Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity, 2003
Matthew 18:21-35

Seventy Times Seven

The success of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables is understandable. The most powerful scene may be the encounter between Jean Valjean and Bishop Myriel. How can one remain unmoved by the bishop's mercy to Jean? The dirty, shivering, and bedraggled convict Jean Valjean knocks at the door of the Bishop. The escaped prisoner begs for something to eat. The good bishop opens his door and invites him in to a crackling fire. Then he wines and dines the famished guest. After that he offers him a bed for the night.

How does Jean Valjean show his gratitude? He slips out of bed in the middle of the night, and checks to see that the bishop is asleep. He then quietly opens the cupboard, places the silverware and silver plate into a sack, crawls through the window and vanishes into the darkness. The next day the gendarmes apprehend him with the bag of silver. Handcuffed they drag him back to the bishop's house. Jean-Valjean stands before Bishop Myriel dejected. The police want to verify that the silver pieces truly belong to the bishop and that they had been stolen. The bishop only needed to say Yes and Valjean would return to jail for the rest of his life. Valjean was fully expecting that to happen. The bishop replied, "I am glad to see you. Why, how is this? I gave you the candlesticks too, which are also silver, and will fetch two hundred francs. Why did you not take them away with the rest of the silver?"

Turning to the officers the bishop said, "Please set the young man free. He is my friend." The police officers look at each other puzzled, release the prisoner, and depart. Jean Valjean looks as if he were on the point of fainting; the bishop walks up to him and says in a low voice: "Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. I have bought your soul of you. I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and give it to God."

The theology of the bishop may not be totally on target, but his mercy is. More than any other person, it is Jesus who promoted forgiveness. He required that we shun revenge. That is what our Gospel passage is about today. What does it mean to forgive the people around us 490 times? This is what we want to explore now.

Peter asks Jesus, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times but up to seventy times seven" (Matthew 18:21-22).

Peter was aware of the Jewish rule that said: "Forgive a first offense, forgive a second, a third forgive, but punish the fourth." The Jewish custom was four strikes and you're out. Being familiar with this Rabbinic saying, Peter may have asked the question with a trace of self-righteousness. After all, to forgive a man seven times was almost twice more than the accepted norm.

But Jesus sets the standard even higher: "Don't stop forgiving at seven. Pardon your brother up to seventy times seven." In other words, forgive to the uttermost. When it comes to minor trespasses and disappointments that people perpetuate against you, your patience and forgiveness has no limit. You must forgive! That is the general rule of Christian conduct.

Before going on, let us consider some qualifications to forgiveness. We have stated that forgiveness is the rule. Well, there are circumstances in which forgiveness is wrong. The Lord's teaching does not give approval to crime. The police must enforce the laws, the judges must put the guilty behind bars, and our military must defend us against tyranny and aggression. Since St. Augustine's time, the Church has held that the state may use lethal force to protect innocent life, and to ensure that people live decently, and in freedom. So Christian forgiveness does not allow the police to coddle criminals, nor should criminal nations be allowed to terrorize with impunity. There are times when justice trumps mercy. Moreover, it is the job of the Church to discipline members who refuse to repent of grievous sin; and it is the Church's job to depose evil ministers (Article XXVI of the 39 Articles). Pastors are called to defend the flock from wolves that hide in sheep's clothing. Heresy is not to be tolerated. Even on a personal level forgiveness can be offered when it shouldn't be.

Let me give an example. I knew a family that lived in the city of Carapegua, Paraguay. The wife had died and the father lived with his daughter. They were one of the few wealthy evangelical families in Paraguay. They had a large, two-story house, and a lot of property. The daughter had some ugly scars on her hands and arms and I asked her about them. She told me a story that could have scared Alfred Hitchcock. Ten years before she was sleeping in her upstairs bedroom on a warm summer night with the windows open, like she always did. In the middle of the night, a man sneaked on to their property and placed a ladder to the roof leading to her window. He then climbed up to the roof, made his way to the window, and crawled over the sill into her bedroom. The next part is devilish. He crept up to her bed, drew a knife and began cutting the mosquito netting. The noise waked her suddenly. In the dim light she saw a man with a knife and screamed. The intruder reacted by trying to stab her. As the blade came down she was able to grab it with her hands. Several times he tried to thrust the knife into her. Finally, the father rushed in, tackled the knife-wielder, and disarmed him.

The man was jailed. He turned out to be a well-known troublemaker in town, and a bit crazy. Since the father was the Baptist Pastor and wanted to send a clear signal to the Roman Catholic community of Evangelical mercy, he dropped all charges. The near-murderer of his daughter was released from jail. What was the result? First of all, the Baptist church did not receive a boost of respect from the community. Most people saw it as an absurd decision. The Evangelicals actually lost respect. Secondly, his daughter suffered double trauma. Not only was she afflicted by nightmares of what had happened, she slept in constant fear that it would happen again. So, we see, that in some cases, it is actually foolish to forgive.

However, that being said, we can't ignore the words of the Lord Jesus. He commands us to forgive our neighbor seventy times seven. What does it mean? Forgiving a brother seventy times seven tilts all our dealings with people in the direction of kindness and compassion. Jesus is telling us that we are to strive for a spirit of mercy towards family members and fellow believers. One writer said, "the Bible tells us to love our enemies, but it doesn't tell us to love our friends." Well, he is wrong. We are to endure a lot of bother from our friends, and put up with a lot of friction, rather than quarrel. We overlook much, and give in, rather than provoke strife. Above all, we reject personal revenge. Christ tells us that retaliation should have no part with the child of God. Let us review the parable beginning at Matthew 18:23-27. [Read them.]

One of the servants owed a lot of money to the king. Ten thousand talents was an astonishing amount of money. How much money? The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that Herod the Great's annual revenue from his entire kingdom was about nine hundred talents. Clearly, the servant owed his master a tremendous sum. Some debts are minor. Not this one. He would be giving his entire salary for fifty years to pay it off. In the ancient world financial debt could land you and your family into slavery. Faced with such a prospect, what did the servant do? He fell on his face before the king and begged for mercy. It worked. In response, the king had compassion on him, "released him, and forgave him the debt." Incredible! The debt is cancelled! What joy! What kindness! That is the first part of the parable. The second part we read about in Matthew 18:28-30. [Read them.]

As the joyful servant was leaving the gates of the king's palace he encountered a fellow servant. This one owed him one hundred denarii. What is a denarii? At most, a hundred denarii is a couple days work. The indebted man fell on his face and begged for time to repay it. But the other refused. He threw the man in prison, expecting someone to bail him out and pay the debt. The word soon got around. Let us read the conclusion to the parable. Reading Matthew 18:31-35. [Read them.]

How did the king react when he heard? He was livid! He summoned the man before him: "You wicked servant, I canceled all the debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?" With that he turned him over to the jailers to have him tortured until all his debts were paid. Torture was employed in those days for big debtors. Why? The goal was to extract the amount from relatives of the tortured.

What is Jesus trying to teach Peter and the rest of us? First of all, Jesus is reminding us how much we depend upon forgiveness from God. Each and every day, we sin and accumulate mounting debts to God. The confession in the Prayer Book for Morning Prayer correctly says: "we have left undone those things that we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us." Spiritually, our sins sink us into debt. Anger, lying, egoism, ingratitude, laziness, impatience, pride, and materialism ­ these things put us in the red. And if we do not realize that we need God's mercy and pardon every single day of our lives, then we are calloused to sin. What we owe God is huge, and yet He has forgiven us everything through the gracious blood His Son shed on Calvary. That blotting out of the debt, that buying us back out of slavery, is called redemption, or ransom.

Think about it. Compared to how you daily offend the Lord the offensive words and deeds your neighbor commits against you are truly insignificant. They are trifles! Be an imitator of your Heavenly Father. Forgive others when they disappoint you! Allow God's mercy to saturate your character. In Christ, He has cancelled every last penny of your debt. God only grants forgiveness to those who forgive.

That being the case, the Christian is not allowed to bark, snap, and snarl. If God has been so patient and merciful to you why do you harbor thoughts of revenge against others who disappoint you? Jesus calls you to be merciful to those around you, to respond to the slights of others with a forgiving heart. The grace of God should calm a peppery temper and soften your abrasiveness.

Some things are easy to forgive; others are hard. Last week a teacher in a Christian school was chastising a boy for leaning backwards in his chair. While the teacher was reprimanding the little boy a girl sheepishly raised her hand. "Yes, Shelly, what do you want?" "Mrs. Reed, I leaned back in my chair too about five minutes ago but you didn't see me. I'm sorry." Mrs. Reed found it pretty easy to forgive that little girl. Other transgressions are more difficult.

There are people whose entire lives have been embittered by the injustice, neglect or selfishness of someone else. Every time they are reminded of the person, their heart boils up with hatred. Forgiving people seventy times seven means overlooking even terrible offenses. Think of the injury that is most difficult for you to forgive. Maybe it goes back ten or twenty years. Now measure it against what God has forgiven you. How does it compare? You had an unpayable debt and God sent His Son to die and cancel the whole amount. Does the injury committed against you really justify an implacable hostility and a resolution for revenge?

The Lord lays down the law of forgiveness for His kingdom. The law of forgiveness is the glue that holds the Church together. It is a prime ingredient for family life, too. We cannot expect the police to make people work smoothly together, nor ask the lawyers to settle every little grievance. Rather, Christ's kingdom is held together by mercy, by the willingness of each member to forgive, and practice kindness to the other members.

"How often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?" Allow the doctrine of Christ to guide your daily behavior with those around you. Be willing to forgive them 490 times. As the Lord forgave you your trespasses, go likewise and forgive those who trespass against you.

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