THE NATURE OF FORGIVENESS
Matthew 18: 21-35

           God’s message to us centers on the idea of forgiveness. On the surface, there is nothing particularly and inherently Christian or spiritual about forgiveness. On a daily basis, forgiveness is extended and experienced by the religious and nonreligious alike. Most of the time, forgiveness is extended or experienced for trivial or inconsequential matters. There are times, though, when forgiveness is needed for matters of enormous consequence. It is in those times, and in times when human love and patience wear thin, when the notion of forgiveness becomes problematic for human beings. For a perfect example of this, take a look at Peter’s question to Jesus at the beginning of our text from Matthew.

           The six verses preceding our passage deal with confronting one who sins against another. Peter’s question takes Jesus’ teaching and seeks to expand it a bit. Peter is curious about how far human forgiveness should extend. What Peter wants to know is how many times forgiveness should be extended until one human is released from the obligation to forgive another. It is a question asked from a human perspective and understanding of forgiveness. However, Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question, and the subsequent parable, allow us to glimpse the divine understanding and perspective of forgiveness. What Jesus does is ground forgiveness in the very nature of God—make forgiveness a part of who God is—and challenge his followers to see and practice “Kingdom forgiveness”—what forgiveness looks like in the realm of God. Through this parable, Jesus provides us with some characteristics of this “Kingdom forgiveness”.

           One characteristic of “Kingdom forgiveness” Jesus gives is that it is not based on a sense of “divine amnesia”. I’m guessing that most of us have heard and/or used the phrase “forgive and forget”. We even taught, at times, in the church that when God forgives, God seemingly erases God’s memory concerning our transgressions. But take a close look at the parable. Even though the king forgave the debt of the first servant, that debt is not forgotten, as exemplified when the king later on calls the servant to account for that debt. At no point did the king simply forget that debt; it was simply forgiven and mercy was extended. If the debt were simply forgotten, the importance of mercy would be lost. So it is with God. Do not be fooled—God is aware of my sin, of your sin, of the sin of the church, of the sin of the world; it is not forgotten. At the same time, though, God offers mercy and forgiveness. This is not because God MUST forgive. It is because of God’s love for you, for me, for the world. Forgiveness is God’s way of saying to us, “I love you too much to hold your sin against you!” Forgiveness is grounded in God’s love, not in God forgetting about our transgressions.

           A second characteristic of “Kingdom forgiveness” is that there is nothing beyond the scope of God’s forgiveness. Said another way, there is NOTHING that is beyond God’s forgiveness. Let’s take a look at the enormity of the debt owed to the king by that first servant. Many translations say the servant owed the king “ten thousand talents”. I’m not going to go through all the mathematical translations, but that amount comes out to the rough equivalent of 164 years’ wages. Let’s make it personal…take your expected income for this year and multiply that by 164. That could be what your debt to this king could be. Jesus uses this illustration to show just how deep God’s forgiveness is. There is no ceiling to God’s forgiveness! There is no point at which God says the transgression is too great to be forgiven. God’s not there with the “moral measuring stick” to see just how severe the transgression is. Instead, God is compared to a king who, knowing the debt was great, extends mercy because the debtor asked for it.

           A final characteristic we see in the text actually goes back to Peter’s question that prompted the parable. To state again, Peter was curious about just how many times it was expected that one extend forgiveness to another. Notice, too, that Peter doesn’t say “for the same offense”; we can assume that Jesus’ answer is for ALL transgressions and not only multiple offenses of a similar nature. Jesus’ answer is that forgiveness should be extended seventy-seven times (some translations say “seventy times seven times). Regardless of the exact number, the message is the same: “Kingdom forgiveness” is unlimited in its supply. God’s well of forgiveness never runs dry. God does not allot each of us a certain number of “forgiveness points” and, after they are gone kick us to the curb. Instead, forgiveness is there in abundance. This is not, however, meant to say that God just blindly tolerates our sin. Be clear on this—our sin disappoints God, just as a child’s misbehavior disappoints their parent(s). God cannot and will not stand in the sight or presence of sin. However, God offers mercy when we come with contrite hearts—because God’s love for us is that immense!

           I’m guessing that, by now, you are seeing where this idea of “Kingdom forgiveness” can be problematic for humans. In the first place, there are times when forgiveness is the furthest thing from our mind, even when someone asks for it. The world tells us that, instead of extending forgiveness, we should want, and deserve to have, revenge toward the one who sinned against us (this is why we have lawsuits!). We are told to hang on to the transgressions of others, just in case we need to throw it back in their face to get what we want. Forgiveness can be difficult with the pressure from society to hang on to those transgressions.

           Even when we decide that forgiveness is the option we want to pursue, it can still be problematic. Human logic says that there should be a cap on forgiveness, both in depth and in supply. Think about someone such as Adolf Hitler or Osama bin Laden, or anyone else whose actions could be classified as heinous. How often do we think of them as those who can be forgiven by God? My guess is not very often. They are vilified (perhaps justly) for their actions. But “Kingdom forgiveness” does not exclude even them from receiving God’s mercy. It is difficult for many to accept and come to terms with that reality. It’s also difficult to come to the reality that God’s expectation is that we forgive an unlimited number of times, even if it’s for the same thing over and over and over again. We want to be like Peter and ask, “How many times?”, when the answer is “as many as necessary”. The human perspective says that forgiveness is limited in its scope.

           The question for us then is how we reconcile our human notions and perspectives on forgiveness with Kingdom forgiveness and God’s expectations of those who wish to be a part of God’s Kingdom. Kingdom forgiveness is a lofty standard: it asks us to go beyond where we are and where we think we can go. The answer is that, by ourselves, we cannot bridge the gap between human forgiveness and Kingdom forgiveness. It is only by God’s grace and our dependence upon it that we can transcend the human notions of forgiveness and dealing with those who sin against us, even those who hurt us deeply. Only by grace can we forgive others as perfectly and completely as God forgives them, and us. However, we must make up our minds and our hearts that we WANT to extend and experience Kingdom forgiveness. At that point, the Spirit walks with us so that we might experience God more perfectly and more fully.

           The purpose of forgiveness is to mend fractured relationships—whether it be our relationship with God, our relationship with someone else, or even our relationship with ourselves. It calls for a love that is willing to look beyond the transgression and the transgressor as a beloved child and creation of God. God loves us in such a way. Maybe some of you are in need of forgiveness from God. Hear the Good News, in the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven! Go and do likewise. AMEN.

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