Unlimited Grace!
Posted on Sep 14, 2014 by David Whetter
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us. Amen
So, let’s begin by having a little refresher from last week. Jesus had been teaching his disciples about his church that is the ekklesia, or the gathering of those who follow in his ways. Remember a few weeks ago, we heard Peter, before all the other disciples, proclaim Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16). And on this proclamation, Jesus said he would build his church. As Jesus promised, his church, that is his number of followers grew, after his resurrection.
But, as we learned last week, Jesus had no preconceived notion that his church would be perfect. As I said last week, Jesus knew that his followers would struggle with being in community together, just as his Father knew that the Israelites would have issues with being in community after God called them out of slavery into the Promised Land. So, to help his followers live peacefully in community, last week we heard Jesus’ plan to deal with conflict. In step one, if someone has sinned against you, Jesus said you must first go to that person privately and talk to that person. If that does not resolve the issue then step two calls for the person who was sinned against to get two three fellow followers to go with him and then the group is to talk with the perpetrator. But, if again the issue cannot be resolved, then in step 3, the whole congregation is to be brought in to try and resolve the issue. If after this, the perpetrator still will not repent, then, and only then, after all attempts for resolution have been exhausted, can step 4 be done and in step 4 the perpetrator can be asked to leave the community.
Now, as I also noted last week, this “Conflict Management” system of Jesus’ has its flaws. It is actually a perfect system in the perfect church, but since Christ’s church is currently made up of humans, we humans have a tendency to be self-centered, selfish, and arrogant. Unfortunately, at times, we highjack this process and we use it to try and get our own way. We even use it to get revenge, but this process only works if we always have God’s interests at heart. It really only works if we can put our self interests aside and work in community for the good of Christ’s church, not for our own self-interests.
This sounds impossible, doesn’t it? And so, as we ended last week, I asked a question and that question was, “If we are frail sinners who are going to always have conflict, are we doomed as a faith community?” If this process doesn’t really work in this world, is there any hope for us to succeed?
Well, today, Jesus answers those questions for us in his response to Peter. Peter has listened to Jesus’ conflict management plan and like you and I, he has some questions about how this is really going to work. He wants more specifics. He wants a definitive process with a specific endpoint in mind. So he asks, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" (19:21)
Seven times, that sounds like crazy talk. I can see giving a person a second chance, but who has ever heard of giving someone seven chances. Peter must have thought he was being really generous in his understanding. But, as usual Jesus points us to a deeper understanding and he turns our view of the world completely upside down by offering this response to Peter, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times” (18:22).
Now, I know many of you have grown up with the KJV, or other translations that say “70 times 7,” but since we don’t have the time to discuss why “77” is more accurate, let’s just agree that either way, Jesus’ response is crazy. In essence, Jesus is saying, our forgiveness ought to be never-ending which from our perspective is crazy. From a very early age, our empathy for others is very limited. Having our sins pointed out to us only reminds us of our frailties and we don’t like that, especially when the one pointing things out to us is our loved one and asking for forgiveness in times like this is very hard, but, if truth be told, the harder challenge for us is not asking for forgiveness, it is granting forgiveness. “After all, forgiveness heals relationships by requiring us to let go, to turn the page, to refuse the right to hold on to bitterness and anger. Forgiveness, in short, sets things right again. Forgiveness is a powerfully healing force but also an incredibly difficult thing to receive or share.” And here, Jesus says, as hard as that is to do, never stop and he once again uses a parable to help us understand.
The parable of the merciful king offers us an image of a king who is owed an unimaginable amount of money, 10,000 talents, from one of his slaves. To put things in perspective, one talent would have been equal to about the amount of money a laborer might hope to earn in half a lifetime. So suffice it to say, if one owed 10,000 talents, there was no hope of ever repaying it and so, out of pity, the King releases him from his total debt. Now that is unlimited forgiveness.
Now, the story does not end there, does it? Following his newfound freedom, that same slave, encountered a fellow slave who owed him only 100 denarii, about 4 months wages and when the slave could not pay him, the newly freed man had the fellow slave thrown in to jail. How ungrateful was that? How selfish was that? We would never do such a thing, would we?
But, truth be told, we do it everyday when we refuse to forgive those who have sinned against us. Although we do not deserve it, you and I have been offered an unconditional forgiveness. We have been freed from our slavery to sin and, yet, every day we fail to offer that same forgiveness to our fellow slaves who so desperately need our forgiveness. We are that slave who has been offered God’s limitless mercy and freed but fail to offer that same mercy to our brothers an sisters
The key to living in community and resolving conflict is forgiveness. Whether we like it or not, conflict will always exist and as long as we live in community we will have conflict, but we are challenged today to put aside our self-interests and to always work to God’s glory and in doing so, we are called to live in community. That is community not just filled with conflict, but more importantly filled with love. We are challenged today, to live peacefully with those we disagree with us and be a community that always seeks to do the will of God.
Now with all of that said, I would like to make one more critical point. Being a people that offers unlimited forgiveness does not mean that we are called to embrace violence perpetrated against us. It does not mean we are to give free reign to those who seek to harm us. It does not mean if you are living in an abusive relationship that it is your cross to bear because you must constantly be forgiving. Abuse, physical, mental, or spiritual, is not an act performed in a loving relationship. As we learned recently, our cross to bear is the cross of justice, not abuse. If you are in an abusive relationship, or part of an abusive community, get out, run, and don’t go back. Forgiveness frees us to live as God intended, not an authorization to be harmed. Forgiveness is a gift of grace and a reflection of God’s love.
May we be a people, a community of faith that lives in God’s limitless mercy and offers that same mercy to all who enter here. Amen