Trinity 22
Mt
18:21-35
11/16/25
The central feature of Jesus’
preaching – the phrase he used to summarize his ministry – was “the kingdom of
God.” In Matthew’s Gospel we hear this in the term “kingdom of heaven,” which
is just a Jewish way of saying the same thing.
Matthew narrates the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with the words: “From
that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand.’”
As you have heard me say many times,
it is important to understand that when Jesus uses the word “kingdom” he is not
referring to a place as we commonly use the word, such as the kingdom of
England. Instead, based on the background in the Old Testament he is referring
to an activity – an action. The kingdom of God is God’s reign.
Jesus declared that the reign of God
was present in his person. In him, God was overcoming Satan, sin, and death.
When the Pharisees accused him of casting out demons by being in league with
the devil, he responded by saying, “But if it is by the Spirit of God that
I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”
A feature of Matthew’s Gospel is
that much of Jesus’ teaching has been gathered together into five large blocks
of material. Our text, in chapter eighteen, is located in one of those blocks.
In this section, Jesus is teaching about how things work when you have received
the reign of God in Jesus.
The chapter begins as the disciples
come to Jesus and ask “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” They are focused on glory – on being the
greatest. So Jesus put a child in their midst and said, “Truly, I say to you,
unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
We live in a world that prizes
children, and holds them up as examples of innocence. However, in the ancient
world there was a very different view. Children were seen as weak, uninformed,
and dependent. They had nothing to offer
until they became older, and the available evidence indicates that they were
not used as a positive metaphor.
Jesus is teaching that the person
who is greatest in the kingdom of God, is the one who recognizes his lowliness
and need. It is the person who acknowledges that he is dependent on, and in
need of Christ. In the Beatitudes, Jesus
said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.” The poor in spirit is the person who recognizes his sin – the fact
that he is a sinner who has no spiritual resources for dealing with God.
We are spiritually dependent and in
need. But just before this chapter Matthew tells us, “As they were
gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is about to be
delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised
on the third day.’” Because we are plagued by sin and death, Jesus Christ
carried out the central act of God’s reign by dying on the cross and rising
from the dead.
Jesus told the disciples, “the Son of Man came not to be served
but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Christ redeemed us from sin – he freed us
from its slavery by winning forgiveness for us. He offered himself as he
received the judgment of God that we deserve. And then in his resurrection he
defeated death, as he began resurrection life that will be ours on the Last
Day.
This is the reign of God – the kingdom of God – that you have
received through the work of the Holy Spirit. In baptism you received the
washing of regeneration and renewal by the Spirit. Your sins were washed
away. You have been baptized into the
death of Christ the risen Lord, and so Paul tells us about baptism, “For if
we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be
united with him in a resurrection like his.”
So how do things work for those who have received the kingdom of
God in Christ? Immediately before our text, Jesus has taught that because God
has sought and saved each one of us, we are to be concerned about the spiritual
welfare of one another. We care for others who are in circumstances that lead
away from Christ. Jesus said, “What do
you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray,
does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one
that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it
more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.”
This means that we must confront sin. Immediately before our text
Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault,
between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your
brother.” Now the world will tell you to
“mind your own business.” But we are not the world. Instead, we are those who have received the
kingdom of God. We are those who have been united by baptism in the Body of
Christ – the Church.
We do not confront sin with an attitude of superiority. Remember,
we are those who are dependent on Christ because we recognize our own sin.
The Church is made up of sinners. But
they are very particular kind of sinners – they are repentant sinners. We confess our own sin, and receive
forgiveness through faith in Christ. And then we seek to turn away from sin
because we recognize that it does spiritual harm.
Christ describes a process by which the Church seeks out believers
who are straying in sin. It begins with individual and private interaction which calls sin what it is,
and urges the individual to return to God’s ways. This is followed by the act
of taking several other Christians to do the same thing. Finally, the congregation as a whole
undertakes this work.
Those in the Church have received the kingdom of God as repentant
sinners. But when an individual
persistently refuses to repent, our Lord tells us that a time arrives when we
must admit that a person is no longer Church – no longer a forgiven sinner.
Jesus said, “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And
if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a
Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven.”
Our Lord tells us that he gives his Church the authority to declare
what he has already said is true. Where there is no repentance, there is no
forgiveness. We call this the Office of
the Keys. There is indeed the binding key that says sin has not been forgiven.
This is the final act of law – the last thing the Church can do in trying to
bring about repentance.
But in our life together, our primary focus is on the loosing key –
the word of absolution. Just as it occurred at the beginning of this service,
we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness from the pastor as from God
himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it ours sins are forgiven
before God in heaven.
Jesus had just spoken about forgiveness for those who have received
the kingdom of God. And so in our text Peter approaches him with a question and
asks, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive
him? As many as seven times?” Life in the kingdom of God will involve
forgiving others, just as we have been forgiven by God. And so Peter seeks to
know the limits on that forgiveness as he suggests what he must have
thought to be the generous number of seven times.
However, Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but
seventy-seven times.” The Greek here is unclear as to whether it means
seventy-seven times, or seventy times seven. The answer is irrelevant because
the point of our Lord’s statement is: Don’t stop forgiving.
Christ then illustrates this with a parable. He said, “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may
be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When
he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten
thousand talents.” The man owed the equivalent of 60,0000,000 days wages.
There was no way the man could ever pay the debt, and the king ordered that the
man, his family, and all his possessions should be sold in order to get some
return.
However, the servant fell down on his knees and implored the king
saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” The statement
was absurd. There was no way that the man would ever be able to repay the
master.
But then, something
remarkable happened. We are told that
the master had compassion on the servant. He released the man and forgave the
entire debt.
This is what God has done for us in Christ. We must remember that
on the Last Day, God will settle all accounts.
St Paul told the Romans, “For we will all stand before the judgment seat
of God.” St Augustine observed that just as the man owed ten thousand
talents, so there are Ten Commandments that we violate and for which we
owe God. And we are just as incapable of addressing this as the man in the
parable.
But in Christ, God did something absolutely remarkable. He had
compassion on us. In his mercy he gave
his Son, Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us not with gold or silver, but with
his holy precious blood, and innocent suffering and death. Because of Jesus’
death and resurrection we receive forgiveness before God.
In the parable we learn that when the man went out, he found one of
his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He owed a hundred days
wages. This was not a small amount, but it was something that in time could be
repaid.
The servant for whom the king had forgiven the enormous debt seized
the man and began to choke him saying, “Pay what you owe.” So the man did and
said exactly what the servant had just done before the king. He fell to his
knees and pleaded, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.” However, the servant refused and instead put
his fellow servant in prison until he should pay the debt.
Other servants knew what had happened and were greatly distressed.
They reported it to the master. So he summoned the man and said, “You wicked
servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should
not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” Then the
master
delivered
him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. And when he finished
telling this parable, Jesus said, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every
one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Those who have received the reign of
God in Christ are forgiven. And because we are forgiven, we forgive others. St
Paul told the Colossians, “as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must
forgive.” Forgiveness is a unique commodity. In order to continue to receive
it, you must give it away. In order to
have it, it must be pass on through you to others.
Now it is important to define what
we mean by forgiveness. Forgiveness is
an act of the regenerate will in which the Spirit leads us no longer to hold
something against another person. Like
biblical love, forgiveness is not a feeling. It is an action.
At the same time, we are also people
with emotions. When deeply hurt or wronged, we can feel anger and resentment.
Sometimes the act of forgiving does not remove those feelings. We do not feel at peace with the person we
have forgiven. We do not “feel” like we have forgiven the person. But if you
make the choice not to hold something against a person, then you have
forgiven the individual.
We want to feel at peace with a
person we have forgiven. We want to “feel” that we have forgiven them. And often for that to take place the best
advice we can receive are Jesus words when he said, “But I say to
you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Do you want your emotions to change?
Then start praying for that person every day. Even if it begins as the simple
act of saying the words, continue to pray for that person day in and day out.
Over time the emotions and feelings will change as you put Jesus’ words into
practice.
We have been forgiven by God in
Christ. And so we forgive others. It
does not matter whether the person asks for forgiveness or not. We forgive
others, because God has forgiven us.
This is not the way of the world. But
it is the way of those who have received the kingdom of God in Jesus
Christ. It is the saving reign of God
that makes this possible, and so if we are to do so, we must continue to
receive the Means of Grace. We must hear and read God’s Word for through that
Word the Spirit gives us forgiveness and strengthen the new man. We must return
to our baptism in faith, and lay hold of the forgiveness that continues to be
present through our baptism into Christ. We must hear the word of Christ
through our pastor as he says, “I forgive you all your sins.” And we must
receive the body and blood of Christ in Sacrament of the Altar – body and blood
given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. In these way the Spirit strengthens faith and delivers
forgiveness to us, which then passes through us and on to others.
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