Trinity 22 Service

St. Matthew 18:23-35

[Jesus says] “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, with 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, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and 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.”

In our epistle lesson, St. Paul prays that his readers’ love abound more and more. He’s talking about something that God brings about in us, you know. It’s a product of Baptism, this love that we have toward Him and toward others. The Spirit is increasing through the Supper, through the Word what He has begun in us—this love that is natural to God but not to us in our corrupted form with which we come into this world since the Fall Into Sin.

Our text demonstrates that love is natural to God, and not to us. A certain man in Jesus’ parable—a king is conducting business. On his docket for that day is to call in debts from certain men. The first comes in who owes a large debt. Procedurally, the king asks for the money the man owes. He says he can’t pay. Apparently without any emotion at all, the man is ordered to be sold, with his wife and children and everything he has, and payment be made. Could be the end of the story. This happened. So then, this happened. Period.

But in this case, an additional thing happens: the man begs on his knees for mercy. This could still have been the end of the story. The king could have refused him, and gotten on to the other things in his daily planner (wouldn’t have been much point in Jesus telling a story like that though).

His parable begins with the words: the kingdom of heaven may be compared to… In one of those stories, we are always going to hear about things being a little different than we would expect them to be. We’re going to hear about the fact that God is different. His motivations are different from the corrupted people of this world.

When the man begs for mercy, this king grants it. He releases the man, forgiving his debt. In that, you have seen God. That’s what He does.

What had been the case initially—the man being held entirely accountable for the debt he owed, made to pay in full, accurately shows what the Law is. It shows the position every sinner holds in relation to the Law. Sin amounts to a debt that is owed. It’s a debt of guilt. The simple equation of what happens to a sinner in the face of the Law is like the king’s initial emotionless sentencing of the man. If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand (Psalm 130:3)? No one who is born in the corruption of this world could stand, owing that debt of guilt.

But God is like the king in the parable. He makes Himself available to those who humble themselves before Him. He has arranged that sinners can appeal to a certain Name to which He has affixed His mercy—the name of His eternal Son, Jesus Christ. A sinner appealing to that Name is like the man begging on his knees to have the king’s mercy in the parable. You appeal to the Name each Sunday, here. We all do it to together in the Confession of Sin.

And God’s reaction to that appeal is the same as the king’s in the parable; He releases the sinner from his sentence, forgiving the debt entirely. Remember that St. Paul’s prayer for his readers was that their love abound more and more. Forgiveness is emblematic of God’s love as it comes to be demonstrated in people. When people forgive, they look like God, is another way to say that. What demonstrates God’s love more clearly? When Jesus was teaching his followers how to be godly, He told them to forgive. He told St. Peter just prior to our text, to forgive his brother’s sin—not just seven times (as he had suggested), but seventy-seven times [apparently meaning: an unlimited number of times].

But we said that loving forgiveness that is natural to God, is not natural to us. We see that in what happens next in the parable. Having been set free, forgiven of his large debt, the servant goes out and finds someone who owes him a much smaller debt. As those who are cut from the same cloth as this man, having inherited a sinful nature, we nevertheless wish we could say the story continues that he had mercy on his fellow man as he had been shown. Instead, we read in Jesus’ parable what we have often seen in ourselves. He has forgotten the mercy that was shown him. He has diminished in his mind the significance of his own debt. He will exact from his neighbor every last cent, and he will do it right now. He will do it without mercy. He even chokes him and says, ‘Pay what you owe.’ And when the man does what he himself had done recently, pleading on his knees, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you…’ —Well, again, as those who are cut from the same cloth as this man, having inherited a sinful nature, we nevertheless wish we could say the story continues that he remembered the mercy that had just before this been shown him, and had pity for the man who owed him, released him, forgave the debt, removed his hands from around the man’s throat. But in this portion of Jesus’ parable, He’s showing us ourselves. He’s showing us what it looks like when we stew about some wrong our neighbor has done to us, what it looks like when we go over it and over it in our minds like this man has evidently done, when we become obsessed with making our neighbor (our spouse, our co-worker, our sibling) pay a price for what he or she has said or done to us. It has looked at those times, of us, like we have forgotten entirely the debt of guilt we owe for our sins, and the mercy God has shown us.

And it isn’t just a bad look, an unfortunate display from someone who should know better. In the parable, it has a really terrifying result: the king who’d been so merciful gets wind of what has gone down between this forgiven servant and his fellow debtor. He isn’t happy about it. ‘You wicked servant! —he says. 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?’

Now, that servant is back where he had been in the beginning. He is outside the realm of grace; he is back under the law—under the debt he owes that will now be paid without any mercy. Him showing mercy toward his neighbor would have demonstrated a humility, an understanding, a comprehension of the generosity that had been shown him (if we’re talking in spiritual terms, we would say it would have shown faith—the kind the Holy Spirit works in those who are truly God’s people). Him treating his fellow man that way indicates it doesn’t mean anything to him.

What’s even more terrifying is that Jesus is offering this as a picture of what happens to sinners who aren’t humble before God, who don’t consider God’s generosity toward them to be valuable (again, their forgiveness of their neighbor shows they value it, shows they appeal for God’s mercy in the Name of His eternal Son). The alternative to having God’s generosity is to be back in the realm of the Law—responsible for the full penalty of sin.

You have seen yourself in the unmerciful servant, haven’t you? The truth is, you’ve forgotten yourself at times—forgotten how you begged God for His mercy (knowing your situation under the law) and that God forgave you your entire debt. You haven’t been merciful like that toward others who’ve wronged you. You’ve been petty with them, refusing them. It hasn’t been reflective of God or godliness; it’s been reflective of the fallen nature you’ve inherited. You’ve deserved from God what happens in the parable, that He call you wicked servant, that He confront you with your unwillingness to have mercy on your neighbor, that He turn you over to the place where people go to pay their eternal debts.

But this isn’t what God wants. He is still available to you. He hears your heartfelt confession of sin, your pleading in the Name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness. He hears and He forgives. That’s Who He is. You plead in the Name of the one Who was punished as the greatest tyrant—the world’s most unmerciful person, so that your story plays out as if it were that imagined one we talked about earlier, the one in which the servant has mercy on his debtor—forgiving him, freeing him. It’s as if you’ve always done it perfectly. Nothing is held against you. The Law is no longer an issue; you are under the perfect grace of God. He’s the One Who made you His own in Baptism, held you close to Himself all these years as you have heard His Word here, received His Supper. He is the one Who has prepared a place for you in His kingdom. He has forgiven your sins in Christ. Go now in the peace of that loving forgiveness letting it spill out of you onto your neighbor. Amen.

Deuteronomy 7:9-11

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

Philippians 1:3–11

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.