Matthew 18:15-35 - February 26, 2023

We have a fairly lengthy lesson from the book of Matthew today. There are three main sections, all revolving around the issue of forgiveness. 

The first section has Jesus teaching on what to do when someone sins against you. It seems that Jesus knew that even his expert teaching wouldn’t keep us from sinning, so he gives us some tips on how to handle it when we do. Essentially, talk it over with the person. Don’t gossip about them behind their back but talk directly. If they still don’t respond, take another person with you. 

The second section is Peter’s follow-up question to such a scenario: how many times do I have to forgive someone? Seven times? And you know what? Good for Peter. We give him and the other disciples a hard time for sometimes being dunces, but here, Peter tries. He goes above and beyond a reasonable amount of forgiveness, all the way up to seven times - which is kind of a lot of times. 

But Jesus isn’t impressed. He ups the ante to seventy-seven times - or, as many other translations put it, seventy times seven - 490 times! Jesus’ point here is that forgiveness is never done. Don’t count it; just do it. And keep on doing it. Forgiveness in our lives should be abundant - even more abundant than we think. 

And then we get to the parable. A king wants to settle accounts with his servants. He brings in one who owes 10,000 talents. If you check your Study Bible, you’ll see that one talent was the equivalent of 15 years’ wages. Fifteen years! According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage for workers in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2022 was $1,085 per week or $56,420 per year for a 40-hour workweek. Ten thousand talents, then, is about $8 billion,463 million dollars. The absurd amount is all to say that it’s something this laborer could never pay back. Long story short, the king forgives him the debt. Grace abounds!

But the parable doesn’t stop there. We run into another slave who owes money to this guy who just got his debt forgiven. This debt is only 100 denarii - one denarius was one day’s wage. So, using the numbers above, this guy owed about 22 thousand dollars. Not insignificant, but *slightly* less than 8.5 billion. It’s a test! And he fails it. 

The other slaves who are eavesdropping notice and run off and tell the king about the situation. The king, in turn, punishes the guy for not forgiving. 

A few things here. First, Jesus just got done talking about forgiveness abounding - being limitless. Why continue the parable after the king forgives the huge debt to include all the forgiveness failures? Also, why does the king lash out after only one failure? What happened to forgiving seventy-seven times? Or the other servants - where is their forgiving nature? Heck, where even is their “going and pointing out the fault when the two of you are alone”? They just throw him under the bus! 

When we get parables, we often try to identify with one of the characters; and the thing is, no matter who we identify with here - the king, the servant, or the other servants around - everyone fails in the end. Everyone in the parable fails at living up to what Jesus teaches about forgiveness. 

What I think this shows us is that God’s Kingdom, when lived out the way Jesus presents it, brings chaos to our lives and our world and the way we want things to be. God’s Kingdom is not based on our justice or tit for tat, but an unlimited amount of mercy, grace, and forgiveness. And when that mercy, grace, and forgiveness show up, chaos breaks loose in our nicely ordered, judgment-filled lives.  

We want our logic to win the day. We want there to be just desserts. Failure leads to punishment. It’s only fitting. And by appealing for justice - or what we judge to be justice - we push our agenda upon God, up against what God calls for: unlimited mercy, forgiveness seventy-seven times, and conversation with each other face to face about our wrongs. 

But what about those bad guys in our world? The murders and rapists and whatever else? What do we do there? 

Well, we make a decision, don’t we? We make the best decision we can. And the best decision we can make is to deal with those people in a way that looks more like our justice - with laws and juries and jails. Maybe we can forgive, but it is unlikely that there will be any sort of mercy or reconciliation going on. 

And what becomes clear in all this is that our best, our very best as individuals and as a society, our best isn’t good enough for God’s Kingdom. The very best we have to offer in the face of evil is not worthy of God’s Kingdom. We fall short of God’s glory, even when we are doing what we judge to be right. 

And the only option left for us is repentance. That we admit we are broken, that our world is broken, that even in protecting others, we fall short of God’s standard of mercy, grace, and forgiveness.

At the end of the parable, Jesus says that his heavenly Father will torture you unless you forgive from your heart. Nothing conjures up genuine love and forgiveness like scaring the hell out of people. Is God going to throw you under the bus if you don’t forgive unlimitedly? 

And I think this is why it is so important that we know the story of the Bible - especially the story Matthew has been telling us. Because through this story, we see that God is not petty like the King at the end of this parable who is fed up after one bad judgment on our part. Instead, Matthew tells us of a God who establishes a Kingdom to welcome the broken, the poor, the lowly. Beatitudes and blessings go to those who aren’t good enough by our standards. 

We hear of a God who sends us a King who is unlike any other earthly king. This King will rule differently, as we certainly find out the closer we get to Good Friday. 

We hear of a God who is present with us in Jesus, our Emmanuel. And we hear that this Jesus will do exactly what it takes, no matter what it takes, to make sure we are welcome in God’s Kingdom. 

And ultimately, we hear of God’s forgiveness changing people - healing, raising, bringing life. God’s forgiveness and mercy, it seems, re-creates life. It resurrects something out of brokenness and pain and death. God’s forgiveness does something that we can’t make or do. 

Our God is a saving God, one who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Our God is one who practices what Jesus preached. Our God is one who forgives, not just seven times, but billions and billions of times more than that. One might even say we can’t count it. 

With this parable, Jesus calls us to take forgiveness seriously. And his overall teaching is that our lives, our church, should be like his life - patterned after the mercy and grace of God’s free forgiveness. As God forgives, so should we forgive. 

When confronted with this parable, when confronted with forgiving seventy-seven times, when confronted with direct conversation, all we can say is, “Lord, have mercy.”

And know that God grants forgiveness, now and forever.