A, Post-Pentecost 16 Proper 19 - Matthew 18:21-22 Romans 14:7-12 "Living and Dying to Forgive"

Matthew 18:21–22 (ESV)  Then Peter came up and said to Jesus, “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-seven times.

Peter questions Jesus, “How often should I forgive?”  This question doesn’t occur out of the blue, in a vacuum! 

Over the past four weeks we’ve heard Jesus teach the disciples about his purpose on earth!  He was leading and teaching them about life and death, forgiveness, binding sin and loosing sinners.  His life was the perfection of God’s vertical and horizontal will; to be your forgiveness so you can forgive!

We heard some weeks back, Peter confessing Jesus as, “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)  Jesus goes on to tell Peter his confession, although coming from his lips, came from God.  God was working through Peter, in his confession!  Similarly, Jesus, the Son of God, was going to build his church on Peter, which means rock, and give him the keys to bind and loose.

Yet it doesn’t go well for Peter, as Jesus begins telling the disciples about his death and resurrection.  Peter takes Jesus aside to give him a talking to, since he is now the newly confessed rock on which Jesus’ church will be built.  But it is Peter who is given a verbal dressing down, as Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a hindrance to me.  For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”  (Matthew 16:23 ESV)

It's here Jesus completely puzzled the disciples.  With what seems like a riddle, he says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  (Matthew 16:24 ESV) 

How can one choose or prefer to reject oneself, take up one’s death and follow Jesus?

In Matthew’s Gospel account, the transfiguration happens next.  Coming down the mountain Jesus speaks again about this strange phenomenon of “being woken from death”, commanding them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” (Matthew 17:9 ESV)

After this, there’s an incident where a son who suffers from seizures could not be healed by the disciples.   Jesus coins a name for them, calling them, “you little-faiths” and tells them nothing will be impossible for them, even with faith like a grain of mustard seed!  (Matthew 17:20)

They gather together in Galilee.  Again, Jesus says 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.’ And they were greatly distressed.”  (Matthew 17:22–23 ESV)  They were listening to Jesus as God commanded them on the mountain.   But they had no idea and little faith on how or why Jesus needed to die!

The tension builds for Jesus and the disciples!  As they move towards this deathly event, they did not understand this new kingdom of the church, was to be built on Jesus’ death and resurrection.   They had little faith in forgiveness!  Little faith in how humanity would be set free!  Little faith in how Jesus could be the sacrifice for sin! That it would come down to sin being bound to Jesus when he was nailed to the cross to die.  And they had completely no idea that the life of the church would require their daily death, which would propel most of them onto martyrdom!

Furthermore, they had no concept of the resurrection from the dead!  And why should they have?  Death was the great leveller, no one could get past it, and no one could be raised again to life.  Atonement for sin came through the sacrifice of animals under Levitical Law, and life after death was not an earthly resurrection.  

Peter again takes centre stage as Jesus asked, “‘What do you think, Simon?  From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax?  From their sons or from others?’  And when he said, ‘From others,’ Jesus said to him, ‘Then the sons are free’”.  (Matthew 17:25–26 ESV)

Here Jesus speaks about freedom of a king’s sons, they pay no tax, they are not bound, but are loosed from paying tax.   But the disciples with “little faith” ask Jesus, “The Greatest” in the kingdom of heaven,  “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  (Matthew 18:1 ESV)  To which Jesus puts a little one in the midst of the “little faith” disciples and tells a number of stories about receiving little ones, temptations, and not despising the little ones, but rather seeking them out like lost sheep.

Last week we heard more about binding and loosing for forgiveness.  Jesus put a little child in front of the disciples with little faith, to make his point about binding and loosing through receiving and  not hindering the little ones from perishing. 

However, what Jesus was showing the disciples, and what he seeks to teach in his word, is forgiveness is what he and his church is about!  Without forgiveness won through the cross, and new life through the resurrection, Jesus’ church does not exist, Peter cannot be the rock of Jesus’ church.  And there is no calling humanity to repentance and forgiveness at Pentecost, today, or until Jesus returns.

So, what does all this mean for us today, as we look forward to the return of Jesus, when he physically and visually returns again, or as we meet him in our death and resurrection from the grave, just as many who have gone before us lie in the grave in hope?

Peter asks Jesus how many times to forgive?

Jesus gives a parable about the King who forgives a servant a large debt who in his wickedness does not do the same for his fellow servant’s small debt.  This is a reminder of the vertical and horizontal will of God, to forgive as you have been forgiven.

What does this require of us?  We find the answer in Romans chapter fourteen…

“For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.  For 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.  For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.  Why do you pass judgment on your brother?  Or you, why do you despise your brother?  For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;  for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”  So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”  (Romans 14:7–12 ESV) 

If one is a child of God, it requires a death within.  It required the death of the Greatest in the Kingdom of heaven on the cross.  Now Jesus requires that, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  (Matthew 16:24 ESV) 

How can one choose or prefer to reject oneself, take up one’s death and follow Jesus?

How does one not live for themselves?  How does one not die to themselves? How do we live to the Lord?  And how do we die to the Lord?  What is this death?

These are important questions since all will stand before the judgment seat of God.  As Paul tells the Romans, he tells us, “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”  (Romans 14:4 ESV) 

When one sits down and reads these pages from Matthew’s Gospel as a whole, one will begin to see Jesus preparing the disciples, little by little, for his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins.

When you daily allow the drowning of the old sinful nature in your baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection and allow the Holy Spirit to open your heart to his word, you too are being prepared!

This is the centre of God’s will for humanity, for you!  Beginning at the cross, forgiveness was carried from it, by Peter and the apostles, to Jesus’ church of Jews and gentiles!  You and me!

Jesus makes it clear what happens to those who don’t forgive like the forgiven wicked servant, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”  (Matthew 18:35 ESV)

Paul also warns those who pass judgment, putting stumbling blocks in the way of others, rather than making judgments in love that seeks forgiveness, peace and the mutual upbuilding that serves Jesus Christ.  Just as he has served us.

The Romans judged and bound others over what one ate or drank.  But Paul corrects them, saying, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”  (Romans 14:17 ESV)

For us to forgive as we have been forgiven, the Holy Spirit is given to work remembrance.  He returns us to the foot of the cross with our sin to receive the great forgiveness of Jesus the Greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.  He became the least and allow the Holy Spirit to lead him to the cross, of death and forgiveness.  In the same way the Holy Spirit is leading us all to a daily death of self, and a resurrection to take up one’s cross to follow Jesus to eternal life!

We are the little one’s of God.  Like Peter and the disciples, we struggle with little faith, and need the Holy Spirit to continually deliver us from ourselves, into the death of Jesus Christ, for the righteousness and peace, that forgiveness brings and gives. 

In God the Holy Spirit doing this, we can live as one church under the headship of Christ, with joy in the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

A, Post-Pentecost 15 Proper 18 - Matthew 18:15–20 "Remember & Forgive"

Matthew 18:15–20 (ESV)  “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.  But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.  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.  Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.  For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

At the beginning of most Lutheran Services on a Sunday morning, we begin the new week confessing our sins for the past week and have them forgiven. 

We are forgiven, then we are fed with the word of God and Jesus’ body and blood in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.  Here again in the sacrament, we receive forgiveness of sins together with life and salvation.  You and I receive forgiveness for our sins while we endure here on earth, until we are taken to be with God.

God’s forgiveness of sin focuses us on the forgiving of our sin through our confession, together with his absolution, through words of forgiveness spoken by the pastor as his earthly representative.  One can view this forgiveness as God’s will being done in heaven, just as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer.  This is the vertical will of God!

However, this is only one half of God’s will!  We pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven!  What is God’s will for us on earth? 

As we also pray in the Lord’s Prayer, it is to forgive as we have been forgiven!  This is the horizontal will of God!

In the next couple of weeks as we hear the Gospel reading, we have opportunity to let God open us up so we can examine ourselves through the lens of this horizontal human to human forgiveness. 

In being forgiven we are invited to reflect on our forgiveness of others, and consider how we react within when we see others receive forgiveness.

Someone reminded me of the saying,  “We are to forgive and forget!”  At face value it sounds like a reasonable statement.  But in reality, who, ever really forgives and forgets?  Even when the most gracious person is wronged, they will not forget!  They’ll be just a little more cautious around the perpetrator next time.

However, the centrality of forgiveness is God’s will!  Forgiveness is the daily bread of our lives in Christ, as we are raised to new life, through the daily drowning of our old sinful nature.

At the cross the centrality of God’s vertical forgiveness meets the painful reality and suffering of the horizontal forgiveness we are called to share with each other.

Luke’s Gospel account of the crucifixion most clearly demonstrates the forgiveness theme of God’s will in Jesus Christ’s death!  We hear, “And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.  And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’” (Luke 23:33–34 ESV)

Outside of Luke’s Gospel account, both criminals writhed in agony on their crosses and railed at Jesus to save himself and them.  In Luke however, one of the criminals has a lucid moment of faith in his agony, realising Jesus as his Saviour, and the King of a kingdom greater than any earthly kingdom’s pleasure or pain.

We hear again, “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ?  Save yourself and us!”  But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?  And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”  And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  (Luke 23:39–43 ESV)

Put yourself in the place of pain on the cross?  Would you ask Jesus to forgive you or free you from the cross?  If you were in Jesus’ place, suffering because of society’s sin, would you be able to forgive them, knowing that their sin is the reason for your looming death?

Forgiveness of another’s sin is the hardest thing we as Christians are called to do.  But after confessing our sin and telling others about our forgiveness because we believe, forgiving others is the next most important good work we do for their benefit to the glory of God.

In fact, this is all part of the believer’s new obedience in accord with the vertical and horizontal will of God to forgive each other as God has forgiven us.

The Lutheran Confessions tell us, “we cannot love God unless we have received the forgiveness of sin”[1].  Furthermore, we show God’s love by forgiving those who sin against us!  Just as God gives, just as Jesus gives, we need the Holy Spirit to work in us the ability to forgive.

Saint Paul tells us, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  …put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”  (Romans 13:8, 14 ESV)

Our old nature’s desire within, is not to put on Jesus Christ.  Rather, our flesh delights in having power over others, by not forgetting and withholding forgiveness, because of the wrong they’ve done.  In remembering their sin, the victim adds their sin to the perpetrator’s sin.

Jesus approaches our difficulty to forgive by calling us to name sin.  That’s a hard thing to do.  We can only do so by calling on God in prayer for the Holy Spirit’s help to do so.  In our fear to name sin and bring it to account, we actually leave the sin unlocked and loose.  And when we try to forgive and forget, we invariably do the opposite by remembering and adding our own sin to their sin!

However, Jesus says, “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.”  (Matthew 18:18 ESV)

This is the second time Jesus has spoken about binding and loosing!  God’s church is built on binding and loosing!  It is the key to the church because it’s the key to God’s will.  Here in Matthew eighteen Jesus speaks to the disciples in the plural, when one sins against another.  This is horizontal love shown through our forgiveness of each other!

Previously Jesus spoke individually to Peter as the rock on which the church would be built, saying, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:19 ESV)

This is the vertical love God shows to the church by forgiving us our sins through confession and absolution!

However, like Peter, by our own will, we bind and loose the wrong thing.  He sought to bind his sinful self to Jesus by not allowing Jesus to be bound to the cross.  In doing so he was freeing his sinful self and seeking to separate Jesus our Saviour from the will of God.

Australians for whatever reason, don’t deal well with righting wrongs!  When someone says, “Sorry!”  We usually reply, “No!  It doesn’t matter!”   But it does matter, lest the person would not have said sorry in the first place.

When we do not deal with each other’s sin appropriately, by not naming it or overlooking it, we set the sin free and bind the person!

However, when we do good works that please God, sin gets nailed to the cross.  In forgiving sin and allowing it to be confessed between each other, Christ binds our sin to the cross, and Satan and his angels are bound and sentenced for hell.  That’s why he works to lead us away from forgiving each other!

The other reason the devil works tirelessly to make us forget about forgiveness is because the forgiven person is set free from sin and death, when sin is bound to Christ on the cross for our forgiveness.

Rather than binding the person and setting sin free, when one graciously forgives and humbly receives forgiveness, sin is bound and locked up.  Therefore, we are loosed to love and loosed to be loved, we are free to forgive and free to be forgiven, knowing we are yoked to the resurrected Jesus Christ.

Forgiving sin is a hard thing to do!  It requires the sacrifice of the old nature within.  That is why the Holy Spirit works unceasingly for us, and within us, to lead us to forgive as we are forgiven!  He works tirelessly so we do not forget to forgive!  We might think we have to forgive and forget, but within us the Holy Spirit wills us to remember and forgive.

He works when we remember those who’ve sinned against us, reminding us of God’s great love for us, in the descent, death, and resurrection of his Son, so we are led and learn to love each other with forgiveness.

Rather than “forgive and forget”, let us “remember and forgive”!  Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, you have forgiven our sins from heaven.  As we wait for Jesus’ return here on earth, send you Holy Spirit into our hearts so we can forgive those who sin against us, and so we can receive forgiveness from those whom we have sinned against.  Amen.

[1] Apology to the Augsburg Confession, Justification, Article IV:311 (Tappert edition)