September 17, 2023 Text: Matthew 18:21-35
Dear Friends in Christ,
A young Nazi officer, dying in a Polish concentration camp hospital, asked a nurse to bring a Jew to him from the camp. He wanted to confess his horrible misdeeds and receive forgiveness. Then he thought he could die in peace. The Jew she brought was Simon Wiesenthal, who survived the Holocaust and became well known for promoting knowledge about it. At the bedside of the soldier, he listened to the confession. The soldier told how several hundred Jews were herded into a house in a Russian village. Cans of gasoline were put into the house, and then it was set afire with grenades. The soldiers were ordered to shoot anyone who tried to escape. The dying soldier confessed in great anguish how a father with his clothes on fire, holding a baby, jumped out of a second story window. “We shoot” he says “I shall never forget it – it haunts me. Please forgive me and let me die in peace.”
Wiesenthal later wrote, “I stood up and looked in his direction, at his folded hands. At last I made up my mind and without a word left the room.” Later some rabbis confirmed his action when they wrote, “Whoever is merciful to the cruel will end up being indifferent to the innocent…Let the SS man die unforgiven. Let him go to hell.”
Have you ever been hurt so bad that you wanted someone to go to hell? Have you withheld forgiveness because of pettiness or hatred? How far does the Lord want us to take forgiveness? He is going to answer that in our text. Let’s take a look at how we can . . .
“FAST FORWARD TO FORGIVE”
We live in age of quick reaction. With our remote control or mouse, we can fast forward to about anything. We expect things to be quick. In today’s parable Jesus asks us, as it were, to not fast forward to forgive but to rewind. If we rewind it allows us to recall what Jesus has said and done for us. We can slow down the fast pace of our emotions, helping us, instead of becoming enraged, to forgive others as God has forgiven us.
Peter poses the question to Jesus, and it gives Jesus a chance to tell a parable. Note in these verses from Matthew all of the accounting language, which makes sense since Matthew was a tax collector. On to the parable.
A king needs to settle debts and a servant is brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. A talent was a monetary unit worth about 20 years wages to a laborer. Times that by ten thousand . . . and well there is no way the servant can pay it back. Then the master really hits him in the gut. He gets his family involved. They should be sold, and a payment should be made. The servant is in an impossible situation.
What situation have you been in where you saw no way out? Job loss, your investments tanked, a mortgage couldn’t be met. When we discussed this text at our Pastor’s Conference this week one Pastor told the story of a farm wife in his congregation who lost the family farm because of online gambling. It can happen that quick.
The only thing the servant could do was hit his knees and ask for patience. Amazingly, the master had unbelievable compassion. He released him and forgave the debt. Now we are going to see if the servant lived by the adage, “do unto others as they have done unto you.”
He fails. He finds a servant who owes him much less – a denarius – a day’s wage and he begins to choke him. He has no compassion. His master is shocked at his behavior and calls him a “wicked servant.” He failed to have mercy as he had been given mercy.
What about you and I? Do we ever fail to have mercy? Do we fall short in our forgiveness? Where do you see yourself in the parable?
If you have ever had a financial debt forgiven, it is a great relief, but it pales in comparison with what Jesus did for us. His gift is completely beyond what we could hope or dream. Paul writes, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Col. 3:13)
Keep the rewind button handy so that you may recall all that God has done for you. In the perfect life, atoning death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has totally forgiven you. We should then take the forgiveness given to us by the Lord and fast forward our forgiveness to others.
When we are slow to forgive there can be more conflict and bitterness. Unforgiven sin leaves a stained heart and soul. Is there a grudge you still hang on to after many years? Let it go and forgive as you have been forgiven. Christ has had the utmost compassion on us. His forgiveness is total and complete. I like this saying, “Don’t bury the hatchet with the handle up for future use.”
When God reigns in our hearts and the Holy Spirit does His work, God’s people forgive just as they have been forgiven.
Amen.