“Lord how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter asked about what is a reasonable amount of patience and mercy to extend to others. What is a good amount of kindness to share with others before you put up a wall and say ‘enough is enough’ you are no longer open for forgiveness?
We can understand what it means to put limits in place in life. How many second chances can you really give someone? How can you stay friends with someone who cancels at the last minute your lunch meetings one too many times? How can you tolerate a family member who speaks in anger without a proper filter far too often?
How long could you put up with a pastor who speaks dismissively to people at board meetings? How many times could you forgive an enemy of the faith who persecutes Christians for their faith anytime the opportunity presents itself in our culture today?
Some things you can’t really forgive can you? Consider the experience of Joseph in our Old Testament reading from Genesis. Outside of our youngest here, you all probably know the background of what Joseph had been through at the hand of his brothers.
Imagine the disbelief and fear and despair Joseph must have felt as he was conspired against by his brothers to where he was left in a pit and exposed to slave traders. In time he eventually would even learn about how they lied to their father, showing the blood stained garment to him, so that his father would not even know to look for him, because of their implication that he was devoured by a wild animal.
Joseph’s only contribution to this fate that he spoke with pride about the dream that the Lord gave him describing his future greatness, and also his father’s designation of him as a favorite. In times of injustice, what role can forgiveness have?
We put limits on what can be forgiven in our minds, in our emotions, but our God does not. The sin of Adam and Eve, and all of the sins throughout history, Joseph’s brothers sins and all other sins including our sins, Jesus died on the cross for all of these.
Not seven times but seventy times seven. A number signifying an eternal scale of completeness. That’s how often Jesus told Peter to forgive his brother. How is this possible? Where is the fairness in this? Jesus tells a parable to illustrate how God’s unconditional love matches up with our sin.
The debt of 10,000 talents is higher than the disciples could have imagined. One talent alone represented more than most people could make in a year. The debtor had no hope of ever paying back his master, all he could hope for was maybe a delay in the collection, so he gets on his knees and asks for patience, promising to pay back what is owed.” The king has pity on him. Against all reason or expectation this debt is forgiven by his king. Nothing is owed at all. It is all the doing of the master, nothing can be done to deserve the erasing of such a great debt. This undeserved mercy and grace changes everything in his life. If not for the king’s mercy he would have been sold along with his wife and children.
Joseph experienced for himself what role forgiveness can have through God’s long term plan for his life. imprisonment from a false accusation of Potiphar’s wife, a dream pharaoh could not interpret and eventually a position at Pharoah’s right hand second to none but Pharaoh in power. Joseph saw God’s mercy put in place through him, as he supervised the preparation and provision of a seven years of famine.
When his father Jacob died and his brothers were afraid about the past, Joseph seems to forgive quite easily. God’s forgiveness has changed him. “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
This passage in Genesis was further expanded upon in the book of Romans where in the 8th chapter St. Paul writes “We know in all things God works together for the good to those who love him and have been called according to His purpose.”
What did those words Joseph spoke on that day mean to his brothers? Did they hear and understand for the first time that Joseph really did forgive them, and a greater purpose of the Lord was going on? Perhaps they came to the humbling realization of how needlessly they carried for all these years since the reunification with Joseph their doubts and fears about how Joseph really felt.
Maybe you can identify with Joseph’s brothers. Have you ever found yourself doubting whether God’s forgiveness could apply to you? Have you ever doubted if someone could really forgive you for what you said or did to them? Part of spiritual maturity is that you begin to see your past behavior in a different light and have a better appreciation for how hurtful past statements or actions toward others may have been.
What I have said in the spirit of sinfulness, God can turn into good, whether through my learning and maturity or through some other means. Opportunities for forgiveness abound.
The forgiveness Jesus won for us is for those very events and circumstances that have the greatest effect on our lives. Sometimes instead of talking things through in our families and in relationships we have the idea that past sins and hurts in relationships will go away if we simply don’t think of them anymore or try to ignore them. When hurts are deep, real confession and forgiveness needs to take place.
Today’s reading from the gospel of Matthew demonstrates how vital it is that we forgive others considering that God has first forgiven everything of us. We have been forgiven the great debt of our sin. We are in this way just like Joseph’s brothers, we have been shown mercy and forgiveness when we know we deserve none of it. In fact we are not only like Joseph’s brothers, we are more specifically Jesus’ brothers.
As humans we badly mistreated Jesus in a way that even exceeds the mistreatment of Joseph. We rejected Jesus and inflicted onto Jesus the completely undeserved punishment of death on the cross. Despite our great offense Jesus has forgiven us completely.
It is hard to say exactly how Joseph’s ten brothers lives changed following the message from Joseph that they were forgiven, and had been already forgiven all those years ago. How many of the brothers also made the connection that if Joseph forgave them and recognized God’s providence in turning evil into good, then it is even more certain that God forgives them?
Did they come to realize that each day they are also now called to forgive others because of the great debt forgiven them? Did they understand that they are called to forgive even if no apology was given to them- as they never apologized to Joseph in a way that would show their repentance?
In this fallen world we live in we can expect the experience of being hurt deeply by others. God’s word tells us that our life is not defined by the hurts we experience in life. Instead our lives are defined by the healing Jesus brings to our lives.
Forgiving others is not simply an exercise in proving that you are a mature Christian or the more mature person in a relationship. Forgiveness means that you believe the ways of God’s kingdom are bigger and greater than the ways of this world. Forgiveness means that you value and choose God’s abiding presence in your life over your own sense of pride. Forgiveness also frees us from everything that oppresses us and has a hold over us in our life today.
Valuing God’s kingdom more than your sense of pride or fairness means that you forgive before or regardless of whether a person is repentant over the sin against you. Forgiveness is a freely given gift that is not earned.
This is the liberating work of the gospel in our lives. We are free to love our neighbor unconditionally and offer unconditional forgiveness regardless of what our neighbor’s behavior is like. We are not stuck always reacting to what others have done to us. We are free to set our own level of peace in life from the foundation of Jesus.
It is a belief that as we have the gifts of the gospel found in the preaching of God’s Word and the administration of the gifts of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper we have everything we need to give and receive forgiveness.
In the Lord’s Supper we receive in response for our failures and our sins not judgement, but lavish forgiveness. We taste and see the Lord is good to us.
The calling to forgiveness is a lifelong calling to all of God’s people. The stern warning that ends our gospel lesson is an important reminder that we dare not skip this calling to forgive. May the Lord bless us with a living faith that abounds with unconditional love to others. And may this eternal gratefulness of God’s mercy to us truly set us free. Amen.