A Sermon preached on Sunday September 13, 2020 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden and St. Christoph, Mainz
Genesis 50:15-21, Romans 14:1-12, Matthew 18:21-35
I suspect that it is because I have just become a grandfather that I have started remembering children’s books. One of my favorites is: “Weißt du eigentlich wie lieb ich dich hab?” Or in the original English “Guess how much I love you?”
It is about a little hare and a big hare. Guess how much I love you, says the little hare stretching his arms out, this much! Which the big hare then copies, and of course that is much more because he is much taller. So the little hare stands on its toes and reaches up: this much, which is also copied by the big hare …. And so it goes with handstands and jumping into the air until finally the little hare says: I love you all the way to the moon. Oh, that is a very long way, says the big hare and only when the little hare is asleep does he say, “we love one another to the moon and back again.”
In today’s gospel, Peter does not want to know how much Jesus loves him, at least not this time. Instead he wants to know how often should he forgive his brother or sister? As many as seven times (which is already more than Torah demands)? No, Jesus says, “Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy-seven times (or in some sources, seventy times seven).” (Matt. 18:21) Which is a bit like to the moon and back again: an awful lot, as good as without limit.
This is not the first time we have heard about the need to forgive in Matthew’s gospel. Giving and receiving forgiveness is described as an essential element of following Christ. A few chapters earlier, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Mt.6:14-15) And of course it also one of the petitions in the prayer that Jesus taught and that is introduced in this gospel just before that explanation: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Or “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” to use the wording we know so well. I am assuming you all take the Lord’s Prayer seriously, so that linkage – forgive as you are forgiven should not be a surprise. But clearly it was and still is a surprise and a challenge, and so Jesus tells one of his stories to help his listeners understand what this petition really means.
The first thing to focus on in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, is that the first slave or servant, probably one the king’s ministers – not a job for elected politicians in those days – is forgiven an unimaginably huge debt. According to one commentary, one silver talent was worth about $1 million and somehow this servant has managed to accumulate a debt of 10,000 talents. And yet it is forgiven completely. The one who owes the first servant money however, owed very, very little in comparison, just 100 denarii. And yet the “unforgiving servant” is unwilling to forgive this debt, despite what he has just received and experienced. The ending of the parable is challenging: “And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he should pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matthew 18:34-35)
Is that why we should forgive? To avoid eternal damnation and torture, out of fear of punishment? Or is it to make sure that God forgive us? “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” It sounds like it, but no. That is not the reason. For one thing, forgiveness is actually good for us. Studies have shown that forgiveness aids mental and physical health, while the opposite reaction—holding a grudge and harboring resentment—has the opposite effect. But that is not the main reason either.
Firstly, we do not need to forgive others before we are forgiven. This story is carefully crafted, nothing is accidental, and the king forgives the servant with the huge debt first, without any condition. That is true for us too. In and through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has already taken upon Godself all our burdens and sins and debts and has forgiven them completely, irrevocably, and utterly. It was an act of love and an invitation to respond in kind, imitating this divine mercy in our lives and relationships. Knowing this, Jesus says, we should be able to forgive others their sins against us. And if we are still counting the number of times that we have forgiven someone, to see if they have run out of credit, then we really have not forgiven them in the first place. Their debt has not been wiped out and we are waiting for payback time.
Secondly, if we do not forgive others as God has forgiven us, then God’s forgiveness does not really take effect and change or lives. Theologian Tom Wright says that only if our heart is open, able, and willing to forgive others, will it also be open to receive God’s love and forgiveness. If it’s locked up to the one, it will be locked up to the other.[1] Or to use another example, the metaphor that Jesus often uses in the Gospels to describe forgiveness is the setting free of a prisoner; it’s to “loose or unbind” someone. Without this, both sinner and sinned against are chained to their past and shackled from changing. Forgiveness is an act of transformation. In the parable, the unforgiving servant punishes himself, and is trapped in a prison of his own doing.
Just to be clear and to avoid misunderstandings. Forgiveness is not the same as forgetting, nor does it mean condoning wrong or bad behavior. We cannot really forgive a debt, until it is acknowledged. And we still want those who are doing wrong to change – that was part of last week’s gospel: not hesitating to speak the truth and to point out faults and sins, whether individual or systemic ones. Forgiveness and justice are not mutually exclusive. But we signed up to follow the one who taught us to turn the other cheek, and to love not only our neighbor, but also our enemy. And we believe that this way will transform us, the other, and the world.
That is certainly what we saw after the 2015 shooting in Charleston when several relatives of the nine people slain inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church appeared in court and told the killer, Dylann Roof, that they would forgive him. “I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you,” a daughter of one victim said. “We have no room for hating, so we have to forgive,” said the sister of another. “I pray God on your soul.”[2]
That is why today’s parable is what we call a parable of the kingdom. It started with the words “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to ….,” because following the teaching of this parable is what will help bring that kingdom of heaven into being in all our lives.
How often should we forgive? Not seven times, but, seventy-seven times, or all the way to the moon and back. We forgive because God forgives. We forgive because our own debt to sin has been forgiven. We forgive, not from above out of moral superiority, we know that we are forgiven sinners, but out of love. Every time we forgive, we are passing on a tiny amount of the forgiveness we have already received from God. We forgive to break cycles of hate, violence and revenge. We forgive to change the world.
Amen.
