Matthew 18:21-35New International Version (NIV)
The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.[a]
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[b] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[c] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
In the world of cosmetics blackheads are a problem.
Ever look through binocculers or a telescope the wrong way – the difference is stunning.
One makes something look a long way off the other brings things in real close.
When I was young I used to look at myself in the mirror up close – nowadays I tend to back off a little.
Why because the further back I go without glasses the less blemishes I see.
In cosmetics the secret to blemishes it seems is covering them up
Our bible reading this morning covers a much more serious issue.
How do we deal with blemishes in our lives and others lives?
The accusation and blame game are very live issues these days.
Whoever heard of a Politician putting up their hand and saying, actually, the mess in this country is my fault?
But the passage this morning asks us to go to the deepest deepest issues and to take an approach to offenses that goes way beyond most human activity and most so called normal human responses.
In the Lord’s prayer we pray forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us Matthew chapter 6 but as Max Lucado says
You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you.
I think there is something valuable here which is certainly contained in the bible reading this morning.
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[b] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
Those of us who have seen the Gold mine up at Freshford here will agree that ten thousand bags of Gold is something of immense value. In modern day terms it has been assessed -
Variously in one version it talks about ten thousand talents v.24 A talent was the highest currency in the economy. 10,000 was the highest number in 1st Century arithmetic. The highest number of the highest currency. Literally speaking 10,000 Talents = approx. 10 million dollars adjusted for today!
v.26 Rather absurd claim. Patience to pay back 10 million $$$? Not in a lifetime!
v.27 YET, the King shows mercy and forgives the enormous debt!
Other people have estimated it to be billions whatever the comparison we need to understand it is a huge debt that is unable to be paid back.
The singlemost cause of Christian presumption is the christian’s inability to understand the cosmic proportions of God’s forgiveness and the ugliness of sins.
Of course you are probably not going to return home today feeling edified if I just weigh you down with the enormity of your sin. You thought your sin was a feather but it turns out to be an elephant.
But it also isn’t going to work if you look at your sins through the binoculers one way and your enemies sins through the binoculers the other way.
Francis Chan talks about a toilet in relation to sin I would like you to look at this clip.
See I think we look at sin at the fun park ride end of sin and politely ask for forgiveness but no-one wants to go into the sewers the destination of sin.
You know in Genesis we discover that sin disconnects and distances Adam from God the tsame thing is happening today.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”
–Romans 5:12
“...by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners...” Romans 5:19
We call this doctrine, the _depravity of man_.
“ For as in Adam all die...” –1 Corinthians 15:22
BUT...
Romans 5:19 REALLY says: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
1 Corinthians 15:22 REALLY says: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”
Why all this talk about sin – because when we are called to forgive others we need to discover the enormity of our own sins. We tend to excuse ourselves and use sin to solve sin so it gets worse – we see that in the world today that is why we have gay marriage – people in really confused and sinful relationships re demanding the worlds respect but can never get God to endorse their behaviour they need compassion and help but the right compassion and help.
Have you ever been involved in a conversation and people are gossiping about the faults of this person or that and you begin to contribute to the conversation. You leave all self righteous until you realise that you have been guilty of the very same thing.
Think of it like a see saw put a small weight on one end – that is someone elses sin and put a mouse on the other end the small weight stgoes down and you are elevated. But when your sin is seen for what it really is then your sin becomes like an elephant and others are elevated compared to you.
Jesus once was confronted with a woman caught in adultery. She was caught redhanded and her accusers appealed to the law where the law said she should be stoned to death. Jesus pointed out that the one who was without sin should throw the first stone.
At that moment the mouse on the end of the see saw became the elephant. They saw their own sin in the clear light of day and one by one they left.
What happened
John chapter 8 verse 6 But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.
7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."
8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
What happened in those men while Jesus was writing on the ground – they were looking at their own sins and it led them to leving.
The first principle in the 70 times seven forgiveness that Jesus raises is surely getting your own sins into perspective.
The problem with the unforgiving servant was that all he could see was the other servants sin – He had been forgiven a huge amount – but all he could see was the little amount the other servant owed him.
First point is understand the power of God’s grace in your life! Never lose sight of how much you have been forgiven
On December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and thrust the United States into World War II. Jacob DeShazer volunteered for the Jimmy Doolittle raid which bombed Tokyo on April 18, 1942. At the time DeSahzer was an Atheist and when his plane was going down because it ran out of fuel he parachuted into Japanese controlled territory in China. As a Japanese prisoner of war Jacob DeSahzer was taken into custody. In captivity the US Army Air Force men were interrogated, tortured, and faced extended isolation by the Japanese. Furthermore three Airmen – two pilots Lt. Dean Hallmark and Lt. William Farrow and a rear gunner, Harold Spatz were executed by firing squad on October 15, 1942. During his captivity Jaocb DeShazer watched the Japanese starve to death one of his friends. DeSahzer himself was forced into solitary confinement for 36 months. The weight on his 5’ 6” frame dropped from 160 to 128 pounds. And at times his body was covered with boils. He was regularly maltreated and DeShazer’s hatred for the Japanese grew during this time
In time eventually the Japanese gave the troops a Bible. Meanwhile DeShazer’s hatred for the Japanese increased and almost drove him insane, and tore him apart. He began to wonder what could cause such hatred between members of the human race? What made one people group hate another, and what made Jacob DeSahzer hate them? In a dimly lit prison cell DeSahzer read through the Bible several times, he examined the prophecies and followed their fulfillment. In that prison cell he did business with the Lord. He also memorized the Sermon of the Mount by Jesus and committed 1 John to memory. On June 8, 1944 in his prison cell Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved stood out to him. Meanwhile 1 John 1:9 which states If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness also grabbed a hold of him. DeShazer had realized that his Japanese torturers were cruel because they did not know the Lord. And it was natural for people to be cruel. He read Jesus praying for the people spitting, and crucifying him saying “Father forgive them they know not what they do…” And DeShazer realized that he had to forgive his Japanese torturers and prayed to God that they would be forgiven. He responded to his prison guards with love and prayed for them. He responded with grace when he was kicked and beaten, and even learned how to say “Good morning” in Japanese. DeShazer realized how important forgiveness is to faith. On August 20, 1945 DeShazer was released from captivity.
1945. Japan as a nation state was defeated. Against this back drop Jacob DeShazer returned to Yokohama, Japan on December 28, 1948 as a missionary planting Methodist churches. The Japanese were intrigued and asked why? The questions that DeSahzer was asked went along the following, “What happened to you? Why did you come back? Didn’t they hit and spit on you and treat you mean? Why do you want to come back here?” And with that Jacob DeShazer taught them about the Lord and practiced forgiveness in the process. In the first year in Japan 30,000 people converted to Christianity. Jacob DeShazer forgave his prison guards who mistreated him. Many of his former prison guards also converted
But the most amazing act of forgiveness and reconciliation was yet to come. In 1950 Jacob DeShazer authored a letter or flyer called “I Was a Prisoner of Japan”. The flyer explained Jacob’s story from hatred of Japanese to Christianity and of his missionary work in Japan. During a time when he fasted in 1949 for 40 days his flyer made its way into the hands of Mitsuo Fuchida. Mitsuo Fuchida was the Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday December 7, 1941. He ordered the attack to commence and sent back the famous transmission “Tora, Tora, Tora” which indicated that the attack was a success. He was a national wartime hero in Japan. But in postwar Japan Fuchida was struggling and after reading DeShazer’s story, read through the Bible and converted to Christianity. In 1950 DeShazer and Fuchida met and with that a lifelong friendship was born and they became closeWhen he died in 1977 his close friend, Jacob DeShazer led the funeral, gave a sermon and said goodbye to his close friend.
Two so called war heroes – both guilty of horrendous violence – both guilty –
I think we need to learn to contextualise the sins of others.
In the story that Jesus told the unforgiving servant had enlarged the debt owed to him
Heres the comparison
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[c] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
Ten thousand bags of Gold compared with a hundred silver coins.
When you crunch the numbers it comes out like this
v.28a 6,000 Denarii = 1 Talent. 1 Denari = approx. 1 day’s wage, say $100. So 100 denarii (the amount in question here) = $10,000. A modest car loan. Could reasonably be paid off in a few years or less. And 1/1000 what the slave owed to the king. Imagine begging to be forgiven a debt of $1,000 and then turning around and severely threatening someone who owes you $1! (sermon central) But you need to add on a lot of naughts.
The action of the unforgiving servant is interesting. When he confronts his debtor he meets a plead for mercy and a request for time to repay him. Now this Servant is fresh off an amazing act of Grace from his Master. His debt – presumably caused by his own stupidity – meant he not only lost everything but his family as well. Yet it was all wiped out.
But he refuses to wipe out the debt of his fellow servant – even though he is offering to repay it – He has him thrown into jail. – The end result is the unforgiving servant hardens his heart:- Our reading says-
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
The second way to find forgiveness is to understand the smallness of the debts your enemies have incurred against you compared to the debt you have incurred with God
Don Ratzlaff retells a story Vernon Grounds came across in Ernest Gordon's Miracle on the River Kwai. The Scottish soldiers, forced by their Japanese captors to labor on a jungle railroad, had degenerated to barbarous behavior, but one afternoon something happened. A shovel was missing. The officer in charge became enraged. He demanded that the missing shovel be produced, or else. When nobody in the squadron budged, the officer got his gun and threatened to kill them all on the spot . . . It was obvious the officer meant what he had said. Then, finally, one man stepped forward. The officer put away his gun, picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death. When it was over, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse and carried it with them to the second tool check. This time, no shovel was missing. Indeed, there had been a miscount at the first check point. The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others! . . . The incident had a profound effect. . . The men began to treat each other like brothers. When the victorious Allies swept in, the survivors, human skeletons, lined up in front of their captors (and instead of attacking their captors) insisted: "No more hatred. No more killing. Now what we need is forgiveness." Sacrificial love has transforming power.
Don Ratzlaff, "The Christian Leader".
Thirdly you have to let it go111
Forgiveness is not setting yourself up for future abuse or sadness but it is equally not holding onto your enemies sins.
Chuck Swindoll reports that a seminary student in Chicago faced a forgiveness test. Although he preferred to work in some kind of ministry, the only job he could find was driving a bus on Chicago's south side. One day a gang of tough teens got on board and refused to pay the fare. After a few days of this, the seminarian spotted a policeman on the corner, stopped the bus, and reported them. The officer made them pay, but then he got off. When the bus rounded a corner, the gang robbed the seminarian and beat him severely. He pressed charges and the gang was rounded up. They were found guilty. But as soon as the jail sentence was given, the young Christian saw their spiritual need and felt pity for them. So he asked the judge if he could serve their sentences for them. The gang members and the judge were dumbfounded. "It's because I forgive you," he explained. His request was denied, but he visited the young men in jail and led several of them to faith in Christ.
Jesus final words in this passage are very instructive and chilling for those who refuse to listen
34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
