16th Sunday after Pentecost

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

One of Jesus’ favorite ways of teaching was by telling parables. He crafted these little stories that make us think, that challenge us to look at life from a new perspective, and that open our eyes to the new realities of the kingdom of God. In order to achieve that, these parables are often unsettling. They rattle us and make us uncomfortable because that is how Jesus gets us unstuck and willing to ponder a new perspective.

This is again the case with the parable before us today. Jesus includes in his story several things that make us uncomfortable. He talks about a king and about slaves and about torture. He talks about money. Doesn’t he know how prickly we get whenever the Bible or the church talk about money?

And Jesus tells this whole story in answer to Peter asking how many times we are expected to forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ. The number Jesus gives in answer is either 77 times or 70 times 7 times, the Greek isn’t quite clear; but what is clear is that Jesus throws out a huge number, basically saying there is no limit to how often we are to forgive.

Whew! A lot to unpack.

Peter asks him about forgiveness and Jesus answers by talking about money. Curious. Jesus talks about money quite a bit, actually. The only thing he talks about more is the kingdom of God. Today, he combines the two. The parable begins with, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to…”. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s kingdom to come to earth, and then has us pray for forgiveness for our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. In Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, the Greek word ‘trespass’ is the same as the word ‘debt’ in today’s parable: Forgive us our debts as we forgive those indebted to us. Living according to kingdom values includes economic justice and generosity. What we do with our money reflects what kind of Lord we serve.

That’s where Slave A gets into trouble.

For clarity’s sake, I will refer to the two main slaves as Slave A and Slave B.

Let’s recap the story: Slave A owes the king a huge amount of money – and I mean huge! Estimates by Biblical scholars are that one talent represented 20 years of wages, and this fellow owed 10,000 talents. No way can he ever pay this back. The king wants to sell him, his family, and his property to recoup at least some of his money. Slave A pleads for patience. The king grants him much more than patience: He grants him complete debt forgiveness. Amazing grace. Ridiculous grace. Over-the-top grace.

Slave A leaves the king’s house and runs into Slave B, who owes him a much smaller amount of money, about three months’ worth of wages. He demands to be paid right now! Slave B pleads for patience with almost exactly the same words Slave A had used before the king. However, Slave A responds vastly differently than the king: He grabs him by the throat and throws him into jail.

Fellow slaves are observing all this and are disturbed. This feels wrong to them. So they go to the king and tell him what Slave A has done. The king is furious and summons Slave A back before him and yells at him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?” In anger, he hands the slave over to be tortured until he paid his whole debt, which he will never be able to do, which means the torture will be ongoing.

As we ponder this terrible predicament, we hear the parting verse: “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother and sister from the heart.” My suspicion is that Matthew added this line. Matthew loves talk like that; he is the one with the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” and the “outer darkness”. Which doesn’t sound like Jesus to me.

What makes more sense to me is this understanding of the harshness at the end: By forgiving Slave A his huge debt, the king invites the slave into a different kind of world; into a realm not regulated by accounts and ledgers, but by grace and mercy; a realm where relationships are more important than money and other debts; a realm where generosity reigns.

When Slave A does not forgive Slave B the smaller debt, Slave A shows that he does not want to act according to this new realm. He is still functioning according to the old system of legers and tallies. In the end, the king pretty much says, “If my grace didn’t convince you to enter this new realm and you insist on functioning by the old, unforgiving ways, then be my guest and suffer the consequences of that old way. Jail it is.”

Here, I believe, lies the message of this parable: The grace and forgiveness and release of guilt and shame and debt Slave A received should have changed him. Touched by mercy, he should in turn have been more merciful with others. Having felt the joy of being forgiven, he should have passed on that joy.

Obviously, that’s what the fellow slaves think. They look at the way Slave A acts and can’t believe what they are seeing. What is wrong with this guy that he doesn’t realize his action is deplorable?

This is where the parable hits home for us.

We can identify with several people in the parable. At times, we might be the king, able to take a huge debt off someone else’s shoulders. At times, we are the community watching amazing acts of forgiveness and being moved by them, and also observing terrible greed and pettiness and being repulsed by it.

Yet most often, I find myself challenged by relating to Slave A. I hear the message, “There is something deeply wrong with you if you don’t realize how much God has given you. There is something deeply wrong with you if you don’t let the grace and mercy and forgiveness you received from God transform you into a Christ follower, into someone living according to the kingdom of heaven, the new realm Jesus invites us into.”

Forgiveness is fundamental to the Christian life. Jesus models it for us in his ministry, and teaches it to us with sermons and parables like today’s, and blesses us with it in baptism and communion and countless other times. Forgiveness is so fundamental that Jesus teaches us to pray for it in the Lord’s Prayer.

We pray daily for forgiveness and for being forgiving. Which highlights not only how essential forgiveness is, but also how hard. And it really is. Forgiveness is hard, and it takes time.

Both slaves in the story plead for patience, for time. The king grants more than time – entire debt relief. Slave A is unwilling to give even a little bit of time, but throws Slave B into jail without delay.

Forgiveness takes time, and it is not always linear. It is rather a lot like grief. We are shocked by a death, but then we slowly adjust and heal little by little. We think we are doing okay, but then a smell, a song, a scent, a memory reopens the wound, and we feel the pain again and have to grieve again.

Likewise with forgiveness. We are shocked by the betrayal or offense or violence we experienced. Eventually, we heal a bit and readjust our lives and do mostly oaky. But then something happens that brings the whole thing back into vivid memory, and we feel the pain all over again.

I wonder if that is what Jesus is saying in response to Peter’s question as to how often he has to forgive. Seven times won’t be enough. Forgiveness is not something you do once and then it’s done and over with. Forgiveness is something you will need to do again and again, every time you see that person, every time you feel that scar, every time you remember what had once been.

I would like to make a brief note of the fact that forgiving a person doesn’t mean having to let that person back into your life. Forgiveness addresses the emotional piece of the relationship. It allows us to ease our burden of anger and resentment. But forgiveness does not erase the consequences of what has been done. You can forgive an abusive spouse, but you don’t want to move back in. You can forgive your drug-addicted child or parent, but you don’t have to house them. Unless they turn around their lives, you have every right to firm boundaries. The king forgave Slave A but still held him accountable for his actions. Forgiveness is not a blank check.

Jesus encourages us to keep working on forgiveness. For our own sake, because forgiveness invites us into that new realm where grace and mercy reign. Clinging to old hurts threatens to keep us in the old realm of ledgers and tallies, of guilt and shame. Asking Jesus to help us forgive allows us to move over into the kingdom of heaven where debts are forgiven and people are set free.

Our psalm today reminds us where we receive the encouragement and power to forgive: From God. Go home and read that psalm every day this week. It is beautiful. It reminds us of how much God has blessed us, with healing and love, energy and benefits, forgiveness and grace. And it reminds us of God’s character as being slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

That is the God we love and trust. That is the God we have experienced when we have been touched by his amazing, ridiculous, over-the-top grace. That is the God who transforms us into kingdom people. That is the God we reflect to the world when, having been forgiven, we in turn forgive. Amen.