Bible Text: Matthew 18:21-35 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Series: Trinity 22 | It is heavenly when brothers dwell together in unity, as our Gradual says. It is hellish when they envy one another and hold grudges and refuse to forgive. This is what Jesus means when he speaks of hell as weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is the devil’s great aim, especially in these last days, to pit us against one another, to make us refuse reconciliation, to hold grudges, to withhold forgiveness from our brothers in the Kingdom of heaven. The world attacks us, entices us, lies to us, and we suffer this together, we must suffer it together. And we suffer it together strong and united, only when we rely on the forgiveness won by our Lord Jesus’ blood and given to us freely here in Christ’s Church, when this forms our faith and so our lives. Without this forgiveness, the wolf will scatter the sheep and there will be none to deliver. We rely on it completely. And if we are to meet the years ahead together, we need to live in forgiveness for one another. This is why Jesus tells us the parable he tells us today.
The slave in our parable racked up 10,000 talents of debt. That’s millions of dollars. It’s absurd. How does a slave rack up that kind of debt? It means his master has been ridiculously merciful, allowed him freedom that doesn’t belong to a slave. And the slave knows his lord’s mercy. He says, Be patient with me. The Greek is suffer long with me. The slave knows it. Everyone in the Kingdom knows it. The master has shown that he will suffer long a million times before, that he isn’t eager to punish but to forgive. And you have seen this too. This is the picture of the Kingdom of heaven, of Christ’s church here on earth, here in Casper. How many times have you asked for mercy and God has given it? And how could He not? He sent His Son to bear your sins. His dear Son’s blood pleads for you and preaches better things than the blood of Abel. Instead of vengeance, instead of you paying what you owe, the blood of Jesus cries out “Mercy” to your Father’s ears, and the God of all love showers it down, in love for His Son and in love for us His children.
Now this man who owes 10,000 talents is already a slave. Our translation calls him a servant. That’s true, but every time you see that word “servant” in Jesus’ parables, know he’s talking about a slave, a man who’s owned by his master. So when the master says, “Fine, I’m just going to sell you,” you wouldn’t think it would be such a big deal. The guy’s already a slave. He’s already owned. He’s just going to be owned by a different master now. But no, it is a big deal, to whom he belongs means everything, and he knows it. What king, what lord, could possibly be so gracious as this master of his? Who would forgive 10,000 talents? Who would suffer long as that enormous debt was racked up? Who would be so kind to a worthless slave? The slave knows full well that outside belonging to this master, there will be pain and suffering and gnashing of teeth.
This shouldn’t escape our notice that this slave is owned and ruled over regardless, no matter what. So are we. Freedom, if by freedom we mean complete autonomy, self-reliance, independence from any master or lord, that freedom is a pipedream, a utopian ideal that fades like dew in the sun when human history and human experience show their face. We are owned. Either we belong to God or we belong to the world, our own desires, and the devil. But you must be owned. You were created to depend on God, to belong to Him, and so even after the fall, you must belong to a god, either the true God or an idol. To whom do you want to belong? To this world, which can’t give you life, which promises glory and riches that it knows will fade away with the using and never delivers on the happiness it promises? To your own desires, which make you envy those around you, make you bitter because others have offended you and made your life difficult and said things they had no business saying, your own desires that dream of vengeance or sex or money or fame that will only leave you hollow inside as you finally have to face the death that puts an end to it all? To the devil, who tempts with shining cities and food and power, but only wants you to be as wretched as he? Or to God, who loves you beyond telling, to whom you rightfully belong, who has counted every hair on your head, who promises to forgive you for the sake of His Son’s blood, who will treat you like a son, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light?
The slave, this great debtor, he wanted the mercy of the good King. But he serves as probably the greatest warning to us in Christ’s church. Because Jesus speaks no harsher word than the words that end our Gospel. Listen to them and take them to heart. “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” Jesus’ words are unequivocal. If you do not forgive your brother, your fellow Christian, from your heart, Jesus’ heavenly Father will cast you out of His Kingdom. Because His Kingdom is a Kingdom of mercy. Everyone in this Kingdom adores the Lamb, remember, praises His precious blood, lives by His mercy. They don’t just get mercy and then go on with their own life. No, the answer to Peter’s question, “How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him,” is answered by the blood of Jesus, which forgives you even if, as Luther once said, you whored and murdered a thousand times a day. It’s a forgiveness that is unrelenting, constant, so profuse that it answers the Christian’s every doubt. Will God forgive this sin? This one, that is so shameful, this one, that I’ve not dared to speak aloud, this one that keeps creeping into my heart, though I’ve confessed it a thousand times, and Jesus’ blood answers with absolute finality, Yes, yes, yes. This is the forgiveness and mercy that forms the Christian heart and it changes our lives. Christians forgive those who sin against them. They point to the blood of Jesus and say, it has covered my sin, so let it cover yours.
There is here a principle that even the hardened heathen understand. If someone gives you 10 million dollars because he loves you, even though you don’t deserve it; and then your brother, who needs the money, asks you for twenty dollars to feed his family, and you say, No, what will people say? Everyone will call you a charlatan and a scoundrel, a mean, nasty, selfish, stingy person. And so it is in the Christian Church, where we all, because we belong in this Kingdom, adore the forgiveness that our God showers upon us, treasure it, call it our life, our hope’s foundation, our glory, and our salvation, we cannot bear to see people claiming to be Christians and refusing to forgive. Christians forgive one another. This is our reality. This is what we know of our King, what we have learned from Him. Forgiveness is everything. It’s what made us Christians. It’s what created our faith.
We know our own weaknesses and so we know the weaknesses of our brothers and sisters who sin against us. We know the foolish words we’ve spoken, or when we’ve lost our temper, or when some lust has overcome us, and these weaknesses and sins we will see in our brothers and sisters. We do not need condemnation from each other. No, especially in these days, when we know the persecution of the Christian Church is looming, has already come, when it is more important than ever that we walk together, because, as St. Paul says, we are all partakers of grace together – we need to cover one another’s faults, pray for one another, and love each other as our Father in heaven has loved us. So that our prayers are not hindered, so that the church can remain united, so that we throw no barrier between ourselves and the forgiveness of Christ we treasure so deeply.
And so we see the fellow slaves in our parable react the way they do, “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.” I love this, because they tell on him. They pray to God to put this evil away from the church. And we see here what a scandal not forgiving is. What a scandal and stumbling stone if we hold grudges against one another. Jesus describes Himself as a Rock, as the Cornerstone, and we pray this Rock falls upon our pride, crushes it into powder to blow away with the wind, so that in humility and love, we seek peace and pursue it.
Luther famously said of this verse that people don’t know how to approach their brothers because they don’t know how to approach God. So let us all again, today and every Lord’s day and every day of our lives, learn over and over again what it means to approach God, and we will have no trouble approaching one another. We approach God with a debt, a load of sin that we cannot possibly pay, we approach Him with guilt that weighs us down, and the sin of others and the pain of this corrupt world from which we need the relief He only can give. We come with our pride crucified, desiring only that Christ live in us, we come as the prodigal knowing we are unworthy to be called our Father’s son, and He forgives us; more than this, He claims us as His own, He says you belong to Me, yes, but not as a slave but as my son, He puts His name on you and feeds you with the body and blood that proclaim His undying love for you. Even now He wipes the tears from your eyes. Even now He sets the Lamb before eyes unclouded in token of your everlasting peace.
Jesus tells us to put his yoke on us. It is the yoke of sins forgiven, and it is light, because it makes all our works easy. What have I to lose by forgiving my brother? My pride? My sense of justice? What? Have I not thrown all these at the feet of my Savior? Has He not shown me what it means to be righteous, not to have a righteousness of mine own, but that which comes through faith in Jesus, so that I consider all else lost and all else rubbish compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ and being found in Him and having His righteousness? Yes, and what have we to gain by forgiveness? Our brothers and our sisters. And we need one another. We are a family. The family of God. And united we stand on this earth in the Kingdom of our Lord, so that when the devil attacks, we can comfort and strengthen one another. When we lose the favor of our government, we can take care of one another. When we sin, we can lift one another up and point one another to the mercy of our God, who never fails to give us the fruit of our Lord’s passion. And so we triumph over the devil and sin and death, we conquer in Christ together, and He who began the good work in us will keep bringing it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. Amen.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.