Seventy-Seven Times
God’s Grace is Unlimited
Matthew 18:21-35
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. September 6th, 2020
It’s not always easy to forgive. Forgiving can seem like hard work, especially when someone keeps doing the same thing. Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Let’s be honest. Seven times sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Imagine someone can’t stop gossiping about you. Month after month strange tales keep coming back to you and you know who’s talking about you. Or imagine someone won’t stop lying to you. Day after day they tell false truths, and you know it. In both cases you keep telling them to stop. In both cases they agree. In both cases you forgive. In both cases it goes on and on. Do you keep forgiving them seven times?
But Jesus tells him, “No. Not seven times.” Yes, that would seem ridiculous wouldn’t it? We wouldn’t want our profligate forgiveness to enable sin. “Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy-seven times.” That is ridiculous! Seven times seemed more than enough, but Jesus would have us forgive relentlessly. There would be no end to the amount of times we offer forgiveness. Wouldn’t that be tiresome? foolish? Jesus tells us that his yoke is easy and his burden is light, but this command seems to come with a good deal of burden. To forgive as often as we are offended.
Jesus explains why it is we ought to forgive as many as seventy-seven times, and why it is not a burden to do so in a parable. We are told the Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. He must have started at the top of the list because the first man owed him ten thousand talents. Ten thousand talents is an absolutely ridiculous amount of money. To put that in perspective, one talent was worth one hundred denarii. A denarii was a day’s pay. Multiply that by a million. This man is neck deep in debt.
Naturally, the slave cannot afford to pay the debt. So the King did what was customary at the time. He ordered that he be sold, together with his wife, his children, and all his possessions, that he may recoup some of the investment. The slave fell on his knees, and begged for patience. But the King, full of pity, did more than the slave even asked. He forgave the debt. He forgave the debt and freed the slave. Such was the mercy of the King, and such is the mercy of God.
We are like the slave who comes before the King with a tremendous burden. Our sins are as ten thousand talents. We are neck deep in the debt of sin. We cannot pay back to God what is owed, because we already owed him our all. We already owe God everything. How can we pay back more than our very selves? And so we are dependent on the mercy of God or we would be thrown into prison. But God is merciful. And God, in Christ, forgives us our sin. We are no longer slaves, but we are made sisters and brothers in the household of God. The burden is gone, and we are granted the inheritance of all the saints. That is the great word of the gospel, that is what we have received: the inheritance of life and the forgiveness of sin. So too, the servant in the parable. He has been set free from his burden, he has known the forgiveness of the King.
But, we are told, the servant was a miser. As soon as he left the King’s throne he came across a fellow servant who owed him a debt. A relatively paltry one hundred denarii. He violently seized the man by the throat and demanded payment right then and there. The slave fell down and pleaded with him for patience. But the words that moved the King, did not move the unforgiving servant. He had the slave thrown into prison until the debt would be repaid by his prison labor.
When the other slaves heard about it, they were distressed, and word got back to the King. The King was enraged. He had given this man his mercy, and the man repaid him by throwing one of his slaves in the prison for a paltry sum! “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?”
The wicked slave does not show proper gratitude for the mercy he has received. Naturally he cannot repay his Lord for what has been done. All he has is passing on the mercy he has received. But he doesn’t do that. It is as if his heart were callous. As if it did not truly register with him what he had known. So it is with us if we refuse to forgive our sisters and brothers from our heart. Have we truly recognized the gift we have been given? Do we have real gratitude?
When I was in seminary one of my friends helped me see this connection in a very concrete way. The neighborhood we lived in was getting a multi-million dollar development. But our neighborhood also had a number of panhandlers. So the city, along with various social groups and churches, started a campaign to get people to stop handing money out. They then changed the ordnance to outlaw most begging that they called “excessive begging.” My friend made the connection I’m talking about with a joke. If they want to crack down on excessive begging they ought to crack down on all the church services when we are having communion. In communion we ask forgiveness of our sins, though we may not always feel contrite. We promise to lead a new life, when we are not always so hopeful. We flatter God, telling God how great he is and reminding God of the past times he’s helped us. And what do you know, God enables our begging each and every time through the bread and cup. If there’s any model of excessive begging it’s done at least once a month in our churches. We receive the grace of God. How do we show our gratitude for the gift we have received? It is not just in worship. But also in showing mercy to others. Whether that mercy be forgiveness, whether that mercy be service.
Have we really received the gift if we do not show mercy? That is the question that is asked by this parable. The gift of grace does not come with strings, but it does come with expectations. If we have truly known the grace of Christ we will not take it for granted. If we truly know that we are forgiven. If we truly know we are loved, we will not take it as a given. But we will forever give thanks. If we truly recognize what has been done for us we will never cease showing mercy and offering forgiveness. It will not be a burden. It will be a joy. It will be a joy because it is the only way to show gratitude for this thing we have found. The only way to properly respond to the gift we have received.
Let us not forgive simply seven times. But we must put no limit on our forgiveness. God has not limited his forgiveness to us.