July 6, 1997: 10.00a.m.
(Matt 18:21-35)
There's an
American citizen, now aged 32, who, each week goes to the post-box and
sends an envelope to a certain address in the USA. In that envelope is
a cheque for $1. Four times he has forgotten, and four times he's spent
a week in prison.
It all began one
summer's evening when he was just 17. He'd been out for a few drinks
and was involved in an accident in which an 15 yearold girl was killed.
The girl's parents sued Kevin Tunell (that's his name, for)
£1.5million. In a seeming turn around the family settled for
£936. But that's where the point of it all comes in. One of the
terms of the settlement was that the payement be made in weekly
instalments of £1, from the date of the settlement in 1932 until
August 2000. And failure to pay would be punished by a week's
imprisonment
Now we'd all
agree that drink-driving is a dreadful thing and that Tunell deserved
punishment- actually the State punished him to a year's campaigning
against drunk-drivers. But the point I want to draw out is that the
punishment inflicted by the civil action has left Tunell in a mental
prison- and the girl's parents are becoming more and more embittered.
When Tunell had made one of his lapses, he offered to give the family a
bunch of cheques dated a week apart. But no: the dead girl's mothers
said: "We want to receive the cheque every week on time. He must
understand that we are going to pursue this matter until August of the
year 2000. We will go back to court every month if we have to."
Peter asked Jesus,
How many times shall I forgive my brother if he sins against me? Up to seven times.
Peter probably though he was pretty good: the law only required three times. But Jesus told Peter:
I tell you—seventy-seven times
-or alternative
readings say 'seventy times seven'. The maths is pretty unimportant
anyway. Jesus is saying forgiveness should be free and unmeasured. We
might think that Tunell deserves everything he had got- and of course
he does. But what would Jesus' word be in such a situation? And Jesus
went on to tell the parable which formed the core of this morning's
gospel reading. It's a well-known story: probably over-familiar from
frequent repetition, so we probably fail to grasp the false nature of
the story, and it's surely in it's improbable out-working that Jesus'
main point is carried
It
doesn't ring true does it? Just let's stop and look at this story
again. A servant owes 'ten thousand talents'- that is equivalent to
several, million pounds.
'Since he could
not pay the debt, his master ordered that he and In effect, his master
had given him millions of pounds. He had shown immense favour- to use
the Bible word: grace. And what does he do? He goes and finds a
fellow-servant who owed ' hundred denarii'- that's just a few pounds,
seized him by the throat and put him in prison, till he paid the debt-
what an equally ridiculous position. He's locked up his fellow-servant
for life. It doesn't ring true, does it? Nor is it meant to! This
fellow had been forgiven, his debt cancelled, but his behaviour can
only be explained if he had totally failed to realise this and still
thought he was in trouble with his master.
The point at issue in the parable is:
WE ARE
RECIPIENTS OF GOD'S GRACE. HAVE WE REALISED IT. WHETHER OR NOT IS SHOWN
BY WHETHER WE FORGIVE. There are two possibilities- to say the obvious.
And I think, too, the love which we show in our lives, and the love we
have toward Jesus shows whether we have. That is the point behind
Jesus' remark recorded in Luke's gospel:
Her many sins have been forgiven-for she has loved much. But he who has been forgiven little, loves little (7:47)
IT IS, FIRST, POSSIBLE TO MISS OUT ON GOD'S FORGIVING GRACE
So many of us
are like Simon in the incident in Luke's gospel. We're very religious
but we've never REALLY received God's grace. We damage both ourselves
and other people. Like the girl's parents and Kevin Tunell. There's a
very telling verse in Hebrews 12:
Be sure that no-one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. (vl5)
It's very easy,
when we're hurt- and we all are at times by other people, to say, "Why
should I forgive so-and-so? They've wronged me and they deserve their
come-uppance. Why shouldn't I get my own back?"
Two things happen:
1. We put the
other person in a prison of unforgiveness, and many people have been
spiritually and emotionally imprisoned by someone who has refused to
forgive. They may say they forgive even, but forget - NEVER! That is
not forgiveness. Let's just remind ourselves what the Bible says about
God's forgiveness:
I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions ..and remembers your sin no more (Isa 43:25)
GOD FORGIVES AND
FORGETS, and that is the only forgiveness which sets free. Our
forgiveness can be so limited, and like those parents, we lock people
up! What happens when we meet the person again. Immediately we remember
and our relationship is soured: we stand at a distance, we may even
cross the street to miss that person. Can I say this: If anyone here is
holding unforgiveness against any other member of the Body, go and be
reconciled when we share the peace. If there's somebody somewhere else:
pick up the phone when you get home, or even go and make a visit. We
might want so we all get hurt. We all get let down, we all get
lied 0 to, we all suffer broken promises, we all have hurtful
slanderous things said about us. But if we hang on, that 'root of
bitterness
will grow in us.
Any gardener will be familiar with something like bindweed. It's roots
spread under the soil until it's shooting up everywhere and a whole
plot of ground is ruined and will grow nothing else. The only way to be
rid of the weed is to dig the root out.
Bitterness,
hatred, anger can grow in us like that. We all know people like that. I
sat the other week and couldn't help overhear a conversation. A
divorcee had become consumed with bitterness till it was all she could
speak of and of how she could get even with her ex- and his new wife. I
grieved inwardly for that woman, and she equally is in a prison. She
will never be free until that bitter root can be dug out. If only she
could come to know God's forgiving grace- and how many of us really
need that. We need to KNOW like that servant in Jesus' parable, For
else we will end up like that servant in prison
In anger the master turned him over to the jailors, until he paid back all he owed. This is how my Father will treat you unless you forgive your brother from your heart
We all put ourselves in prison. In prisons of hatred, anger and depression. Job 21:25 has it when, as we read:
Another man dies in bitterness of soul, having never enjoyed anything good.
A heart of unforgiveness can kill; most surely it can rob life of all joy; very existence becomes a barren landscape.
Oh how we all need to hear words of grace and forgiveness from the lips of Jesus !
THE SECOND POSSIBILTY IS THE ONE WE NEED TO PURSUE
2 Timothy 2:1,
and Paul advises the young Timothy, a young Christian whom Paul had
advised to 'fan into flame the gift of God which is in you' (1:6), he
advises:
Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Not: be strong
in prayer; not, be strong in studying God's Word; not, be strong in
evangelism- but to the young man he has just counselled to 'fan into
flame the gift of God', Paul says Be strong in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus.
Be strong in
grace. Let is grip you, let is possesss you. We need to hear again and
again from God's throne the word of forgiveness, till that knowledge
possesses us; till we 'are strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus'
God's Word says this to us:
Let
the wicked man forsake his way, and the evil man his thoughts. Let him
turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for HE
WILL FREELY PARDON
We DON'T have to grovel before God. He FREELY pardons. When God paraded his glory before Moses, it was with the decalaration:
The LORD, the
LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow can NEVER EVER
begin to repay; though I am guilty so that I am a stench before God,
yet Jesus died, God's self-sacrifice which avails for every sin ever
committed. King David thought he'd really blown it when Nathan exposed
his sin with Bathsheba, but in that great penitential psalm, 51 he says:
cleanse me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than
snow..Hide your face from my sin and blot out my iniquity
Though he had consequences to live with, he WAS FREE. God BLOTS OUT INIQUITY.
Let's remember that in all this we have an enemy.
Johnny had been
playing with a catapult. As he came in his Grandma's back garden he saw
her Grandma's pet duck. He took a pot-shot, and by pure fluke killed
the duck. After dinner Grandma told Sally to help with the dishes.
Sally pondered then said, "Johnny told me he wanted to do the dishes
today, didn't you Johnny?", whispering to Johnny, "Remember the duck".
Johnny did the dishes. So it went on; for weeks when it was Sally's
turn she reminded Johnny of the duck. For weeks Johnny kept quiet.
Eventually it all got too much. Johnny confessed. Grandma gave him a
hug. "I know. I was standing at the window. I saw everything. I love
you and I forgave you. I wondered how long you would let Sally make a
slave out of you!"
Johnny had been forgiven; he thought he was guilty- he'd been listening to Sally.
WE have an
accuser. He accuses us before God. He accuses us in our own
consciences. God has forgiven us- he NO LONGER REMEMBERS OUR SIN!_-He
slanders us. The Greek word for slander is 'diabolos' is
translated Satan.
Because it's all
too good to be true, because it runs contrary to our human convention
of justice, we listen to the slanderer. We read that the wages of sin
is death; we have sinned, we are under a death-sentence; we are guilty.
And we put ourselves in a prison, where we can't hear God's words to us.
We need to be
strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. If we soak ourselves in
that truth; if we claim it as our own, we shall possess the fragrance
of Christ. WE shall KNOW the Scriptural truth:
God made us alive with Christ. He forgave us ALL OUR SINS (Col 2:13)
When someone
wrongs us, hurts us, however deeply, we shall know that their sin has
already been paid for by the Blood shed at Calvary. WE shall want to
extend that love and forgiveness because that love and forgiveness
possess us and guard our hearts and minds.