“Be Always and Ever Forgiving One Another”
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Dear fellow forgivers of one another, grace, mercy, and peace from
God the forgiving Father and Christ Jesus our forgiving Lord. [Amen.]
“‘Forgive our sins as we forgive,’
You taught us, Lord, to pray;
But You alone can grant us grace
To live the words we say.”
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
843:1)
Gospel
Reading...............................................................................
St. Matthew 18:21-22
21Then Peter came up and said to [Jesus], “Lord, how often will my brother
sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22Jesus said
to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”
Prologue: Near the end of last Sunday’s Gospel Reading we heard
Jesus tell His disciples: “If your brother [fellow Christian] sins against
you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to
you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or
two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the
evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell
it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him
be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever
you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven.” (St Matt 18:15-18 ESV)
That particular text is the basis for Church Discipline that may
lead to Excommunication as explained in our Synodical Catechism with the
following three questions and answers: “279. What great care must be taken
in dealing with an openly unrepentant sinner? The Christian congregation
must carry out church discipline in love and patience. 283. What is the
purpose of excommunication? Excommunication is not intended to punish the
sinner, but to A. lead him or her to repentance and faith; [and] B. prevent
him or her from leading others into sin. 284. What is the duty of a
congregation toward an excommunicated sinner who repents? The congregation
must forgive any excommunicated person who repents and receive him or her
back into full fellowship.” (Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation.
Copyright © 1986, 1991 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Pages
228-230.) You see, Church Discipline, when done with a proper attitude, is
NOT about scornful rejection but about compassionate rescue. And that
compassionate rescue is found in God-ordained and love-motivated
forgiveness.
That then begs the question: Just what does “forgive” mean? The
Merriam-Webster internet dictionary defines the transitive verb “forgive”
for English language learners as “to stop feeling anger toward (someone who
has done something wrong); to stop blaming (someone).” In other words,
“forgive” means to cast away the sin that someone has committed as
exemplified by Yahweh Himself: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to
anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will
he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are
above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our
transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so
the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.” (Ps 103:8-13 ESV)
It’s the effort by the power of the Holy Spirit to look upon and
treat a person who has sinned as if he or she had not sinned. To “forgive”
is the willingness and commitment to treat someone who sinned with
Christ-like care, concern, and compassion. “Forgiveness,” then, is an
attitude of self-sacrificial, self-denying love that motivates us to give
that person who sinned what he or she needs, not necessarily what he or she
wants. True forgiveness is not defined by the ability to forget someone’s
sin. Rather, it’s defined by treating the person who sinned as if we have
forgotten it.
A review of The Fifth Petition of The Lord’s Prayer would
certainly help. So, please turn to page 324 in the Lutheran Service Book
hymnal, page 324, where you’ll find The Fifth Petition on the right side of
that page. Page 324. Let’s read it together at this time. “And forgive us
our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. What does this
mean? We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at
our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the
things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He
would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve
nothing but punishment. So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good
to those who sin against us.”
That petition sounds like a conditional request for God to forgive
us as we forgive others, doesn’t it? I don’t know about you, but I
certainly don’t want God to forgive me like I forgive others because my
sinfulness makes my ability and willingness to forgive others less than
perfect, incomplete, and even lacking. In order to understand this petition
more correctly, perhaps a better way to say it is: “And forgive us our
trespasses and lead us to likewise forgive those who trespass against us.”
At the same time, it’s vitally important to realize that refusing to forgive
someone is thereby rejecting God’s forgiveness. And that finally brings us
to today’s sermon theme, namely, …
“Be Always and Ever Forgiving One Another.”
While some, perhaps many, people think that mercy and grace are
the same thing and even sometimes use them interchangeably, well, they
really aren’t. You see, “mercy” is withholding from someone the punishment
he or she rightly deserves. “Grace,” on the other hand, is giving someone
precious gifts that he or she doesn’t deserve. In our relationship with
God, we deserve for Him to separate us from Himself by virtue of
damnation-to-hell’s-fiery-furnace because of our sinful disobedience of His
Law. Instead, however, He gives us what we don’t deserve: forgiveness of
our sins, healing of our sin-sick souls, and eternal life with Himself in
heaven.
His mercy and grace toward us are based on what Jesus did for us.
John the Baptizer, cousin of Jesus, declared about Him: “Behold, the Lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (St John 1:29 ESV) Saint Paul
wrote about Him: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a
curse for us.” (Gal 3:13a ESV) And Saint Peter wrote about Him: “He Himself
bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to
righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24 ESV) And
that extensive prologue brings us to the first part of this sermon,
namely, …
I. Mercy Begged For and Given … and Refused. (23-30)
23“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to
settle accounts with his servants. 24When he began to settle, one was
brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25And since he could not
pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all
that he had, and payment to be made. 26So the servant fell on his knees,
imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’
27And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and
forgave him the debt. 28But when that same servant went out, he found one
of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he
began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29So his fellow servant
fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’
30He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.
Contrasts abound in the Bible and in our personal lives.
Contrasts are opposites that play against each other. In this parable that
Jesus told His disciples, He presented a contrast between someone who wiped
out a very large debt that was owed him and that now-debt-free man’s refusal
to wipe out a much smaller debt that was owed him. In both cases, the
debt-burdened persons begged, even pleaded, for mercy—to not be punished for
not paying the debt they owed. The man who owed the much larger debt was
forgiven, his debt was cast away. However, he then refused to forgive (cast
away) the smaller debt that was owed him.
The contrast is very obvious. We would naturally assume that the
man who was forgiven the larger debt would be joyfully willing to forgive
the smaller debt that was owed him. But he wasn’t … and didn’t! And can’t
we hear the age-old sentiment loudly and clearly: THAT’S NOT FAIR! But much
more than not being fair is that it wasn’t loving, compassionate, or
merciful. What followed was …
II. The Lesson Taught … and Hopefully Learned. (31-35)
31When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly
distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken
place. 32Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33And should not
you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34And in
anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his
debt. 35So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do
not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Now this was severe! There was no room for vacillation, no room
for wavering, and no room for fluctuation. The master who had lovingly,
mercifully, and compassionately forgiven his servant the larger debt
addressed that man who refused to forgive the smaller debt as “You wicked
servant!” or in more contemporary language: “You good-for-nothing, lowdown,
ungrateful scoundrel!” His righteous and blameless anger was ignited by his
servant’s refusal to forgive the smaller debt owed to him after his much
larger debt had been wiped off the books. The result? The master then
withdrew his forgiveness and threw his now formerly-forgiven servant who
refused to likewise forgive into prison until he would pay his debt in full,
something that most likely he could never do since he was in prison where we
would consequently remain for the rest of his life.
Okay, here’s where it gets personal … and perhaps a bit
uncomfortable. “The blood of Jesus [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin.”
(1 John 1:7 ESV) That is, when Jesus prayed “Father, forgive them … .” (St
Luke 23:34 ESV) while hanging, suffering, and dying on Calvary’s cross to
atone for the sins of all people of all time, that prayer extended to us as
well. That forgiveness that Jesus gained with His Holy life, innocent
inhumane suffering, and gruesome crucifixion death, was applied to us in our
Baptism … and we continue to be reminded and reassured of that when we read
God’s Holy Word, hear Holy Absolution, and partake of Christ’s true
supernatural body and blood that’s really present in the natural bread and
wine of Holy Communion. The most valuable and expensive gift of all, then,
is that “Our only hope is in the mercy of our gracious God. And he has told
us that he freely forgives us all our sins for Jesus’ sake. We are free.
We are heirs of everlasting life. No sin stands between us and our heavenly
Father.” (G. Jerome Albrecht & Michael J. Albrecht in People’s Bible
Commentary: Matthew. Copyright © 1996 Concordia Publishing House, St.
Louis, MO. Page 265.)
The personal and perhaps uncomfortable question for us is: What do
we do with the forgiveness that God gives us? Do we selfishly keep it to
ourselves, refusing to give it to others who have sinned against us? Or do
we freely and generously give it to anyone and everyone who sins against us?
How we answer those questions in our thoughts, with our words, and through
our actions will either mercifully and graciously reflect the wonderful gift
of forgiveness that God gives us or serve to deny His forgiveness and
thereby forfeit the salvation and eternal life that result from it.
In conclusion, therefore, let’s realize that, as today’s Epistle
Reading informed us, “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies
to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the
Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to
this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead
and of the living.” (Rom 14:7-9 ESV) At the same time and in the context of
that reality, we daily experience what today’s Gradual revealed, namely:
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of
them all.” (Ps 34:19 ESV)
In those life situations where and when we ask for and receive
forgiveness from God and others around us, let us also …
“Be Always and Ever Forgiving One Another.”
After all, today’s Old Testament Reading gave us the glorious example of
that: “So [Joseph’s brothers] sent a message to Joseph, saying, ‘And now,
please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.’
But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for
you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about
that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I
will provide for you and your little ones.’ Thus he comforted them and
spoke kindly to them.” (Gen 50:16a, 17b, 19-21 ESV) In the light of such,
let us frequently review, contemplate, and meditate on …
I. Mercy Begged For and Freely Given … and Selfishly Refused. (23-30)
as well as …
II. The Lesson of Mercy Taught … and Hopefully Learned. (31-35)
As we do so let us do so praying the prayers of today’s Collect:
“Hear the devout prayers of Your Church, especially in times of persecution,
and grant that what we ask in faith we may obtain.” and today’s Introit:
“Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your
faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! Enter not into judgment with
your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.” (Ps 143:1-2 ESV)
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our
holy Savior. [Amen.]
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
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