Year A

Matthew 18:21-35

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Forgiven to Be Forgiving

What is the essence or nature of God’s mercy? What does it mean to live mercifully toward one another? In 1992, from a helicopter view during the Los Angeles riots, two men dragged a truck driver from the cab of his truck and beat him until his face was totally disfigured. A short time later, Reginald Denny, the man who was beaten so severely, was in court against the men who had beaten him. His face was still swollen and misshapen. He was sitting in court with the defendants who had committed that horrible crime, both defendants sitting there, sullen, hostile, no yielding whatsoever.  Against the protest of his lawyers, Reginald Denny went across the courtroom to the mothers of those defendants, hugged them, and told them that he forgave their sons. One mother looked into his eyes and said, “I love you.”

Reginald Denny showed the nature of God’s mercy that day in the courtroom as did Joseph many years before to his brothers when they came to him asking for his forgiveness. The OT text today is the conclusion of the magnificent story about Joseph and his brothers. The story begins with the somewhat understandable jealousy of the brothers against Joseph because of their father Jacob’s favoritism toward him. Jacob’s gift of the robe with long sleeves to Joseph certainly riled his brothers. The brothers “conspired against him to kill him,” but instead they sold him to a caravan headed for Egypt and went home to Jacob with the sad story that Joseph was dead, eaten by a hungry beast. In Egypt, Joseph at first fell on hard times but with God’s help he eventually became second only to Pharaoh.

Today’s text describes how after many years and immediately after the death of Jacob their father, the brothers went to Joseph asking for his forgiveness on the premise that they were simply delivering the message that their father had instructed that Joseph should forgive them. While the text does not state directly that Joseph forgave them, his words about providing for them and their families indicates he was not about to hold a grudge. He said to them, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people.” At the end of the story, the brothers hear that God managed to work through their evil in order to keep many of their people alive. 

The family of Jacob was reconciled through the work and mercy of God, and the broken community restored in order to become part of a larger purpose of God, the exodus from the land of Egypt and the gift of the Promised Land. This message about the willingness of one who is wronged to forgive the offenders ties the OT text to the gospel story today where we see again God’s gracious life-giving mercy even though the servant in Jesus’s parable showed no inclination toward mercy, even after receiving it himself. Jesus’ powerful teaching in this passage hits all of us because it personalizes our need for forgiveness and the challenge we face to forgive others. Forgiveness is one of the greatest gifts that the Church provides a human life.

The past cannot be changed. So when we are wronged, we are going to have to come to terms with the past. We will either be bitter, angry, and damaged by the moment, or we will discover the divine resource that enables us to genuinely forgive the other for our own benefit and healing. Peter today feels that there should be a limit on forgiving the other and Jesus simply says no. Forgiveness is unlimited. Then, as was his custom, Jesus points to the extravagant forgiveness offered by God by answering Peter’s question with a story of a master who lent one of his servant’s 10,000 talents, which might be worth almost two years entire tax revenue of Judea and Samaria. The people listening would have laughed at the idea of a master lending a servant that amount.

The servant could not pay his debt back and is forgiven by the king. The image of a wonderful master forgiving that level of debt would have stunned the listeners also, who more than likely struggled to pay off their own debts. And when the servant refuses to forgive the much smaller debt of a fellow servant they would have been shocked that someone who had been forgiven so much would refuse to forgive a much smaller debt. The servant made the massive mistake of not treating another as he has been treated. He had personally benefited from another’s inclination toward mercy. We would assume that this man would feel relief, joy and gratitude. It is shocking the contrast between what he has received and what he dishes out.

We, like the people of Jesus’ day hear this story as shocking also that this man failed to “pay it forward,” because we know that this is the moral expectation of the story. The failure of the ungrateful servant is moral in that it is the failure or ability to place oneself in another’s situation and understand that their lot might just as easily be one’s own. He has received mercy; he should be able to imagine himself as the forgiver of the debt. He has been forgiven, he should forgive others.  This is the essential message of this text and all our texts today. Paul continues this discussion as he offers his own reasons as to the limitlessness that should characterize our forgiveness of others in this portion of his letter to the Romans today.

In this text Paul is addressing a dispute between Gentile and Roman Christians. The Jewish Christians still respect stringent dietary laws, while the Gentile Christians do not feel such restrictions are necessary. Both groups are judging one another by looking down on the other for their lifestyle and worship practices. Paul is attempting to encourage unity and remind all Christians of what they have in common. That is, “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or we die, we are the Lord’s.” None of us answers either to only ourselves or to others. Ultimately, we answer to God and what matters to God.

So Paul asks, “Why do you pass judgment on your brothers and sisters? For we all stand before the judgment seat of God…So then, each of us will be accountable to God.” If God in the final analysis offers forgiveness for someone’s actions, who am I to withhold my forgiveness from them? When it comes to making judgments toward others regarding dietary standards and observance of worship, etc., it is God who makes the final judgment but that does not give us license to be lax with regard to living out the requirements of what God desires of us to bring honor to the Lord. Such humility will result in forgiveness, or better acceptance, of those whose conduct is different than our own. We are to be sensitive to all Christians, to all people.

The bottom line is; how can others see the kingdom living in us in our daily response to the mercy and salvation shown to us in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ? The way of mercy is for us. Because we have received God’s mercy, we are free to forgive and receive others in mercy. This is a gift from God to us and with the help of the Holy Spirit we extend it to others. We do not live to ourselves and when we truly realize this in our lives, we will see Jesus more clearly and see my “fellow servant,” in all people more clearly too just as Joseph and Reginald did.  In a few minutes we will say the Confession of Sin and then later the Lord’s Prayer. Let us look into our hearts as we confess our sins and decide to write any wrongs that exist. Let us seek reconciliation, healing, and forgiveness and in the process find our own forgiveness in eternal life with the merciful God.