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