Forgiven People Forgive - Matthew 18:21-35

James H. Cosentino II

Parables: Jesus the Storyteller • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

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Introduction

Read Matthew 18:21-35

Matthew 18:21–35 ESV

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Wouldn’t it be great if there was no need for forgiveness?

It would be awesome if everyone did what was right, we all loved one another selflessly and never hurt one another.

Unfortunately, this world, which was created by God to be good, has been broken because of our sin and rebellion. We cannot get by in this world without needing to ask for or offer forgiveness.

Last week, we looked at how receiving God’s forgiveness in Christ should change how we love and respond to Jesus. Our hearts should be overflowing with love for the Savior because of His gracious forgiveness of our sin.

This week, we will look at a similar story, but this time we will see how it should change our relationships with one another.

How Much Should We Forgive?

Context and Question

First, in this story, Jesus has just been teaching the disciples about how to handle their own temptations to sin, God’s heart to save sinners, and about the proper role of church discipline.

It is within this conversation of sin and repentance that Peter then asks a question that must’ve been on everyone’s mind. If someone sins, how many times should we forgive them? And then he asks, would seven times be an appropriate amount?

Peter thinks he’s being very gracious with his own answer

We can be tempted to think of Peter’s answer to be pitiful compared to what we know Jesus’ answer is going to be. But let’s try to look at this as if we were hearing this story for the first time.

Peter has been listening to what Jesus has been teaching

Peter has picked up on the idea that we are all sinners, we have all rebelled and offended God.

He has also picked up on God’s desire to save sinners, through the parable of the Lost Sheep.

And he has heard that while discipline is necessary, it should be driven by a heart that seeks to restore brothers and sisters to a right fellowship with others, not to beat them down and exact vengeance for a wrong of which they are guilty.

So Peter asks if seven times to forgive is a good amount of forgiveness.

Peter’s seven is very generous based upon traditional Jewish thought

Within Jewish tradition and even based upon various passages from the Old Testament, it was believed that forgiving someone three times was sufficient to display a forgiving and gracious spirit. After the third time, it was alright not to forgive, because obviously, they do not deserve it.

Peter thought he was going well above and beyond the law by suggesting seven times. This was more than double what was earlier expected.

While we might criticize Peter’s answer, how often do we forgive someone even up to seven times for hurting or offending us?

Seven is actually quite a large number when it comes to forgiveness.

Jesus’ Answer

However, Jesus’ answer takes Peter and really all of us, if we are honest, by surprise.

Complete Forgiveness

Jesus tells Peter, not seven times, but seventy-seven times or some translations might read seventy times seven, which is 490.

But again, if we look at what is truly being communicated, Jesus is not saying that we should be keeping count til we get to 71 or 491, whichever the case may be. Jesus is showing that there is no limit whatsoever to our forgiveness. We are called, no matter what, to forgive and to keep on forgiving regardless of how much hurt and pain has been caused.

Why do we need Forgiveness?

This brings us to Jesus’ parable as He begins to show what complete forgiveness looks like.

We have this story of a king who wants to close out his books and settle all the accounts with people who owe him some debts.

This is going to sound very similar to last week’s message, but stay with me. At the very least, these different accounts are in Scripture because God knows we need a constant reminder of our relationship with Himself.

One of his servants owed him ten thousand talents.

A talent was a measurement of weight to help calculate how much gold should be paid to settle debts.

Each talent was 75 lbs, so 10,000 talents at 75 lbs/talent would bring us to 750,000 lbs of gold.

As of this past February, a pound of gold would cost about $27,000 give or take. Multiply that by 750,000 lbs,

20,250,000,000,000.

$20.25 Trillion

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have $20 Trillion sitting in my bank account. Our own government doesn’t have that sitting around to pay off.

A talent was also worth about 6,000 Denarii.

One denarii was a day’s wage, so you are looking at 6,000 days or 20 years of wages for a six day work week for one talent.

10,000 talents would then equal to be 200,000 years of working just to pay off the debt.

Needless to say, this debt is an impossible debt to pay off. No person could ever pay off this incredible debt.

So the king was going to have this servant, along with his wife and kids and all that he had, to be sold in order to recoup a tiny fraction of the debt that was owed.

This servant, however, pleaded with the king to be patient with him and that he would pay back everything.

Now, if we are honest, we can’t help but see the emptiness of these words because it doesn’t matter how long this man would work. There is no way he is ever going to pay off his debt.

The king also knew this. But the king being merciful and gracious, had pity upon this servant and cleared his debt.

Jesus wants us to see that as God’s people, we have received forgiveness without limit. Our sinfulness before God requires an infinite, limitless forgiveness because our sin has created an infinite debt against Him that we can never repay.

Therefore, our forgiveness must be without limit. There should never come a time in which we look at someone and say, I’ve forgiven you for the last time. That’s it, I’ve reached my limit.

What is Forgiveness?

Before we go any farther, however, we must ask, what is forgiveness.

Forgiveness begins by recognizing the wrong done

To forgive necessarily includes recognizing that wrong has been done.

You are not simply shrugging your shoulders and saying no big deal or excusing the wrong away.

You cannot forgive if you are trying to avoid conflict by turning a blind eye to the wrong being done.

And just because you might be trying to avoid conflict does not mean that true restoration has occurred.

True restoration can only be accomplished as we recognize that hurt has occurred and we can offer forgiveness for the wrong done.

Forgiveness is choosing to sacrificially release someone from our debt

For the king, to forgive this servant meant to absorb the cost of the debt being forgiven. The debt doesn’t just magically disappear. We made mention of this last week, but we will do so again for us to continue to see what is involved in God’s forgiveness of us.

If I were to go to my mortgage lender and ask for mercy in the repayment of my loan because I cannot pay it, and if the lender were to forgive my debt, someone is incurring the cost of that debt. Someone, being my mortgage lender, has already paid the full price of my home. So they cannot just freely forgive the debt. They must make a determination whether to continue to hold me to pay back the loan or to forgive the debt and forfeit the property they actually paid full price for. Either way, someone is incurring the cost.

When God chose to forgive us, He did not simply make our sins disappear. He incurred the cost of our sins upon Himself so that we would be set free.

When we offer forgiveness to others, there is a cost there as well. We incurred a cost when someone else hurt us. There is an emotional and mental cost, perhaps even a physical and financial cost, depending on what was done.

Now we have a choice. We can either try to settle the account by seeking revenge and making them pay emotionally and physically for the harm done to us, or we can choose to forgive by sacrificing our need to be repaid. Forgiveness is an act of sacrifice and suffering as we give up the desire for vengeance.

Forgiveness does not mean not seeking the right kind of justice

However, it should be noted that we can forgive while still seeking justice for a particular wrong. In fact, forgiveness and justice run together.

That justice might simply be confronting the one who did wrong so the relationship can continue to grow and flourish.

This is hard for those of us, like me, who do not like conflict. This is a sacrifice in itself because it is an act of humility to address a situation that can be difficult and uncomfortable.

It might also be that the wrongdoer will need to face certain consequences for his/her actions.

Depending on the wrong committed, it might be for the protection of others that certain forms of discipline might need to occur. If someone has committed a criminal act against someone else, whether that be theft, abuse of any kind, or something even greater, then for the good of the community, justice needs to be sought to protect others from the wrongdoer.

Forgiveness in this case does not preclude seeking justice and protection for others.

This kind of justice might also be necessary for the good of the wrongdoer to bring them back to be reconciled with the community at large.

This was the point earlier in this chapter about Jesus’ discussion on church discipline, the point of discipline is not to exact vengeance upon a wrongdoer, but to work at reconciling the wrongdoer with the victim and with God and the church as a whole. The heart of this is to see them restored, not to enact vengeance.

So one can forgive while still seeking justice by letting go of the harm that was done to them. The heart and the motivation behind seeking justice should be to seek the good of the wrongdoer and the community.

If, however, you are seeking justice simply because you want to see them hurt, then forgiveness has not taken place. Discipline might still be necessary, but the heart and the motivation must be right or else you are going to end up hurting yourself in the end.

Why Should We Forgive?

This brings us to the rest of this parable. The king forgave this servant a huge infinite debt.

And here we see an unthinkable situation arise from this man who was forgiven so much. He leaves the presence of the king and then finds a fellow servant who owed him a hundred denarii. Again, one talent is 6,000 denarii. This is a small fraction indeed compared to the size of the debt he has just been forgiven of. However, instead of forgiving his fellow servant, he demands repayment and instead of listening to his pleas for mercy and patience, threw him into prison until the debt could be repaid.

The wrongs done against us will never compare to the wrongs we have committed against God

Whatever wrongs and hurts we have incurred from others, when we look at them in light of our own sin, will never compare to the ways that we have wronged and rebelled against God.

We need to learn to look at the sins of others against us in a new light by looking at them in comparison to our own sin. Of course, that means learning to see our sin for what they are and not for the sanitized version we tend to see them in.

I must learn to see each one of my sins as an infinite offense against a holy God and that no wrong someone else may do to me can compare to even my smallest sin against God.

Our King Sacrificially Became a Servant Who Accepted Our Debt

The King who forgave this servant of his massive, infinite debt did more than just wipe the slate clean. As we have already mentioned, forgiveness is a sacrifice to incur the debt of someone else by not seeking vengeance or repayment. But that means, when we forgive, we are actually choosing to pay that debt ourselves, because we are letting it go.

We have a King who did more than just incur the debt by not seeking repayment by the offending party.

Instead our King humbled Himself, became a servant, and offered to make that payment on our behalf. The only One who did not owe a debt, and yet the only One who was able to pay that debt, chose to do so on our behalf by dying a death upon the cross to make the record straight.

You and I can now forgive others, because the debt has been paid. We have been cleared of our infinite debt, so all the other little debts that others owe to us are of no consequence in light of the debt that has been forgiven us. We are still ending up with more than we deserve because of Jesus’ payment for us!

Failure to Forgive Demonstrates We Have Not Really Received Forgiveness

Here comes the part that we really need to pay attention to.

In his refusal to forgive the debt of his fellow servant, this man was showing that he did not truly understand what had been done for him. This is actually a nonsensical situation, for no one, having been forgiven of so much debt, would not understand or remember what has been done for him.

And yet, there are people who have heard about the death and resurrection of Christ on their behalf, and still because of their failure to acknowledge how much they have been offered through Christ’s death, cannot offer that same forgiveness to others.

It is not that we are saved by forgiving others, but that because we have received salvation by the free grace of Christ, we cannot help but to offer forgiveness to others.

When one refuses to offer forgiveness to others, one is really rejecting the forgiveness that Christ has offered to us.

And when we reject the forgiveness of Christ, we are willfully taking on the consequences of that rejection, which to pay off an infinite debt requires and infinite punishment.

The good news of the Gospel should give us the strength and power that we need to be able to sacrificially seek to forgive those who hurt us. We are not ignoring the hurt and excusing away the wrong that was done to us. But we are choosing not to seek repayment for the wrong done to us.