Forgiveness

Midweek communion at St Giles – Thursday 16 August 2012

Gospel Matthew 18

When the Gospel is announced the reader says

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

The parable of the unmerciful servant

²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’

²² Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

²³ ‘Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. ²⁵ Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

²⁶ ‘At this the servant fell on his knees before him. “Be patient with me,” he begged, “and I will pay back everything.” ²⁷ The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.

²⁸ ‘But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. “Pay back what you owe me!” he demanded.

²⁹ ‘His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, “Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.”

³⁰ ‘But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. ³¹ When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

³² ‘Then the master called the servant in. “You wicked servant,” he said, “I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. ³³ Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” ³⁴ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

³⁵ ‘This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

People ask about forgiveness. Marital affairs. Forgive once, but not twice. Yellow card. Jesus says 77 times. Or 70 times 7 – depending on translation. 7 a magic number. Both ways of expressing how many times = infinite.

Does this mean you will be taken for a mug, as a soft touch, a doormat? Maybe, or maybe not. We all know those lovely people who would forgive anyone anything. They are not treated worse necessarily, or taken advantage of.

That’s not the point, though. As Christians, our whole aim is to be like Jesus. WWJD?? He is incarnate God. How often do we expect our sins to be forgiven. Twice? Seventy times seven, and you’ve used up your lives. Or times without end?

If that’s what we expect of God, and that’s what we are taught, then that’s how we must behave towards our neighbours. Forgiveness is not unconditional though. You can only forgive when repentance is real and true. And that often means restitution. Putting matters right, as far as you can, to the best of your ability.

As the Lord’s Prayer says, “forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us” Repentance, restitution, reconciliation – all ingredients leading to putting matters right with God and our neighbour, as far as we are able.

The point of the parable is clear. God forgave the servant a huge debt. One he could never repay in several lifetimes. In return, he was expect to forgive his fellow servants smaller debts, not by mere word, but ‘from your heart.’ Amen