The Law and Gospel About Forgiveness

[Below you'll find live stream video of today's worship services from Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, as well as the text of the message for the day. Have a blessed week!]

Matthew 18:21-35

Today’s Gospel lesson unfolds before us like a play in three scenes.

The first scene takes place in a real life encounter: Peter asks Jesus a question about forgiveness and Jesus’ brief reply.

The second scene is the beginning of one of Jesus’ most famous parables; in this scene, Jesus shows us where forgiveness comes from.

The third scene shows us how forgiveness is often abused and the consequences for those who abuse it.

In the last verse of our lesson is an epilogue in which Jesus lays down the implacable Law of God that damns sinners to eternal punishment.

With that in the background, let’s consider our lesson.

On the heels of Jesus explaining the process by which those who sin against us can be restored to fellowship with Christ and the Church, Peter asks Jesus: “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” (Matthew 18:21)

I’m not sure that Peter is really asking Jesus anything here. I think that instead of actually seeking insight or information from Jesus, Peter is playing “star pupil”: “Look how liberally I’m willing to forgive those who have hurt me: up to seven times!”

But Jesus punctures Peter’s pomposity: “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:22) Jesus’ words can also be translated, “seventy times seven times” and “seventy times seventy times.” However the words are rendered, the meaning is the same: “God commands that we forgive others. Period. Without condition. Without counting.”

Those who harm us or harm others may have to deal with the earthly consequences of their actions. This is why God has established governments. But we are to forgive everyone, always.

Now, this law of God–the commandment that we forgive others–is like all the rest of God’s Law: It gives a baseline requirement for anyone who wants life with God and, at the same time, it shows us that if we think we can be saved from sin and death on the basis of our perfect obedience of God’s Law, we are in trouble! We are incapable of obeying God’s Law in our own power. Who has ever heard of anyone who has walked on this earth other than Jesus who always forgave, all the time, no exceptions?

I am born into sin and that makes it impossible for me to resolve to love God or love my neighbor. I can’t resolve to perfectly obey any of God’s commands.

But if I’m incapable of forgiving as I’m required to forgive in order to have life with God, then the question arises: What’s to become of me? God commands righteousness and I’m not righteous. I can’t make myself righteous. What’s to become of me?

The second scene of our gospel lesson for today finds Jesus start the telling of a familiar parable. It’s about the interaction between a king and a man who owes his king, according to the Greek in which the New Testament was originally written, “ten thousand talents.” A talent is worth about twenty years’ worth of wages. You can do the math.

Because the man is unable to pay off the debt, the king orders that the man and his family be sold into slaves until the debt is repaid. But when the man falls at the feet of the king and begs for mercy, the king, with no hope of ever being repaid, forgives the debt–he writes it off–and releases the man and his family.

Friends, in this part of the parable, Jesus tells us what is to become of us who are incapable of forgiving as God commands us to forgive, who are incapable of obeying the Ten Commandments.

Jesus Christ takes the debt we owe for our sins and in Him, we are forgiven!

Peter would later write that Jesus “himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)

In other words, Jesus, true God and true, sinless man, perfectly obeys all the Law of God we can’t begin to obey, then covers us in His righteous obedience.

In Jesus, our debt for sin–the sin for which we should be clapped into the prison of hell for all eternity–is forgiven.

God the Father hears Jesus’ prayer from the cross for us: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

All who take refuge in Jesus by daily turning from sin and following Him, throwing themselves at Jesus’ feet the way the man in His parable threw himself at the feet of the king, are forgiven and so, freed from sin, death, and condemnation…and thereby have an eternal, bottomless supply of grace by which they can in turn forgive others, any time, any place.

This is why Jesus teaches us to pray, “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Martin Luther’s explanation of this fifth petition in The Small Catechism is worth remembering: “We pray in this petition that our heavenly Father would not hold our sins against us and deny our prayers because of them. We know we have not earned, nor do we deserve, those things for which we pray. But we ask that he would grant us all things through grace, even though we sin every day and deserve nothing but punishment. And so we, too, will heartily forgive, and gladly do good to those who sin against us.”

At the end of scene two of our gospel lesson for today, the man in Jesus’ parable walks away with his debts forgiven, freed to live with the same kind of forgiving grace he’d been given for anyone who may be indebted to him. It’s the same freedom Jesus gives to you when you hear words of absolution: “For Jesus’ sake, all your sins are forgiven!”

In scene three, the forgiven man walks away from the king who has forgiven him, like we walk away forgiven and made clean by Jesus at the end of worship on Sunday mornings. But you know, saints are also sinners. And we sinners tend to have long memories of the sins committed against us and short memories of our own need for forgiveness.

The forgiven man spots someone who owes him the equivalent of one-hundred days’ wages, a fraction of the huge debt he was just forgiven. He clutches the other man by the throat. “Pay me back!” he demands. When his debtor begs for mercy, just as he has begged a few moments before, the forgiven man will not forgive the debt. Then he has his debtor thrown into prison.

The king gets wind of this and calls the man to appear before him. He tells the man: “I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ [Then Jesus says] In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.” (Matthew 18:32-34)

By the standards of the Law, you and I deserve to die, everlastingly separated from God.

But Jesus has canceled our debt to God.

He saves us by grace, that is, by God’s charitable love for us.

All who repent and believe in Him are justified, made right with God, by that grace.

When we receive the gospel Word–in Jesus Christ, all your sins are forgiven, all your debts to God are gone–we are debt-free.

And when we are no longer indebted for our sin, while we will surely live in this world in mutually accountable relationships with husbands, wives, children, parents, and fellow members of Christ’s Church, we don’t have to keep score, we don’t have to hold grudges, and we don’t have to play God. We can trust God to sort things out in His way and live unencumbered by guilt or shame.

There are times when, even after we’ve forgiven others, we must not forget. It would be foolish, for example, for someone who has been in an abusive relationship to go back to live with their abuser after they’ve forgiven, that is, let go of their desire to make the abuser pay.

In what I call the epilogue to today’s lesson, Jesus says, “This–[eternal imprisonment and torture for our sin]–is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matthew 18:35)

Clearly, Jesus means it when He tells us to forgive others. Failure to forgive is eternally fatal.

But what do we do when we can’t forgive? 

It happens to me. When that happens, I remember that Christ died for all my sins, including the sin of not forgiving others. So, I take refuge in Jesus.

This is what I think we can do. We can turn to Jesus and pray, “Help me to forgive that person as You forgive me, Lord. When I can’t feel forgiving, forgive them through me. You know I want to do Your will. You know also that I’m a sinner. Forgive them through me.” I have prayed that kind of prayer many times and as I turn to Jesus honestly, I find that he lifts the burden of my unforgiving attitude from me.

Jesus didn’t die for perfect people. Jesus died for imperfect people. And if you earnestly desire to do the will of God and follow Jesus, God will in no way pour contempt or condemnation on you. And He will make you an instrument of His forgiveness, even when you’re not “feelin’ it.”

The Greek New Testament word for forgive is aphiemi. It literally means release.

When I forgive you or you forgive me, we release each other from the debt we owe for our wrong. We also release ourselves from the strain on us when we pretend that we’re God.

It’s because God forgives us that we can forgive others. So, I tell you once more this morning: “Dear friends in Christ, in the name of Jesus, I forgive you all your sins. You are released by your Savior.”

Now, you can share that word of forgiveness and release with others. Amen

The Old Testament Book of Ezekiel, Part 48

The Old Testament Book of Ezekiel, Part 47

Who's the Greatest?

[Below you'll find the message presented during both worship services at Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. You'll also find live stream video of both services.]

Matthew 18:1-20

One of the stories we often tell in our family revolves around something that happened when our kids were about ten and seven.

We’d visited family in Columbus and stopped at a Columbus shopping center before heading back to Cincinnati, where we lived.

After we’d finished our errand, we got into the car and were pulling out, when we heard a kind of whimpering yell from behind us. It was Philip, who wasn’t yet in the car. We stopped and Phil jumped in.

Now, why did we stop to get him?

I mean, we’d successfully collected 50% of our kids and, with Phil being ten years old, he was costing us a lot of money without generating any income. And besides, it was a hassle taking him to this event and that activity. Phil hadn’t attained any great achievements, led any governments or armies, or made his first billion dollars. He was completely dependent on us.

So, why did we bother bringing him back into the car?

We stopped, of course, because every member of a family, from the child awaiting birth in its mother’s womb to the infirm parent no longer able to take care of themselves, matters. 

In the section of Matthew’s gospel that starts with this morning’s gospel lesson, Matthew 18:1-20, Jesus talks about how the people in His family, that is, His kingdom, His Church, are to regard one another. The key to understanding today’s lesson is found in the first five verses. So, today, we’re only going to address those verses. 

It all begins with the disciples asking Jesus a question: “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matthew 18:1)

This kind of question is very important for people trying to get ahead in the world…or, if they’re of a religious inclination, to impress God. We human beings complain about rules, but we really like rules, mostly because we think if we can stay on top of the rules of the universe–or at least appear to be obeying them, we’ll be top dogs.

At the first church I served as pastor, we had a five-week long summer school for kids in the third through eighth grades focusing on the Bible and Catechism. We had 85 students. For recess during the last week one year, I set up a kickball tournament. I announced that we would play the tournament March Madness-style, only with a twist: the losing teams would advance. One boy, troubled by the set-up, asked, “How will we know which is the best team?” When I told him that we wouldn’t know, he offered a quietly disappointed, “Oh.”

So, these questions of who’s most important, who’s the best, who has the most, who’s on top, and even who’s the best Christian, seem to be important to us, even from a young age. 

When Jesus is asked who is most important in His kingdom, Matthew says: “He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.’” (Matthew 18:2-4)

We mustn’t miss Jesus’ point here. Jesus is not saying that children are innocent and therefore, we should imitate them. Children may be gullible or credulous; but children are not innocent.

Like King David, writing in Psalm 51, Jesus knows and we know that every child conceived by human parents is born in sin. That means we’re all born wanting to be in charge.

Part of the job of those God puts in authority over children–parents, grandparents, teachers, governments–is to keep them and the rest of us from running roughshod over others who are just as loved by God as we are.

What Jesus is pointing to in this child is their status.

No one is needier than a child.

All children need someone to take care of them. Think of what Jesus is saying to the question posed by the disciples then. He tells them, essentially, “Set aside for a moment.” To anyone trying to be the greatest in HIs Kingdom, Jesus says, “You won’t even enter My kingdom unless you recognize that there is nothing you can do to make yourself acceptable for life with God!” When it comes to life with God, the number one requirement is our neediness, our complete inability to be good enough or righteous enough for life with God!

When I was growing up, I was filled with all sorts of ambition. I had delusions of grandeur. I took an early interest in history, government, and politics. I was sure I was destined for greatness, whatever that is. I think that’s part of why I became an atheist: I was sure I was better than anyone who might get in my way and I didn’t want any God pretending He was more important than me.

When Jesus stepped back into my life a few years after Ann and I were married and I understood that God and His love were for real and that, despite my egotism and selfishness, God wanted a knucklehead like me for all eternity, I fell in love with Christ. I came to understand that all my egotistical presumption and Mark Daniels, the egotist, had to die. I had to daily take up the cross of all my sin, including my pretense of self-sufficiency and intrinsic goodness, submitting it and myself to daily crucifixion so that, unburdened of my sin, I could walk with Christ in newness of life, an undeserved forgiveness and hope.

It has been a hard lesson for this hardhead to learn, which is why I pray quite regularly, “Father, in Jesus’ name, make war on my ego. Please, make war on my ego.”

I visited a shut-in this past week. At one point she told me that she was surprised I took the time to visit her. Later, I read the first five verses of this gospel lesson for today to her and said, “Earlier, you wondered why I would visit you. It’s simple. You’re like that little child. You have physical issues and it’s hard for you to get around. You may think you have no value. But in the eyes of Jesus, precisely because in your weakness you know how much you need Jesus, you are the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul says he was afflicted with “a thorn in the flesh.” This thorn could have been a physical affliction. It could have been depression. We don’t know. Paul says that he asked God to remove this thorn three times and each time, the God Who loved him, just as He loves you and me, told Paul, “No.” God explained to Paul, “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God was telling Paul, “Your faith in Me and in My grace grows when, in your weakness, you learn to depend on Me.” Paul writes in response to God’s refusal to remove the thorn from his flesh: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Friends, if you’re tempted to feel everything is going so well that Jesus and His Church are optional accessories in a life over which you’re sure you have control, watch out! The reality of your neediness may soon smack you in the face.

If though, as a mortal sinner, like the rest of us mortal sinners, you know that you too are a little child, dependent on the God we know in Jesus for every good and perfect gift, then rejoice!

Rejoice in the gift of Christ crucified and risen!

Rejoice in the gift of grace by which, at His cross and empty tomb, He has already saved you from sin, death, and hell for life with Him!

Rejoice in the power Christ gives you to live each day in God’s forgiveness and love!

Rejoice too, because it is to children like you who know you need Jesus that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs now and forever! Amen

The Gospel of John, September 10, 2023

The Old Testament Book of Ezekiel, Part 46

The Old Testament Book of Ezekiel, Part 45

The Gospel of John, September 3, 2023

This is video of yesterday's adult Sunday School class from Living Water Lutheran Church yesterday captured from Facebook Live.

Hard Truth, True Promise

[Below, you'll find the message shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church yesterday, September 3. You can also view live stream video of both of the services in which the message was shared.]

Matthew 16:21-28

The first of the 2024 presidential campaign debates happened recently. I hate presidential debates. One reason I hate them is that candidates usually spend their allotted times trying to tell us things that they and their “handlers” think we want to hear: things that will vindicate us in our desires and ambitions, maybe in our fears and prejudices. Political campaigns are rarely times when we’re told either hard truths or true promises.

Today’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 16:21-28,  shows us that Jesus never took the advice of “handlers.” Otherwise, He wouldn’t have given the hard truth nor true promise He delivers to us today.

Let’s set the scene. The Gospel lesson continues a conversation we began to consider last Sunday. In it, Simon, the son of John, confesses that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Because it’s on this confession of Jesus as both God’s anointed King, in the world to make all things right, AND God the Son, that Jesus will build His Church and His Kingdom, Jesus gives Simon a new nickname, Peter, meaning Rock. All who can confess Jesus as their King and God have new and everlasting lives with God. Their lives are built on the strong rock of God’s grace that gives forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all who live with repentant trust in Jesus.

In today’s lesson, Jesus explains to us what it means to have Him as our God and King.

It starts: “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (Matthew 16:21)

This isn’t what Simon, the Rock of faith, or the other disciples had in mind at all. They wanted to hear something altogether different.

In fact, nobody wants a Savor King, a Christ, Who suffers and dies, even if His death is followed by a promised resurrection.

We want Messiahs who are going to make our lives smooth and easy, who will save us without telling us to give up our sins: selfishness, greed, envy, gossip, adultery, idolatry, and prejudices.

We want a King Who saves us in our sin rather than a Savior Who saves us from our sin. We want glory without a cross, forgiveness without contrition, resurrection without crucifixion, new life without the death of our old sinful selves.

But, Jesus is telling us today that’s not how the Kingdom of God comes into our lives.

If even the sinless Lamb of God must die in order to fulfill His mission in life, how much more must we, who are sinners, die to sin in order to share in Jesus’ eternal kingdom?

Peter's reaction to Jesus’ words is immediate and forceful. “‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’” (Matthew 16:22)

It’s here that Jesus gives Simon a new nickname. Thundering with anger, Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (Matthew 16:23)

In the blink of an eye, the foundation rock, Peter, has become a stumbling stone, an impediment trying to prevent Jesus--just like Satan tried to be to Jesus in the wilderness--from fulfilling His mission.

That mission is simple: To offer His sinless life on a cross, paying the price for our sin, so that all who follow Jesus rather than the call of sinful human concerns, will be raised from the dead with Jesus.

Our call is to daily get out of Jesus’ way with our sinful desire for the worldly successes and victories of this dead world and, instead, get behind Jesus and follow Him through cross and resurrection.

Jesus clarifies His call to us in this way, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)

What exactly does Jesus mean?

Years ago, a group of Methodist pastors approached a colleague, who served a small inner-city church, about becoming bishop for their church body. The pastors had been impressed by his faith, his teaching and preaching, his servant heart, and the way the love of Christ was seen in him.

After they’d made their pitch, the inner-city pastor said that he couldn’t be a bishop. He explained that his wife suffered from a debilitating condition and his adult son had developmental issues. Both needed his care.

But surely, his colleagues insisted, he could get help. The pastor felt in that moment as though he was being accosted by Satan, being given an easy path away from his call as husband and father so that he could chase the glories of the world. He didn’t cave.

He could, he told the group of pastors, get more help for his wife and son and he might need to do so sometime. But for the foreseeable future, he believed, God was calling him to be with his wife and son. He could not delegate the life to which God had called him to anyone else.

Keep in mind that this pastor’s cross wasn’t his wife or son. People today misuse Jesus’ words from today’s lesson when they describe the adversities of life as their crosses.

No, this pastor’s cross was the satanic allure of forsaking his call to follow Jesus in order to gain the rewards of the world, the temptation we all face and, I suspect, the sin all of must confess, of wanting this world more than we want theiscrucified and risen Jesus.

The cross we saints who remain simultaneously sinners until we, like our Lord, die and rise trusting in Him, bear is the call to follow Jesus for life with God despite our inborn desire to pursue our desire rather than God’s will.

That pastor was ultimately able to refuse what the world would regard as a promotion because following Jesus goes by way of the cross, the way of crucifying the old self “with all sins and evil desires,” as Martin Luther puts it in The Small Catechism, so “that the new person [can] come forth every day and rise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”

With what easy pathway is the devil, the world, or your sinful self tempting you this morning?

You married folk, is there someone else in your life who’s new and different, someone with whom you’ve never had an argument over bills or purchases, kids or childcare?

Young people, is there an easy way for you to cheat on your tests and get the good grades you think will unlock a great future for you?

People in business, are there daily practices that cause you to want to or to actually cut corners ethically?

Older people, do you find yourself looking down on younger people because they sin differently than you do?

The world is filled with Satan’s siren call to the easy way. But the easy way is a stumbling block to following Jesus and the life He gives to all who trust in Him.

There’s only one way to life with God. It’s the way that Jesus speaks of today: the way of daily repentance, that is, daily turning away from sin and death and daily turning to Jesus for the forgiveness of sin that brings new life from God.

Jesus says that one day He will return and reward each for what they have done. What does this mean? Is this “works righteousness”? No!

Those who refuse His kingship and salvation will go to eternal condemnation and separation from God.

But those who, in response to and empowered by the Word of God to repent and believe in Jesus, will receive eternal life with God.

And this good news isn’t just for us after we die. Over the years, I’ve constantly been struck by a contrast between the dying and the vulnerable who trust in Jesus Christ, on the one hand, and those who may be physically vital but whose lives are harried and chaotic because they think they can trust in themselves, or their efforts, or the cosmos rather than Christ. The reality is, whether we realize it or not, we all live each day in the valley of the shadow of death. But those who live in that shadow with Christ and His Word giving them strength and life, have a “peace that passes all understanding.”

Elsewhere in the Bible, Jesus describes Himself in this way: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved…” (John 10:9) Today and every day, enter the Kingdom of God through the open Gate of Jesus, our God and King. Amen