"All Debts Are Paid in Jesus" (portions from CPR Vol. 18, Part 4)
Matthew
Pastor
How many of
you have financial debts? Probably most
if not all of us, right? In our society
you can't really get by without some type of credit. Even if it's just last month's light bill, we
owe someone for something. Credit card
companies, the bank that holds our mortgage or car loan or just the store that
lets us keep an account open, probably most of us have financial debts. Well wouldn't it be nice if those debts - no matter
how small or large they may be - don't you wish they could just be canceled?
Well today's
reading from the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 18, Jesus' parable of the
unmerciful servant, is all about canceling debts. And while Jesus does use the illustration of
financial debts being canceled, his point behind all of this is about the
canceling of another kind of debt - of course it's that debt called sin. For you see when someone does you wrong - "sins
against you" is how Jesus describes it earlier in the chapter - but when
someone does you wrong that person is indebted to you until you release him
from that debt. And how do you release someone
from that debt to you? With forgiveness.
Let's say
for instance that somebody is always saying bad stuff about you. Of course that's not right - it is a sin
against the 8th commandment - they have taken something from you - that is, your
good name. And they owe it back to you -
they are indebted to you. Now in Jesus'
day the Jewish tradition was to forgive a debt only if certain conditions were
met - maybe they first had to apologize.
And often forgiveness came at a price: the sinner had to make it up to
you somehow. Maybe take steps to restore
your good name. Also, you were obliged
to forgive somebody the same sin only three times - after that - you could
withhold your forgiveness - the fourth time they drug your name through the
mud, well you could keep that debt against them - didn't have to forgive them.
Well in our
Gospel lesson Peter comes to Jesus with a question and Peter seems to be
showing a bit of generosity here, offering to forgive the same sin not just the
required three times, but seven times.
Apparently some of Jesus' teaching is starting to sink in with Peter -
but not quite enough. For Jesus answers
this question with a statement that really would have been quite shocking for
Peter - an answer that shows that Peter, while he might be heading in the right
direction, he's still got a lot to learn about the kingdom of heaven. "I
tell you," Jesus answers Peter, you are to forgive him "not seven times, but seventy-seven
times." … You know maybe we can keep a list in our mind of the three
times that we have had to forgive a fellow brother or sister for their sin
against us and maybe we can keep a list as long as Peter's generous seven
times. But
seventy-seven times? No. No, not going to be able to do it. In other words, Jesus is saying that we're
not to be about counting, keeping a list about how many times we've had to
release our brother or sister from that debt called sin. No rather according to Jesus our forgiveness
is to be unlimited, no strings attached, no conditions, no lists. Unlimited …
Of course
Jesus then explains this rather unconventional and shocking teaching with a
rather shocking parable - the story about a man who owes a huge debt - 10's of
millions of dollars in fact would be our equivalent. The man owes the king the money and so the
king wants it. The king is not being a
tyrant, he's just being just, merely wants what is owed him. However this just king is also a generous
king who's willing to cancel the whole enormous debt and take a loss. And so he does. At the pleadings of servant, the king freely
forgives. …
Now you
would think this servant would be excited, ecstatic, ready
to share his good fortune with the rest of the world. But shockingly,
unbelievably, this man whose multi-million dollar debt has just been forgiven -
a debt he could never possibly have repaid - goes to a fellow servant who owes
him a few bucks. The fellow servant begs
for forgiveness of the debt but to no avail - his fellow servant has him thrown
into prison. Sad story really. I mean this first servant, will not forgive
as he had been forgiven - and certainly he had been forgiven much more. And so as a result, in the end, he gets cast
into hellish darkness. And Jesus
concludes by saying, "This is how my
heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from
your heart." In other words,
forgive others, as you have first been forgiven by the Lord your God.
And we have
been forgiven by the Lord our God, haven't we?
I mean consider this morning. How
did we begin our service? In humility we
confessed our sins, right? And what was
God's response? Was it "Now wait a
minute, you were just here last week saying the same thing - asking for
forgiveness? And the
week before that and the week before that and the week before that. Enough is enough." … No. No, that wasn't
his response, was it? Rather his
response, spoken through your pastor was "I forgive you. I forgive you all your sins in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Period, that's it. And your sin WAS removed,
your sin IS removed from you as far as the east is from the west. I don't care how many times you've stood
before this altar and confessed and been forgiven. I don't care how many times you've knelt at
your bedside and with tears begged the Lord to forgive you yet once again. That forgiveness that He gives you there,
that He gives you here, it's still just as true and as valid as it was the very
first time. Because of Jesus and His
sacrificial death on the cross, your sin is gone once again; God is not
counting it against you. God's not
counting.
And neither
do we have to. I mean think about it,
God freely forgives you and me all the time with no condition. How can we then turn around and do any
different for our neighbor or for our fellow Christian? Of course it's not easy, is it? Endlessly forgiving the backstabber every
single time he hurts you, treating him as if each time is the first. It can be much easier to hold a grudge, to
hold it over their heads by reminding them of their past sins, to seek revenge by
slandering their reputation. That can be
easier and unfortunately that's probably the path we choose all too often. But that's not who we are, is it? That's now how we have been treated by God
who HAS removed all our sins from us by His blood of the cross. By withholding forgiveness that does not
reflect who we are or whose we are!
Think about
it. If you owed someone several millions
of dollars, that debt should haunt you every day for I imagine there's not a
one of us who could ever possibly repay it.
And so to have that debt suddenly and unconditionally forgiven would
fill you with an indescribable relief and incomparable joy, right? … We owed God a debt we could never repay -
sinning against our fellow man and of course all sin is ultimately a sin
against God. We owed God a debt we could
never repay - in fact a debt that left us outside the kingdom of heaven with
absolutely no way of getting in. The
gates shut. But Jesus has paid the price
- a very heavy price - His innocent sufferings and death. The gates are now open. Heaven is now your
eternal home as you have been forgiven thanks be to
Jesus.
And you know what, that even includes
the many times when the sinner doesn't even ask for it! We don't always remember all our sins against
God, but he forgives us anyway: "If
you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, who could stand"
- the list of all our sins - known and unknown - could stretch from here to the
moon and back. "But with you, O Lord, there is forgiveness." "With the Lord there is
forgiveness." You have been
forgiven and now you can forgive. You
have been shown mercy, now you can show that same mercy to others.
And again, I
know it's often difficult to forgive, yet the remarkable thing about Jesus is
that he forgives us even for the times we don't perfectly forgive others. And this forgiveness for our unforgiveness then in turn gives us a remarkable
strength and ability to then forgive others.
Do you want help forgiving? Do
you want help getting past a wrong against you or against a loved one that you
just can't seem to get past? Well number
one Jesus is there to forgive you for that - know that your sin is
forgiven. And number two, know, trust
that He is waiting there to help. Turn
it over to him and let his forgiveness for you, work through you. We can't do it, but by the Lord working in
us, He can. Turn it over to Him. …
And please also note here that Jesus
is not saying that we forgive and then FORGET everything others have done to
us. If somebody sins against you in a
big way or repeatedly, you can forgive them, but you probably will be more
careful trusting that person the next time.
I mean if someone steals money from your wallet, you certainly need to
forgive them, but you'll likely be more careful about leaving your wallet out
around them. And so
forgiveness does not mean letting yourself be take advantage of. I mean God gives us a brain in order to use
it, right? But no matter how we use it,
no matter what we do in our interactions with others, it's all to be a
reflection of how our good and gracious God has already and continues to treat
us.
Jesus was willing to suffer much
shame, suffer much hate and abuse for us - for our salvation. And so was somebody mean or rude to you last
week or unsympathetic to your needs?
Forgive them. Treat them as if it
never happened. Did somebody really burn
you in life? Though not excusable, it
too is forgiveable.
Forgive him or her just as Christ forgives you for the times YOU have
acted in an inexcusable way - and we all have.
Generously forgive as you have been generously forgiven. ..
You may still have financial debts -
and good luck getting those forgiven - but your debt against God? It's canceled, it's voided, it's been marked as paid in full with the blood of Christ
Jesus our Lord. Yes, paid in full, let's
mark those debts against us the same.
Amen.