Sermon | Year A - The Year of Matthew

September 14, 2008 | Pentecost 18

Genesis 50:15-21; Psalm 103:[1-7]; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35

A friend of mine titles today’s Gospel the “Terrible Parable” because of one line at the end. That line goes, “In anger his lord handed him over to be tortured.” I am going to work my way to that line. However to do so, I am going to talk a little bit about history.

Edward Gibbon in his gigantic work The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has as his thesis that one of the major factors in Rome’s fall was its embrace of Christianity. His argument is that Christianity weakened the resolve of the Romans by introducing ideas such as forgiveness, loving the stranger, showing kindness to one’s enemies, and emphasizing the virtues of humility and being a servant.

However, the thing Gibbon missed was that the one thing to survive the fall of Rome was the Church. As Rome collapsed, the Church stood where the state failed. The Church with the virtues it professed were the one civilizing force in a world collapsing into barbarity.

The truth is that the virtues the Church embraced are the very thing that gives Christianity its strength. Today, for example, is one of the most difficult virtues the Church professes. Forgiveness is a constant source of complication in life. Questions of forgiveness often face us. Can we forgive? Should we forgive? What does it mean to forgive? The very fact that Christianity raises such difficult questions and makes us look at them is part of the strength of Christianity. We are not mindless beings acting on impulse. We are people who need to reason and determine our reactions to events.

The questions Jesus raises about forgiveness, such as in today’s Gospel, are ones that were radical in his day. The culture of the Middle East was one built on blood feuds, an obsessive concern about protecting one’s honor, and reprisal. It was a virtue to seek revenge. We still see that mentality in the Middle East today. However, Jesus came talking about reconciliation and forgiveness. In many respects, his words must have seemed strange and incomprehensible. He even has the idea in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” What do we say about forgiveness? Is it weakness as Gibbon thought? Is it necessary? Does it accomplish anything?

I have known people who love to hold grudges. It gives them a feeling of life, power, and energy. That little bully inside all of us likes the thought of intimidating people by nursing a grudge.

However, most people derive no long-term pleasure from holding a grudge. It is debilitating. It complicates life, and the bridges burned by grudges restrict our lives and makes them smaller.

However, having said that, forgiveness is still a hard one for most people. It does not come easily. We are often confused as to how to offer it.

I had a friend who did a terrible thing to me. The conflict of the betrayal hung over me for a long time. Finally, I got tired of it and wanted to put it out of my life. I wrote the person saying that I had decided to forgive the wrong.

The person was outraged. How dare I be so presumptuous as to offer forgiveness? The outrage did not matter to me. I did what I needed to do, and that was that. A few years later, the person did in fact ask for my forgiveness, and could see what I had been trying to do. My response was to say that what had happened was now part of my life. I had a choice to be forever angry about it or to incorporate into my life. I had chosen to incorporate it and allow it to make me stronger. The forgiveness I gave years ago was part of that process.

I wish I could say I handled everything that well. However, I have not. It is one of the reasons we have confession and forgiveness. What Jesus seems to be saying in this parable is that when someone asks to be forgiven, we are to remember the cross and how God has forgiven us.

I have known people who when crossed by someone will never let go of their feeling of resentment. If you cross them, they will hold it against you for the rest of their lives. In doing this, they think they are strong; in fact, they are weak. They are only able to structure their lives by their animosity. They will only be known for their resentments, all other things will seem peripheral.

Jesus says that there is a consequence for our unwillingness to forgive or ask for forgiveness. Living in our own resentments is certainly part of that consequence. Jesus says in this parable, “In anger his lord handed him over to be tortured.” What we often do not realize is that we become our own tortures when our lives are defined by resentments. We may think we are being strong when we hold on to resentment, but, in fact, we are imposing a sentence upon ourselves that will shape who we are in all manner of destructive ways.

Jesus also seems to imply that by refusing to forgive, we are blocking ourselves from the forgiveness he gives to us. If I blind myself by my hatred, I blind myself to the forgiveness God gives to me. That is truly placing a punishment on myself that need not be.

This “Terrible Parable” actually speaks a truth to us to which we had best listen. This parable is not about condemnation; it is about freedom. This parable should not put fear in our hearts; it shows us a path towards happiness.

Forgiveness is not a weakness as Gibbon thought, it is the might of our faith. It is what leads us away from weakness to true strength. It gives us something to wrestle with as we encounter people and events. As we wrestle with the meaning of forgiveness, we are no longer trapped in our emotions, we are freed to become people who live the faith in thought, word, and deed. Amen.