PENTECOST 18, A – September 14, 2008

SCRIPTURES – Ps. 143; Genesis 50:15-21; Rom. 14:1-12; Matt. 18:21-35 

Yesterday we watched coverage of Hurricane Ike’s landfall in Texas. It already seems like ages ago that Hurricane Gustav came ashore in New Orleans. I recall one very vivid report during that storm from Heraldo Rivera, who was standing next to a levee in New Orleans. As waves splashed over the walls he reported that two barges were floating loose in the levee. If they hit a wall they could break it and flood the city! News people at the station asked him, “How can this happen? How were two barges allowed to be in there?” “Yea,” I wondered myself. “Didn’t they learn anything the last time?” You know something? We really didn’t know anything about those barges. How quick we were to assume carelessness and guilt without knowing all the facts! 

Assuming guilt and spreading blame is easy. After all, we all sin and mess up. There’s often good reason to blame others! But, to forgive; well, that’s difficult. Well did Alexander Pope write, “To err is human, to forgive divine.” Forgiveness is truly the work of God! But, Jesus tells us very clearly that it is also our work: “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

 

God expects you to forgive: your family members, as we see with Joseph and his brothers – and, boy, can family members sin against and hurt each other!; to forgive your fellow Christians; yes, to forgive anyone who sins against you. Jesus teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” But, this is not easy. Forgiveness is hard! Forgiveness is costly. How can we forgive, as God demands?

 

Start by getting your focus off of what has been done to you, how you have been wronged. Instead, focus upon your God, who is with you and gives to you.

 

q   This is what Joseph did. How greatly was he sinned against by his brothers. They hated him and sold him into slavery in order to get rid of him! But, he looked to God and trusted in Him to help him. “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive,” he testified to his brothers. He believed God was good, and was with him as his Savior to help him! He ended up seeing God’s help.

 

Jesus, when teaching Peter about how many times we should forgive, begins by reminding us of how greatly we have sinned – the sins we have committed against God are far more and far worse than the sins committed against us! – that He might then focus on our God as a good and merciful King. You are the first servant of the king in the parable. Imagine owing God 10,000 talents – that’s millions of dollars! How many and great are our sins against God! They are far more and far worse than anything done to you. And, there will be an accounting one day. You will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to answer for what you have done in your life.

 

But, look at what God has done! “Out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt,” Jesus says of the king in the parable. He wasn’t asked to do so. The servant couldn’t imagine that his king would cancel his debt. He only asked for more time to repay it. But, it was canceled! Can you imagine saying to someone who owes you a huge sum of money, “Forget it!” Losing such a huge sum would kill you!

 

Paying for your sins killed Jesus. He is the king in the parable, the good, merciful, and generous king who canceled the debt and suffered the loss himself. Forgiveness is costly; Jesus paid a huge price to forgive you your sin. When someone sins against you and hurts you, remember this. Remember that God has had mercy on you and has freely forgiven you all of your sins. You live in God’s grace and care because of Jesus, who has removed your every sin that none of them might stand between you and your God. He is a good king, and you live in His kingdom, under His care. As He watched over Joseph and turned the sins his brothers committed against him to blessing for many, so He will take care of you and bless you. “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself,” says St. Paul. “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.” How wonderful that in Christ we are the Lord’s. None are so well off as we! When sinned against, then, forgive, and entrust yourself to God. Do not seek vengeance!

 

Does this mean that forgiveness is just letting the guilty off the hook, so that they get away with their sins? Not at all. To forgive is to not make room for sin or excuse it. It is to direct the sinner to God.

 

Sometimes it seems that forgiveness is cheap. It lets people off scot-free, and nothing, it seems, is learned. For instance, Joseph’s forgiveness seemed to have no impact on the lives of his brothers. How greatly they had sinned against him: selling him into slavery, they had taken away from him his home, his family, his very life! Imagine their shock and their fear when, years later, they find that the mighty ruler of Egypt before whom they are bowing and seeking help, the man who is second only to Pharaoh, is their brother Joseph. If he just spoke the word, he could have them killed, or imprisoned for the rest of their lives! After what they had done to him, this is what they expected and deserved. And yet, Joseph cried with joy upon seeing his brothers. He embraced them, brought them and their families to Egypt, and there provided for them a wonderful and bountiful place to live. They saw and enjoyed his mercy and forgiveness! Sadly, it does not seem to have reached their hearts, for after their father dies, they come up with a scheme to make sure that Joseph does not now repay them for what they had done to him. They go to Joseph and say to him: “Your father gave this command before he died, ‘Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ ” They try to force him to be good to them by lying and putting words in their dead father’s mouth!

 

Joseph still comforted them and spoke kindly to them. But, he also did something else. “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?” he said. “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.” By saying to them, “Am I in the place of God?” he was letting them know that they would stand before God one day. They did not need to fear their brother, but they did need to fear God and confess the evil of their sin to Him. If they did not repent and live in God’s forgiveness, then, like the servant who was brought back before the king, they would be bound and thrown into prison, the eternal prison of hell. Sin does have its consequences.

 

Forgiveness does not deny consequences. It directs us to Jesus, who bears sin’s consequences for us. We forgive because of Jesus, who bore the sins of the world and in whom alone there is forgiveness for all. By His birth among us and His death and resurrection for us, He has hallowed all our human race. We forgive to point people to Him, for He, and He alone, is the mercy of God.