Forgiveness Will Kill You
St. Matthew 18:21-34
November 13, 2022 anno Domini
Maybe Andrew was a pain as a brother. Maybe that’s what prompted Peter’s question. How often should I forgive my brother? Andrew was a jerk. He was mommy’s favorite, and he knew it. He knew right where to hit Peter. He knew Peter’s faults and fears and could plunge his dagger sharp words precisely into Peter’s weak spots.
Isn’t that the case with forgiveness? Who sins against you most? The person closest to you – wives it’s your husbands, brothers it is your brother, parents it is your children. You don’t need to worry about the neighbor three doors down. He doesn’t sin against you. It’s people in your own house that hurt you the most.
Peter was learning from Jesus that the Kingdom of Heaven is forgiveness. Life with God is forgiveness – His forgiveness of your sins. Without the forgiveness of sins, you have no hope before God. There are no second chances. The moment you die, the moment Christ appears in the Eastern sky to usher in God’s eternal day of life, that’s it. You’re either in by forgiveness or out by refusal of forgiveness.
But what exactly is forgiveness? Peter’s question and Jesus’ answer give us the knowledge that strengthens our faith, keeps us humble, and enables us to forgive as we have been forgiven.
How many times must I forgive my brother? Remember, Andrew might have been a jerk. Andrew told the same embarrassing story about Peter every time the 12 got together at Capernaum Craft Brewery. Seven times? Seven is a godly number. Seven days in creation. Revelation is full of sevens – seven churches, seven lampstands, seven angels. The Easter season is seven sevens.
Seven is a lot of forgiving. Would you forgive your child for not picking up his room after you told him seven times? Would you forgive your husband for looking at another woman seven times on a dinner date? Would you forgive your father for getting into a drunken rage seven times?
Seven is a practical number. You could keep track of seven. Once a day for seven days. Sin against me that many times and I’m going to stop forgiving you. Even a child could count to seven.
Peter’s question and his limit on forgiveness reveals the reason forgiveness is hard. Forgiveness requires you to die. Every time Peter forgave Andrew, he gave up his right to justice, pay back, vengeance. When he chose to forgive Andrew, he took one in the gut – or better soul. He put himself under Andrew. Forgiveness will cost you what you love the most – yourself.
The definition of forgiveness is Jesus. Every sin of every man and woman and child is against Jesus, for He is the Son of God. He was there at creation. He is the Word by which the Father spoke all things into existence. Man and woman were made through Him. Marriage was instituted through Him. The gifts of the garden, of work, of food, of children were created and bestowed through the Son of God. When Eve ate the fruit, she sinned against the Word. When you get angry with your wife you sin against God because she is His gift to you. When you neglect your children to do your thing or idolize your children over God you sin against Him.
What does God do with your sin? Let’s be clear these aren’t mistakes or weaknesses. You are God’s creation. You are accountable to Him. There is absolute truth. There is righteousness and there is wickedness and God set the standard. What does God do with your sin? He forgives by dying. He forgives by paying the debt you owed out of His pocket, with His own flesh and blood. The Son of God becomes man to die for man and to accomplish your forgiveness.
Jesus tells Peter that he should forgive more than seven times – His answer is somewhat ambiguous. It can be either 77 times or 70 times 7 or 490 times. I think you get the point. Jesus says throw away your calculators and spreadsheets and die even as you have been died for.
That’s the message of the parable Jesus tells. (Read vs. 23) There is an accounting and you’re the first servant. How do I know? Because you’re the worst sinner in this congregation. You know the evil you’ve thought – wishing someone dead, some perverse fantasy with that man or woman over there. You know the sins you’ve committed that no one knows about. Stand before the Divine Judge. It’s time to balance the scales of God’s justice. You owe 10,000 talents. That’s 38 billion dollars according to Pastor Reber over at Faith – if you trust his skills at math. Since I can’t balance a checkbook, I’ll go with Pastor Reber’s calculation. 38 billion dollars and the King knows exactly what you make per hour in his stable feeding the horses and shoveling manure. I don’t want to overload you with statistics, but if you never incurred another debt, it would only take you 13,700 years to pay off what you owe.
Do you get the point? Jesus isn’t giving us numbers to calculate and figure. He’s telling us that our debt is beyond our means. It can never be paid. Hence when the servant in the parable promises to pay – it’s a lie. He’s still in unbelief. He doesn’t get it. The King is going to write off this debt by writing off the man, his wife, and his children, selling them into slavery.
But the Kingdom of heaven is not the kingdom of this world. This parable isn’t economic advice for the world. Don’t act like this King in your small business. You’ll lose it all and won’t be able to support the church, your family, and yourself. This parable is God’s economy. This is how He runs the Kingdom of heaven. (read vs. 27). You know this King. You know this forgiveness. This is the Son of God become man. This is Jesus of Nazareth. Forgiveness isn’t erasing your debt – it is paying your debt. Your 38 billion sins hanging on Jesus. All of them. Every last one of them. He takes the hit, the hell, the eternal suffering until it is truly paid, until it is finished. Forgiveness isn’t free. It costs Jesus’ life. He died that you might be free of sin, that His Father might reckon you righteous. Debt cancelled. You’re forgiven. You’re free. He doesn’t see your sin. You’re not going to die, but live. Satan can’t lock you up in that debtor’s prison of hell. When you hear the Word of Absolution on Sunday morning – you should sound more like Baptists than Lutherans. There should be a hearty “Amen” to your freedom.
You know what’s next. You leave here and before you get home, perhaps in the Narthex, or Bible Study, or in the car, you are sinned against. It hurts. You’re angry (and you should be because sin is evil), and what are you going to do? Grab that fellow servant of the Lord by the neck and demand your $4611. (That’s Pastor Reber’s number too.) 38 billion has been forgiven you and you’re going to demand a measly four grand.
Now, I know you’re asking all sorts of questions, but what if he doesn’t repent, what if it keeps happening, what if. What if God asked those questions before he forgave you. Have you sinned the same sin more than once? Are you heartily sorry for your sins or hardly sorry? Have you sought forgiveness without any effort to amend your sinful life?
The first servant did not trust the King’s forgiveness. He put himself in the King’s place and demanded payment from his fellow servant. He couldn’t let go of his rights even after the King had given up His right and set His whole family free. The greatest enemy to forgiveness and life is your old sinful self. He just doesn’t want to die. He doesn’t want to humble himself under anyone else. He thinks life comes by justice and might and right.
If you need a reason to come to church (and I have about 38 billion) this is one. (Read vs. 34-35). “Why do you need to go to church every Sunday? Why do you need the Lord’s Supper for forgiveness when you’ve already heard the absolution? Why do you need the Word and Supper when you have been baptized for the forgiveness of sins?” 38 billion pronouncements of forgiveness are not too many for our faith or life so that we can forgive the little amount of sins against us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.