The pattern of forgiveness must not fail

Sermon for Trinity 22

Philippians 1:3-11  +  Matthew 18:23-35

The forgiveness of sins is at the heart of the Christian Gospel. But many people, including many Christians, don’t pay attention to how God forgives sins. They think that God just forgives everyone, because He’s an old softy and wouldn’t think of withholding forgiveness. And, because they think that’s how it is with God, they think that’s how Christians should be, too. Christians are sometimes scolded by atheists, in fact, if they don’t just forgive everything to everyone all the time.

But that’s not how it works. That’s not the Scriptural pattern of forgiveness. We’ve talked about this for the last several weeks. God is merciful toward all men. He wants to forgive everyone. He wants to be reconciled with everyone. He gave His Son to die on a cross so that all might be forgiven. But forgiveness is not the first step for God. God rebukes sinners for their sins. He calls them to repentance. And then, to those who repent, He offers the free forgiveness of sins won by Christ on the cross. Those who believe in Christ are forgiven.

It’s a simple pattern. God rebukes sin. He calls sinners to repentance. And He forgives the sins of those who repent. That’s the pattern God dependably follows. And, as we learn in today’s Gospel, it’s the pattern He expects His forgiven children to follow with one another. As Jesus said in another place, If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

Simple, right? If your brother sins against you, show him his fault. If he repents, forgive him. If he won’t repent, then keep trying to get him to repent by confronting him with one or two others. If he still won’t repent, keep trying to get him to repent by taking the matter to the Church. And if he won’t listen to the Church, then, as Jesus says earlier in Matthew 18, “let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.”

Fine. The pattern is set. But then, in the words right before our Gospel, Peter suggests that there may be a loophole in the pattern. Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times? In other words, what if this whole pattern plays out seven times. Seven times my brother sins against me, hurts me, causes me pain. Seven times I confront my brother with his sin. Seven times he repents. Do I really have to forgive him the seventh time? Haven’t I done more than enough in forgiving him six times? After that, should I (may I please?) tell him he’s reached his quota of forgiveness and then be done with him?

Jesus’ answer? I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. In other words, you shall never refuse to forgive your brother—if he repents! Far be it from you to withhold forgiveness from the penitent! And then He tells the parable that drives this pattern home.

The king wants to settle accounts with his servants. He brings in the one who owes him 10,000 talents—an astronomical figure, let’s call it the equivalent of $150 million. The king demands payment, and severe punishment if payment can’t be made. That’s the Law, telling the sinner he has sinned against God and must suffer eternal death, because he can never repay his debt.

The servant begs for patience on the king’s part and promises to pay it all back. That’s repentance. The sinner acknowledges the enormous debt he owes. He knows he deserves to be thrown in prison forever, because he can’t pay his debt. So he throws himself at the mercy of the king. In the parable, the man doesn’t ask for forgiveness. He asks for mercy, for a postponement of the punishment, for time to repay. The point of this parable isn’t to explain how Jesus would actually be the one who would offer His righteousness and His own blood as the payment for our sins, how He now says to us, “Here, use this! Use this to settle accounts with My Father, the King! He will accept this payment, because it’s the reason why I was sent in the first place, to give My life as the payment for sins, so that all you debtors might have something to pay back your debts with. Not with your own money, not with your own works, but with My works and with My blood.” That’s how God actually forgives sins. But the point of this parable is to show those who have been forgiven by God how they are to do with their brothers and sisters as God has done with them. And He doesn’t expect you to give your son into death for the sins of others. He does expect you to forgive the penitent as He has done.

The King in the parable has compassion and forgives the entire, enormous debt of that servant. The sinner no longer has to suffer anything in punishment for his sins. The sinner no longer has to come up with his own atonement, because the Father accepts the atonement made by Christ and applies it to the believer’s account. You no longer owe anything. You’re free to go, free to live as children of God. There it is: the pattern of forgiveness.

But the pattern breaks down when the forgiven servant leaves the presence of the king. It starts out the same; the servant finds a fellow servant—his brother in Christ—who owes him a hundred denarii—let’s say $5,000, which is nothing compared to the $150 million that the first servant owed the king. But the forgiven servant doesn’t just demand repayment from his fellow servant. He seized him and began to choke him. Already you see a great difference between the behavior of this servant and the behavior of the king. The servant is angry. He’s enraged. He isn’t simply settling accounts. He certainly isn’t desiring the repentance of his fellow servant, but wants to see him burn.

Now, the fellow servant pleads for patience and time to repay, with the same exact words the first servant used to plead before the king. The man’s brother is sorry for having sinned against him. He admits his fault. He asks for a chance to make it up to him.

But the first servant refuses and throws his fellow servant in prison. No mercy. No compassion. No desire to forgive. And no forgiveness is given to the penitent. Understand what that means. Now the first servant, who was at one time penitent and believing, has fallen from grace, has returned to impenitence and unbelief.

What happens to that unmerciful, unforgiving servant? The king is informed of the servant’s behavior and is appalled by it. You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?’ And his lord was angry and handed him over to the torturers, until he should pay everything he owed to his lord. “So also will my heavenly Father do to you, if you do not—each one of you, from the heart—forgive your brothers their trespasses.”

You can’t reject the pattern of forgiveness toward your fellow Christian and at the same time keep enjoying the pattern of forgiveness for yourself. If you refuse to forgive the penitent, then you have fallen from grace. You have become impenitent and unbelieving. Now, your brother’s sins against you may be serious. They may hurt. (Or in other cases, they may not be very serious at all and yet you’re still inclined to take offense and stay angry and to refuse forgiveness!) In any case, Jesus puts it in perspective for you. Your sins against God cannot be counted, cannot be measured. They are far more serious than anything any man could do to you. Take the most heinous crime a human being can commit against another human being, and then realize, your crimes, your trespasses against God, in His judgment, are many thousands of times worse than that, to use Jesus’ analogy. Your only hope of salvation is in the mercy of God and in the pattern of forgiveness He Himself has established and embraced.

That pattern never fails, because God never changes. It must not fail for you, either. That means that, if someone has sinned against you and he isn’t sorry for it, forgiveness is not the step required of you at that point, but a heart of mercy still is, the readiness to forgive if that person repents—that’s required of you. And if the person repents, then forgiveness, from the heart, is the step required of you. Now, that forgiveness, when it’s given, may not mean that everything goes back to exactly the way it was before; there are sometimes lingering consequences here on earth for certain sins. But forgiveness must be given, nonetheless, or else you’re, in effect, turning toward Jesus and saying, “You are not my Lord! You are not my Master! My brother’s offense against me is greater than Your forgiveness toward me and more important than Your command.”

No, if your brother has sinned against you and you realize that you have no desire for your brother to repent, no desire to forgive him for the wrong he’s done to you, if you realize that you have been withholding forgiveness from your brother who is penitent, then recognize your own impenitence, and turn from it. Turn from your hardness of heart, before it’s too late, and take refuge in the blood of Christ, which was shed just as must for your sins as for your brother’s sins. Take Jesus’ warning seriously. Take the pattern of forgiveness seriously. Because already in Holy Baptism your immeasurable debts to God were cleared. And here in the Gospel, here in the Sacrament, full and free forgiveness of all your debts is offered to you again today. Go forward with it in peace, and take care to put it into practice with one another. Amen.