Sermon – Forgive Me Not (Only Once)
Leviticus 4:20-35; Matthew 18:21-35
Farmville Presbyterian Church
6/22/25
Do you remember when life used to be simpler? Back in the old days, things were more reasonably priced and lasted longer. Back in the old days, we had real toys in a real world – not electronic games or batteries. Back in the old days, we did not need computers all over and everywhere. We had to think for ourselves. Back in the old days, we did not worry so much what was on the television or in movies. Back in the old days, people seemed to behave better, especially in politics. Back in the old days, churches were a tad more packed. Buck McKay told me this last week that when he and Myrna came to church here the first time all those years ago that there were so many people in the congregation that they had to be seated on the front row. They were earlier to church the following Sunday. Back in the old days, weather was not out to get us. Back in the old days, if we sinned against God, we could just kill animals and burn them on the altar. Life was simpler in the old days.
Ok, the last one there is reaching back to some very old days. We are talking “way before Jesus” old days. That is the context of the reading from Leviticus that I just read. This was part of the sacrificial system with the key to how it worked. Yes, you could sacrifice things to worship God and make God happy – like David sacrificing the oxen as he is bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. That was a huge festival and parade. Most of the time, though, sacrifice is the vehicle for making things right. When we sin against God or one another (and those things are related), we bring the right animal to the right place for the animal to be killed and its fat parts to be burned as a sin offering. This was a huge part of religious life for Jewish people as long as they had a Temple and a place to carry out the sacrifices. It was a bedrock practice in their religious life that in some respect Jesus copies in his personal sacrifice on the cross. That’s the point. He was giving himself as that animal, one option being a lamb, and freeing us from our sins and sinfulness through the sacrifice. By giving something, by paying something, by giving up something that was ours, we were freed and forgiven from the guilt of what we had done wrong. And as you might imagine, that is a fairly regular part of the story of the people of God in the Bible. We needed that sacrifice and forgiveness again and again.
By the time that the writer of Matthew’s Gospel is documenting Jesus’ ministry, however, the world had changed. Israel had changed. The Temple was either about to be destroyed or was already. Jesus had been gone for decades, but the church was growing here and there. What never changed, however, was the need for forgiveness.
Forgiveness is our super-power. It is literally the most significant way that we might be like God. Sure, God is love and as we give and receive love, we can be in God’s heart, but what does that love actually look like? One of the key aspects of divine love is forgiveness. One of the big ways of knowing the best of love is in the gift of forgiveness. Jesus talks about forgiveness in other places such as when Peter asks how often we should forgive: the answer being so often we loose track or, in other words, all the time. But from the Gospel that gives us our version of the Lord’s Prayer with its “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” we have this other perplexing passage about forgiveness. And if forgiveness is half as important as I have described, then we should probably investigate this passage from Matthew 18 today.
This is a hard, hard passage, actually. We like a god who just passes out forgiveness like it is candy, freely and without any cost. Some of you are suspicious of that kind of forgiveness. Human nature would be inclined to do whatever it wants knowing that we can be forgiven every week. While some use their power or authority to avoid responsibility, we cannot do that, according to Jesus. Forgiveness is open to all, but there seems to be something required. In order to be a forgiven people, we also need to be a forgiving people.
The parable is a fantastic glimpse of forgiveness in action, and yes, this is money based. It is talking about our debts to others and having those actual and literal debts forgiven. That is the way that the Lord’s Prayer is also written – it does not mention trespasses or sins: forgive us our literal debts. Again, back in ancient times, you could become indebted to someone else if you ran into money trouble. You would be their functional slave, but every so many years in multiples of seven, everyone was supposed to free those who had become indebted to us. God never liked the idea of slavery or being indebted. God has always been the God of freedom and forgiveness. Of course, when we sin against someone else, that is another kind of debt. I owe it to you to treat you correctly, and you owe the same to me. That is the same idea that our Declaration of Independence ties into. There are certain qualities or laws about life that are universal and important. We owe each other certain rights and these rights are owed to us. When we violate these rights, we owe one another. That is why we have restitution in law. We are compelled to pay for the wrongs we have done.
There is not a lot of forgiveness, though, in the legal system. Thankfully, we can be a forgiving people. When others sin against us or we them, we can address those debts through forgiveness. And that forgiveness is not cheap.
It is so important that we give forgiveness that giving it is connected to our receiving it. Again, this is hard and not easy to hear, but Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel wants to link our forgiveness to how well we give it.
One way of thinking about this is breathing. I find this a very helpful image. We can breathe as much as we want – in and out, in and out, in and out. But it is impossible to continue breathing if we decide to hold our breath. If you fill your lungs with air and hold it, you will not be breathing in any more, and if you refuse to breath out, you will also not be letting that air go. When we have forgiveness to share but refuse, we are shutting ourselves down to receiving it. We can be forgiven, but there is no room in our hearts to receive it. It can be right there, but if we are shut down to forgiveness for others, we will have no appetite to receive it ourselves. I don’t think God is sitting there with a legal pad and tally marks, “Oooops, Tanya refused to forgive her brother. That means she loses out on her forgiveness today.” I think it is more about how we live our lives. If we are not a forgiving people, we will not know what forgiveness means for us. The beauty of God’s life given to us means we can reflect God’s goodness in ours. After all, we are made in God’s image.
Please hear me in that this is one of the most powerful gifts, tools, abilities that we have. Whatever you want to call it. It can even be our calling. No one can stop you from forgiving someone else. No one can take away your ability to forgive. No one can make you not forgive someone. Nothing can stop this sharing of love but our choice.
On the other hand, there are also plenty of things that are very hard to forgive. Some of us have been hurt so deeply that forgiveness might never completely come. Forgiveness is not like a switch – you flip it and you’re done. It is a process of learning and growing and sharing grace. There are people we might not ever be able to forgive completely, but if we are willing to work on it, if we are open to forgiveness, then God will be glorified. That is what God desires: our willing and gracious hearts. The other piece of this is that it might not be possible to face someone with forgiveness. The person might not be with us any longer or unreachable. The person might have hurt us so badly that it is not safe to be around them. It is perfectly fine to work on that forgiveness in our hearts. Jesus never says the other party must receive it or accept it, but forgiveness will change our lives. It will change our hearts. It will change our spirits. It will change our path to glory and salvation. Forgiveness will open us to what God has done, and it will enable us to literally be more like God. This is our path that we will walk every day for the rest of our lives. That path must always be the path of forgiveness. To God be the glory. Amen.