Pastor Chris Matthis Epiphany Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Colorado Proper 19 (Pentecost 14), Series A Saturday, September 13th, 2014 Sunday, September 14th, 2014 Sermon: Love without Limits Text: Matthew 18:21-35 Focus: God freely and fully forgives our sins in Christ Jesus, even though we don t deserve it. Function: That they would love and forgive the people who sin against them. Structure: Story-Applied Locus: So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us (SC, 5th Petition of the Lord s Prayer). Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. In the Apostles Creed we claim that we believe in the forgiveness of sins. But I often wonder, Do we really? Do we really believe in the forgiveness of sins? Then why do we suffer under the weight of a guilty conscience instead of accepting God s free grace? If we believe in the forgiveness of sins, then why do we bear grudges against other people? Why do we cut them out of our lives when they hurt us, offend us, or disappoint us too many times? If we really believe in the forgiveness of sins, then why do we say things like, I ll forgive him, but I won t forget! and I may have to love her, but I don t have to like her? Have you ever heard somebody say something like that? (Have you ever said anything like that?) Truly, it is as C.S. Lewis writes, Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive. 1 We may say that we believe in the forgiveness of sins, but many of us are looking for a loop hole, a way to get around Jesus command to love our enemies and forgive those who sin against us. We would rather write them off and run them out of our lives than to risk the attempt at reconciliation and saving the relationship. We want to set limits on our love, which is why 1 C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Touchstone, 1996), 104.
Matthis 2 Simon Peter comes to Jesus in our Gospel lesson and asks, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? (Matt. 18:21, NIV). Just before our Gospel reading, Jesus has given his disciples instructions for how to handle conflict in healthy ways (Matt. 18:15-20). He says that if your brother sins against you, go and talk about it one-on-one, face to face, between you and him alone (Matt. 18:15, ESV). 2 But Peter wants to know what is the reasonable expectation for how many times you deal with an offending brother. How many times will he sin against you, and you still go to him to try to work things out? How long before you finally just give up and get on with your life? As many as seven times? Peter asks. Like all of us, Peter is looking for a guideline, a limit to how far he must go with this relationship business. 3 Maybe we smirk at Peter s question and begrudge his seeming lack of generosity. But Peter is actually being quite generous. The rabbis of Jesus day said that you only had to forgive somebody three times. The fourth time you could write them off as a dirty, rotten scoundrel. So when Peter asks if he must forgive seven times, he is trying very hard to look extremely righteous. No doubt, he expects Jesus to give him a pat on the back. But it s not enough. Not seven times, Jesus says, but seventy-seven times (Matt. 18:22, NIV). Seven times is not enough! We must be willing to forgive as many as 77 times. Some Bible scholars translate the Greek expression as 70 x 7, which is 490 times! Regardless of whether Jesus said 77 or 490 times, the point is the same: there is no limit to forgiveness. No matter how many times our brother or sister sins against us, we must always be ready and willing to forgive them. Forgiveness is for giving away and paying it forward. That is why the Bible says, Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave 2 All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. 3 Barbara Brown Taylor, Once More from the Heart, in The Seeds of Heaven: Sermons on the Gospel of Matthew (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 92.
Matthis 3 you (Eph. 4:32). God expects us to forgive other people in the exact same way that Jesus forgives us: fully, freely, unconditionally, and without limit. And that is why the believer in Christ who does not forgive others is really no Christian at all. C.S. Lewis writes, We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what he says. 4 In the parable that Jesus tells, we witness the terrible consequences that befall the unforgiving servant, a wicked man who was forgiven billions of dollars in debt and yet refused to forgive a small debt of only a few thousand dollars in response. When the king found out about the servant s terrible lack of mercy, he handed him over to the torturers (i.e., threw him into hell) until he worked off his debt which, of course, he never could. Jesus sternly warns, So also my heavenly Father will do to everyone one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart (Matt. 18:35). In response to God s overwhelming mercy and grace towards us, we must be willing to extend that same mercy to others. As the king said to the unforgiving servant, You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? (Matt. 18:32-33). Yes, of course, he should have had mercy on his fellow servant. He was despicable not to forgive his fellow servant. God s forgiveness is supposed to change us. The king s overwhelming compassion and forgiveness should have transformed the very heart and nature of the wicked man. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17). Having been forgiven of our sins, we are now motivated by the Gospel to show that same love to others. As we pray in the Lord s Prayer, Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven 4 C.S. Lewis, On Forgiveness in The Weight of Glory, Kindle Edition.
Matthis 4 our debtors (Matt. 6:12). Jesus adds, For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt. 6:14-15). God has forgiven each of us a much greater debt than anything anyone else owes us: our own sins. For we daily sin much. 5 Which is why, Luther says, We too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us. This is a hard saying, but it s perfectly clear. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it; if you refuse to forgive others, you will not be forgiven. Jesus couldn t make it plainer. And so, if we would rather bear a grudge than forgive, if we would rather harbor resentment against other people instead of reconciling with them, then we will discover that we are building a prison for ourselves. And if we do not repent of our un-grace and dig up the root of bitterness in time, we ourselves will be cast into the hell of fire. This is serious business. Deadly serious. I hope you are taking notes! When you confess in the Creed that we believe in the forgiveness of sins, think about what you are saying, and ask yourself if you really mean it. And when you pray in the Lord s Prayer, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, give careful answer to this: if God really were to forgive you in the same way that you forgive others, how would that turn out for you? I am thankful that is not the meaning we are to take. No, I am ecstatically grateful! For when it comes to forgiving others, I think I need quite a bit more of God s forgiveness myself. At times, I can be just as much a miser as the unforgiving servant. So when I read this parable, I think to myself, There but for the grace of God go I! But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son (Rom. 5:10). While we were still weak, at 5 Martin Luther, The Small Catechism, 5 th Petition of the Lord s Prayer.
Matthis 5 the right time, Christ died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6). Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for all the wicked servants. Christ died for you and me. And that is the only reason we can even begin to make a move towards forgiving others. Barbara Brown Taylor writes, If I am able to forgive at all, it is because I have been forgiven, because thanks to someone else, I know how it feels to have my debts cancelled, my credit restored, my relationship renewed. 6 In the end, isn t that what you really want with the people you re mad at? Not a break in relationship and certainly not a break up but rather healing and forgiveness? I hope so. If you are really a Christian, then I know it s true. So take a moment right now and consider: who is the brother or sister who has sinned against you? It may be another brother or sister in Christ. It may be your literal, biological brother or sister. It could be your parents, your children, your boss, your husband or wife, your pastor, another church member, a teacher, a coach, a friend or neighbor. Think of who that person is. Picture them in your mind. Speak their name silently in your heart. What chains of bitterness, anger, guilt, or fear bind you to that person? What hurt or insult has gotten in the way of your relationship? Think carefully. Now let it go. Let it go! Turn it over to God, and let it go. Say, Jesus, take this bitterness away from me! Change my heart, and teach me to love that person. Help me to love and forgive them. Yes, bring them to repentance so they too may receive forgiveness. Help us to be friends again. Help us to get along, if not for my sake, at least for Christ s sake. And for their sake! But above all, Lord, have mercy on me! And thanks be to God he will! In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 6 Taylor, 95.