Readings: Micah 6:6-8 | Philippians 1:3-11 | Matthew 18:21-35
Text: Matthew 18:21-35
October 2, 2006 – Nineteen years ago, Charles Roberts took over a one room schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Armed with a handgun, a shotgun, and a taser, he set about forcing the men, boys, and parents of infants to leave the classroom. He proceeded to barricade himself in the schoolhouse with ten schoolgirls, ranging in age from 6-13. After 30 minutes of terror had passed, the school was surrounded by emergency personnel. Roberts responded by opening fire on the girls, brutally murdering five out of the ten girls that day. Last year, a sixth, who was left with severe brain damage, succumbed to her injuries.
The second shock went out when the families of the slain girls forgave Charles, saying, “We must not think evil of this man” and another said about Roberts, “he had a mother and a wife and a soul and now he’s standing before a just God.”
In the weeks that followed, they showed how genuine their forgiveness, as they fervently ministered to his widow and their children, as if they were their own family. The Amish were the predominate attendees at Roberts’ funeral. They continued to bear Christian witness over the years to many news agencies which followed the story.
People marveled at this story because it was so unusual after such a grave evil had been perpetrated. Yet these Amish Christians were doing no more than what Jesus explains in today’s Gospel.
What does Jesus’ parable about the unforgiving servant mean? That our Lord forgives us the big stuff, so we should forgive others the small stuff? That’s not a bad start. But not everything that happens to us from the sin of others is what we would consider small stuff.
There’s a lie that Satan tells us about the gravity of sins. He says that we should only trouble ourselves about big sins—from those that make the news or wind up in court. But this is wrong. Jesus says, “I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” We know that the law says that we should not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way (Small Catechism, 8th Commandment). We know that we should not entice or force away our neighbor’s wife, workers, or animals, or turn them against him, but urge them to stay and do their duty (10th Commandment). We know that the Ten Commandments show us how to love and care for our neighbor. But the follow-up to this lie is that Satan wants us to believe is that when our neighbor sins against us badly enough, then we get license to focus on their sin more, and we don’t have to keep those Commandments anymore.
In Jesus’ parable, the forgiven man’s fellow servant did not owe him a small debt. A hundred denarii is about four months wages. That’s sizable. When people sin against us, it is not a small matter. It hurts us. Those sins sometimes can be really big. Sometimes, they were intentional. And to let them go, to forgive them, feels like a monumental task. Maybe it even seems too big for us alone. For us to forgive them means giving up on getting even. We forfeit vengeance. We don’t get to use Satan’s lies about sin. I have no right to now sin against them as much as I want.
And all that is just to forgive them even once. Peter’s seven times seems like insanity. And yet, Jesus will say even that is far too few. After all, if our Lord forgives us the greater sins that we commit, we should be able to forgive our fellow human being.
“31Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32)
There’s a reason St. Paul has to reaffirm this. But do we actually believe this? Our old sinful flesh believes that the sin of our neighbor are greater. Our sins aren’t a big deal at all. Self-justification looks like: Who was hurt by them? What did they matter? I had a good reason behind each of them.
But to expose our Old Adam, carefully look at your Lord Jesus. Look at how He was betrayed and mocked. Look at His blood soaked thorny head. Look at the torn flesh of His back after He was flogged. Look at the nails in His hands and feet. Look at His forsakenness and shame. Look at His death on the cross. See what your sin did! See what my sin did! See what the sin of the world did to Him!
Did the sin of your neighbor put you through that? It’s you and I who have been forgiven the bigger debt. Not to mention that Jesus on that cross paid for our neighbor’s sin that we don’t want to forgive, as well as our own. That doesn’t make our neighbor’s sins against us small. Instead, it shows that the forgiveness which Jesus has won for us and for them, is that immense.
Apart from Christ, we have no way to genuinely forgive those who sin against us. Without the Lord who suffered and died for the sins of the world, all we see is the pain and the suffering that has to be endured. All we want is justice, a way to make ourselves whole. We want restitution.
24When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25And 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… 27And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.”
Forgiveness is counter-intuitive. And yet, that is where Jesus works. It doesn’t promise the justice the mob cries for. But it is our only hope not only for our eternity, but also for a world that is so entangled by sin that none of us can see a way through without our God.
Forfeiting vengeance is one part of giving the sin up to God, but there is also commending to Him the outcome of the evil. This part we learn from the narrative of what happened to the patriarch Joseph. He was betrayed, sold as a slave, betrayed by his master’s wife, wrongfully imprisoned for years, and then raised to a position that could be used to exact vengeance on the scoundrel brothers who betrayed him. Instead, he was given this divine counsel:
“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20)
The sin of which you forgive your neighbor might just the very thing that God intends for their good. By it, they might just hear the saving Word. By it, they might just receive the Gospel. By it, they may come face to face with the death and resurrection of Jesus. When you speak the forgiveness of sins through Christ’s death and resurrection, that’s what they receive. And so do you. There is no greater good in all of creation than this. It’s not in your being avenged. It’s the treasure which Jesus has given to His Church:
18Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matt. 18:18-20)
Forgiveness is where Jesus is.
Jesus drowns our Old Adam in the water of Holy Baptism and gives us new life (John 3:5-8). In that new life, we are fed through Jesus’ body and blood. It’s the very same body which was nailed to the cross. It’s the very same blood which was poured out as an atonement for the sins of the world. These are the very means by which Jesus has forgiven us for doing that to Him. Our debt is cancelled. Your sin is forgiven. There is power in this Body and Blood to cover even the damning sin of which our Lord warns us at the conclusion:
“35So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
The blood of Jesus covers that too. We’re forgiven the big stuff. And as a result, now we can also forgive the big stuff through Christ who lives in us.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
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