15 September 2002 St. Athanasius Lutheran Church
Pentecost 17 Alexandria, VA
Jesu
Juva
“The Cross of Jubilee”
Text: Matthew 18:21-35 (Genesis 50:15-21; Romans 14:5-9)
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Then Peter came up and said to Him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” ”
Clearly, Jesus wants us to forgive others. And we are to forgive many times. Peter was not thinking correctly in putting a
limitation on his forgiveness, and Jesus corrects him. Do not think of forgiveness in human terms,
or according to human standards, of which there is a limit, an end. Forgiveness is not like that. Forgiveness is as deep as the love and mercy
of God. So no, Peter, and no, brothers
and sisters in Christ, do not forgive only seven times, but a limitless number
of times! Seventy times seven!
Now, if you want to be strict about that, seventy
times seven is 490. That’s a lot of
times to forgive, and perhaps it is realistically and statistically impossible
to keep track of forgiving someone that many times, and so, in effect, seventy
times seven is limitless! But technically, its not.
Technically, if you want to interpret that literally, it’s 490
times. So, what should
we make of Jesus’ words here? Is
there a limit to our forgiveness – even a very large limit? Or is this a hyperbole, like saying “You
should forgive a billion times!”
Or is there some other explanation for Jesus’ words here? An Old Testament explanation
and tie in He is referring to, to help us understand forgiveness?
Well, I’ve given myself away, for I am going to take
you back into the Old Testament, where the numbers 7, 7 times 7, and 70 are
very significant. And so first, from
Leviticus chapter 25:
“The
Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel
and say to them, When you come into the land that I
give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years you shall sow your field, and
for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in
the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a
Sabbath to the Lord.”
So not only did God
establish a Sabbath day, but He also established a Sabbath year,
a year of rest for the land and His people – every seventh year.
But that’s not all, for as we continue reading in
Leviticus chapter 25:
“You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times
seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you
forty-nine years. . . . And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year,
and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a
jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you
shall return to his clan. That fiftieth
year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what
grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to
you.”
And so not only was there a
Sabbath day and a Sabbath year, but God also established a year
of jubilee. And that year came after every
7 times 7 years, after 7 Sabbath years.
And the purpose and meaning of the year of jubilee was freedom,
forgiveness, and restoration. It was the
proclamation of liberty to Israelites who had become enslaved for debt and a
restoration of lands that had been lost or sold. And these Sabbaths and Jubilees were to be a
time of not only rest for the people and the land, but also a time of
celebration, for God’s goodness and blessing.
Now, I suggest to you that in that context, Jesus’
statement to Peter about forgiveness begins to make a little more sense. But there is one other verse that I think can
shed some light here for us, and that is from 2 Chronicles chapter 36:
“He took
into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became
servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of
Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the
land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept
Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”
You see, even though God had decreed these years of
Sabbath and Jubilee, when the people turned away from God and His Word, these
festivals were also not kept. And so
here and in Jeremiah, we learn the reason why the people of Judah were forced
to live in exile in Babylon for 70 years.
It was not an arbitrary number – it was the number of Sabbath years that
had been missed. They had missed
celebrating 70 Sabbaths, and so the land was desolate for 70 years of
exile. . . . And notice!
If they missed 70 Sabbaths, and the Sabbath year comes every seven years, that is 70 times 7 . . . !
And so when Jesus tells Peter to forgive 70 times 7
times, He is not simply giving a really big number! He is not saying to just forgive “a whole
bunch of times!” He is making reference
to something very specific – to Sabbaths and Jubilees! To freedom and forgiveness and
restoration! To forgive until our
time of exile is over, and we are taken into the Promised Land of Heaven, to
the Holy City of our God, the Heavenly Zion, the
Heavenly Jerusalem. . . . How many times do you forgive? The whole time! Until in Heaven, forgiveness is needed no
more.
And this is what we see in Jesus’ parable of
explanation after He teaches this idea to Peter. The parable of the merciful
king who forgives the debt of one of His servants. This was no small debt that was forgiven, for
a debt of ten thousand talents was so large that it would most likely never
have been paid back. And yet forgiveness
is given for this enormous debt. And not
only forgiveness, but freedom and restoration.
The servant is released and free and should celebrate such a wonderful
Jubilee for Him and His family! . .
. But instead of celebrating, the
servant does not keep the Jubilee. The
freedom, forgiveness, and restoration given to him he does not give to another,
but instead turns away and enforces, enslaves, and imprisons. And really without reason. For a debt that is very small. And then as we saw with Judah, the result of
such ingratitude is exile, slavery, imprisonment. . . .
The Sabbaths, Jubilees, forgiveness, freedom, restoration
– all are gifts from God. Old Testament
Israel did not earn or deserve them, they were given
to them graciously and freely. Likewise
for the servant in this parable – he did not earn or deserve this Jubilee, this
freedom and forgiveness, it was a gift from the king, who in this parable is
God. But when this forgiveness and
freedom and Jubilee are ignored and scorned and abused, when the gift is
despised, the result is that is it taken away, it is lost. The gift is not earned, but it can be lost.
“Then Peter came up and said
to Him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive
him? As many as seven
times?” The answer is really, “As long as it
takes! As often as it
takes. Until
our exile is over. Until forgiveness is needed no more.”
Now here endeth the interesting and easy part of
this sermon! Now the rubber hits the
road. For this week we remembered
September 11th. . . . One year ago, on September 12th, I
stood out in front of my church in New York because I needed to put a new
message on the sign that we had along the road.
And I wondered what words to put out there. What could I say in just a few words that would
send a powerful message to all the people who drove by? To all the people still stunned and shocked
and confused about what they had just seen happen? . . .
And I knew. I knew what I wanted
to put on that sign. Just three words; words of Jesus that
are among the most powerful He ever spoke.
“Father, forgive them.”
. . . Now, I didn’t put
those words out there because too many people would not understand. They would have thought that I was excusing
what had happened. They would have
thought that I meant that our President should not retaliate and punish those
who did this. But that’s not what it
means. The President, the government,
the military, is God’s appointed agent to bring justice upon those who have
committed these acts, and to protect us both now and in the future. That is their authority and responsibility
according to Romans chapter 13, which we heard read last week. And we prayed, and continue to pray, that God
gives them the godliness and wisdom to carry out their responsibility.
But that’s not our responsibility. It is not for you and I, as Christians, to
harbor in our hearts the same hatred and anger and bitterness that caused these
people to do this – that’s not who we are.
Our responsibility is to forgive.
Which is easy, by comparison, when it’s a little thing, but what about
when it’s a big thing? What about
for September 11th? Did you
pray the Lord’s Prayer on that day? Did
you mean it? Did you mean it when you
said, “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass
against us?”
“Father, forgive them.” When Jesus spoke those words, He said it in
the most desperate of circumstances, when He was losing His life for our
sin, for our hatred and depravity and anger and malice and selfishness
and greed and lust! He spoke those words
while we were still His enemies, before we could ask for forgiveness. He spoke those words when He was suffering
much more than you and I could ever imagine!
And yet His heart was filled with forgiveness. With forgiveness for us,
even while He was suffering for our sins. And these words were for you too. “Father, forgive them.”
“Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Lord, how badly can my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” Aren’t they often our questions too? As if there is a limit for what we have to forgive . . . to who we have to forgive ?
We heard about Joseph in the Old Testament reading from Genesis. His brothers had sinned against him. A lot! As a result, for many years his life was a mess. He was taken as a slave to a foreign land. He was later falsely imprisoned. He was forgotten there by those he had helped to get out. He was separated from his family. And by all human standards, he certainly would have been justified in holding a grudge against his brothers! But he forgave. And in forgiving, he gave up his right for revenge. And he did so because he recognized that “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” A heart that refuses to forgive cannot make such a statement! It is instead fixated on the evil that was done against it and in light of that evil thinks that forgiveness is just not possible.
But dear brothers and sisters in Christ, do not fix your eyes on the evil, but on the cross. The cross which was meant for evil, but God meant it for good. The cross where Jesus said, “Father, forgive them.” The cross which is our Jubilee, our freedom, our forgiveness, our restoration. And not only in the future, but our Jubilee even now! . . . And living now in our wonderful Jubilee of forgiveness, freedom, and restoration, we can look at things even as heinous as September 11th, and say “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” And then like David, we can forgive. We can give up our right for revenge, and know that even in this, God will work good. . . . It isn’t easy! And strangely, it takes courage. Some of you knew people who were killed at the Pentagon; living in New York my family and I were deeply effected; seeing hundreds and thousands of funerals; all the firefighters and police and rescue workers who lost their lives trying to save others . . . it may seem, for many, impossible to forgive.
“Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? . . . Father, forgive them.” . . . How can we forgive? Because in Holy Baptism we have been born again and raised to a new life in the image and likeness of Christ – the Christ who on the cross said, “Father, forgive them.” . . . How can we forgive? Because in Holy Communion we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ, and we are what we eat. . . . How can we forgive? Because in repentance and absolution, we are forgiven, and Christ’s words “Father, forgive them” are spoken to us, “I forgive you all your sins.” . . . And freed, forgiven, and restored in our Jubilee, Christ’s words become our words, we as Christians are now in turn able to give up our right for revenge, and forgive as we have been forgiven. Whether its little or big, frequent and infrequent, major or minor. It doesn’t matter. And living in Christ and the shadow of His cross of Jubilee, with our present and our future in His hands, we can say confidently with St. Paul, “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
In the Name of the Father,
and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Amen.