Living the King's Forgiveness - Matthew 18:23-35

This lack of fully stepping into and realizing the forgiveness that we have received is repeated in the story of the King who forgives the debtor. The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant Matthew is found in Matthew 18:23-35. I think that this man who owed 10 thousand bags of gold is like the older brother of the Prodigal son, he does not understand what he has been given. The king grants his freedom! Just as the prodigal son was given the whole estate.

Yet the man goes out and continues to act as the stilted and stingy old man rather than as the lavish king. Have we understood the debt that we have been released from? Have we understood that we owe nothing? Have we understood that we have access to everything?

We know that these stories are all about forgiveness: the unmerciful servant and the prodigal son. The king and the father are God, who has forgiven us all. Then the servant, that’s me (and you) by the way, does not forgive others.

I am glad that this story of the unmerciful servant is in the Bible. It shows that God understands the hard of forgiveness, the difficulty and the struggle of it. He shows that he knows we have a hard time with it.

Forgiveness is hard. We hurt. We live with physical and emotional scars of what others have done to us. We know that person deserves the same back. But we are not permitted that, as Christians. ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay’ says the Lord in Deuteronomy 32:35.

Forgiveness, not vengeance

We are instructed to forgive, not avenge. How do we turn our anger and hatred into forgiveness? How do we keep from returning the same pain upon our offenders? Forgiveness.

We all know this in our heads. But after abuse, adultery, lies, theft, abandonment, manipulation and so much else… how can we forgive? The pain is too much. The anger grows. The disappointment, the after-effects, the judgement. It is just too much.

Matthew 18: 21-22 says, ‘Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”’

There is no choice given here. There is again an acknowledgement that this is hard; we are to forgive not once or twice, over and over. Our minds work that way, they continue to bring up the offenses of the past and over and over we have to forgive.

Forgiveness is hard

At this point, I want to say that forgiveness is obligatory. But that isn’t the case. We do have a choice – it is just a choice with equal consequences. Consequences that I do not want to live with myself. I choose at the end of my days to be forgiven of all – so according to John 20:23, I must forgive everyone as well. John 20:23 says, ‘If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.’ Just as the Lord’s Prayer asks God to forgive us as we have forgiven, so that is another two places in the Bible where it says that we will be forgiven in the measure that we forgive. So, my head has already concluded that I really have no choice, I must forgive; it is an obligation. I suppose you could say it is for selfish reasons, because I want to be in good standing at the end of my days.

But forgiveness is difficult.