Matthew 18:21-35
A. INTRODUCTION
When we think of all the terrible things that have happened in the world—the things that human beings have done to one another—is it any wonder that people have great difficulty in learning to forgive and forget?
For those who remember the Second World War—or any other war come to that—with the trauma and terror and the loss of loved ones, is it any wonder that people have difficulty in coming to grips with the past? And the lack of forgiveness, the inability to put the past behind . . . Well, even that, sometimes, is easy to understand.
Of course, that is not only true of wars, but it is true regarding other disputes too, including terrorist attacks. So, in a sense it is quite understandable that some people have sworn never to forgive or forget.
And, unfortunately, that attitude doesn’t just relate to the big worldwide events either. Because, for many, it relates to the small personal events too, including incidents where someone has done the wrong thing—sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally. But, again, incidents where the person offended has taken it so too heart, and they have found it impossible to forgive.
But then, forgiveness is not always easy. When we are hurt, the pain can take a long time to heal. And sometimes it is never healed. Indeed, sometimes people continue to dig up the past and keep opening old wounds. And of course, if the person is a serial offender, then how much harder is it to forgive and forget?
B. FORGIVENESS (Part 1) (21-22)
1. Background
And that brings us to the passage we have from Matthew’s gospel. Because in it we have the topic of forgiveness. And it records a discussion between Peter (the leader of the disciples) and Jesus about what it means to forgive. And the context of the discussion is about the need to forgive one’s fellow believers.
However, the ramifications of the discussion go much, much further.
2. The Question and Answer
And the story begins with the Apostle Peter showing that he (and the disciples) had learnt much from the time they’d spent with Jesus. They’d learnt that it was important to forgive. And they’d learnt that the accepted standards of the time were not enough (at least in Jesus’s eyes). However, they still reasoned that there must be a limit to forgiveness—a limit beyond what was reasonable to accept.
Now Peter would have been aware of the teaching of the time: that one needed to forgive someone up to three times. The first, second and third times – someone did something wrong could be forgiven, but the fourth time . . . Well, that was too much. So knowing what the current teaching was, and knowing that Jesus always went well beyond the currently accepted teaching, Peter would have probably felt very safe in more than doubling the norm.
So, when Jesus asked Peter how many times one should forgive someone, Peter suggested that one should forgive a fellow believer even up to 7 times. And after that, enough was enough. Peter (and the disciples) had obviously come to the understanding that retaliation was not the right path for a disciple. Rather that forgiveness was a quality to be prized. But they still saw forgiveness as something that should be practiced in moderation.
You can imagine Peter’s surprise, then, when Jesus gave his reply. And Jesus said that you shouldn’t just forgive a brother seven times, but seventy-seven times. Jesus was not concerned with petty forgiveness: the kind of forgiveness that calculated how many offences could be disregarded before retaliation became acceptable. For Jesus, forgiveness needed to be wholehearted and constant.
Jesus effectively indicated that it wasn’t satisfactory to calculate the numbers of offences before it was OK not to forgive. Forgiveness was to be unlimited. And forgiveness was to be a way of life.
C. ALLUSIONS TO GENESIS
Jesus’s reply, therefore, would have been quite sobering for Peter (and the other disciples). Yes, they’d learnt a lot from Jesus, but nowhere near as much as they needed to learn. And with Jesus’s reply, their minds would probably have gone back to a parallel in Old Testament times, to the book of Genesis where the first two murders were recorded. Because there the numbers seven and seventy-seven were of prime importance.
Cain, the first murderer, who killed Abel through jealousy, feared for his life. He believed that someone would not forgive him for what he had done. He believed that someone would seek revenge and demand a life for a life. To which God assured him that if anything happened to him, then he would be avenged seven times over (Genesis 4:15).
But Lamech, the second murderer, who murdered a man who had injured him . . . He too feared from a lack of forgiveness, and in particular a revenge attack. However, he intimated, if someone had done mischief to Cain who would have been avenged seven times, then in his case if someone did mischief to him, he would be avenged up to seventy-seven times (Genesis 4:24). In other words, without limit.
On reflection, therefore, the allusion that Jesus made to the disciples own Old Testament past, showed that not only was Peter’s second guessing of Jesus inadequate, but his understanding of his own religious background was grossly inadequate too. Because just as Lamech’s unlimited retribution contrasted with the limited retribution for Cain, so the unlimited forgiveness of Jesus contrasted with the limited forgiveness of the disciples.
D. FORGIVENESS (Part 2) (32-35)
1.Introduction
Of course, knowing we should forgive—particularly a brother in the church—is all very easy to say. However, like most things, it’s often a lot harder to put into practice.
As a consequence, you may be aware—like me—that there are some people who won’t come to church because so-and-so comes. Something happened that has made them bitter towards a member of the congregation, or to the church as a whole. Some event in the past (and often in the dim dark past) has happened, even to the extent that the original problem may have been forgotten. But, nevertheless, it is still the cause of unforgiveness, as well as the lack of attendance.
Likewise, you may be aware—like me—of others who go to church but won’t have a bar of someone else in the congregation. They avoid talking to each other like the plague—they won’t go anywhere near each other—with the result that they have find it impossible to have a proper Christian relationship with each other. And all through a lack of forgiveness.
And there are a number of other examples we could give.
However, regardless of the cause for the lack of forgiveness, and regardless of the situation, the lesson from Jesus today—to forgive a fellow believer without number—is one we cannot afford to ignore.
And the reason we can’t afford to ignore it? Well, Jesus continued in his discussion with the disciples by telling them a parable. And his story has three points to make:
2. We Are the Receivers of God’s Forgiveness (32)
And the first point is that we are not alone in being asked to forgive without limit. No! Because it’s what we need God to do for us. All Christians are the recipients of God’s extraordinary grace. And God is willing to forgive us, without limit, for all the sins, mistakes, whatever we do—or whatever we fail to do.
When we decide to go our own way—and not have God as the centre of our lives—each time we need forgiveness. When we carry on—and take all the credit for the things that we’ve done and not give God his due—we need his forgiveness. When we ignore the things he asks us to do—and when we fail in our duty to him—we need forgiveness. And when we deliberately disobey his commands—because it all seems too difficult or other ways seem more fun—we need forgiveness too.
In short, Jesus’s first point is that we owe our existence, our life, and our salvation to God. We are totally dependent upon him for his forgiveness. He doesn’t count our sins; he is willing to forgive us without number. And nothing we can do can possibly repay him for the magnitude for what he has done for us.
3. God expects us to respond in like manner (33)
The second point is that those who are recipients of this extraordinary grace, should act in accordance with the grace that they receive. In other words, God expects us to forgive in the same manner as he forgives us.
That doesn’t mean we will always understand the situation we find ourselves in, or that it will always be easy to forgive. Some people are just not easy to forgive. Particularly when they keep repeating the same offences time after time, or when we seem continually to be the victim of their conscious and subconscious attacks.
Nevertheless, Jesus taught that, we should have mercy on our fellow believers. Because just as we have been shown mercy by God—unlimited mercy—we should show mercy to others. And we should be generous in our forgiveness too.
4. The consequence for failure (34-35)
And the third point is that if we fail to forgive our fellow believer—while still expecting God to continue to forgive us—it should not come as any surprise to us if God should become angry and take action against us for refusing to forgive.
Anyone who refuses to forgive is inviting God to withhold his forgiveness from them. The message is quite clear: God will be our final judge, and he will do to those who refuse to forgive as they have done to others.
Pretty powerful stuff. Jesus taught that every believer must forgive—wholeheartedly (not grudgingly)—and without limit.
E. THE GREATER PERSPECTIVE
However, lest we think that we only need to forgive fellow believers (As could be easily concluded from today’s passage), we should remind ourselves that this wasn’t the only time that Jesus taught about forgiveness.
And in words that Jesus taught, that will be familiar to all, his teaching about forgiveness goes well beyond that of the need to forgive fellow believers. The words from the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our debts in the same way we have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
As a consequence, in one line, we have a summary of the gospel passage: The acknowledgement of God’s infinite forgiveness; the call for us to forgive; and all wrapped up in the acknowledgement that our being forgiven by God is conditional on us forgiving others.
However, this time it is not just the need to forgive Christians, but to forgive anyone who in any way has done us any wrong, at any time. And that includes, no matter how difficult or impossible it may seem to some, needing to forgive the Hitler’s, the Pol Pot’s, the Osama bin Laden’s, the Putin’s and the terrorists of the world. And that is in addition to the person up the street or a member of our own family.
That doesn’t mean it will be easy. But it does mean that as Christians that we need to grow an attitude that is more in tune with the thinking of God, rather than this world—in what will seem in heavenly terms to be petty disputes in contrast.
F. CONCLUSION
And particularly so, as we live in a world where terrible things have happened and continue to happen, where people are hated and are treated with contempt. So much so that it is easy to see how people become bitter and find it hard to learn to forgive.
However, the teaching of Jesus is for us—for all Christians—to have an emphasis on the priority of forgiveness. Indeed, the unlimited application of forgiveness should be part of every believer’s life.
But if that seems too difficult—or too much—then let us remember that God is not asking us to do anything he isn’t doing himself. Indeed, we need God’s forgiveness too. And Jesus’s teaching simply reflects our own need for forgiveness, and the greater—and more frequent—forgiveness of us by God himself.
Posted: 13th January 2023
© 2023, Brian A Curtis
www.brianacurtis.com.au
