us has provided a way for us to receive forgiveness and mercy.
On the cross. Jesus paid back the debt we owed...
A debt we could never repay.
He took the punishment that justice demanded… so that we could receive forgiveness and stand in the presence of the King... God our Father.
But Jesus didn't stop the story at that point. He carries on... and it seems that this servant has totally missed the plot.
He didn't understand WHY he had been forgiven.
And so this story which could have had a happy ending, turns into a tragedy
when the servant goes out and mugs another of his colleagues who owes him money. he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand pounds.(28)
(a hundred denarii in the text)… three months wages... but this debt was nothing compared to what the servant had owed the King.
He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. (29)
And when this unfortunate man falls down and begs for mercy, his cries fall on deaf ears, and the ungrateful, unmerciful servant says well the LAW says you must pay me back… and he had his fellow servant thrown into prison.
5. Now I bet by this time... all the disciples were saying
How could a servant who has been treated so generously be so ungenerous towards someone else? How could a servant who had been forgiven so much, be so unforgiving towards someone else?
By now they would have stopped laughing.
This story is getting serious.
If only this servant had not been so blind to the forgiveness that he himself had received.
If only he had not been so obsessed with demanding his own rights, so concerned with his own feelings and needs.
If only this servant had understood that his masters heart was full of love... and that is why he had been willing to cancel that impossible debt that he owed.
And
If only the servant had wanted to be just a little bit like his master, the King - then surely he would have been more loving, more forgiving towards his fellow servant.
This story - that could have had a happy ending - didn't. Because when the master heard what had happened.
The servant was brought before him... and as he had demanded that the law be applied to the one who owed him money… so the King applied the law to him… and he received from the King the punishment that he deserved all along.
This servant had chosen to live according to the LAW.. He demanded justice for himself… and he received it - from the King.
6. As Peter and the disciples listened to this story maybe they realised that Jesus is telling them something that will help them to sort out all their own arguments and disagreements.
Something to help them deal with the hurts they receive.
Peter's had asked how many times he should forgive those who have hurt him. I think that when Jesus told this story he was saying to Peter...
You see Peter... when you are counting the times you are going to forgive somebody. You are looking in the wrong direction.
You are just looking at the other disciples and seeing what is wrong with them.
What you have to do is to look away from those disciples... look to God. Look to the KING.
Understand that HIS heart is full of forgiveness...
and then look to yourself... and know how much you have been forgiven.
And Know how much you have been given…
Do you know what the Bible says about all who know Jesus? he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. (Rom. 5:5). The King has given us is Holy Spirit to place his love in our hearts.
Why then, do we manage not to forgive one another?
Do you know there are people walking the streets in Chase Terrace and Burntwood who used to go to a church and who don’t go now because of some argument they had, or some hurt they received. There are even some who used to come to this Church… who still have not forgiven hurts from the past… from 5, 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Or maybe they feel that others have not forgiven them.
8. Sometimes arguments and disagreements -happen because of personality differences, and conflicts arise because we are still learning the lessons that we need to learn about how to live with and love one another - just as Peter and the rest of the disciples had to learn how to live together and love each other.
And sometimes… hurts which need to be forgiven are very great and go very deep. Every human being has a God-given capacity to love because we are all made in his image… but because the image of God in us is spoiled, Human beings also have an enormous capacity to hurt and abuse one another.
And so when I am saying that we have to learn how to forgive those who hurt us I am not suggesting that is always easy. Or that it means we have to say "Oh it doesn’t matter".
Some of you may have experiences which are just too hard to talk about... then you do need to talk them through with Father God .. the King who has forgiven you. And maybe with a Christian friend if that will help you to be able to talk with God.
We are only in the Kingdom of God because of the kindness and forgiveness of the King.
We are only in the Kingdom of God because a debt that we could never pay… has been paid for us.
If we look at him first… and then at how much he has forgiven us… and then think about the love that He has placed in our hearts… his own love…
then we can find help to deal with the hurts that we receive in the way that Jesus has commanded us to.
Do remember that we love and forgive one another… not to earn love from those who hurt us… they may NEVER return the love we show them…
We love and forgive simply because the love of the King is in our hearts… and all we can do is ask his Holy Spirit to help us to be more like him.