Forgiven
Romans 14:1-8; Matthew 18:21-35 September 11, 2005
Intro: The question is innocent enough. It even showed a great generosity on the part of Peter. How many times must I forgive a brother who offends me? The rabbis said we must forgive 3 times. Peter knew that Jesus demanded more and so he asked if 7 times was enough? In other words, if Judas steals from us, should we forgive him 7 times? And Jesus replied, not 7 times, but 70 times 7 times. Forgive and don’t keep track. Get free of the record book.
The man owed the king a lot of money. For years he had been borrowing a rate that was unheard of. The debt had grown, and he was beginning to realize he was not going to be able to repay it. However, the habit of borrowing was part of his life now and he continued to get deeper and deeper in debt. But now he lived in fear. He knew the king would be looking for him. He only went out at night and only for a few minutes at a time. His debt weighed on his mind all the time. He wanted to pay it back, in fact that was all he ever thought about, but it was too big, and it kept growing.
Then one day he got the call he had been dreading. It was a telegram from the king with a command to appear before the king on April 15. As the day grew near, the man headed out for the capital. He knew it was not going to be pleasant, he knew he was in debt, though he had lost track of how much he owed. Every step of the journey was difficult, every step brought him closer to the inevitable.
Finally, after a journey of what seemed to be a lifetime, he arrived at the King’s court. Slowly he approached the palace doors, when he knocked on them, the sound of boots coming to open the door sounded like a ticking time bomb. He breathed deeply knowing that there was nothing to save him. He went through the doors and began the journey down through the entry hall. When he got to the end of the hall, the doors to the throne room opened and there at the end of the room on his throne sat the king.
As he approached the king, a hand stopped him, then a book was handed to the king. He turned the pages, then stopped and looked up.
“Are you, Joseph?”
“I am, your highness.”
“Do you live in Bay City, MI?”
“I do, your highness.”
“It says here that you owe me some money.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“It says you owe me, 10,000 talents of gold.” For those of us who are not fluent in 1st century economics, that is 10,000,000 dollars with buying power of far, far more. In fact, the tax revenue of the Roman Empire was only about $800,000. You might say the guy was in over his head.
“Uh, yes, uh, yes, your highness.”
“Well, I want my money.”
“Oh, yes, I was planning to pay you soon.”
“I want my money now.”
“I don’t have it.”
The king turned to his court advisor and began discussing how they could sell the man, his house and his family to recoup some of the debt.
When suddenly the man fell on this face before the king and pled, “Oh King, please just give me a little time and I will pay you in full.”
And the most amazing thing happened, the king looked at the servant, a man who earned about 18 cents a day, and said, “You know what, let’s not worry about this $10,000,000 debt.” And with that he tore the page out of the ledger and proceeded to have it burned. “Your debt is canceled, go your way.”
Can you imagine what it must have been like for that man? The heavy steps that had characterized his journey to the palace must have been replace by feet that floated. The doors that had opened so hard I’ll bet he slid through. The burden he had carried had been lifted and he was free. Right?
Wrong. Instead of floating he trudged. Instead of sliding through the doors, he fought with them. Instead of being free he was still living under the burden of debt.
How do I know that? Listen to what he did. Upon leaving the king’s palace, he met a friend who owed him 100 denari or about $18.00. Immediately he went up to the guy, grabbed him by the neck and said, “You owe me some money.”
“Uh, yeah, I hadn’t forgotten.”
“You missed a payment last week.”
“Yeah, I did.” Then he fell to his face and said, “Please just give me a little time, and I will pay you in full.”
The man closed his ears to his friends cry, he called the guards to his side and instructed them to arrest the man and hold him in prison until his paid the debt in full.
Now word had spread quickly about the generosity of the king, and when the kings servants saw what this man did, they were incensed. Immediately they went into the king and told him what had happened.
At once the king called his guards and had the man dragged back in. “You wicked man, I forgave you this massive debt and you threw your friend in prison for a few bucks? You know that cell you threw him in, it’s a room for two. Guards do your thing, and torture him all you want.” As far as we know, he is still there because it would have taken him 185,185 years without any interest, if you added interest, he would really be in trouble.
After telling this story, Jesus said, "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
If we think a bit about the king and servant, there is a fascinating relationship throughout the story. First, the king had continued to loan the servant money until he was 10,000,000 dollars in debt. That was not good business. If you work in a bank, are you going continue to extend credit to a person who makes 18 cents a day? Of course not. You see, the loan itself was a gift of grace. He could have called him in to the court at any time, but he was patient.
Second, the king did not hesitate to erase the entire debt. Grace is unmerited favor, and that is what the servant received. He did not deserve to be forgiven, but the king released him.
So what happened to this servant? The fact is, he never accepted the gift of forgiveness that he was offered. He chose to continue to live under the burden of a $10,000,000 debt.
Imagine this, when the offering plate was passed this morning, the person sitting next to you discovered she did not have any money. She elbowed you in the side and asked to borrow a dollar. It’s a little irritating, and things are a bit tight for you with the cost of gas and all, but you get in your wallet and she gives a dollar. She promises to give it back to you the next day.
Well the next day comes and she forgets. Then on Monday night, during the football game, the prize patrol comes to your door and gives you a check for $5,000,000. You accept the check, you thank the Prize Patrol. And as soon as Ed McMahon leaves, you go the phone and call the person who had been sitting next to you at church and you say, “You were suppose to give me back the dollar today, you forgot, don’t ever ask to borrow money from me again.” Is that what you are going to do?
Does that make sense? Of course not. If you did that, you did not believe that the check was any good. Though it was in your hand, you did not believe it was true.
And that is what happened to the servant. He had lived under the burden of his debt for so long, that when he was forgiven, he continue to live like a man in debt. Though he was free, he continued to live in a prison of debt.
Did the king withdraw the forgiveness? No, the servant never accepted it. The funny thing about forgiveness is in order to experience it, it must be accepted, and in this case, it was never accepted.
Forgiveness was in the air Saturday, December 18th, 2004, in Boise, Idaho. That's where a cross-denominational group of pastors gathered outside of city hall and sat at tables for three hours with checkbook in hand. The members of the Treasure Valley Pastors Association proceeded to write checks to the city on behalf of those with unpaid parking tickets.
The much-publicized event called Grace Gift/Paid in Full Project was not all that complicated. To take advantage of the free offer, those with outstanding violations simply had to acknowledge their guilt by showing up and asking for the payment. Up to $10,000 was earmarked for the unprecedented demonstration of forgiveness. The money was raised from local businesses and was made available on a first-come-first-served basis.
"We wanted to help people understand, in a practical way, that even though we've all made mistakes, God's grace and forgiveness is received, just by asking," said Montie Ralstin, Pastor of Boise Valley Christian Communion and president of the pastors' association sponsoring the event.
Although the offer struck many as too-good-to-be-true, not all who heard about the modern-day parable were positively impressed. Some thought the pastors should donate the monies raised to charities that helped the poor. Responding to that criticism, Pastor Michael Boerner remarked, "I would agree, I think it's a really poor use of finances just to pay someone's parking ticket if that's all it was, but really it's not about that."
The purpose was to teach forgiveness. Those who thought it was too good to be true, who chose not to believe it was a gift, did not have their tickets paid in full. Those who tried to do something to earn the payment in full, did not get their tickets paid. Those who tried to pay half the bill and let the clergy association pay the rest, did not get their tickets paid. Only those who acknowledged their guilt and accepted the payment received it. Do you see the problem? We are taught it is not good to accept favors from others or we will be in debt to them. What do we say when a friend brings us a gift? Oh, you didn’t to do that. . .” Well of course they did not have to do it, it was a gift. And that is what God’s forgiveness is, a gift.
These clergy presented a wonderful picture of God’s forgiveness. We are the ones with parking tickets totaling $10,000,000. We are the ones who can no longer go out of our houses because we might be thrown in prison because of the fines. We are the ones who are looking for anyone who owes us anything so that we can try to pay the fine. And Jesus is waiting to write the check and clear the account.
And when he does, he wants us to live lives of freedom forgiving others. You see, if we accept the gift, we will know how to act when we leave the court. If we accept the gift, we will know freedom.
Your debt of sin is more than you will ever be able to repay. In Islam, on the day of judgement, your sins and your acts of righteousness will weighed on a scale and that will decide your eternal destiny. The Bible teaches that even our acts of righteousness are like filthy rags, so the scale will never fall in our favor. All we can do is say, “Jesus, I can never pay my debt, I accept the forgiveness you offer.” And if we will accept it, we will be free. For anyone the Son sets free is free indeed.
**** Around 1990 Preaching Today Tape Series included a sermon entitled “Up the Down Staircase.” I am indebted to that preacher for portions of the retelling of the parable.
