what's the difference in a breakdown
If that’s the case, though, that makes Peter’s question if he should forgive an offending member seven times more than twice as forgiving as Jesus’ THREE strikes and you’re out policy! Doesn’t it?
However, Jesus doesn’t tell Peter that’s too lenient. On the contrary, Jesus says seven times isn’t even eleven times enough! Something doesn’t add up! Does it?
And perhaps sensing this, Jesus tells a parable. A parable about someone who hits the jackpot when they get something like a billion-dollar debt erased, free and clear!
As well as that might have made the point, though; Jesus doesn’t end the parable there. Does he? No, instead of giving us a happily ever after, Jesus tells an all-too-familiar tale. He tells that sad story of joylessness the windfall recipient barters in once that they happen to come upon their newfound fortune.
What happens is, contrary to all good sense, the lucky so-and-so doesn’t even take a second to relish their newfound lease on life. Do they? No, before the ink is even dried on their note of remittance, the old cuss shaking down some poor fellow servant who owed them something like thirty-thousand dollars.
Now don’t get me wrong, that’s a substantial sum of money. But it doesn’t come anywhere close to the billion this churl was just cleared of. Does it?
Plus, the parsimoniousness is nearly baffling! Instead of going to a cafe to sit on the patio, sip on a perfectly chilled Perrier, and casually leaf through the leisure section of the Times, all while the breeze gently blew through their hair as if for the first time in their life, the servant immediately tries to get back into that unhappy old business that just very nearly did them in! It’s bananas!
As it should happen, though, the inanity doesn’t last long. Before the scoundrel can even start collecting their dues, some other servants report the lousy behavior to the original creditor. And while that creditor doesn’t seem to mind remitting an incredible debt, they’re not about to tolerate such miserliness!
…But before we go any further, I’ve got to ask; doesn’t this sound an awful lot like Jesus’ guidance for confronting a recalcitrant member? The offending party’s behavior is confirmed by two or three witnesses. And then, when the malefactor refuses to amend their ways, they’re reported to the church, the creditor’s stead here on earth.
Jesus is depicting a confrontation with an unrepentant member in this parable! Isn’t he? But he’s doing it with his usual parabolic verve. Because, if you haven’t already noticed, there’s a twist!
The offending party isn’t the person you think it is! Here, let me put it this way, what’s the really unforgivable sin in Jesus’ parable?
…That’s right, it’s refusing to forgive someone else!
Now consider what that means! It means the offending party in Jesus’ instructions isn’t the one who did the offending! No, it’s the one who was offended against!
The real sin Jesus is concerned with isn’t the original offense! No, it’s the refusal to forgive the initial infraction! The sin Jesus will not oblige is the sin of insisting on counting sin! The true miscalculation is the foolish notion that you can hold someone’s trespass against them indefinitely!
Jesus doesn’t need your help when it comes to others’ sins! No, he’s perfectly capable of handling that all on his own. The galling offense to Christ is to act as if there’s an offense out there he hasn’t ALREADY gone ahead and just forgiven whole hog! The sin against the Holy Spirit is simply seeing any sin as beyond the reach of the Holy Spirit!
Fellow sinners, Jesus’ policy isn’t designed to get others to shape up. No, it’s designed so you and I WON’T ever summarily withhold forgiveness from anyone else! Jesus isn’t offering protection from others’ sins. No, he’s giving a policy to protect you and me from our wretched inclination to behave like the louse in his parable!
In fact, in a way, Jesus’ policy is the opposite of protection. It sends us out into the fray! His policy will not allow you and me to sit back and nurse our grudges! No, instead, it sends us to the one we have a grudge against! And not to tell them how deep they're in, either! No, he sends us to the offending party with the express intent of forgiving them their trespasses!
…We want rules so badly that we impulsively hear Jesus’ words as no more than more rules to help us enforce the rules. Don’t we? And in the process, all we do is turn Jesus’ Good News into so much more bad news.
Now that you and I have found ourselves on the wrong side of Jesus’ instruction, though, we’re finally ready to hear his words for all the Gospel they are! Now that you know how deep your debt goes, you’re finally ready to hear how much greater your Lord’s largess is!
Christ hasn’t forgiven some of your sins! No, he’s forgiven all of them! And yes, I mean that one! Why I even mean that accursed grievance you’ve been trying to hold against whomever!
And that’s not all, either! God is even forgiving the unforgivable sin you’re indulging right now! I know how this goes. No sooner do you hear there’s no sin God won’t forgive than you start imagining ones God might not forgive!
All that does, though, is grieve the Holy Spirit!
So how about we make the Holy Spirit happy instead! Shall we? Here we go: On account of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God HAS forgiven you all your sins!
There’s nothing outside the reach of Christ’s redemption! Jesus hasn’t just forgiven you once. No, his mercy knows no bounds! It's ever new! It is a note of forgiveness you can’t out-sin!
…The fatal mistake the unmerciful servant made was to try and keep old records the creditor has already wiped clean! The foolhardy servant thought they still had a debt to repay. Thus they had to be ruthless.
You, though, know better! Or at least, you do now! And that makes all the difference! Now you get to go out there and wield a whole lot more than a little of that mercy!
Understand, Jesus’ parable is only one side of the coin! And it’s important, no doubt. But the real fun is what the other side of the coin reveals!
Jesus isn’t just telling you what not to do! No, he’s also telling you what, in him, you GET to do! Jesus isn’t just telling you who not to be. He’s telling you who, in him, you actually are!
In Christ, you don’t just stand on the receiving end of his larges. Although you do! No, in him, you ALSO get to wheel and deal that mercy, too! In Christ, your life is full of opportunities to extend a heaping helping of his much-needed grace!
Yes, that can be a frightening prospect. And if you’d like, you can try and hold on to old grievances. But why would you want to? It’s very clearly torturous. And it seems there’ll be hell to pay, too.
But enough of all that unhappy old business, anyway! Christ has already set it aside upon his cross once and for all. And he did it all for the joy that was set before him.
But now, good savior that he is, Christ turns around and hands that joy over to you! It’s Christ’s good pleasure that you should also get to experience the full joy of his mercy!
And I don’t just mean that you get to stand on the receiving end of God’s grace. Although you do! No, I mean that you also get to extend it, too! And believe me, that’s the real fun!
Jesus’ command to forgive is truly no command at all! In all truth, it’s really the best game in town! Sharing Christ’s mercy is a delight. It transforms the most fraught situations of life into some of the best ones there are!
Christ’s grace is a power that turns your oldest of enemies INTO your newest of friends! What’s more, It’s a force that brings the far-off into the warm embrace of God’s love! And best of all, you get to apply this mercy liberally!
…Christ’s mercy is not diminished when it’s shared. On the contrary, it’s always multiplied! Not only do you get to experience the sheer freedom that comes from the revelation that God has closed the book on scorekeeping. You also get to know the thrill of sharing this news with others!
Watching another come out from under that awful delusion they’ve got to make the scales balance is to witness nothing less than a miracle. Plus, when you forgive someone their trespasses, you get to embody that mercy yourself! And, whenever THAT happens, Christ, HIMSELF, is with you, too!
And anyway, inevitably, you’ll find yourself in need of mercy. And God’s good will, such as it is, means that in all likelihood, when you receive that mercy, you’ll receive it from none other than another you first shared that grace with yourself! And on that day, you’ll give thanks Christ sent you out there to go and extend that prior forgiveness! That prior forgiveness that has now come back on you elevenfold!
All in due time, though. For now, let’s practice wrapping our lips around the words of grace ourselves! Beautiful Savior; ELW 838
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