Unmerciful Debtor

Son of the Holy Spirit, glory to Jesus Christ.

I'm not going to recount the parable for you.

Through my way of thinking, the way of the church,

you heard Jesus Christ himself tell you this

parable. He told it to you. That's the way the

scriptures work when we read it in church, when

we chant it. It's his voice. He's speaking to

each one of us personally. He's speaking to us,

in this case, as a community. That's why we say,

wisdom, stand aright, because it's Christ himself

speaking to us. And in this case, if he's speaking

to us in a community, it's important to remember

some key phrases from this gospel. Fellow servants,

forgive your brother. Fellow servants of the

king. Chapter 18 of the Gospel of St. Matthew,

from where we just read, is about life in the

church. Jesus is teaching his disciples how to

behave as fellow worshipers, as fellow disciples.

So we have a parable. Jesus is speaking, and

Peter comes up with a question, thinking he's

magnanimous and generous. Lord, the rabbis say

it four times. I can forgive, then just forget

about that guy. What about seven? That sounds

generous. And Jesus is like, that's seven, not

seven. Seventy times seven. Now that's not, you

know, my wife gave me 220 times, so I've got

another 200 plus left before she tells me it's

all over. The seven is the holy number, right?

The seven days in which God, six days created

and seventh he rested. The seventh number is

the perfection number. It tells us, do this to

be perfect. It's important also to remember that

Jesus is not talking about those situations.

He's not talking about how will the Ukrainians

and the Russians ever reconcile after the war.

How will a Jewish person in the camps forgive

his Nazi captors and tormentors? It's not like

that. This is your brother, your sister, your

fellow servant of the master. That's the context

of this parable. Peter's asking about this fellow

that irritates him continually. You can't tell

me there's no one in your life like that. In

the parable, the value, the incredible sum the

man owed was 10 ,000 talents. Enormous. enormous,

because the talent is like 30 pounds of silver

at the time. This is something bigger than any

lottery winning. It's a sum he could never hope

to pay back. It's on paper. He can't pay it back.

This is like your student loan if you have them.

It's just not possible with the interest that's

building up. Why did he owe so much? We might

ask that question, but I think that's the wrong

question. Did he owe so much because he had some

horrendously dark, evil, wicked sin before his

master so that he built up this amount that could

never be repaid? No. Let's not think of it in

that way. Let's think of it another way. The

incredible sum. It's infinite to this man. It's

what? You are worth to God. It's what you're

worth to God. It's how precious you are to God.

Even when we are completely broken by sin. Even

when we seem to fall so far away. It's what we

owe unto thee, O Lord, is to all worship, honor,

and glory. We say this continually in the liturgy.

We say, come let us worship and fall down before

Christ. Our worship of God is as we say, unto

thee are due all glory. And we should add, unto

thee is due love, fidelity, trust, faithfulness.

This is our God. You are each worth more than.

any sum. That's why the sum in this parable is

beyond calculation. That's why, well, we'll get

to that in a moment. You remember the story of

the lost sheep? It just preceded this parable

in the gospel. And Luke speaks about the lost

coin, the pearl of great price. That's us, which

Christ has come to take. Did Jesus Christ come

to condemn us? Think of the gospel. What did

he say? I came not to condemn the world, but

to save it. Did he come for his father to send

us to hell? Is that why he came? Did he need

to come for that? Jesus didn't have to become

incarnate for that. He didn't have to suffer

for that. He didn't have to die. He didn't have

to do that for God to judge the world. For if

Jesus Christ, our Savior, is the exact image,

the reflection, the perfect expression of his

Father, then the whole purpose, the whole purpose

of him becoming man, the whole purpose of his

suffering and dying and rising again, was for

us to escape. Eternal death. Eternal death. To

escape ignorance of God and who we are. To escape

the poison of sin. It was to experience salvation.

For us to be healed. For us to be restored. For

us to be made holy. For us to be reconciled to

God. the Father, through the Son, in the Holy

Spirit, to live the life of God. Forgiveness

is that reconciliation. This is why we go to

confession so frequently. If you haven't a memory

of the last time you confessed, it's been too

long. And you need to come before the Lord and

say, Lord, thank you for this life. Thank you

for the peace of heart. Thank you for giving

me this community in which forgiveness is paramount.

This is the life we have. In the world, you're

going to experience harshness. There's no such

thing as forgiveness. Yes, nowadays you can choose.

Your own family, so to say. Your own tribe. You

can join that if you have some kind of thing

that you're into. But you're not going to be

united to God by that. We want others to know

the gracious Lord. We want others to know that

if they come to this place, if they come to your

house, if they meet you, that you are a person

that understands this parable. that can say,

goodness, what God has done for me, what he has

forgiven me for, is beyond calculation. He has

given me life. He has given me salvation. He

has given me this congregation and fellowship.

He has given me the knowledge. He has given me

the scriptures. He has given me his body and

blood. He has already given me the kingdom of

God. I don't have to wait. to die to experience

God's glory. I can do what he says and be like

he wants me to be. What does forgiveness of a

huge debt, continual debt, someone, a fellow

servant, feel like? Is it to ignore the sin?

No. But yes, if you can. Is it to forget the

sin? Not always possible. Is it to feel okay

about it and resolved in your mind? Not at all.

When the Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross and

said, Father, forgive them for they know not

what they do, that forgiveness, did it come out

of everything's okay, it's all fine? No, it came

out of... It came out of pain, suffering, sorrow,

and abandonment. Abandonment and ignorance and

insults. That could be forgiveness for us too.

It costs us something. Let each of us remember

what God has given us. Life, existence. I've

encountered so many people outside the church

who feel... that they, well, they feel that God

is maybe out there somewhere and that God has

cheated them. They've been dealt a bad set of

cards for their life, and maybe that's so, but

God has done them wrong. But here, here, we don't

live the life of Cain and Abel, that brokenness,

or Lamech, who says, I'm going to avenge 70 times.

Or what happened during the times of Noah when

evil abounded on the earth? Here, we're going

to say, Lord, what debt I have before thee, forgive

me. In the parable also, the fellow servants

of this unmerciful debtor, they hear about what

happened to this other fellow. Who owes this

guy maybe a hundred bucks? And he could have

paid it off. The unmerciful debtor thinks, oh,

Lord, have mercy on me, and I will pay thee all,

which is just clueless and impossible. But the

fellow debtors here, are they tattletailing?

Lord, you know what this guy did to this other

servant? No, they're not tattletailing. In the

parable, they're interceding. They're praying

to the Lord. They're asking for mercy for this

other man who doesn't get it. Let each of us

count up today and every day. The blessings that

we have, yes, the cards that we've been dealt

that we have to live with because the Lord knows

our sanctification is on that pathway. Let's

give thanks to God for the things of which we

know and the things we know not. For all the

benefits bestowed upon us, whether manifest or

unseen. And then we thank him. and treat our

fellow servants with love and forgiveness. To

our Lord be glory, now and ever, and to ages

of ages. Amen.