Seventeenth Pentecost
Genesis 50:15-21, Matthew 18:21-35
Forgiveness is not a natural human emotion. Forgiveness means that the scales of human justice are off balance, that somebody has not paid for, deserved, earned whatever it is they have. All is not fair. All is not just. All is not even, all is not balanced. Forgiveness is not a natural human emotion. So Peter, who thinks he is being so generous in his offer of seven times forgiveness, has calculated wrong. No Jesus says, not seven times but seventy seven or as the old translation says seven times seventy or 490 times. We're a calculating lot aren't we? Give me a number, what's the bottom line, what's the exact amount I need to forgive.
Forgiveness was a lot easier to talk about before 9/11/01. One preacher who lives in New York observes that before September 11, Jesus command to "love your enemies and do good to those who hate you" seemed to her to be "advice about how to live with my ornery next door neighbor." After the events of that tragic day, however, she realized that when she opened her Bible to those words it was as if she was getting smacked between the eyes by what she read there.
Forgiveness is not a natural human emotion. While we may long for it, we hardly expect it and more often than not are surprised by it. Just so, Joseph's brothers had their plot all cooked up. Dad has just died. To the brothers it was Obvious, the love Joseph had for his father was what had been keeping him from exacting revenge on his brothers all along. So they construct a story about their father's last wish and bring it to Joseph. Obviously they didn't expect Joseph to forgive them on his own. If they were in his shoes they would have sought justice, there would be a price to pay for the evil they had done to him in his youth. It's all about power. When they were powerful they put him down now he's powerful and he exact justice. That's fair, that's even and balanced. That's the natural human way to do things. Debts must be repaid, restitution must be exacted.
But Jesus is calling us to another vision.
Once I heard a noted scholar on world religions speak. In his lecture he strolled through all the major religions of the world, citing one or two aspects of that religion which made that faith unique, noteworthy.
When he spoke of Islam, he noted the way that faith penetrates every aspect of life, the way Moslems pray throughout the day. In Hinduism, the scholar admired the largeness and complexity of the faith, the way it attempts to embrace all reality.
Finally he came to Christianity, we Christians wondered what would be the aspect of our faith which this practitioner and observer of the world's religions would note. What aspects do you think makes Christianity unique, different?
Forgiveness. Christianity is unusual in its focus upon, its demand for forgiveness. Jesus demanded that his followers practice extravagant forgiveness with one another. Jesus is depicted as saying to nearly everyone he meets, "Your sins are forgiven."
And so it seems Jesus is asking us to do something very unnatural, at times very uncomfortable and very hard.
And yet clearly forgiveness is not to be an act of will, a calculated, dismal resignation. When we look at the words that our lessons use in conjunction with it we find a different picture. What does Joseph say to his brothers? What language does he use? He reassures them, he speaks kindly to them, and he tells them not to be afraid. Our New Testament lesson concludes that forgiveness should be from your heart.
Forgiveness is the healing that takes place in ourselves when we let go of anger and resentment.
Forgiveness takes place when we recognize our own vulnerability, our own need for God's grace.
What strikes most people about the parable in our lesson today is the terrible unfairness of it all. Here the slave has been forgiven an exorbitant amount. One talent is the equivalent of 15 years wages. This slave owed ten thousand talents maybe the equivalent of $150 million dollars. In a burst of outlandish pity the master cancels the whole debt, cancels his plan to throw him in jail, cancels his plan to sell him and his family, cancels it all and sets him scot free.
So now this same slave comes upon one of his fellow slaves who owes him $1000. He grabs him by the neck demanding payments. There's no mercy here. No debt cancellation, no second chances.
We, like the fellow slaves, are incensed. Our sense of fairness and justice is appalled. How could he do that? Was he not grateful? Did he not appreciate what had been done for him? It's so easy to see in the third person, to see as an outsider looking in but can we see ourselves in this picture.
The preacher Will Willimon has a unique take on this lesson. He won't allow that this is allegory. He can't believe that this king is any way the picture of the God we have come to know in Jesus Christ. For in the end, This king takes back his pardon, exacts payment, punishes and condemns. As Willimon says, For this king the cycle of violence and retribution is continued. This is our world, our kingdom, eternal cycles of vengeance and repayment--Arab-Israeli, rich -poor, Irish Catholic protestant, Korean Japanese, Black White, treadmills of retribution. So, by the end of the story, when we smile in secret satisfaction as the servant is led to the torturers, Jesus little story has revealed to us the big truth: we are probably no worse, but certainly no better than they: While this may be indicative of the real world it is not the end of the story.
And on a Friday afternoon, after we had stripped him of his dignity, after his friends had forsaken him and fled, after the soldiers had spit upon him and whipped him, after the trial (everything was done according to the law.) we dragged him up a hill, nailed his hands and feet and crucified him. And as he hung there bleeding to death he looked down at us and this king said, "Father forgive them..." And the eternal cycle of retribution was derailed, our kingdoms crumbled and accounts were settled.
Amen