Service held on 11th September 2011.

Forgive us our debts – Mathew 18: 21 - 35

As with so many of the stories of Jesus, the parable of the debtors arose out of a question that was posed to Jesus. Simon Peter said to him: "Master, if my brother sins against me, how many times should I forgive him? Seven times? Even as he asks that question my mind cannot help but think about children and how they will sometimes confess something they do wrong expecting to get praise from a teacher or a parent because they were so honest.

In the same sense, Simon Peter by asking this question is not expecting rebuke but praise. He is expecting Jesus to say: "Excellent Peter. You go to the head of the class. You get A+." According to Jewish law, Peter had the right to think that he had done something good. Scribal law clearly read:

"If a man transgresses one time, forgive him. If a man transgresses two times, forgive him. If a man transgresses three times, forgive him. If a man transgresses four times, do not forgive him." What Peter has done is to take this law of limited forgiveness, multiply it by two and add one, and then sit back with a smile on his face and say: Now how is that for being a great guy? And he surely must have been taken aback when Jesus said you must forgive seventy times seven. 

Then Jesus proceeded to tell a story. There was a certain king who had a day of reckoning for his servants. He found one who owed him 10,000 talents and, because he could not pay, he was about to have him thrown into jail and his wife and children sold into slavery. In response to the man’s pathetic pleadings, however, he forgave him the entire debt. 

Whereupon that forgiven servant went to a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii, a very small sum of money, and demanded payment. He pleaded for extra time, an extension, but the man would not hear of it and he had him thrown into jail. This story got back to the king who went into a rage. He called in the forgiven servant and said that because of his conduct, he was now to be thrown into jail. His original debt was reinstated. 

We do not expect God to forgive us once or twice or any limited number of times but every time. It is nowhere written that we have, say, only 10 chances of going to confession and, once our quota is used up, there is nothing left. God’s forgiveness is deep and lavish. It is undeserved and unmerited.  He forgives mountains of debt in exchange only for love and loyalty.

Jesus attempts to say to Simon Peter that

First, forgiveness carries a heavy price.

When we are wronged, we have only two choices – to forgive or not forgive. 

Thanks to sermons.com

Often people are reluctant to forgive because they think it means denying the offence or letting the offender off the hook. When you forgive, it doesn’t mean that you have dismissed the event, and neither has God. Apostle Paul gave the following advice in his letter to the Romans, “Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord” (Romans 12:17-19).

Second, a forgiven soul should be a forgiving soul.

The forgiveness we offer others should be the same the Father offers us.  Now is the time to settle accounts and now is the time for us to forgive our neighbors, brothers and enemies through a true faith and a broken heart.  There is no act that proves dependency on God more than forgiveness. There is nothing more powerfully potent than showing love through undeserved mercy, that comes first by forgiveness.

Faith is best expressed through forgiveness. God demands that we be like him.  And so this is why God demands that we forgive others, so that we might be forgiven ourselves.  And let us bear in mind that forgiveness is only complete when reconciliation takes place.

PRAYER
Father Almighty, grant us the grace to practice forgiveness today by starting with the little hurts by invoking your loving and peaceful Presence and allowing divine grace to surround us when we are tempted to fight back and get even. Help us to let go of all the everyday occurrences that do not go the way we want. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.