Listen here.
Welcome to Devotions for Worship where we meditate on the
appointed Scripture readings for the upcoming Sunday. I am Pastor Eric Tritten
from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Hudson, OH. Thank you for being with me today.
This coming Sunday is the 15 Sunday after Pentecost. I would
remind you that on all the Sundays of the Church year, the Gospel lesson drives
the agenda. We gather to proclaim Christ, and in this season, the Time of the
Church, we listen closely to his teaching. The lesson today is an important one
for us as Jesus teaches about forgiving those who sin against us.
The Reading: Matthew 18:21-35 – I will be reading from the
English Standard Version translation.
21 Then Peter came up
and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I
forgive him? As many as seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him,
"I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 "Therefore the
kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with
his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who
owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his
master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had,
and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees,
imploring him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' 27
And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave
him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one
of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he
began to choke him, saying, 'Pay what you owe.' 29 So his fellow
servant fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay
you.' 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should
pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place,
they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all
that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to
him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with
me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as
I had mercy on you?' 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the
jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly
Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from
your heart." (Matt. 18:21-35 ESV)
Comments
“How often should I forgive someone?” What a powerful
question this is! When we ask this question we reveal a couple things that are
in our hearts. For one thing, it shows that we feel we are in the position to
forgive, and not to ask for forgiveness. We so easily overlook our own sin and
the ways we hurt others. Another thing that this question reveals is our sense
of personal righteousness. In my experience most of us who are Christians very
freely admit that we are sinners – that is, we confess in a general sense that
we disobey God and need his forgiveness. Sometimes, however, we see our sin as
less serious than other people’s sins. It is as if we are sinners who don’t
really do anything that we would call bad, and when we do we often feel that
our action was justified whereas other peoples sins are not justified and they
deserve much more attention than our own.
This is where Jesus’ parable comes in and helps us
understand our own status before God. By describing two men who owe debts,
Jesus describes how we stand before God and how we stand in relation to our
neighbor who sins against us. Our debt to God is huge, unimaginable, and
crushing. Jesus describes it as ten thousand talents. Well, a talent is years’
worth of wages. Nevertheless, in his mercy he forgives our entire debts – all
of our sins for Jesus’ sake. Our neighbor’s sin against us hardly compares to
our sin against God. At this point Jesus measures the debt in terms of denarii,
and a denarius was one day’s wages. It’s not even pennies-on-the-dollar by
comparison.
We experience sins against us as though every one of them
were malicious attacks. In truth, even the malicious attacks flow from our
brokenness and sin. That person that sins against you stands before God as
well. He or she bears a huge, unimaginable, and crushing debt to him – the same
as you. And as God has forgiven you, he calls you to forgive those who sin
against you.
Maybe another way to look at this might be to ask, “How
often should God forgive us?” Or to cite the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as
you would have them do unto you.” In the heat of the moment though, we often
simply respond to the pain, and in the process we ourselves sin against our
neighbor. (Sigh)
Here is an example of how badly we need God and his Holy
Spirit to work in us to shape us to be like Jesus who prayed for those who
crucified him, “Father forgive them.” We must call out for forgiveness and pray
the God would help us to be more forgiving.
Prayers
Lord Jesus, you forgive us freely and generously. What a
gift that you have given to us to cancel the whole load of our debt of sin! Yet
we, all too often, are stingy in giving forgiveness to others. Impress us again
with how great and vast your forgiveness is. Help us to be ready for freely
forgive those who sin against us knowing the great forgiveness you have given
to us. Amen.
Thank you so much for using Devotions for Worship, I pray
that our time together has blessed you and given you something to meditate on –
some reminder of God’s grace to rattle around in your brain – for the rest of
the day.
One of the things we can do to help us meditate on God’s
word is to memorize it. Psalm 119:11.
Memory Verse: Matthew 18:21-22 - Then Peter came up and said
to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive
him? As many as seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I do
not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. (Matt. 18:21-22 ESV)
I also want encourage you to continue to pray for those who
are rebuilding from Hurricane Harvey, and to add those who are now rebuilding
after Hurricane Irma. LCMS World Relief and Human Care is currently accepting
donations to help victims of both of those hurricanes. You can learn more about
what they are doing and find ways you can help, including how to donate at
lcms.org/disaster.
Would you do me a favor? If you got something out of this
devotional time, would you like and/or share it on Facebook, Twitter, or
wherever you do social media? That would help me get the word out, and
hopefully help these devotions be a blessing to others.
God bless you!
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