Trinity 14
Today’s Gospel very clearly has the theme of forgiveness and the OT has a brilliant example of that forgiveness, of living a life of forgiveness. The very lengthy parable Jesus tells about forgiveness is prompted by St. Peter’s question: Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? And then St. Peter adds very generously: As many as seven times? But not even that generous figure is enough, as Jesus tells him—and us: I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven, that is, unlimited times. Why are our lives as Christians to be marked by such generous forgiving those who sin against us, even those doing us great harm physically or emotionally? –Because we ourselves have been forgiven much, by God Himself.
The parable makes that very clear. It begins with a king settling accounts and there’s a servant who owes him 10,000 talents. That may not mean much to us, but it can be broken down this way: a denarius, that we’ll hear about later in the parable, is the average daily wage; a talent was 6000 times that—so 6000 days wages, and today we average 260 days of work a year—so one talent is worth about 23 years of wages. And multiply that out by 10,000—and that’s like 230,000 years of wages. It is an impossibly huge sum. This servant owed that astronomical figure, something he could never repay in hundreds of lifetimes. And what did he do? So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ An impossible promise—but we see the mercy of the king: And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
Of course, in applying the parable we understand that God is the king and we are that servant. We have been shown absolute tremendous amount of mercy; God has forgiven us that huge debt of sin. We have been forgiven much—for each sin in thought, word and deed is a sin against God, an amount added to our load/ debt but which God in His mercy forgives us in Christ.
So why do we forgive others when they sin against us? —Because we have been forgiven so much. What are their sins—no matter how painful they may be to us—in comparison to what God has forgiven us? And that’s what we see described next—the paltriness of others’ sins against us compared with our sins we commit against God: But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. Look at that difference in the amount owed—230,000 years of wages compared to 100 days wages. That’s the difference between our sins toward God and the sins of others against us. How can we not forgive the ones who sins against us—look at how much God has forgiven us!
Even simple human fairness/ thoughts of what’s right and wrong common to all people are enflamed when the one who was shown much mercy and forgiven much refuses to show mercy and to forgive such a little amount. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. You see, dear Christian, how even common human decency and fairness scream to us to forgive, to not hold grudges; how “illogical” it is not to forgive and to hold against someone a sin they committed against us. But what happens? We so easily do not forgive! We so easily hold wrongs against others and bear grudges—we, we whom God has forgiven so richly and abundantly. In/ by sin we strive to justify our lack of forgiveness and mercy, all the while expecting God to be merciful and forgive us our sin.
What is this, but really a lack of faith in and love of the one who is so merciful and forgiving toward us? What a spiritually destructive thing it is not to strive to be like Him, not rejoicing in that forgiveness and letting it flow through us on to those who sin against us, and continuing on as before in sin and lovelessness. Not to be merciful and forgiving is a despising of God’s forgiveness. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.
This mercy and forgiveness is not a grudging thing but something we desire to do from our cleansed and forgiven heart; we want to show that same forgiveness and mercy we were shown; we want to be like God, whose children we are by faith and baptism. Look back at our OT reading at the great evil Joseph’s brothers did to him—not only did they despise him, they sold him into slavery. Certainly it wasn’t easy for Joseph—just like because of our sin forgiveness isn’t easy for us; how easily he could have justified some sort of revenge on his brothers. But Joseph, trusting in the Lord, rejoicing in His forgiveness and mercy and that He was leading all things for good, forgave the brothers saying: As for you, 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.
This theme of being merciful like our Lord and forgiving the other person as they sin against us is a very practical; the Christian faith is very practical in our day to day lives. That’s what we see in our epistle today: how is it that Christians can live together as Christians, in the church, in the same congregation? –Answer: by being merciful toward each other, just as Jesus says elsewhere [Lk. 6.36]: Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. We who have received and revel in the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness can now be/ and want to be forgiving and merciful—especially toward our fellow Christians. Of course, it won’t be easy; each one of us is a sinner; each one is sinned against and the devil works with our old sinful nature to enflame that so that that sin becomes something big between Christians to cause disunity and division.
That’s what was happening in the church in Rome that St. Paul was writing to in our epistle. Some Christians came from the Jews and they still observed some Jewish customs; and Satan worked it so that some looked down on the Gentiles who didn’t follow those customs, as if they were somewhat deficient in their faith. And then Satan so worked it, that some of the Gentile believers who didn’t have that background of the OT law looked down on the Jews as weak for still observing parts of the OT law. The same thing happens today in churches everywhere—the devil tries to cause divisions by highlighting differences, creating factions and cliques. All this is an attempt to create division and destroy the churches and destroy the faith of individual Christians—especially those in the crossfire. So what is the antidote for that? Again, Jesus’ words: Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. First and foremost, that mercy shows itself in forgiveness—that same forgiveness each one of us has received. And it is carried out in a very practical way, as St. Paul writes: Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? What St. Paul warns against is the wrong kind of judging. We have to keep in mind, though, that there are times when we are specifically called on to judge. And this is right and good and commanded by our Lord. For as Christians, we are to judge everything by the word of God. When it comes to doctrine, we must judge all that we hear by the word of God—is it in accord with the clear teachings of Holy Scripture? There are moral absolutes and we must commend the good and oppose the evil. For example, that’s why Christians stand up in support of marriage as the life-long union of one man and one woman; and why we oppose abortion and euthanasia. –There are absolute standards of what is right and what is wrong. It’s not as if anything goes. But we are called upon to judge what is right and what is wrong based on God’s holy word.
Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? What St. Paul writes here is not an “I’m OK; you’re OK” thinking. Like we heard last week—shortly before today’s Gospel, Jesus tells His disciples/ us: if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Notice—there is a sin; we are sinned against and we sin against others. Sin must be called out and repented of. That’s judging. But what is to be the standard of judging? –God’s Word!
While correct judging is judging according to God’s Holy Word, incorrect judging is unjust and hypocritical. It sets up a standard other than God’s word—a person’s own standard and judging according to that; or maybe even God’s word is used as a standard but only so that a person can quickly come to evil thoughts and jump to conclusions about someone else’s actions and it makes a person’s small weaknesses, even their sin of weakness into something huge. It is a loveless judgment!
What was happening in this church in Rome was that people were judging others about things that God has neither commanded nor forbidden. One person kept the Jewish dietary laws and observed Jewish holidays, and the other didn’t. Both groups were Christians but the one was comfortable keeping the old ways—not thinking it helped toward their salvation but maybe it helped in the devotional life and life of piety—but the other group didn’t. The one group following Jewish laws still, were offended when the Gentiles didn’t and they passed loveless judgment; the other group, the Gentile group, saw the Jewish group as weak in the faith, having to hold on to the past and so they despised them.
Dear Christian, even today we have to heed St. Paul and not judge others according to our own standard. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? We all have experienced God’s mercy and forgiveness and we all need it. But we despise God’s mercy when we set up our own standard and judge someone according to that. The thing is, there are no “cookie cutter” Christians—the only thing cookie cutter about us is the same Spirit-worked faith. We all have different gifts of the Holy Spirit; the faith of one is greater or weaker than another; we follow the Holy Spirit in living out our lives of faith and piety differently. That’s all OK. We are all part of the same body of Christ. We are all united in Christ. It is the devil who wants to destroy that Spirit-worked unity—especially in a congregation—by creating false divisions where there should be none. If we lovelessly judge our fellow Christian especially by setting up our own standard, we really are judging God—because God welcomed into His Church this one we are judging, as Paul writes in the Epistle: Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?
If we judge others harshly, without mercy, according to our own standard, in the end, our judgment doesn’t mean a thing because only God’s judgment matters. For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. The thing to remember is that as we are standing before the judgment throne of God, what will really matter? –Certainly not our judgments on the other; certainly not those “great” differences we lovelessly judged.
By keeping our judgment in mind, that each must appear in the judgment and how each of us needs and lives in the Lord’s mercy, may we live lives of repentance and faith, faith that shows itself in mercy toward our fellow Christian. INJ Amen