Lectionary Reflection—17 September 2017
Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Should I forgive as many as seven times?”
22Jesus said, “Not just seven times, but rather as many as seventy times seven! 23Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24When he began to settle accounts, they brought to him a servant who owed him ten thousand bags of gold. 25Because the servant didn’t have enough to pay it back, the master ordered that he should be sold, along with his wife and children and everything he had, and that the proceeds should be used as payment. 26But the servant fell down, kneeled before him, and said, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ 27The master had compassion on that servant, released him, and forgave the loan.
28“When that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him one hundred coins. He grabbed him around the throat and said, ‘Pay me back what you owe me.’
29“Then his fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ 30But he refused. Instead, he threw him into prison until he paid back his debt.
31“When his fellow servants saw what happened, they were deeply offended. They came and told the king all that happened. 32The king called the first servant and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you appealed to me. 33Shouldn’t you also have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34The king was furious and handed the servant over to the guard responsible for punishing prisoners, until he had paid the whole debt.
35“My heavenly Father will also do the same to you if you don’t forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Charlie Peacock is a singer, songwriter, producer, recording artist, session musician, and the list goes on and on. Back in the early 1990’s he became somewhat popular, though he’d been writing and recording music a long time before that. With songs like, Big Man’s Hat, Down in the Lowlands, and In the Light, Charlie became something of a staple in the Contemporary Christian music scene. In 1991, Charlie released Love Life on Sparrow Records. It’s one of my favorites.1 Track 3 is simply titled, Forgiveness.
For a lot of us forgiveness is a hard thing to do. For others, while they may claim to have forgiven someone, they still treat the one who offended them with suspicion, keeping her at arm’s length. Never letting her back into the “circle of trust.” But it’s a very important thing to do, according to Jesus.
During the time of Jesus and the disciples, the traditional understanding of forgiveness was three times (based on Amos 1.3-13). When Peter asks about forgiving someone seven times, he’s one-upping tradition, taking into account the idea of seven being a poetic image for perfection or completeness (based on God completing creation and resting on the seventh day; Genesis 2.1-3). In other words, Peter’s asking if we should completely forgive people.
But then Jesus one-ups Peter!
Jesus wasn’t afraid of using hyperbole to make his point (see Matthew 19.24). His point is we should really, properly, thoroughly, and completely forgive. And to show what he meant, he told a story about God’s Realm and how God forgives people.
Some people don’t like to think of God as the King in this story. Some people think that Jesus is using a common misconception of his time and that God doesn’t really act this way. My issue with this view is that Jesus quite clearly stated, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” He didn’t say, “Some people think the kingdom of heaven is like…” No. He’s clearly explaining how forgiveness works in God’s Realm.
Now, sure, I don’t think God would take our families and punish them for our stubbornness, but that’s not the point of the story (that’s part of the hyperbole). Jesus’ point is since God has forgiven us of an unpayable debt, we, too, should forgive others in like manner.
And I think we all get that.
Except…
Do we?
I mean, a lot of us say the “Lord’s Prayer” daily and part of that prayer is, “Forgive us for the ways we have wronged you, just as we also forgive those who have wronged us” (Matthew 6.12).2 Notice that in both of these passages (Matthew 6 and Matthew 18 above), Jesus says God will forgive us as we forgive others. In fact, right after Jesus instructs the disciples about prayer in Matthew 6, he said, “If you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your sins” (Matthew 6.14-15).
Have we really thought about this? Is Christ saying that our forgiveness from God is dependant upon how we forgive others? It seems that way. The disciples thought so, too. James wrote, “There will be no mercy in judgment for anyone who hasn’t shown mercy” (James 2.13).
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Now, I want to make something clear—Jesus is not talking about salvation here. Please understand that. The salvific work of Christ has nothing to do with us—it was between him and God. According to some passages of the New Testament, Jesus was the sacrifice made to God on behalf of humanity (and, by extension, creation itself; Hebrews 10). God could either accept or reject the sacrifice of Christ. God proved that the sacrifice was acceptable by raising Jesus from the dead on the third day (See Romans 5.18-21; Colossians 1.19-20).
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So, just for a moment, let’s suppose that this is true (and I believe it is)—that our own forgiveness from God is wrapped up in our forgiveness of others. What are to we make of that? Did we automatically think about others instead of ourselves? Did we think about the hate groups appearing on the nightly news or did we think of our own unforgiveness? Do we feel like we’ll get a pass because Paul wrote, “there isn’t any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8.1)?
I don’t know about you but I think I might be in trouble. Scratch that...there’s no “might be,” I know I’ll be in trouble. I’ll have some things to answer for.
But I don’t see a time limit on Jesus’ statement. It seems that, right now, I can forgive those who’ve wronged me and I, too, will be forgiven. This connection—being forgiven and forgiving others—is so strong that we shouldn’t be able to notice when our own forgiveness stops and our forgiving others begins because forgiveness is tied directly to love.
In a very famous story (Luke 7.36-50), Jesus was sharing a meal with a Pharisee when a woman came in and knelt at Jesus’ feet. She began to weep and, using her tears, she washed Jesus’ feet and dried them with her hair. When his feet were dry, she took out some perfumed oil and poured it over them. When the Pharisee saw what was happening he thought to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he’d know what kind of woman is touching him. He’d know that she’s a sinner” (verse 39).3
Jesus tells the Pharisee a story about two people being forgiven of their debts—one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. “Which one,” Jesus asked the Pharisee, “will love the lender more for forgiving their debts?”
“I suppose,” the Pharisee replied, “the one who had the largest debt cancelled.”
“You’ve judged correctly,” Jesus said.
Turning to the woman, Jesus contrasts her actions with that of the Pharisee. He tells the Pharisee that, while the woman has washed and dried his feet, greeted him with kisses, and anointed him, he hasn’t done any of those things. Things that were customary in their time for a host to bestow upon a guest. “I tell you,” Jesus says to the Pharisee, “that her many sins have been forgiven; so she has shown great love. The one who is forgiven little loves little” (verse 47).
It seems the difference here is one of perception. The Pharisee didn’t realize that he, too, had been forgiven of “many sins.” He believed he was better than the woman, at least, and Jesus, at best.4
Also, notice that actions are tied together with love and forgiveness. In the lesson for this morning (as well as the passage from Luke), forgiveness of someone leads to actions of restoration. When the King forgave the man his debt, the man was back in good graces with the King. When the woman was forgiven of her “many sins” she acted humbly and honorably toward Jesus. As the New Testament points out, we can’t really say we love someone if we haven’t forgiven her or continue to treat her with contempt. As St John said, “…the person who doesn’t love a brother or sister who can be seen can’t love God, who can’t be seen” (1 John 4.20).
For me, it’s just that simple. If we love others, we forgive them. If we don’t forgive others, we block God’s forgiveness for us. I’m not saying it’s easy, and nothing worthwhile is, but it is essential for our lives and the lives of others.
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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1. West Coast Diaries, Volume Two is my all-time favorite from Charlie. It’s an acoustic set with a lot of popular songs. Back in the ‘90’s, when MTV was doing it’s whole “unplugged” phase, Sparrow Records released a video series titled, “Front Row” which were very similar to the MTV show. One of those video’s featured Charlie Peacock and showcased a lot of the songs from West Coast Diaries, Volume Two. You can watch it in its entirety on YouTube.
2. Or, if you prefer, “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
3. I’ve always found this story interesting. I mean, this “sinful woman” just walks into the Pharisee’s home uninvited? How can that be? It makes me wonder about the relationship between the Pharisee and the woman. Could she have been a servant? Perhaps she was a family member? I don’t know but I think it’s rather suspicious that she can enter without being invited.
4. We can deduce this from his thought, “If this man were a prophet, he’d know what kind of woman is touching him. He’d know that she’s a sinner” (verse 39).
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