Download Text: Matt 18:21-35 Exegetical Point: Unlimited Forgiveness from the

Text: Matt 18:21-35
Exegetical Point: Unlimited Forgiveness from the Father is displayed in a changed life of
forgiveness to your neighbor
Focus Statement: God has forgiven more than you can imagine
Function Statement: That my listeners would stop counting and forgive
Introduction
Debt. Just the sound of the word itself is scary. Debt [lengthen & said scary]. Yet modern life
is uniquely based upon debt. If you are trying to sell a house, or you just read the business press
or listen to CNBC, the credit crunch is the boogey man of choice. And as much schadenfruede
or awful fun you can have watching the former Wall Street Masters of the Universe go begging
to Washington, it doesn’t chase away the thoughts that if a Bear Stearns or a Lehman Brothers
can go belly up, what about my credit union. All of a sudden the slow motion unwinding from
1918 – 1920 and Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life seem more real - No longer just your
grandmother’s boogey man. You can start asking, was my neighbor Joe responsible when he
mortgaged his house, 2 Beemers, a riding lawn mower, flat panel TVs and the rest of modern life
being lived on the installment plan? Debt. If there is one part of the ancient world that the
modern should clearly understand it is Debt. We may not have debtor’s prison anymore, but we
might have something worse - the Scarlett letter D of a bad FICO credit score.
Justification
The Bible is actually full of monetary images. That shouldn’t surprise us because while inspired
the Bible also had human authors. It is full of the things of everyday life. Bread and water and
wine. Births and deaths. Arguments and sins and the characters who commit them. Rulers and
Servents. Land and property…And business transactions. The stuff of everyday life.
Last week, the disciples wanted to know who’s the greatest. To their shock, Jesus called over a
little child and said, this one. If you want to make it into the reign of heaven, become like a child
– absolutely dependent upon God. As a community of children, care about each other. Sin is
important, be your brother’s keeper, seek to restore them.
Today we get the second shoe. As the gears turned in Peter’s head staring at that child and
absorbing the lesson, he starts to think about numbers. Ok, Jesus, you say we should restore the
lost sheep. How often? If my brother sins against me, how often do I cancel that debt, seven
times? And Peter thinks he’s ahead of the curve again. Cain wanted to repay in vengeance
seven times what was done to him. Moses limited the debt to an eye for an eye. Amos tells us of
YHWH forgiving Israel for 3 sins, even for 4 sins I will turn back my wrath. Peter is being
extravagant. Jesus, should I cancel that debt 7 times? 7 the number of completeness. Surely this
puts Peter back at the head of the class. Surely Jesus will affirm this.
Jesus says to Peter, “Not 7 times, but 70 times 7.” Peter, stop counting. Peter, recognize the
situation you’ve been put in. Recognize the core reality of the Reign of Heaven. The reign of
Heaven is like a King who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. He began to call them in
and one debtor owed him 10,000 talents…10,000 talents…the number itself is ridiculous. One
way to think about it is that 10,000 was the largest number in the ancient world – kinda like our
billions. There are larger numbers, but no one ever encounters them. Talent was the largest unit
of money – like our 100 dollar bill. 10,000 talents is the largest known number of the largest
unit of money measure. To give an idea of the ridiculous nature of the number, the entire Roman
world’s GDP, its entire income for 1 year in the 1st century was about $11B. This slave’s debt
was worth roughly 3 times the entire world’s income. He owed his Lord 3 times what the world
was worth. The number is ridiculous.
But that ridiculous number doesn’t stop this slave. Falling down before his Lord, “Be patient, I
will pay is all back.” That is the essence of our human struggle. We don’t fully recognize the
debt load of sin. We think we have something in that spiritual bank account. We think we have
a job that we can make something for ourselves. Lord, be patient, I’ll work my way out. I’ll pay
it all back. And we barter with God. Just give me a little more time. If I do this for you Lord,
then we’ll be square. God, do this for me, and I’ll do that for you. Fill in the this and that for
yourselves. We’ve all done it. Sometimes light heartedly in a daydream of a better life,
sometimes deadly serious in the midst of a crisis. Just like this slave, we think we have standing
to negotiate, without realizing the ridiculous pile of debt that engulfs our every moment.
But the King was moved to compassion, our verb friend splagnizomai returns, his heart was torn
out over the pathetic-ness of the slave’s situation. And when the the Lord is moved to
compassion he provides the answer. “The Lord freed him and canceled his debt.” That looming
mountain of debt. Those 10,000 talents sitting on the Visa Card and mortgages of the day is
replaced with a zero balance. That is what God has done for us. We have this enormous
ridiculous amount of sin. That sin which makes us un-holy. As the Sunday School kids learned
last week, that sin that required a curtain to separate the un-holy us from the Holy God in the
tabernacle. The entire amount is cancelled. When Jesus died on that cross, the curtain was torn.
We can still babble on about paying it back, or making deals with God, but God ignored that,
God took pity on that. God took the action in Jesus to removed that debt burden of sin. All that
debt was piled on the cross of Jesus. While we were still babbling about paying it back, while
we were still self absorbed sinners, God died for the un-holy. Jesus, his heart torn out over you,
died for you. The Lord took those 10,000 talents of sin off your account and put it on his.
Sanctification
The argument is from the greater to the less. If this great big huge thing happened, how much
more should this small little thing happen. That small little thing may not appear that small too
us. After having his mountainous pile of debt canceled, the slave goes out and immediately finds
his fellow slave who owed him 100 denarii. Compared to 10,000 talents, 100 denarii is very
small and insignificant, but 100 denarii is not a small amount. It is about 100 days wages, 1/3rd
of the year. If someone owed you 8 paychecks, is that a small amount? Probably not. That is a
real amount. It is not the fantastic 10, 000 talents, but right on the border of a real amount that
you might lend your struggling brother, or stake you daughter on graduation who wants to move
to NYC. We can imagine someone owing us this.
What we probably have a hard time imagining is forgiving that debt. It’s a real amount. It might
hurt me. I will personally feel it. We want to scream just like this slave. We want to grab that
person who owes us a big amount and scream – “Give back what you owe.” Make it right. You
sinned against me. You wronged me, and I want my pound of flesh. That is the way of the law.
An eye for and eye. A proportional revenge. But that is not the way of the little ones who
believe in Jesus. Yes it might hurt. Yes it is a real amount. But Jesus says forgive 70 times 7.
Stop counting. Don’t keep a moral ledger book. Remember the great amount forgiven you.
And the fellow slaves were their brother’s keeper. When they saw his actions, they were
distressed. And they went to their Lord and told him everything. In the reign of heaven
forgiveness is the rule, cancelation of debt, even when it hurts is the example that has been set
for us. Be like the child. Don’t be the scandalizer, the one through whom stumbling blocks
come. Don’t despise one of the little ones. Have concern for the sheep gone astray. Forgive
70x7. All of these lessons that Jesus has been teaching his disciples, that we have been reading,
are negatively displayed in this one unmerciful slave. The child is dependent upon God – Our
slave seeks to pay his Lord back, even after all debt is canceled. Those donkey pulled millstones
and the depth of the sea await the one who scandalizes – Our slave causes great distress to his
fellow slaves. Don’t despise the little ones, their angels have access to the Lord – after choking
and throwing into jail the second slave, his fellow slaves go immediately to the Lord. Have
concern for the lost sheep – our slave throws him in prison. Forgive 70x7, stop counting – our
slave can’t forgive once. All the signs of having accepted the forgiveness of God. All the
expected good fruit of believing in Jesus are absent in this unmerciful slave. And it is not
because his debt was not forgiven. It was. It was because he didn’t accept the implications of
that forgiveness. Is it not necessary for you to show mercy to your fellow slaves as I showed
mercy to you? Give him to the torturers until he can pay all the debt.
It would take a long time to pay back 10,000 talents, an eternity. The little one, the believer in
Jesus, accepts the cancelation of that debt. The implication is go and do likewise. The response
is to acknowledge the zero balance in the spiritual account and to care for our sisters and
brothers. And to do all of that from the heart. To stop counting. The call of being a disciple of
Jesus is lived out in his assembly. It is not an easy call. In fact it goes against all of our natural
instincts. But Jesus has taken care of those 10,000 talents, and he’s not abandoned us. We have
the Holy Spirit as our comfort and guide. When your sister goes astray, restore her. When your
brother sins against you, forgive him. When you lose your own way, enter again through the
gate. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the little children - Merciful God, we confess that we are by
nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against you in thought, word and deed. Theirs is the
kingdom of heaven – In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for
his sake God forgives us all our sin.
When 100 denarii looks tough to forgive, may the Lord remind you of the 10,000 talents. Amen.