* Read Matthew 18:21-35 and then watch this video! This little girl shows us exactly what Jesus is talking about. And that is what Jesus wants us to get. In fact, of all the things Jesus wants us to get, that is, without doubt, the one thing he wants us to get; and in this week’s gospel it is as if he nails that message once and for all.
We’ve talking over the past couple of months about the writer of the Gospel of Matthew. It is clear to us in this text that he had no romantic illusions about the church. He knew that Christian people, just like everybody else, are subject to the same sins that afflict the human race and that often are enough to blow a church to smithereens. How often have you stood in line at the coffee station, chomping on your donut, and someone dishes to you an entrée of gossip, bitterness, or judgment about another?
Last week’s gospel started out “if another member of the church sins against you . . .” and in it we heard instructions about how members were to deal with those bitter fights that are so often a part of the Christian life. We are given suggestions on how to settle church fights when people insist on acting badly. It is not something the church does very well at all. And, as if to illustrate why we seem to have such a hard time doing what Jesus commands, Peter steps forward in this week’s passage on a point of clarification. “I hear what you’re saying,” Peter seems to be saying. “Trying to restore fellowship with someone who offends me certainly sounds like the right thing to do, but . . . if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?”
Now, at first blush, Peter is being quite reasonable. Given the reality of human nature, this ‘forgiveness thing’ can become quite problematic, involving us in a seemingly never-ending loop of repentance and pardon. When is enough enough? When is it time to call a statute of limitations on this whole amnesty business? And I know you know what Peter is talking about. Most of us are willing to get burned once in a while, maybe even more than that, depending on who’s doing the burning, but eventually we get tired of one-way relationships, right? When someone lets us down again and again, when a friend or family member keeps giving us the cold shoulder no matter how hard we try to be friendly, we start looking elsewhere, right? I mean, we only have so much energy to go around, right? Only so much to invest until we deplete our savings, right? It may be a crass way to put it, but you know that it’s true. I just know that you do. Nobody enjoys being in a relationship in which one person does all the giving and one person does all the getting. When is enough enough?
The story seems to have been on its way out of Jesus’ mouth before Peter even finished his question; and it is one of the most rip-roaring tales Jesus ever told. The fun begins in the opening scene with a king who keeps good books but somehow manages to end up with an employee who owes him – 10,000 talents. Roughly translated, it would be like a mail-clerk at IBM who was very good at embezzling and ended up owing the boss – a “bazillion dollars”. Jesus is making a point with a sledgehammer and it would have been the first time his audience began to laugh. Nobody would ever be able to pay back such a ridiculously large amount, but when this little con-artist is brought up on the carpet and told that the king is going to take whatever the man has, including his wife and kids, this desperate little man falls to his knees and begs for an extension on his, er, uh - “loan”. “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.”
Right! Jesus audience would have been laughing and so would the king! Maybe if he worked forty hours a week for the next 150,000 years and bought nothing he might be able to pay what he owed. The little guy is obviously a few bricks short of a load to think his boss would fall for that one! Jesus could be pretty funny when he tried. But what he says next goes for a real belly laugh: because, to this absolutely ridiculous request of the little crook, the king responds with something even more preposterous. “And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him, and forgave him the debt.” Every last penny of it? You can almost see the looks of astonishment on those who were there. You mean, no threats? No recrimination? No restrictions on employment? No probation? Nothing, said Jesus. Just pure, extravagant forgiveness. The king just cancels the man’s debt and gives him back his life out of the goodness of his royal heart.
“But, then . . .” Jesus says. You thought this story was over. Uh-uh. “But, then,” Jesus says, “only moments after having been given his life back to him on a silver platter, this same employee happens upon an associate of his who owes him – a hundred denarii.” I’ll do the math for you. About a half a million times less than what he had owed the king. And what does this man who has just been forgiven billions do with somebody who owes him peanuts? “. . . seizing him by the throat, he said to him, “Pay me what you owe.”
And when this man fell at his feet and begged for mercy, he wouldn’t even consider it and took him out and threw him into prison until he paid the whole debt. Now, I think you can imagine the reaction this turn of events would have provoked. Why, that little ingrate! Why, the nerve! What a miserable little creep! And you can understand the reaction of the other slaves in this story, can’t you? I know that you can. You can understand the reaction of the king at the end of the story, can’t you? Oh, I know that you can. “And in anger, his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.”
Sounds like a pretty reasonable sentence, don’t you think? The one who denied forgiveness, was denied it himself. Now, I don’t know about you, but if I were Peter, I would have been feeling mighty uncomfortable at that point. I would have been feeling that even good disciples who ask reasonable questions like, “How often should I forgive others when they wrong me?” are missing the point. Because when it comes to forgiveness, somebody has already set me free from a massive load of thoughtlessness and a national debt load of sin. Trying to figure out, in other words, when I should put limits on my willingness to forgive others is simply counting the small change.
But I really think I’ve found the real value in forgiveness. Are you ready for this? Remember the mirror exercise I gave you last week? Anyone try that at home? Well, you are in luck, because I found another worksheet that will help you even more. This “Mirror Exercise” worksheet will help us to see that, we are not human beings having an occasional spiritual experience. Rather we are Spiritual Beings having a human experience. So when you have those conflicts that call you to forgive someone, or to be forgiven by someone, it is the sin of human experience that your spirit nature is wanting to have…so that you can learn forgiveness. I mean…think about it. It turns the tables upside down on what is considered a spiritual experience! Are you ready to learn forgiveness…I mean really learn it so that you can live it? Then follow the footsteps of your own life…and discover the times when you had the opportunity to learn it. When you really understand how it can transform you…then you will never have conflict again…you will embody forgiveness through and through…and you will change everyone around you! Who’s footsteps are you following now?
(Adapted from Barry J. Robinson’s sermon “Counting the Small Change” for September 11, 2005 – www.fernstone.org)
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