Forgiven People, Forgiving People

Exodus 14:19–31 and Matthew 18:21–35

A man was bitten by a dog and later it was discovered that the dog had rabies. This was back when there was no cure 4 rabies. His doctor said to him: everything possible will be done to make you comfortable, but we cannot offer you false hope. My best advice is that you put your affairs in order. The dying man sat there fuming, then asked for pen and paper and began writing furiously. When the doctor returned, he said: I see you took my advice and you are making your will. This is not my will, said the man. It is a list of people I intend to bite before I die. Hahaha! Church, our subject today is forgiveness. Lord, how often should I forgive, asks Peter? As many as seven times? Peter probably thought he was being generous. You see Rabbinic teaching often spoke of forgiving three times. Peter doubles it and adds one more for good measure. Surely Jesus will commend him. But Jesus replies: Not seven times, Peter; but 77 times, or as some translations put it,70x7.

In other words, stop counting. Seven times is not enough for the kingdom of heaven. In God’s kingdom forgiveness is not rationed. We enter a new world, where grace cannot be measured. We are to become so conscious of God’s mercy towards us that we stop measuring forgiveness towards others as though grace were in short supply. Forgiveness is not a dam; it is a pipeline. It is not intended to stop with us, but to flow through us. And here the Exodus reading helps us.

Israel stands at the edge of the sea with Pharaoh’s army right behind them. They are trapped; snookered if you will! Their past is pursuing them. The empire that enslaved them refuses to let them go. Then God makes a way where there appears to be none. The waters part, Israel crosses, and the people move from slavery into freedom. Exodus 14 is, above all, a story of liberation. As Bob Marley aptly puts it: Exodus; movement of Jah people! God brings his people out of bondage and gives them a future they could not create for themselves.

Forgiveness has something of that Exodus experience. You see Resentment can become a kind of Egypt. Anger can become like the Pharaoh that keeps pursuing us. A grudge can enslave the heart, making yesterday’s injury rule today’s life. But please don't misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that when you forgive you validate evil. And neither does forgiveness require a victim to return to an unsafe or abusive relationship. No! Forgiveness is a refusal to let the wrongdoer have permanent ownership of our spirit. By God’s grace, we begin to walk out of bondage.

Jesus then tells the story of a servant who owes his king a huge amount of money. The servant cannot pay, so he begs for mercy. The king has compassion and cancels the debt. Yet that same servant goes out, finds a fellow servant who owes him a comparatively tiny amount, grabs him by the throat and demands payment. When the man pleads for patience, he refuses. The king hears about it and is furious. How can someone receive such enormous mercy and then refuse mercy to another? That is the sharp edge of the parable. Who can forgive? Obviously, the one who knows that they have been forgiven. The contrast between the two debts is overwhelming. Jesus is showing us the astonishing scale of divine grace. God has released us from a debt we could never repay. If we truly understand that gift, it must begin to reshape the way we deal with the debts of others.

This theme runs throughout the New Testament. Jesus teaches us to pray: Forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors. In the beatitudes he teaches: Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. His own brother, James writes: Mercy triumphs over judgment. Christian forgiveness is therefore not a side issue; it belongs at the centre of discipleship because the Christian life begins with grace. We are people who live because God has made a way for us.

That connection between Exodus and the Gospel is powerful. At the Red Sea, Israel could not save itself. In the parable, the servant could not clear his own debt. In both stories, freedom comes as gift. God acts first. Grace comes first. Christians do not forgive to earn God’s love; oh no! We forgive because we have been caught up in God’s love. We simply pass on the mercy that we have received.

And yet we often resemble the unforgiving servant. We even have a modern proverb that says revenge is a dish better served cold! You know it? Of course you do!! We nurse a grudge, replay an insult, preserve an old wound and refuse to release a tiny debt. And all the time, Christ stretches out his arms upon the cross and says: Look how much you have been forgiven. We remember the cross, the agony of rejection, the humiliating death, and above all, the love. All this tells us that God is determined to free us from sin’s slavery and bring us into the spacious land of grace.

So let us do two things with today’s readings. First, let us remember what God has done for us. Israel looked back at the sea and knew that God had delivered them. We look back at the cross and know that God has forgiven us. We are not defined by our past failures or success. God opens a road into a new future.

Second, because we have been released, let us release others. Perhaps there is someone whose name still makes you shiver! Perhaps when you hear George/Peter or Bob you go…Or maybe it’s a family member, a friend or even a colleague. Forgiveness may begin with a simple prayer like this: Lord, I do not yet feel free, but I want to be free. Help me surrender this person and this wound into your hands. Sometimes reconciliation will follow. Sometimes, because of danger or safeguarding issues, reconciliation may not be wise or possible. Forgiveness and reconciliation are related, but they are not identical. Forgiveness can begin in the heart even where boundaries must remain.

The writer Johan Bojer, in his book The Great Hunger, tells of a farmer whose child was killed by a neighbour’s dog. Later famine came, and the neighbour had no seed for his field. One night, the grieving father went and secretly planted his enemy’s field. He later said, I went and sowed seed in my enemy’s field that God might exist. Wow! that is grace made visible!!

We who have known the lifting of guilt can help lift burdens from others. We who have crossed the sea can help others walk towards freedom. We who have received mercy can become merciful. So let us rejoice in the God who makes a way through the waters, cancels unpayable debts, and leads his people from slavery into freedom. We are forgiven people. By God’s grace, let us become a forgiving people -and the church says-. Amen.