Peter asks the kind of question asked by those who keep records, who keep score. Which reminds me that we are a score-keeping people.
In this weeks’ Gospel reading, Jesus continues to upend His disciples’ thinking about life. Finding life, He told them back in Matthew 16:25, means losing their lives for His sake. It means letting go of human ways of thinking and adopting instead the mind of God (see Matthew 16:23). Last week, He re-minded their conception of what it means to be great. This week, He challenges their conception of what it means to be gracious.
The lectionary begins at verse 21, but it would make sense to back up and start the reading at verse 15. There, Jesus paints a picture of a people who take sin and forgiveness seriously. Such people address sin head on by going and talking privately to a brother or sister who has sinned against them (18:15). If that does not lead to reconciliation, such people bring along one or two others (18:16). If there is still no peace, it becomes an issue for the whole church (18:17). After these instructions, Jesus assures them that forgiveness on Earth counts in Heaven (18:18; see also Luke 10:16 and John 20:23). Not insignificantly, it is at this point Jesus promises to do whatever they ask (18:19), and it is here that Jesus promises to be present where two or three of them are gathered (18:20). Sin and forgiveness are serious business, indeed.
This instruction about forgiveness challenges the disciples. We can tell by the question it prompts Peter to ask. “How often?” he asks the Lord. How many times should we forgive our brother? Jesus’ responds with a parable.
Before we get to the parable, however, it is worth lingering on Peter’s question a little longer. It is the kind of question asked by those who keep records, who keep score. Which reminds me that we are a score-keeping people.
I thought of this a few weeks ago when I was following a baseball game. My hometown Saint Louis Cardinals were playing their rival Cubs from Chicago. The Cardinals had just brought up a rookie for his first plate appearance in the major leagues. On the first pitch he saw of his first at bat, he hit a homerun. The announcers noted how rare this is. Only 33 players in Major League Baseball history have done it. Then, in his second at bat, he hit another homerun. That is even rarer. The commentators quickly reported that he was only the third player in history to accomplish the feat. Then came his third at bat. Incredibly, he hit another home run. First three at bats, all three home runs. This had never been done before. After the game, the Baseball Hall of Fame asked for (and received) his shoes. Why? Because we keep track. We keep records. We keep score.
It is not just baseball. We keep score in politics. Pundits count house seats and track the percentage of times an incumbent votes with the president. We keep score with our health. Our devices track steps and log our cholesterol levels. We keep score in school. Students (some of them, at least!) mind their Grade Point Average and pay attention to class rank. It is no wonder we keep score when it comes to sin.
Like it is with breathing, the forgiveness we take in cannot help but come back out in our relationships with others.
It should not take much of an imagination to think of a situation in which you or someone else kept track of another’s sin (I wonder if Peter had a specific brother in mind?). While you obviously should not air dirty laundry in the sermon, it might help make this concrete by sharing an example of how natural it is for us to maintain a scorecard when it comes to those who sin against us.
Which brings us to the parable.
Some parables are hard to understand. This one is not. Some parables contain teachings that are easy to understand, but hard to accept. Again, this one is not. The disconnect between the servant’s grateful reception of his master’s gracious generosity and his stingy treatment of his fellow servant is obvious. He was clearly in the wrong. Who can blame the master for taking back his forgiveness and punishing the servant for his refusal to live in the forgiveness he had been given?
No, what makes this parable challenging is how it forces us to give up our human ways of thinking. It forces us to let go of the scorecard we have been clinging to so tightly. In telling this parable, Jesus paints another picture of what it means to find life by losing. In this case, finding life in Christ—which is the same gracious gift as the servant finding forgiveness before his master in the parable—leads us to lose something. We lose the scorecard we have been keeping on the sins of others. We let go of the many offenses that have been committed against us. We forgive as we have been forgiven, as Jesus teaches us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, for we have been treated with grace and generosity by God.
Forgiveness is not one option among others when it comes to life in the body of Christ. Like it is with breathing, the forgiveness we take in cannot help but come back out in our relationships with others. When there is no flow of forgiveness, there is no life.
What does this mean for your hearers who have a scorecard for the sins of others in their pocket at church this morning? Invite them to lose it, to let go of it, to rip it up. That is how it is for those who have found life in Christ. Proclaim to them again the incredibly gracious generosity of the Master and send them to live His life of generous forgiveness toward others who do not deserve it either.
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on Matthew 18:21-35.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Matthew 18:21-35.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
