Sermon Tone Analysis

It became an expectation; and then one year, it became a joke, in a weird kind of way.

“It’s your birthday — do you think he’s going to call this year?”

“I don’t know, but I can hope.”

And January 7 would come and go and, sure enough, Carol’s father would miss another opportunity to wish her a happy birthday, which would just cause some more sadness & grief to settle into her soul, and even some anger to bubble up, ultimately associated with the pain of her parents’ divorce years ago.

She knew he loved her, and in many ways he was a wonderful father, but, when it came to her birthday, why couldn’t he just remember on one day of the year, only 7 days into every new year, to pick up the phone and call her?

Then, one day he did.

The phone rang, “Happy Birthday, Carol” her father said with a smile in his voice.

However, it was September 13th, which is her sister’s birthday — he had called the wrong daughter.

Almost 4 months later, January 7 came again; “Surely,” we thought, “with that mistake he made back in September, he will call this.”

But, the phone never rang.

How many times, Lord?

How many times?

“7 times?”

Peter asked Jesus.

Peter was not asking for a limit of the number of times one is to forgive another.

Instead, since seven is the traditional number of perfection, the sense of Peter’s question was:

“Is perfect forgiveness expected of me?”

(Luz, U. (2001).

Matthew: a commentary.

(H.

Koester, Ed.) (p.

465).

Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.

Hermeneia)

(p.

465).

Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.

Hermeneia)

Yes, and then some.

Jesus raises the bar even more — 77 times.

That is perfect forgiveness 11 times over!

Wow! That’s a tall order!

Jesus is rather serious about what it means to follow him.

So, he uses a powerful story to get at the depth and breadth of forgiveness.

Jesus starts out by turning Peter’s question around.

Instead of asking, “How many times must I forgive?”

when the “great one” begs for patience and time to pay Lord all his debt, the Lord does the incomprehensible — he forgives the debt.

“How many times must I forgive?”

which becomes more of a question of following the law and keeping track of other people’s mistakes, Jesus asks the question, back to Peter through this parable,

“How much did you owe?”

Like the first slave in the story, how in debt were you?

He says that the first slave owed 10,000 talents.

How many $1 bills does that equal?

Well,

10,000 talents = about 150,000 years’ wages

As math teachers teach, “show your work:”

1 mina = 3 months’ wages

1 talent = 180 months’ wages/12 months in a year = 15 years’ wages’

1 talent = 150,000 years’ wages

In dollars, that means:

So, if a laborer’s yearly wage is $15,000 (about 40 hrs/week at a min wage of $8.00 hr)

when the “great one” begs for patience and time to pay Lord all his debt, the Lord does the incomprehensible — he forgives the debt.

150,000 years’ wages = $2,250,000,000 (Two Billion, Two Hundred Fifty Million) [www.answers.com]

www.answers.com

http://www.answers.com/Q/How_much_is_10000_talents_worth

While the people listening to Jesus are probably scratching their heads or wondering what kind of scam or illegal behavior this guy is going to do to get out of so much debt, Jesus slams on the brakes when he says, the lord had σπλαγχνίζομαι and forgave the man’s debt.

σπλαγχνίζομαι ??

about what he means to follow him.

the “great one” begs for patience and time to pay Lord all his debt, the Lord does the incomprehensible — he forgives the debt.

Is it simply

Pity, as defined by Cambridge Dictionary = a feeling of sadness or sympathy for someone else’s unhappiness or difficult situation?

No, σπλαγχνίζομαι = to experience great affection and compassion for someone

Then, he goes on to teach the “great one” begs for patience and time to pay Lord all his debt, the Lord does the incomprehensible — he forgives the debt.

— a feeling of sadness or sympathy for someone else's unhappiness or difficult situation?

— a feeling of sadness or sympathy for someone else's unhappiness or difficult situation — Then, he goes on to teach the “great one” begs for patience and time to pay Lord all his debt, the Lord does the incomprehensible — he forgives the debt.

Certainly, Jesus’ listeners and Matthew’s readers would not have seen that response coming.

Then, he goes on to teach the “great one” begs for patience and time to pay Lord all his debt, the Lord does the incomprehensible — he forgives the debt.

Certainly, Jesus’ listeners and Matthew’s readers would not have seen that response coming.

Equally, they would have been aghast at the way this slave then turned around and treated harshly a fellow slave who owed a mere 100 silver coins, worth around 1 year of wages.

No, in the original greek language, it uses the word σπλαγχνίζομα = to experience great affection and compassion for someone—‘to feel compassion for, to have great affection for, love, compassion.’

If we choose to live by forgiveness.

If we choose not to live by forgiveness our other two choices are one complacency or apathy in which we don't care about anybody else.

For two we are living by non-forgiveness which means in minimal build crutches or in the Max we carry out violence toward another more secret bandage and another

But, based on that slave’s harsh treatment of his fellow slave, the crowd would have been very understanding of the lord throwing the unmerciful slave into the prison.

It’s easy to side with the crowd in this story.

It keeps the point of the story at a distance from us.

So, let’s insert ourselves into the story as the unmerciful slave.

And let’s think about it in the context of a faith community.

When have we mistreated another person in the faith community based on a relatively small offense?

In my 27 years of pastoral ministry, I have heard of people who were

not allowed to collect the offering because they did not have a suit coat on.

Who were insulted because of their preferred style of music

who were offered two pieces of bread at communion because of the size of their body

…and that’s without even getting into hot button issues.

Yet, how many of us have had a huge debt paid off by Jesus dying on the cross?

Everyone of us!

If we choose to live by forgiveness.

If we choose not to live by forgiveness our other two choices are one