Message by Pastor John Culp : August 3, 2008
“Rocky – Part 9”
Text – Matthew 18:21-35
When I was in college, like all music majors, I had to take piano lessons – throughout all four of my undergraduate years, if memory serves correctly. Now I never became any kind of pianist! But I actually enjoyed regularly taking a break from the trumpet that was my bread and butter, to work on something very different.
I did not, however, much enjoy my piano teacher! He had sort of an annoying, nasally voice. I got the impression that he really didn’t much like teaching. He never openly insulted any of his students, as far as I knew. But he frequently made indirectly belittling remarks. He was one of those guys you just love to . . . well, let’s just say that he was somebody who was thoroughly difficult to love!
I wasn’t the only one of his students who felt that way. Most of my other trumpet-playing buddies who also had to work through the difficult providence of studying with this guy shared my feelings about him. Sometimes when we were sitting around (when we should have been practicing or working on a counterpoint assignment), we would engage in a bit of daydreaming. We knew that our piano teacher often practiced late into the night at the College of Fine Arts Building. We imagined that some dark night, several of us might get a large blanket and wait for him outside the door leading to the parking lot. When he came out of the building, we’d throw the blanket over his head, proceed to give him a severe pummeling – and then run off before he ever knew what hit him!
There. I have just provided further confirmation of something you already knew perfectly well: The preacher is a sinner of the first rank!
Now in my defense I will say that we never thought too seriously about our little conspiracy. We didn’t even procure the blanket that was to play such a key part!
I don’t have to tell you, however, that revenge all too often goes far beyond the planning stage, and comes to grim fruition. For most of us, the preferred weapons are bitter thoughts and words. Sometimes, people use fists and clubs, even bullets, tanks and missiles.
I also don’t have to tell you that the mere thought of exacting such vengeance is the polar opposite of the life of forgiveness which our Lord Jesus commands of us!
We continue our summer-long study of the life of the great friend, disciple and apostle of Jesus, Simon – the one to whom Jesus gave the nickname Cephas, ‘Rocky.’ Nothing would ever change Peter the way his relationship with Jesus Christ would change him. I would dare say that the same is true for everyone who really comes to know Him.
In the story we read today, Jesus continues to mold and shape the life of His dear friend.
Jesus teaches Peter – and He teaches us – that when it comes to forgiveness,
the only thing greater than our obligation to forgive others
is the extent to which God has already forgiven us in Christ.
Think with me for a few moments today about this issue of forgiveness that looms so large in the lives of all who, like Rocky, entrust and commit their lives to Jesus.
Let’s take a closer look at this exchange between Rocky and his Master – especially the parable Jesus uses to drive His lesson home.
We can’t be sure exactly what led Rocky to bring this particular question to his Lord. the eighteenth chapter of Matthew is full of teaching about the relationships between believers. It begins with a question from the disciples about who is the greatest in the kingdom heaven. That leads Jesus to command a child-like faith in His followers. In fact, He famously says, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never [even] enter the kingdom of heaven” (18:3 NIV).
Later in that same chapter, Jesus gives us a specific procedure to follow when a brother or sister in the faith sins against us. He tells us in such cases to go directly and privately to the offending one (18:15). How much grief we could spare the Body of Christ if only we always followed that command!
It seems natural enough that Jesus’ very practical teaching on dealing thus with sin in the church would lead Peter to raise his pointed question on forgiveness. And when Rocky suggests the answer to his own question, he no doubt thinks he’s being very generous in suggesting that a seven-fold forgiveness would surely satisfy God’s demand.
Think about that. If you’ve ever forgiven the same person seven times for doing you wrong, you’ve probably felt that you’ve done all that God or anyone else could reasonably expect of you, haven’t you? And in fact Peter thought he had strong biblical warrant for feeling good about his suggestion of seven times. The rabbis of his day generally taught that if a man forgave his brother three times, he was doing enough.
In that context, Jesus’ reply is really startling. It’s not quite clear whether the number in His mind is 77 times; or seventy times seven. (Our English translations vary.) What is clear is that He didn’t mean either number literally. He’s certainly not suggesting that we’re freed from the obligation to forgive either the 78th or the 491st time another offends us! Clearly He’s using whatever large number as a figurative way of saying that there is no limit to our obligation to forgive each other.
That should surely catch our attention. We tend to think that to forgive even once is noteworthy. To forgive twice is being exceptionally virtuous. But Jesus says that that’s only the barest beginning of our solemn duty, because we have an obligation to forgive each other as often as another sins against us – without even keeping track of how many times they do.
If that doesn’t make you sit up and take notice, you’re not really paying attention.
What is also clear, in the memorable parable Jesus spins, is that the stakes here are very high indeed. The arresting clarity with which Jesus puts it grabs us by throat. He says simply that if we fail to forgive one another, we will be denied forgiveness ourselves.
The scandalous injustice of the unforgiving servant in the parable makes that much crystal clear. When he refuses to forgive the small debt a fellow servant owes him, his master calls in the far greater debt he himself had owed.
I like the New Living Translation we read together a few minutes ago. But that translation actually blunts the scale of the difference between the two debts. In putting the story into the common parlance of our day, it expresses the smaller obligation in the range of thousands of dollars, and the bigger one in the millions. In other words, the larger debt is a thousand times greater. But scholars tell us that the fact is the unforgiving servant has been offered cancellation of a debt five or six hundred thousand times more than that owed him.
What’s Jesus saying here? Simply that each and every time we commit any sin, when we wrong another person, we wrong God infinitely more! That’s the point David makes in that greatest of all the penitential psalms, the 51st. David has committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then added immeasurably to his crime as he tries to cover his tracks by having her husband Uriah murdered by proxy.
And what does he say to God when he cries out for forgiveness? “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment” (Psalm 51:4 ESV).
What?! How can he say that he has sinned against God only? What about Bathsheba’s honor – and her husband’s life?
But David got it right. The fact is that because God is God – not just great, but perfect in His breathtaking holiness – every time we sin against another fallen mortal, we offend God far, far more. Even 600,000 times more (which is to say, infinitely more).
Precisely because God is so intimately involved in every moral transaction we have with one another, our very own forgiveness is at stake each time we consider a wrong done against us by a brother or sister. To deny them forgiveness is to commit a sin arguably worse even than idolatry. It’s not just to worship another god. It is to presume to be gods ourselves. It is to storm the palace gates and attempt even to depose the great King, to assume His rightful place on the throne, as we would usurp the prerogative that He reserves for Himself exclusively: serving alone as Judge of all people.
What are we to do with all this? Jesus has just dumped a ton of obligation on all of us! Does the Bible have even a few ounces of help to offer us? Of course it does! Let me suggest briefly just three things.
First, we need to remember always what’s at stake here. In the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, Jesus surely gives us all the motivation we should need to work long and hard at His challenging summons to forgive.
Any time you struggle with some wrong another has done you, if it ever seems preferable to nurse a grudge, to rehearse the injustice of it all, rather than forgiving and letting it go; or if you ever sincerely want to forgive a sister or brother, but it seems that you simply can’t bring yourself to do so, remember: Jesus warns Peter that our own forgiveness hangs in the balance each time we wrestle with a sin another has committed against us.
But we really should think of this not only in such negative terms. We should remind ourselves regularly that forgiving feels good!
Robert C. Tuttle tells the story of a time when their three kids went to bed after one of those common knock-down, drag-out brother-sister fights. There was a lot of bad feeling in the house! But then everyone was wakened around 2:00 a.m. by a terrific thunder-storm. Hearing an unusual noise upstairs, the Dad called into the kids’ bedroom to find out what was going on. A little voice answered, “We are all in the closet – forgiving each other.” (James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited [Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988] p. 214).
Whenever we struggle with the very real challenge of forgiving one another, we need to remember not only that nothing less than our own forgiveness is at stake; but also how good it feels to forgive a sister or brother – especially as we battle the storms of life!
Then second, when I struggle to forgive another, I need to look always in two directions. First, I need to look up. Jesus’ parable calls me to keep in mind always that God has already forgiven me – and forgiven me of a debt far greater than one any brother or sister could possibly owe me.
But then as I wrestle with Christ’s clear command to forgive, I need also to look out. Jesus (wisely and humorously) taught that any time I would venture into the dangerous territory of judging another, I need to be very aware of the log in my own eye, as I presume to comment on the speck in my brother’s eye (Matthew 7:1-5).
It helps greatly to view that memorable image alongside the arresting parable we read today. It’s not that the log is so much bigger than the speck because my sin is necessarily that much greater on its own terms. The question is not so much the sin, as it is the offended party. When my brother sins against me, he has offended only another sinner like himself. It’s not my place to delve into his relationship with God.
But when I consider my own sin, I need to bear in mind that whoever else might be involved, I’ve committed a crime against the holy Creator of the universe.
There is an old German proverb that says, “If God were not willing to forgive sin, heaven would be empty.” (Quoted in Edythe Draper, Draper’s Book of Quotations for the Christian World [Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992]. Entry 4088.)
Considering the reality of my own great moral imperfections should always help as I seek to obediently forgive others.
Finally, don’t try to do all this on your own. I shouldn’t have to tell you that this is a very challenging business! We give the great enemy of our souls some powerful weapons to use against us in this hard fight: our pride; our insecurity; our self-centeredness. He is only too happy to use them all – and more!
You can be sure of this: in our own strength we will fail time and again, as we seek to freely forgive, even as we have been forgiven. But in prayer we have access to the power that can and will prevail in the fight!
As he wrote to the Philippians, Paul spoke of his Lord Jesus, “who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body” (3:21 NIV).
If day by day we humbly and sincerely ask Jesus to continue the hard work of conforming us to His very image, we will finally know the grace of the One who could pray even as He hung dying for us, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
(Luke 23:34)
There was a woman in this priest’s parish who deeply loved God, and who claimed to have visions in which she spoke with Christ, and He with her. The priest, however, was skeptical of her claims.
So to test her visions he finally said to her, “You say you actually speak directly with Christ in your visions. Let me ask you a favor. The next time you have one of these visions, I want you to ask Him what sin your priest committed while he was in seminary.”
The woman agreed and went home. When she returned to the church a few days later, the priest said, “Well, did Christ visit you in your dreams?”
She replied, “Yes, He did.”
“And did you ask Him what sin I committed in seminary?”
“Yes, I asked Him.”
“Well, what did He say?”
“He said, ‘I don’t remember.’ ”
(James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited [Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988] p. 216.)
That’s real forgiveness – glorious, liberating, life-giving forgiveness!
Jesus asks you – He commands you! – to do a great thing in forgiving. But the story reminds us that if you are in Christ, He has already done an even greater thing in forgiving you – completely.
Come to the table now, humbly asking for the grace to forgive, even as Christ has forgiven you.
Let us pray. Thank You, heavenly Father, for pardoning and accepting us in Your precious Son. Lord Jesus, please guide us as we work at Your challenging call to us to forgive. And as we do, please help us to remember – and to trust in – all You have already done for us. We ask it in Your precious name. Amen.