Pentecost 16

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Pentecost 16
PROPER: 19A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: September 12, 1999

TEXT: Matthew 18:21-35 - Parable of the Forgiving King

ISSUE: The issue of resolving conflict and forgiving one another continues. Peter's request in terms of how often to forgive a fellow disciple is related to interpersonal relationships. Forgive without limit. The parable deals with communal issues, that is, this is what the Kingdom of God is like. It is like a place where the king is totally merciful, and the tenants act in accordance with their compassionate Lord. Forgiving one another from the heart in and with and awareness of how we are forgiven is what it means to step into the Kingdom of God.
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In last week's Gospel passage from Matthew a formula was given for resolving conflicts within the early church. In an agonistic or feuding kind of society, if the fledgling early Christian church was to survive, conflicts had to be readily resolved for the sake of unity and perseverance in a hostile world. Thus, there were stages: try to solve problems privately - have several witnesses enable a settlement - if you have to bring together the whole church. Finally, if resolution could not be found and a person was fix in non-resolution then excommunication or shunning, exclusion from the community was advocated.
Keeping unity in the church was very important to the early church, as it is today in our world. Without it the church loses strength for its mission and power of its witness to love. It loses its uniqueness and becomes like the world.
The theme is continued when Peter comes to Jesus and asks, "How many times should he forgive another member of the church? As many as seven times?" Jesus' response to Peter is that within the church we forgive one another not just seven times, which is a lot, but seventy-seven times, or seventy times seven times, which simply means that being a forgiving person is unlimited. Jesus goes on to set up a parable about the Kingdom of God, the Domain of God, or what it is like to live in the Kingdom of Heaven. It is dramatically different from the world.
Jesus says there is a King who called in his servants for an accounting. One servant (bureaucrat) owes him 10,000 talents. The king orders that he and his family be sold as settlement. The slave, however, falls on his knees and pleads for mercy assuring the King he'll work harder and pay up all that he owes. The 10,000 talent debt is enormous. It represents 164,000 days wages. He'll never be able to repay such enormous debt. The parable reflects the fact that all peasants of the time were enormously head over heals in debt. The king is truly and honorable man. He takes pity and offers great compassion by forgiving the entire debt. Such a king or lord would have great honor among his servants. And, honorable servants would normally and naturally treat others in the same way that their honorable lord treated them.
However, the forgiven servant is owed a meagre 100 denarii, a debt, but nevertheless a pittance in comparison with 10,000 talents. Yet the forgiven servant has a very hard heart and is not a man of mercy and compassion. He refuses to forgive the meagre debt and had him thrown into debtor's prison. The forgiving King is dishonored by this behavior. This hard heartedness dishonors him, and he has no choice but to have the unforgiving slave handed over to being tortured, until his relatives come up with what is owed. The Kingdom of God is a place where honor is found in compassion and mercy. Everyone is indebt, but God forgives indebtedness as would an honorable friend. The passage reflects the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our debts (trespasses), as we forgive those who are indebted to us. (or have trespassed against us.)
The parable reveals the enormous grace of God. However indebted we are to the great bounty of God, forgiveness abounds. If God can forgive the indebtedness, the trespasses of each of us, then are we not obligated to be gracious to one another? That kind of forgiveness is not always reflected by the violence and rage expressed in our modern culture. Taking revenge, and eye for an eye is still often the model of our time. To take revenge or getting even is what is more often seen as honorable. Road rage relects the inability of people to be forgiving. Yet, who has themselve not done something dumb behind the wheel of an automobile? Who has not offended and been foolish? But clinging to hostility and old sores and hatreds keeps the fires of feuding and violence burning in our homes and in countries around the world. Hell's fires prevail in the world. Without mercy and compassion we are all condemned. But praise be to God, who establishes a new domain, a new place, where forgivenss and graciousness abounds, into which we are invited. To be compassion and forgiving is a process of developing heart felt relationship and friendship. Being forgiving, merciful, and compassionate in an unlimited way brings a whole new dimension to the world, the dimension of the God of love. Jesus teaches Peter a powerful lesson, in a revenge oriented world, for participating and proclaiming the Kingdom of God.