Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive

The Gospel According to Matthew 18:21-35

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now,.

Here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 18, verses 21 through 35. Then Peter came up to Jesus and said to Him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him?

As many as seven times? Jesus said to him, I don't say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.

When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.

So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me. I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him, forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.

And seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, pay what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.

When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also my Heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

This is the Gospel of the Lord. So we pray in the Lord's Prayer, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. If you were raised Presbyterian, you've prayed these words, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Joseph, Forgiveness, and God’s Hidden Providence

A quick question, anyone here ever been sinned against? Let's try this other one. Have any of you sinned against anyone else? Yeah, yeah, me too. Both are true. Now, in our Old Testament text, you'll note that we get a reference to the story of Joseph, which I think is a good way of framing our topic for today's sermon.

And in that text we see that after Joseph's father has died, his brothers, they're terrified of their brother that maybe the forgiveness that he had given them earlier in Genesis wasn't so true. Let's kind of review some of the details, shall we, just by way of review.

If you know the story of Joseph, Joseph was a young man. His father was none other than Israel, Jacob. Remember Jacob and Esau? His name was changed to Israel. So Israel's the father of Judah and Reuben and Simeon and Joseph.

And Joseph being the son of his favorite wife was the favored son. And his father gave him a multi-colored coat. In fact, they wrote a Broadway musical about it, Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat.

It's a great musical. But things kind of went a little bit to Joseph's head. Shall we say when he was a teenager he was a wee bit cocky. And the Lord gave him prophetic dreams about what was going to take place later in his life.

And those dreams, well, involved his brothers bowing to him. And so he was all too pleased to let everybody know, I had a dream! I had a dream! As he's wearing his Technicolor Dreamcoat. And what ended up happening is that his brothers began to hate, to loathe, to despise their own brother.

And it literally came up with a plot to do him in. The intention was murder. Lovely, is it not? Well, one of his brothers, Reuben, steps in and intercedes on his behalf after they had laid hands on him.

And convinced them not to kill him ended up throwing him in a cistern. And Reuben's intention was to set him free. But then while Reuben wasn't looking, when he was not around some Ishmaelite traitors came by.

And they sold young Joseph into slavery. This kind of defies the phrase, blood is thicker than water. Who does this to their own brother? Showing you really just how cruel, how mean, how anger, angry they were at him.

And Psalm 105 gives us a little bit of the details of what Joseph went through. I find it fascinating because some of the details in Psalm 105 do not appear in the book of Genesis. God the Holy Spirit inspired the psalmist in Psalm 105 to give us more data.

Now listen to the way the Psalm begins. Psalm 105 verse 1 reads, O give thanks to Yahweh. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the peoples. Sing to him. Sing praises to him. Tell of his wondrous works.

So you kind of get the idea. This is a song that's going to tell us about the wondrous works of God. Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek Yahweh rejoice. Seek Yahweh in his strength.

Seek his presence continually. Remember the wondrous works that he has done. His miracles and the judgments he has uttered. And then starting in verse 6 we begin to get some examples of the wondrous works that Yahweh has done.

And in verse 16 we get this information about the wondrous works that Yahweh has done. It says this in verse 16 when he summoned the famine on the land and broke all the supply of bread. Referring to the famine that befell Egypt.

It says this of God. He had sent a man ahead of them. Joseph who was sold as a slave. Who did the sending? God did. His feet were hurt with fetters. His neck was put in a collar of iron. Listen when I go camping I can't even do it without an air mattress.

I mean could you imagine having to wear a collar of iron. And this is what Joseph went through. And the scriptures tell us in Genesis that this fate of his lasted quite a while. He was a slave for a wee bit.

Lied about by Potiphar. Potiphar's wife. Come lie with me she said to him. And he wouldn't do it. So she lied about him and he ended up in prison. Thirteen years. This was his fate. Now y 'all familiar with the story of the Count of Monte Cristo.

Alexander Dumas famous text. This is a fellow who ends up in prison unjustly. And what is it that he concocts while he's in prison. The ultimate revenge for those who put him in prison. Joseph isn't like the main character of the Count of Monte Cristo.

Like not at all. The Count of Monte Cristo ultimately gets his revenge after he digs his way out of prison. But Joseph is not released from prison by escaping. The Lord summoned him. And rather than seeking revenge for thirteen years and harboring a grudge against his brothers and desiring their ultimate destruction for their cruelty to him.

For the circumstances he had to endure because of their hatred towards them. Joseph begins to exemplify Christ and God himself in his character by forgiving. Think of it this way. Remember that whole golden calf incident.

Children of Israel are camped around Mount Sinai. Moses goes up and he's gone for a long time. And what do they end up doing? They end up worshiping a golden calf. And when Moses comes down. Well many people are punished for this sin.

But shortly after that Moses actually has the audacity to say to God. God show me your face. Let me see your presence. Let me see your glory. And God says. Let's go with plan B. And plan B goes something like this.

God says I'm going to put you in the cleft of a rock. I'm going to cover you with my hand. And I'm going to let my glory pass by. And as my glory passes by once I've gone by I'll remove my hand so you can kind of see my backside.

This is God's plan. So what is it that happens while Moses is in the cleft of the rock? Well there he is in the cleft of the rock. The hand of God is covering him. But he hears this amazing announcement.

Yahweh. Yahweh. Now the Hebrew says long of nose. Which is an idiom that basically means he can smell stench for a long time without getting angry about it. So we translate it as slow to anger. So Yahweh slow to anger.

Abounding in steadfast love. Pardoning iniquity. The glory of God is to be slow to anger and to pardon iniquity. To forgive sins. And so Joseph exemplifies this characteristic of God and it's because of this in part that he is like the ultimate type and shadow in the Old Testament of Jesus Christ himself.

And so we then see in Genesis 45 the account of when Joseph's brothers actually came to Egypt. They didn't even recognize Joseph. They didn't even recognize Joseph for who he was. He became second in command in all of Egypt.

Only lower than Pharaoh himself. But he's running the whole country. Speaking fluent Egyptian. Probably suntanned too. But they don't recognize him and the famine that God had sent because he had broken the bread has now spread into Cana.

And so they have to come and buy bread from Joseph. They don't recognize him. He recognizes them. And as you know the story, how it goes, check the Kongsvinger website. We worked through this a while back in Sunday school.

But he tested them and then ultimately invited them to his house. And it's when they come to eat at his house that he reveals himself. And Genesis 45 reads, Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him.

He cried, make everyone go out from me. So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He wept aloud so that the Egyptians heard it in the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, Ani Yosef.

I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed at his presence. Oh my word. We're about to have our heads lopped off. He's going to kill us and rightly so.

We deserve to die. You can almost hear what's going on inside their head. So Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please. And they came near and he said, I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.

And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here for God sent me before you to preserve life. Wow. God sent Joseph into slavery. We're all familiar with that passage of scripture that God works all things together for good for those who love the Lord.

We've heard it. We like to kind of comfort ourselves and comfort others in bad circumstances with such words. But I want you to think about this. God takes the ultimate evil and works it for good. God took the hatred and murderous evil of the brothers of Joseph and use that to work their salvation.

And I would argue, if you think about it, that Jesus Christ, the only innocent human being who ever lived among us, being put on trial, false charges being leveled against him, him being found guilty for something he never did wrong, and then having his clothes taken off of him and flogged, which is not a pleasant experience, being punched in the face, having a crown of thorns pressed into his skull, and then being forced to carry his cross to Golgotha, and then being nailed to the cross.

This is the ultimate cruelty. This is the ultimate evil. And in the midst of that, Jesus doesn't murder, doesn't breathe out murderous threats. Oh, wait till my father gets a hold of you guys. You're toast.

You're going to fry in hell for eternity. No. What does Jesus do? No sooner is he lifted up, suspended between heaven and earth that he prays, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And God has taken the ultimate evil act of all of humanity, which we're all culpable for, and he has worked that for our salvation.

Have you considered that the evil that you have suffered in your life, that God will work it for good? Have you considered that? So Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, but his brothers kind of thinking if you would, that phrase that we're all familiar with, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

His brothers actually believed that the mercy that Joseph had shown them was for the sake of their father, and that his intention all along was that once dad dies, you guys are finally going to get it.

That was the idea that was running around in their head. Isn't that how humans operate? Yeah, it is. But that's not how Joseph operates. In Genesis 50, verse 15, our Old Testament text for today, we read, when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said to him, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.

If this was going to happen, this is the time to do it. So they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father gave us this command before he died. Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers in their sin because they did evil to you.

And now please forgive the transgression of the servants of God, the God of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell before him and said, behold, we are your slaves.

But Joseph said to them, do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. It's as if the sins committed against him had been cast as far as the east as from the west.

He had no intention of bringing them back to mind, but to only love his brothers and continue to provide for them, just like Jesus. And so with that we come to our gospel text. That frames what's going on here, this wonderful characteristic of God to forgive sins.

And then the expectation upon us as forgiven sinners. You'll note that at the end of our gospel reading today I said this is the gospel of the Lord. I was very tempted to say this is the law of the Lord because you're going to notice this is a pretty heavy text and it convicts us all of our tendency to be unforgiving.

The King’s Mercy and the Unpayable Debt

So Peter came up to Jesus and he said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Now, as a good Jew of the first century, Peter would have been taught by the rabbis at the time, you forgive a person three times.

On the fourth time he's on his own. That's what he was taught. However, he thinks he's going to go right to the head of the class. And look how gracious he is being. I mean, he's kind of getting this forgiveness thing a little bit.

So he says, as many as seven times? Oh, look how generous Peter is. Jesus said to him, Uphda, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. I'm not good at math. That's a big number. I mean, Jesus might as well have said what 1 Corinthians 13 says.

Love keeps no record of wrongs. Seventy times seven. And then he tells this very scary parable. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts. I'll give you one guess who the king is.

If you're thinking Jesus, right. Now, the servant who is being called to account, let's just make this clear. If you want to see yourself as the servant, that's probably a wise way to read this text. This is about you and Jesus.

It's about me and Jesus in that sense. So we want to settle accounts with the servant. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him catch this, 10 ,000 talents. Some of your Bibles will have a note here that one talent equals 20 years wages for the average blue-collar day laborer in the ancient world.

20 years wages. It's 100 pounds of gold. In other words, do the math. Sadly, I must confess I did. 10 ,000 times 20 is 200 ,000. This is 200 ,000 years of wages for the average day laborer. 200 ,000! Any of you getting close to that age?

How does one person rack up a debt of this size? This sounds like what Congress has done to the United States. Could you imagine you personally racking up a $3 trillion debt? That's what we're kind of dealing with here.

And if you had racked up a $3 trillion debt, how would you intend to pay it back? Are there any trillionaires on the planet? I've heard of billionaires, but they're still woefully short. How do you pay back a debt of this kind?

So the text says, so he could not pay. Well, yeah, duh. His master ordered him to be sold, his wife and his children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees. Oh, that sounds like a prayer.

Imploring him, have patience with me and I will pay you everything. Yeah, right. Good luck on that. But the text then says this out of pity for him. The master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

And we all go, what? How do you forgive somebody a $3 trillion debt? So who takes the hit here? The king does. That is some outrageous mercy. Brothers and sisters in Christ, make no mistake about it. The debt that you owe God because of your sin, the debt that I owe God because of my sin is this debt.

It's the $3 trillion. There's no way to pay it back. So notice that this is a parable of perspective. We're pulling back a wee bit and we're looking at perspective. Your debt, $3 trillion. But people sin against us.

So the next part of it tells us a little bit about the other part of the perspective. So when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. Did he lose a bet on whether the twins would win the next World Series?

I mean, this is a pittance amount. You know, a hundred denarii? That's like a month's wages. Maybe a thousand bucks. $3 trillion, a thousand bucks. There's your perspective. And believe me when I tell you, anybody who's sinned against you, yeah, they owe you a debt in a sense.

The sins that are committed against you are like, well, the debt of a hundred denarii. But watch what this fellow does. Seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, pay what you owe. He's a little bit out of control.

So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him. Listen to these words. Have patience with me. I will pay you. Hmm. That sounds a lot like what he said to the, mm-hmm. And he refused. And he went and put him in prison until he should pay the whole debt.

This is like the opposite of like Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, right? The story of Ebenezer Scrooge, that stingy, mean, awful, cruel man who makes his employees work in the cold because he's too cheap to pay for coal to heat up his own office.

The man who has literally ripped off thousands of people. And every time somebody comes to him asking for help, he says, bah humbug. We all know the story, right? But as the story goes, he's visited by three spirits, and he's made to see just how awful he is.

And what does he do? He repents. And on Christmas morning, Ebenezer Scrooge buys the Christmas goose. He pays for Tiny Tim's surgery, and he lives out the rest of his days in generosity and love towards his neighbor.

It's a great redemption story. You would think that this fellow who had had his $3 trillion debt forgiven might have become like Ebenezer Scrooge, going out and canceling everybody else's debts. But no, the only person he's thinking about is himself.

Pay me what you owe. So he refused, put him in prison until he should pay the entire debt. What a terrible thing. And when his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.

Then his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant. I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servants as I have had mercy on you?

Forgiveness as an Act of the Will

Now make no mistake about this. Forgiveness is an act of the will. You must always remember this. When somebody says to me, I just can't forgive that person, they're making themselves out to be the victims of some unknown force in the universe that apparently is capable of binding people's hearts so that they are incapable of forgiving.

Let's stop fooling ourselves here. Like I said, forgiveness is an act of the will. The person who says, I just can't forgive that person is in reality saying, I won't forgive them. It doesn't matter what you feel.

It matters what you will. And remember, brothers and sisters, you've been united with Christ in his death and his resurrection. You have been regenerated and you have a new man within you. Scripture says, the old is gone, the new has come.

Yes, you still have your sinful nature, but you have the will to say no or to say yes when it comes to forgiving somebody who has sinned against you. But always remember this. Refusing to forgive is not freedom, it's slavery.

The person who is being hurt by your unforgiveness is not the person you are not forgiving. The person who is being hurt is you. Unforgiving, when you're not forgiving somebody, that's like taking, well, a jar of poison.

Maybe we'll put it in one of those canning jars, right? Fill that up with arsenic. And so, being unforgiving is like taking that jar full of arsenic and drinking it. I'm going to chug this thing down, and then praying that the person that you're not forgiving, that that's the fellow who's going to die.

It's stupid. It's foolish. It's sinful. So, refusing to forgive is slavery. It's not freedom. The Christian who, again, wants to be in bondage to sin, well, he's free to do so. But remember, love keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not scorekeep. So, holding a grudge and refusing to forgive destroys the person who will not forgive. And then you sit there and say, yeah, but, but, but, but, but, but, but you don't understand.

How many times have I heard that? As if somehow the sin that was committed against you is the one and only exception. It's special. You don't understand how cruel, how terrible, how sinful, how awful that person was to me.

You don't understand the damage they've done to me. Yeah, actually, I do. I really do. More than you know. But when you talk like this, these are all the words of self-justification and excuses for unforgiveness.

Excuses for the unacceptable. Scripture says, freely you have received. Freely you give. Freely you have received what? Forgiveness from God. Remember the perspective. Three trillion dollars. A thousand dollars.

Do the math. And then these words, these terrible words for our Gospel text. In anger, Jesus delivered this man to the jailers until he should pay all his debts. So also my Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

Notice there's no room for but, but, but, but, but, but, but. But you don't understand. No, really, I get it. Imagine being in Germany after World War II and being in church and being somebody whose family had people killed in the Nazi concentration camps for resisting the Nazis and their murderous ideals.

And then having to sit next to, in the same pew, a fellow who you know during the war was part of the SS. And then going to the communion rail with that fellow. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Forgiveness is freedom.

It is through the forgiveness of your sins that you have been set free from slavery to sin, death, and the devil. And now as the Holy Spirit sanctifies us and molds us into the image of Christ, He wills for us to forgive as God has forgiven.

You don't forgive in order to be forgiven. You forgive because you are already forgiven. Romans 5, verse 6 says it this way, while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. That's me and you.

One will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would even dare to die. But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by His life. God forgives us when we are enemies, not when we are good church people.

Our psalm said it this way, Bless the Lord, O my soul, all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of His benefits. Who forgives all of your iniquity. Who heals all of your diseases.

Who redeems your life from the pit. You could put hell there. Who crowns you with steadfast love and with mercy. Who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. We forgive because we are forgiven. Now if you are like me, then this parable may have made you feel like that poor fellow from the first Star Wars movie, the one I saw when I was a kid, who being in the room with Darth Vader.

Darth Vader did this and the poor guy's neck contracted and he couldn't breathe. He knew he was in trouble. The law has a tendency to do that. You may be uncomfortable because you realize you haven't been as forgiving as you ought.

And you have sought revenge rather than forgiveness. You have sought to strike back at those who have sinned against you rather than to work for their repentance. To forgive them and be merciful and kind to them.

To actually have their best in mind. You haven't prayed for your enemies and you haven't trusted that God will even work that evil for good. And you have decided in your heart to return evil with evil.

I only have one word for you and for me because I've struggled with this as well quite recently. And the word is repent. It means to change your mind. This is not the way of Christ. We forgive because we are forgiven.

And we strive to love our neighbors even when they are our enemies. And they hurt us and they abuse us and they treat us poorly. And they attack us and sin against us. We are to pray for them and fight for their souls.

And every time that we have not done that where we have repaid evil with evil, we have sinned. And we must confess it and call it what it is. It's a form of murder. It's hatred. It's not the love of Christ.

So we must repent. And there's good news. Christ has bled and died even for that sin. And today you heard the words in the absolution, I forgive you all of your sins. And that's not my forgiveness, it's Christ's.

When we have the Lord's Supper, you hear these amazing words broken and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Trust those words that God has even forgiven your unforgiveness. Repent of it. Be forgiven.

And bear fruit in keeping with repentance by forgiving. Because you are forgiven. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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