Do Unto Others . . .

There are times when I wish the Bible didn’t say what it does, and today is one of them. This thing—forgiveness to another—is at times the most difficult and painful process I’ve ever gone through. It would be so much easier if I could hang on to my rights, to keep my feelings of regret and bitterness . . . to be angry.
But that’s not a choice that God gives me.

See, today’s Gospel reading is all about forgiveness; the forgiveness that God gives me and the forgiveness that I, in turn, am to give to others. You’ve heard the story before, about how Peter was asking how many times he ought to forgive another, and how he thought that perhaps seven times was plenty . . .
But Jesus figured that Peter didn’t quite understand the point . . . after all, if Peter is still keeping a forgiveness score then he probably doesn’t realize just how deep his debt was to begin with. So He tells them this story:
There was a king who decided one day to settle some old accounts, and one by one he has his debtors brought in. Well, they come to this one shifty servant who’s on the hook for something to the tune of about 10 billion dollars. Now, I don’t know how in the world this guy racked up so much debt—he must have had about 60,000 credit cards or something like that—but the point is that he owed it.
Now, there’s no way in Heaven or Earth that this guy can work off this debt! He’s just a guy, after all, and he owes more money than Bill Gates could pay back in a lifetime. So, the king’s pretty angry about this, and he has a right to be angry, after all . . . so the king figures on making an example out of this guy. But he’s not just gonna have him kneecapped, he wants to really, really make his point, so he orders that the servant be sold, that his wife be sold, that his children be sold, and everything the servant owned be sold. It’s not going to pay off the debt, but at least his point will be made.
But the servant can’t stand the thought of life in slavery, away from his wife, away from his children, away from his DVD player and wide-screen TV, so he falls down on his knees, begging, “Please don’t sell me into slavery! Give me some time, and I’ll repay everything! Please!”
The king’s not such a bad guy . . . and he’s got a good heart in him, so when he sees this servant begging for mercy, he takes compassion on him, and he forgives him everything he owes—the whole amount!—and sends him on his way, confident he’s done a good deed.
And the servant, with his crocodile tears still drying on his cheeks, heads out into the world, a free man. He’s off the hook for his 10 billion, and there’s a swing in his step and a tune on his lips . . . but then he sees a guy who’s into him for a few bucks. Well, it’s more than just a few bucks, actually . . . it’s something around 10-15,000 dollars, and the first servant figures he could use the money.
So he goes up to the second guy and grabs him around the neck. “Pay me what you owe me! Give it to me now!” But the second guy doesn’t have the cash on hand, so he falls to his knees, begging, “Please don’t sell me into slavery! Give me some time, and I’ll repay everything! Please!” But the first servant won’t hear of it . . . so he has the guy thrown into prison until the day his relatives and friends can cough up enough to pay off his debt.
Now, there is nothing that churns your gut more than doing a good deed only to have it thrown back in your face, right? So when the king hears about this, his stomach gets all tied up in knots. He figures—rightly—that the first servant didn’t really appreciate being forgiven all that much. He figures the first servant should have had compassion just oozing out of him, seeing as how he was forgiven such a huge debt . . . but since that servant despised what he was forgiven, since he turned his back on the compassion of the king, since he took the king’s grace and spit in his eye, the king changed his mind, and he had sent out a group of soldiers to go and find that wicked servant and chuck him into jail until he could repay all that he owed. I doubt that wicked servant ever saw the light of day again.

Now, Jesus has already said that His story would help us understand the Kingdom of Heaven. So there’s a few observations we can make. The king—that’s God. The first servant—that’s you. That’s me. And we owe a debt that we could never even hope to repay. It’s not a debt of money, but of sin. And that debt is staggering. There’s not a day, not an hour, that you and I have gone without sin. Even our very best works, our very best deeds—they are still tainted with sin . . . and the debt mounts up against us.
But we have been forgiven that debt, have we not? I mean, that’s why we’re here in this church today, because we’ve been given a serious gift of grace from God in Jesus Christ. Through His sacrificial death on the cross I have been given peace with God, a life free from the debt of sin. I can walk out of here a free man, with a swing in my step and a tune on my lips.
But what about when I get out there? What do I do about those people who sin against me? The forgiven man should act like a forgiven man, spreading the joy instead of hoarding it! But what happens if I don’t? Do you ever feel like that? What happens if I decide that a certain individual’s sin against me is so great, so horrible, that I can’t forgive them?
What happens? Will God “get us” if we don’t forgive one another? No, that’s not the point of the story. Rather, I’d say that if we can’t find it in our hearts to forgive a relatively minor debt—compared to the debt God has forgiven us—then we have not understood—and in fact despised—the forgiveness God has given unto us. If we act in such a manner towards our fellow man we are in danger of cutting ourselves off from God. How? Through a proud and haughty heart, a heart that despises the gifts God has given. A heart that doesn’t think about what it has been given, but thinks only of itself.
Bible scholar Leon Morris says, “It is too easy to skimp on forgiveness, refraining from out ward evidence of an unforgiving heart but nursing up a grudge against one who has offended us.” In other words, we might sometimes act outwardly as though we had forgiven someone, but inside we churn and boil every time their name is mentioned. And there is a danger in that, a danger that we’ll forget the forgiveness God has given to us. We’ll forget it and despise it and lose track of what God would have us be.
Who’s that one person you can’t seem to forgive? Write down their name on the sermon sheet. Name that person in your mind . . . think about what they did to sin against you. It wasn’t all that nice, was it? They did some pretty bad stuff to you. Look at that name, think about their debt of sin that they owe to you, and ask yourself, “Is that debt greater than what God has forgiven me?” Is it worth it, hanging on to that old debt, knowing the danger that hanging on may pull us apart from God?
You know, I’ve lived that life, and in some ways I’m living it right now. And I want to tell you, I don’t think it’s worth it. My grievances against these people—though they are legitimate, thought these people truly did sin against me—they’re not anything at all compared to what God has forgiven me in Jesus Christ.
You see, I realized something just this past week. As I prepared for this message, I realized that Jesus Christ has a very deep concern for my life, and for yours, as well. Jesus wants to heal us, He’s come to redeem not just our souls but our lives. Jesus Christ wants to bind up our wounds. When we can’t forgive someone, it wounds us. It causes us physical stress, it can hurt our hearts or our health. But more than that, an unforgiving spirit wounds us spiritually. It gets in the way of our relationship with God, and Jesus just can’t have that.
Jesus Christ wants to heal this part of you, this part that can’t forgive, this part that eats you alive, and He wants to do it so that you can be truly set free in Him. We have the promise of Scripture that we can do all things in Christ who strengthens us, so don’t waste another minute. Write down that name, tear it off the sheet, and say to that name, “In the forgiveness I have been given in Jesus Christ, I forgive you your sins against me.” I’ll start, and then I’ll come around to collect those names from you.

(Taking the names and pouring them into a trash bag)
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ, you won our forgiveness on the cross through the shedding of your own blood and your own death. We’re so grateful for that, because through your death we know we have eternal life. We have peace with God. We have forgiveness. We know this, and we thank You for it.
Lord, we want to have that forgiveness overflow in our lives, and so we take these names now, these people who have sinned against us, these people who have wronged us, and we offer them up to you. We forgive them, Lord, and ask that you will do the same.
Gracious Father, when we feel the old wounds caused by unforgiveness, send your Holy Spirit to work among us so that He can bind up our wounds, He can help us to forgive again, and He can enlighten us to a new way, a better way in Jesus Christ.