The Forgiveness Revolution
Matthew 18:21-35, CEB - Then Peter said to Jesus,
“Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against
me? Should I forgive as many as seven times?”
Jesus said, “Not just seven times, but rather as many as
seventy-seven times. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted
to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle accounts, they brought
to him a servant who owed him ten thousand bags of gold. Because the servant didn’t have enough to pay
it back, the master ordered that he should be sold, along with his wife and
children and everything he had, and that the proceeds should be used as
payment. But the servant fell down,
kneeled before him, and said, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I’ll pay you
back.’ The master had compassion on that servant, released him, and forgave the
loan.
“When that servant went out, he found one of his fellow
servants who owed him one hundred coins. He grabbed him around the throat and
said, ‘Pay me back what you owe me.’
“Then his fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Be
patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he threw him into
prison until he paid back his debt.
“When his fellow servants saw what happened, they were
deeply offended. They came and told their master all that happened. His master called the first servant and said,
‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you appealed to me. Shouldn’t you also have mercy on your fellow
servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ His master was furious and handed him over to
the guard responsible for punishing prisoners, until he had paid the whole
debt.
“My heavenly Father will also do the same to you if you
don’t forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
In Genesis 4, there is an account
of Cain’s children. One of them, Lamech,
who had two wives (their names were Adah and Zillah), said this:
“Adah and Zillah, listen to my voice; wives of Lamech, pay
attention to my words: I killed a man for wounding me, a boy for striking me; so
Cain will be paid back seven times and Lamech seventy-seven times. (Gen
4:23-24)
This odd little pericope from Genesis illustrates the sense
of justice present in early Judaism. Shifting
back to the Matthew text above, we also see the shadows of Lamech’s statement
in Peter’s question about forgiveness. He asks if seven times is enough forgiveness
for a repeat offender, reversing Lamech’s statement that vengeance for Cain
will be carried out seven times. In
Peter’s seemingly simple question, we are able to see how the Jewish sense of
justice has shifted in the thousands of years from vengeance to
forgiveness. Peter is asking if
completing reversing Lamech’s equation is enough; instead of carrying out vengeance
seven times, is it enough to instead forgive seven times?
As
usual, Jesus blows up convention by replying, “not just seven times, but rather
as many as seventy-seven times,” also recalling Lamech’s statement of extreme vengeance.
Jesus
then tells an outrageous story which we have come to call the “parable of the unmerciful
servant.” I quoted this story in the CEB
today because the outrageousness of this story is more obvious. A servant who is forgiven a debt that he could
not pay back in a hundred lifetimes immediately jails a fellow servant who owed
him a manageable debt. Anyone can see
how ridiculous this servant’s actions are; to label him “unmerciful” is to be
extremely generous.
Here’s
the kicker. Jesus is teaching us here
that this contrived story about a miserable servant is about anyone who refuses
to keep on forgiving forever. All are
offered the same unthinkable mercy that this hopeless servant was offered. That mercy is given because of the character of
the One who gives it. God wipes
unrepayable debts clean because that is who God is. The hope God has in lavishing such mercy upon
us is that we too, will become more lavishly merciful as well. To receive God’s unimaginable gift and then
use it as leverage against others is such a violation of God’s gift that it is
no wonder it provokes such anger.
This parable
portrays the “forgiveness revolution” Jesus incites. It is a multifaceted revolution that includes
many caveats and nuances that I haven’t the time to describe here. I have been working on a book (off and on)
for years that attempts to more adequately explain it, but for today, let’s
just focus on one thought. It is
this. When we nurture a ledger of
offenses in our heart, we will be tortured by that very ledger and more than
that, we have betrayed the unfathomable
mercy of God. Forgiveness is the revolutionary
alternative. Jesus embodies that alternative with the whole
of His life and death. The invitation to
move toward living our life that way as well.
Question: Can you
describe for yourself the pain you have endured, not from the offenses others
have committed against you, but from holding on to those offenses in your
heart?
Prayer: Lord, you
know how I have been hurt by others. Help
me but glimpse how that measures up in comparison to the debt I owe YOU. Though it seems impossible at times, help me
to learn how to forgive like You do.
Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray for
the people you struggle to forgive today.
Song: Broken Vessels –
Hillsong Worship
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