Sermon Tone Analysis
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Forgiveness
forgive-to stop blaming or taking an offense into account.
It means, at its best and easiest a very simple concept: to let go.
we argue about 49 or 490, then we go to infinity- and all of that is well and good but it misses the point.
7 was and is the number of completeness.
So the message is, you should forgive to the point of completeness- forgive until it really is forgiven!
settle-to clear all obligations
owed- the person who has the obligation of paying a debt.
ten thousand talents.
One talent is equal to 6,000 denarii, which would take an ordinary laborer 6,000 days (16 years) to earn.
Let’s convert that into US dollars; if an average day’s wages is assumed to be 100 dollars, it is around 600,000 dollars.
Since one talent is such a large amount of money, how much is ten thousand talents, equivalent to about 60,000,000 denarii, worth?
this is the offense, this is the breach in the relationship between the king and the man brought to him.
Their relationship was in trouble because of this breach.
It is a tremendous amount of money, which is worth about 160,000 years’ wages!
Because of the amount owed- this was ridiculous.
He could never repay it.
This is the request.
pity- to be affected deeply in one’s inner being, especially in that aspect characterized by sympathy and compassion.
released- to set free, to release, to let go.
forgive- to absolve from payment.
This is the Release.
The king released the man from his debt, which was so large he would never be able to repay it.
seized him- to have or hold in one’s hands or grip.
choke- constrict someone’s throat and keep from breathing.
hundred denarii- less than a hundred dollars, likely less than $50.
This is the beginning of the New Offense.
What you are about to see is the replay of whay you’ve already seen, but on a much smaller scale.
Notice how his debtor uses the same language he used with his master!!
Didn’t you learn the mercy I had on you for yourself.
This is the verdict.
I want to remind you of five events in this story/parable:
Offense
Request
Release
New Offense
Verdict/Judgment
Forgiveness, in our society, is disappearing.
We want justice more than we want righteousness.
If that offends you, please listen a little while longer.
I’m not going to make a case for forgiveness without justice.
But our society has made a case for justice without forgiveness.
Think about it.
We’ve moved from seeking righteousness- living rightly- to seeking justice.
And because we’ve left the personal righteousness piece out of the equation, our justice runs the risk of becoming sinful, tainted, or even vengeful.
We’ve moved from focusing on our way of living to someone else’s, and that shift has inadvertently left our own spiritual state in jeopardy.
Listen a little while longer.
Why is forgiveness disappearing?
Because we’ve lost the art of forgiving- but also because we’ve lost the art of receiving forgiveness.
I think we’ve lost the gift of forgiving because sin is exponentially growing.
Do you know this thing that Jesus said: In Matthew 24.12
When I was a kid you knew your neighbors, the kids played outside all summer, you got home from school and ran outside and played until the street lights came on, and in the summer beyond that.
You slept outside as a kid.
You went to church camp or boy scout camp.
Our doors were rarely locked- I don’t think we had a key to the house until I was over 18.
Today we don’t neighbor, you rarely see kids outside playing beyond their front yard, never after dark- All youth camps are suspect- We bolt our doors and buy security cameras.
Why?
Turn on the news!
Serial killers and rapists, crime everywhere, a lack of trust for government and institutions- it seems like crime is rampant.
And I submit that is one of the reasons that forgiveness is so often not sought- we want justice- we want people to do the time because they did the crime.
And we aren’t worried about rehabilitation any longer, we simply want the people to get what they deserve!
In our eyes.
It used to be that lawless people had a chance for rehabilitation- but today they are simply candidates for punishment.
And that loss of love for humanity that is found in that mindset trickles down to our relationships- in our churches, in our employment, in our families.
When somebody wrongs us, we want them to suffer- to pay for what they did.
Instead of wanting them to experience forgiveness.
And secondly, we are losing our ability to extend forgiveness.
Our society has made it hard for us to forgive each other.
We don’t forgive easily, regularly, and certainly not lavishly.
Jesus began this parable by saying, The Kingdom of heaven is like this....so let’s take a second look at how the king forgives.
We will look at verse 24 and verse 27 to do this.
The king had the man brought to him, and he named his debt to him.
We will call this the “Confrontation of Truth”.
You may wonder why this is important.
Well, for some of us, we will shove wrongs under the carpet- we will act like nothing ever happened.
For some of us, we will wrong people and expect that- as usual- they will allow us to plough them under and say nothing dutifully.
And the king didn’t do that.
He named the debt.
And the debtor.
Some of us wrongly believe that forgiveness can’t take place until the person who has done the wrong “asks” for forgiveness.
Wrong again.
Before this man ever appeared before the king, he knew he could never pay back his debt.
Yes, he should have went to the king to work it out- but he didn’t.
So how many weeks, months, years, decades did he spend avoiding that meeting with the king?
We don’t confront wrongs well- that is, our own wrong.
So the king had him brought.
Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5:23- If you are offereing your gift at the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, go to your brother first and be reconciled to him.... YOU GO!
Unforgiveness wrecks all relationships.
Let’s look at Matthew 18.27
First- the king had pity for this man.
Remember what this pity word meant in my first read through- t have compassion and sympathy in one’s inner being for the other person.
If there is any place that any of us canb have sympathy and compassion for each other it is in the matter of sin.
Wronging each other.
We know how this feels.
Secondly, the king whited out the books- he cancelled the debt .
Make no mistake, forgiveness is costly.
To cancel this debt, the King had to absorb the loss.
Please absorb that thought.
The king absorbed that loss, and in so doing he paid the debt for the persons wrong.
If you and I are ever going to be able to forgive, it will be because we master and understanding of this and are able to implement it in our lives.
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