Sunday's Message - Forgive It Forward

Here's the message I offered during the celebration service in the Presbyterian Church of Hopedale, Ohio on Sunday, September 13, 2020.

Matthew 18:21-35, Contemporary English Version

Peter came up to the Lord and asked, “How many times should I forgive someone who does something wrong to me? Is seven times enough?”

Jesus answered:

Not just seven times, but seventy-seven times! This story will show you what the kingdom of heaven is like:

One day a king decided to call in his officials and ask them to give an account of what they owed him. As he was doing this, one official was brought in who owed him fifty million silver coins. But he didn’t have any money to pay what he owed. The king ordered him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all he owned, in order to pay the debt.

The official got down on his knees and began begging, “Have pity on me, and I will pay you every cent I owe!” The king felt sorry for him and let him go free. He even told the official that he did not have to pay back the money.

As the official was leaving, he happened to meet another official, who owed him a hundred silver coins. So he grabbed the man by the throat. He started choking him and said, “Pay me what you owe!”

The man got down on his knees and began begging, “Have pity on me, and I will pay you back.” But the first official refused to have pity. Instead, he went and had the other official put in jail until he could pay what he owed.

When some other officials found out what had happened, they felt sorry for the man who had been put in jail. Then they told the king what had happened. The king called the first official back in and said, “You’re an evil man! When you begged for mercy, I said you did not have to pay back a cent. Don’t you think you should show pity to someone else, as I did to you?” The king was so angry that he ordered the official to be tortured until he could pay back everything he owed. That is how my Father in heaven will treat you, if you don’t forgive each of my followers with all your heart.

Forgive It Forward

Have y’all ever heard of the idea of “pay it forward”? Well, if you haven’t, this is what it’s all about. Suppose I give you something that you need. Well, instead of me looking for you to return that gift to me, when you’re able, I want you to take what you have and to help someone else. In other words, instead of paying me back, I’d like you to pay it forward. And I’ll tell you, I know that idea well, because it was something we tried to follow when I was over at Cove. You see, being a downtown church, we’d get lot of folks who had some very definite needs. And although what we could offer was really limited, we tried to help as many as we could. And every now-and-then, someone would talk about paying us back in some way. But when those situations came up, we’d ask them to take whatever they planned to give us and to use it to help someone else. Now whether they did it or not was up to them, but as far as we were concerned, we wanted them to pay it forward. 

And you know, that’s kind of what we’re going to talk about this morning, but instead of looking at a general principle and some vague, non-specific stuff, we’re going to focus on forgiveness and how we can pass the forgiveness we’ve received from God on to others. And I hope we all recognize that this is something pretty important for us to do. Good night nurse, just think about the passage we read. I mean, right after Jesus explained to his disciples why and how they should resolve conflicts within the church, something we talked about last week, this happened: Peter came up to the Lord and asked, “How many times should I forgive someone who does something wrong to me? Is seven times enough?” Jesus answered: Not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!" [Matthew 18:21-22, CEV] Now given the number of times Debbie has had to do this very thing with me, for her, the number may not seem all that big, but 77 times, man, that’s a lot of forgiveness in my book. Let’s just say that forgiving others is a big deal, at least it was for Jesus. 

And for that reason, we’re going spend the next ten minutes or so talking about how we can do it. And we’re going to use the parable Jesus offered right after he gave this command to sort of guide us. And I’ll tell you, when we do, I think we’re going to find two really clear steps that we can follow, if we’re serious about being the kind of people Christ has called us to be. In other words, by following these two steps, I believe this is exactly how we can forgive it forward.

And in my opinion, it all begins with acceptance. In other words, we need to accept, and I mean really accept, that we’ve already been forgiven by God. Now, for me, this is step number one. And that’s certainly the point of the first half of the parable. Now remember, this what Jesus said: 

One day a king decided to call in his officials and ask them to give an account of what they owed him. As he was doing this, one official was brought in who owed him fifty million silver coins. But he didn’t have any money to pay what he owed. The king ordered him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all he owned, in order to pay the debt. 

The official got down on his knees and began begging, “Have pity on me, and I will pay you every cent I owe!” The king felt sorry for him and let him go free. He even told the official that he did not have to pay back the money. [Matthew 18:23b-27, CEV]

Now that’s what happened. And as they used to say on Dragnet, let’s look at just the facts. A guy owed his boss, the king, a debt that he couldn’t repay in a million years. He bagged for mercy. And not only did the king show him pity, he also forgave the debt. 

And I’ll tell you, this is this kind of forgiveness that we’ve received ourselves. In other words, we’ve been forgiven big time. But to appreciate just how big it is, I think it’s important to recognize exactly who we are. You see, we’re men and women who, in spite of our best efforts, just seem to come up a little short, at least as it relates to God. As Paul wrote to the Romans, “All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” [Romans 3:23, CEV] And a little bit later in the same letter, he wrote this about himself: I know that my selfish desires won’t let me do anything that is good. Even when I want to do right, I cannot. Instead of doing what I know is right, I do wrong. And so, if I don’t do what I know is right, I am no longer the one doing these evil things. The sin that lives in me is what does them. 

The Law has shown me that something in me keeps me from doing what I know is right. With my whole heart I agree with the Law of God. But in every part of me I discover something fighting against my mind, and it makes me a prisoner of sin that controls everything I do. What a miserable person I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is doomed to die? [Romans 7:18-24, CEV] 

Now whether we like it or not (and frankly I don’t), that’s who we are, and because of that, just like the guy in the parable, we desperately need forgiveness, don’t we? 

And brothers and sisters, that’s exactly what God has done; he’s forgiven us. I mean, even though we don’t deserve it, our sins were nailed to the cross, and we were given a glimpse of the future when the tomb was found to be empty. I’m telling you, with all our warts and weaknesses, God accepts you and he accepts me. And you know, that’s why, after saying that we all fall short, Paul wrote, “But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins.” [Romans 3:24, CEV] And that’s also why, right after asking “who will rescue me from this body that is doomed to die?”, he wrote, “Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me.” [Romans 7:25, CEV] Now this is what God has already done. And I’m telling you, if we want to be more forgiving, I think we need to accept that, in spite of ourselves, we’ve been forgiven. And for me, that’s the first step.

And step number two, after accepting that we’ve been forgiven, I believe we need to decide that we’re going to forgive others, particularly those who’ve offended us. And of course, in the parable, that’s where the steward dropped the ball. Remember, after being forgiven a debt there was no way he could repay, this happened: 

As the official was leaving, he happened to meet another official, who owed him a hundred silver coins. So he grabbed the man by the throat. He started choking him and said, “Pay me what you owe!” The man got down on his knees and began begging, “Have pity on me, and I will pay you back.”  Instead, he went and had the other official put in jail until he could pay what he owed. [Matthew 18:28-29, CEV]

You see, even though he’d been forgiven and he knew it, he decided not to pass that forgiveness forward to someone else. And, according to the rest of the parable, the consequences of that decision were pretty harsh. 

And you know, I think that’s something we need to remember, but I’m not talking so much about the consequences. You see, I believe, just like it is with faith, forgiveness is always a decision. In other words, it’s an act of the mind and the will, something that, again, Paul understood when he wrote to the Colossians, “God loves you and has chosen you as his own special people. So be gentle, kind, humble, meek, and patient. Put up with each other, and forgive anyone who does you wrong, just as Christ has forgiven you.” [Colossians 3:12-13, CEV] Put another way, we’re not going to forgive anyone unless we decide to do it. 

And even though, I guess I could use what happens at the end of the parable to scare you into being more forgiving, frankly, I really don’t think that would be very helpful. You see, the person Jesus described was an earthly king and not our heavenly father. And when push comes to shove, I don’t believe that God is going to withdraw his forgiveness of us when we choose not to forgive others. And I’ll tell you, since forgiveness is like a gift, any gift that comes from fear isn’t really a gift at all. It’s sort of like deciding to give your wife something for your anniversary, because she’ll make your life miserable if you don’t. We shouldn’t forgive others or turn the other cheek or walk the second mile or love our neighbors as ourselves, because we’re afraid God will send us to Hell if we don’t. If that’s the reason, even if we’re willing to forgive 77 times, we’ll stop when we hit 78, won’t we? Fear shouldn’t be our motivation. And I’ll tell you something else, we shouldn’t forgive only when we think the other guy has done something to deserve it. My gosh, if that’s reason, I think we’ll be grabbing plenty of debtors by the throat, because in most situations, it won’t take us long to decide that they just haven’t done enough, right; or so we think. No, our decision to forgive can’t be based on our fear or earned by their effort. Instead, for us, I think it must be motivated by gratitude and a desire to demonstrate to God that we really appreciate what he’s already shown to us. And I’ll tell you, I think that’s why Paul wrote this to the Ephesians: “Stop being bitter and angry and mad at others. Don’t yell at one another or curse each other or ever be rude. Instead, be kind and merciful, and forgive others, just as God forgave you because of Christ.” [Ephesians 4:31-32, CEV] You see, if the first step in offering forgiveness is to accept that we’ve been forgiven, the second step is deciding to be forgiving ourselves.

And that’s exactly how we can forgive it forward. You see, according to the parable we just read, it starts when we accept that in spite of who we are and what we’ve done, God has already forgiven us. And that acceptance can lead us to make the decision to forgive others. Step one and step two. Of course, this acceptance and this decision means absolutely nothing, if we don’t put that decision into action. But let’s leave that for another sermon.