A Homily given by Fr. Ben Jones; Curate,
St. George’s Anglican Church, Raleigh, NC;
On the Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity, A.D. 2009.
“Mercy or Justice”
+In the name of God the Father, and of God the Son, and of God the Holy Ghost, Amen.
The Gospel according to St. Matthew .xviii.32-35.
“then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, said unto him, o thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”
Peter’s question is more than likely an issue that all of us have had on our hearts from time to time. “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him” till seven times?”1 Jesus’ answer may not have been what Peter wanted to hear. “Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”2 Jesus was not attempting to set up bounds for forgiving our brothers, but was attempting to show by an indefinite number, our duty to forgive. Following Peter and Jesus’ exchange, Jesus takes personal wrongs which are to be forgiven to a whole new level of thought.
Through a discourse in the form of a parable, Jesus shows the necessity of forgiveness. In the parable we learn that, “the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.”3 Given this account, let’s look at this parable just a bit closer.
What we are given in this parable is that through compassion; the debt was forgiven, canceled, never to be reconsidered again. This uncompromised forgiveness illustrates God’s total forgiveness when dealing with our sins to the point of us being the recipients of everlasting salvation. The debt of sin, of all sins, past, present, and future, was paid by Christ on the cross, which sets us free from the bonds of sin forever. How did the forgiven servant in the parable respond to this unconditional forgiveness??
The servant responded by not forgiving a debt owed to him by a fellow servant and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. Unbelievable isn’t it?? The debt that was forgiven of the servant was ten thousand talents. A talent translated in today’s currency would be the equivalent of roughly a thousand dollars. It doesn’t take us long to bang out on our calculators that ten thousand talents is the equivalent of roughly ten million dollars. During the time of Jesus, a daily wage for a labourer was one denarius. In today’s currency a denarius would be roughly twenty dollars. If the total daily wage was applied to the debt, it would take one thousand, three hundred and seventy years to bring the balance down to zero. Even Methuselah would not have lived long enough to repay this monetary debt!! We now can understand this was an impossible debt to repay. However, after the tremendous compassion that was shown to him, he was unwilling to forgive a debt of a hundred pence, which in today’s currency is roughly ten dollars, or one half of a day’s wage. The example Jesus has set forth in the parable shows how He has covered our sin, all of it and how the sin of pride can step in and prevent us from forgiving one another. We would never be able to repay the debt of our sin to our Heavenly Father, except by the redeeming grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. By this example, how would we respond in forgiving one another?? Would it be by compassion, to show mercy, as in the example set by our Lord to forgive beyond measure, or would we demand justice, the justice of the law that we would never be able to attain??
Think about forgiveness in this way. We pray about forgiveness each and every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive us our trespasses or our sins, as we forgive those who trespass or sin against us.” Right here is where the Lord’s Prayer is the most difficult to pray. Before we pray for those who have trespassed against us, we pray for God to forgive us our trespasses. This order of wording came from our Lord. God wants us to understand by this wording that He is in control, and that we are at the mercy of His forgiveness. The Apostle John tells us in his first epistle general, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”4 George Herbert, a notable Christian writer commented about this particular petition in the Lord’s Prayer. “He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven; for every one has need to be forgiven.”5 In other words, forgiveness of one another is in the humility that results in our being forgiven by our Heavenly Father. The God of infinite mercy, out of His compassion towards us, WILL forgive us when we humble ourselves before Him.
Through our prayers, we repent and ask God for His mercy in the forgiveness of our sins, and through this forgiveness, in humility we forgive those that sin against us. Then with a clear conscience and heart, we come to God’s Altar to receive the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the sacrament of His most blessed Body and Blood.
AMEN.
+
“AND NOW UNTO GOD THE FATHER,
GOD THE SON, AND GOD THE HOLY GHOST;
BE ASCRIBED ALL MIGHT,
MAJESTY, POWER, AND DOMINION,
MOST JUSTLY DUE THIS DAY,
BOTH NOW, AND FOREVER,
WORLD WITHOUT END,
AMEN.”
1 The Gospel according to St. Matthew 18:21.
2 The Gospel according to St. Matthew 18:22.
3 The Gospel according to St. Matthew 27-28.
4 The First Epistle General of St. John 1:8-10.
5 Willimon, Hauerwas, Lord, Teach us., pg. 83.