Michaelmas III (Trinity 22) - St. Matthew 18.23-35
Grace to you and Peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus.
Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’
This is your word heavenly Father, Sanctify us in the truth; your word is truth. Amen.
Fellow redeemed: When you leave here today, remember that you are forgiven. And as you live your life in the days ahead, remember that as you are forgiven, so you are also to forgive according to the same mercy which you have received. But first and last remember this, and live knowing that you are no longer held under your sin. You are forgiven. Your sin is no more. It has been taken from you. For Jesus’ sake you stand right now before God as pure, clean, blameless, and holy. You are blameless and holy before God right now. You are free.
But it wasn’t always so. You came into this world already saddled down under the infinite weight of sin. This is the common inheritance of humanity. Everybody born is burdened. Everybody is born dying. Everybody hurts. You can’t make sense of it, it’s always just been that way since long before your parents met each other. And because you were born under the corrupting, warping, killing burden of sin, you have acted out. You have corrupted, you have warped, you have killed in a thousand, thousand little ways. Sin set you from the start against life, and against the Author and Giver of life. Sin set you against love. In sin you hurt. And sinning, you have hurt and hurt and hurt your neighbor, the stranger, your loved one over and over again. It’s just how you were born. You were already under the burden coming in. How could it have been different?
But the Author of Life, seeing you hurting, seeing you dying, seeing the infinite weight you couldn’t even begin to understand pressing you down from your borning breath, loved you, for even though you were not as He created man to be, even though you were by sin bent all out of shape and already dying forever, even so, He loved you for He made you. Though in sin you were stolen from Him, and so are a dying one, He loved you and has returned you to Him. God has become man, to suffer under the weight you’ve always been crushed by, though He has no sin of His own. Jesus took your place, and has lifted the burden, the debt, the death of sin from you and taken it on Himself entirely.
Jesus suffered your sin. Jesus paid the eternal penalty for you- not only the sin you are born under, but the sin which you daily have added to it. All that guilt, all that shame, all that dying, Jesus nailed to Himself, suffering it all in your place.
So now Jesus, the One true God, has not only created you, but has also given Himself in your place to pay the eternal death penalty for you. You stand before Him and your guilt and shame would throw you to the ground. But He loves you. Jesus has not only paid the penalty of your sin and death, He has completely and forever forgiven that debt. It’s His, you know. Jesus has paid the cost of your sin and He can do with it as He will, and it is God’s proper will to forgive the debt, and restore you as His beloved one forevermore. Your sin is no more. It has been taken from you. For Jesus’ sake you stand right now before God as pure, clean, blameless, and holy. You are blameless and holy before God right now. You are free.
Jesus has set you free from your death, from your trespass and debt in sin. Jesus is making you new. Oh, we do not yet know how we shall be in the resurrection, but we know that as Jesus is, so we shall be, as Jesus is risen, all who are in Him shall be raised, and this corruption shall be made incorrupt, this mortal shall put on immortality. You have already been washed in the watery Word of your forgiveness, life, and salvation in Holy Baptism. You already have put on Christ. You already have been buried with Jesus, and you shall rise in Him.
How then, knowing this, shall you live? I charge you, as Jesus charges you in the parable to live no more as one forever under the gun, to no longer live as bound to the infinite debt and trespass of the sinner. I charge you to live as one having already received the grace and promise of eternal forgiveness and life. I charge you as Jesus charges you to live different from what you see around you in this dying world. Live as a Living One in Jesus. Live reflecting and shining the grace of the God who forgives. Live loving as only an infinitely beloved child of God may live, for that for Jesus’ sake is who you are!
If your neighbor has offended you, has cost you, has incurred some debt on your account, what is that? To the world, and to your worldling eyes it may seem a very great deal indeed! You may object ‘Pastor, you don’t understand what he did, what she cost me!’ But what have you cost our Lord Jesus, and has He held it against you? No, you are forgiven and greatly loved. Your sin is no more. Your debt is entirely wiped clean. The hurt inflicted against you may have hurt you deeply. But understand that the forgiveness given you, and the love with which Jesus loves you have loved and forgiven you more deeply still.
The love of God is everything. And the love of God, the grace of Jesus, the inheritance declared yours in eternal life repays the offense and cost that other sinner has inflicted against you and infinitely more. And no, it isn’t fair. But do you wish our Lord to regard you fairly? Well do you? Do you wish Jesus to display you before God the Father Almighty in all your worth and merit apart from His grace and forgiveness? God forbid it even for a second! You would have God’s grace, and forgiveness and life, you would have His death in your place.
Has your neighbor hurt you? Charge that to our Lord, and love and forgive. You will not be left with the bill of hurt and pain and lack and sin. Graciously forgive, for the sin and hurt and offense of your sinful neighbor has been covered by Jesus too. As you have been forgiven, learn to forgive. As you have been loved, as you are loved, learn to love. As Christ clings to you as His beloved brother who once was lost but now to His everlasting and boundless joy is found, so learn to cling with joy and love and gratitude to your fellow sinner who hurt you, for Jesus wipes every tear from your eyes, and suffering and hurt and pain shall be no more, forevermore.
Jesus has paid the cost of your sin, and your sinful neighbor too, and the sin of the whole world as well, and He can do with it as He will, and it is God’s proper will to forgive the debt, and restore you, and the one who has sinned against you too, as His beloved forevermore. Your sin is no more. It has been taken from you. For Jesus’ sake you stand right now before God as pure, clean, blameless, and holy. You are blameless and holy before God right now. You are free.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’
This is your word heavenly Father, Sanctify us in the truth; your word is truth. Amen.
Fellow redeemed: When you leave here today, remember that you are forgiven. And as you live your life in the days ahead, remember that as you are forgiven, so you are also to forgive according to the same mercy which you have received. But first and last remember this, and live knowing that you are no longer held under your sin. You are forgiven. Your sin is no more. It has been taken from you. For Jesus’ sake you stand right now before God as pure, clean, blameless, and holy. You are blameless and holy before God right now. You are free.
But it wasn’t always so. You came into this world already saddled down under the infinite weight of sin. This is the common inheritance of humanity. Everybody born is burdened. Everybody is born dying. Everybody hurts. You can’t make sense of it, it’s always just been that way since long before your parents met each other. And because you were born under the corrupting, warping, killing burden of sin, you have acted out. You have corrupted, you have warped, you have killed in a thousand, thousand little ways. Sin set you from the start against life, and against the Author and Giver of life. Sin set you against love. In sin you hurt. And sinning, you have hurt and hurt and hurt your neighbor, the stranger, your loved one over and over again. It’s just how you were born. You were already under the burden coming in. How could it have been different?
But the Author of Life, seeing you hurting, seeing you dying, seeing the infinite weight you couldn’t even begin to understand pressing you down from your borning breath, loved you, for even though you were not as He created man to be, even though you were by sin bent all out of shape and already dying forever, even so, He loved you for He made you. Though in sin you were stolen from Him, and so are a dying one, He loved you and has returned you to Him. God has become man, to suffer under the weight you’ve always been crushed by, though He has no sin of His own. Jesus took your place, and has lifted the burden, the debt, the death of sin from you and taken it on Himself entirely.
Jesus suffered your sin. Jesus paid the eternal penalty for you- not only the sin you are born under, but the sin which you daily have added to it. All that guilt, all that shame, all that dying, Jesus nailed to Himself, suffering it all in your place.
So now Jesus, the One true God, has not only created you, but has also given Himself in your place to pay the eternal death penalty for you. You stand before Him and your guilt and shame would throw you to the ground. But He loves you. Jesus has not only paid the penalty of your sin and death, He has completely and forever forgiven that debt. It’s His, you know. Jesus has paid the cost of your sin and He can do with it as He will, and it is God’s proper will to forgive the debt, and restore you as His beloved one forevermore. Your sin is no more. It has been taken from you. For Jesus’ sake you stand right now before God as pure, clean, blameless, and holy. You are blameless and holy before God right now. You are free.
Jesus has set you free from your death, from your trespass and debt in sin. Jesus is making you new. Oh, we do not yet know how we shall be in the resurrection, but we know that as Jesus is, so we shall be, as Jesus is risen, all who are in Him shall be raised, and this corruption shall be made incorrupt, this mortal shall put on immortality. You have already been washed in the watery Word of your forgiveness, life, and salvation in Holy Baptism. You already have put on Christ. You already have been buried with Jesus, and you shall rise in Him.
How then, knowing this, shall you live? I charge you, as Jesus charges you in the parable to live no more as one forever under the gun, to no longer live as bound to the infinite debt and trespass of the sinner. I charge you to live as one having already received the grace and promise of eternal forgiveness and life. I charge you as Jesus charges you to live different from what you see around you in this dying world. Live as a Living One in Jesus. Live reflecting and shining the grace of the God who forgives. Live loving as only an infinitely beloved child of God may live, for that for Jesus’ sake is who you are!
If your neighbor has offended you, has cost you, has incurred some debt on your account, what is that? To the world, and to your worldling eyes it may seem a very great deal indeed! You may object ‘Pastor, you don’t understand what he did, what she cost me!’ But what have you cost our Lord Jesus, and has He held it against you? No, you are forgiven and greatly loved. Your sin is no more. Your debt is entirely wiped clean. The hurt inflicted against you may have hurt you deeply. But understand that the forgiveness given you, and the love with which Jesus loves you have loved and forgiven you more deeply still.
The love of God is everything. And the love of God, the grace of Jesus, the inheritance declared yours in eternal life repays the offense and cost that other sinner has inflicted against you and infinitely more. And no, it isn’t fair. But do you wish our Lord to regard you fairly? Well do you? Do you wish Jesus to display you before God the Father Almighty in all your worth and merit apart from His grace and forgiveness? God forbid it even for a second! You would have God’s grace, and forgiveness and life, you would have His death in your place.
Has your neighbor hurt you? Charge that to our Lord, and love and forgive. You will not be left with the bill of hurt and pain and lack and sin. Graciously forgive, for the sin and hurt and offense of your sinful neighbor has been covered by Jesus too. As you have been forgiven, learn to forgive. As you have been loved, as you are loved, learn to love. As Christ clings to you as His beloved brother who once was lost but now to His everlasting and boundless joy is found, so learn to cling with joy and love and gratitude to your fellow sinner who hurt you, for Jesus wipes every tear from your eyes, and suffering and hurt and pain shall be no more, forevermore.
Jesus has paid the cost of your sin, and your sinful neighbor too, and the sin of the whole world as well, and He can do with it as He will, and it is God’s proper will to forgive the debt, and restore you, and the one who has sinned against you too, as His beloved forevermore. Your sin is no more. It has been taken from you. For Jesus’ sake you stand right now before God as pure, clean, blameless, and holy. You are blameless and holy before God right now. You are free.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.