Matthew 18.21-35

Here’s a heart and faith check up for you.

Question #1:  Who do you need to ask to forgive you?  

What did you say or do that still leaves you feeling guilty, embarrassed and ashamed to this day?  What do you have to admit and who do you have to admit it to in order find peace and rest in reconciliation?

Question #2:  Who do you need to extend forgiveness to?  

What has someone else done or said to you that still leaves you feeling hurt and angry? What do you have to admit and who do you have to admit it to in order find peace and rest in reconciliation?

Forgiveness is usually something that is always consciously or subconsciously on our mind.  We live in broken bodies in a broken world where we are hurt by others and where we hurt others.

When things are not right between us and another person, we lose sleep, we run over the specifics of what was said and done as we are standing in the shower, we feel afraid of going to a place that we know the offending party or the party we offended will also be in attendance, and when we are in the same room as the offender or offended, we cringe, we feel awkward, and we are fearful of making eye contact or even of a possible confrontation.

We know deep down that we cannot and will not find rest or peace until the broken relationships end in forgiving and being forgiven.

40 year Heavy Metal veterans, Metallica, have released a trio of songs throughout their career with the title, The Unforgiven.

I find it interesting that about every ten years, the band returned to the theme of feeling unforgiven and desperately seeking the relief that comes from finding forgiveness.  This means that they never really found what they were looking for.

In 1991, The Black Album featured The Unforgiven in it’s first inception.  This track has the singer speaking about the daily burden, from birth to death bed, of never living up to strict parental and societal expectations.  The singer felt unforgiven for not living up to others standards.

In 1997, the Reload album contained The Unforgiven II.  This time, the singer discussed his struggle to trust other people after experiencing relational trauma.  The singer explores the idea that he feels unforgiven for the part he played in the downfall of the relationship while asking the question about the other person, do you feel “unforgiven too?” 

And, to end the trilogy (at least for now), on 2008’s Death Magnetic album, The Unforgiven III speaks the revelation that you can’t forgive others until you forgive yourself.

The theme of forgiving yourself played an important part in my life this week while I was studying and journaling.  In the Alcoholics Anonymous Daily Reflections, I read the statement “God forgave me.  God saved me.  I have forgiven myself and now I enjoy a freedom that I have never before experienced.” (Daily Reflections by A.A. members for A.A. members, September 8, 260)

I quickly realized that I haven’t ever fully enjoyed God’s forgiveness because I constantly and sinfully re-enslave myself by keeping a laundry list of the things I feel guilty for.  The full picture of the insanity that I deal with comes from still being haunted by the guilt of things I did and said when I was a young elementary aged child.

There is a saying that “the heart wants what the heart wants.”  One of the things the heart wants is to be forgiven and set free from guilt.

In this morning’s Biblical text, chosen from the Gospel portion of the Lectionary, we enter into a back-and-forth conversation about forgiveness.  As Peter and Jesus talk, we hear about how to find forgiveness, how to forgive, and why we should forgive.

Let’s hear from Matthew 18:21–35 now.  The text tells us this:

[21] 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?” [22] Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

[23] “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. [24] When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. [25] And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. [26] So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ [27] And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. [28] But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ [29] So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ [30] He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. [31] When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. [32] Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. [33] And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ [34] And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. [35] So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (ESV)

I love Peter because Peter is fiery.  One minute, Petr is the first person in the history of the world to publicly proclaim that Jesus is the Messiah sent by God to save humanity by forgiving them from their Sin.  But, the next second, Peter is asking, “When can I stop forgiving a person that has hurt me or keeps hurting me?”

The answer that Peter received from Jesus was probably not what he was looking for (and, it is probably not really what you want to hear either).

The answer Jesus gives Peter is that there is no limit to forgiveness.  You have to keep forgiving until the day you find yourself standing with Jesus in the Kingdom of Heaven.  

By using the number seven, a number that is used Biblically to mean perfection and wholeness, Jesus is telling Peter (and you) that there is no limit or end to the forgiveness that you, one forgiven by God, should bestow upon those around you.  The caveat in this text is that Jesus has forgiven you more than you will ever be asked to forgive.

The 16^th century church reformer, Martin Luther, wrote this,

“What God wants to have in His kingdom is that no one is so wicked and lets himself become so angry that he cannot forgive his neighbor.  Even if he angers you seventy-seven times (as written before [Matt. 18.22])—that is, as often as he can—you are to abandon your right and freely forgive him everything.

Why? Because Christ has also done this for you.” 

(LW 79.257.6-7)

To illustrate how this works, Jesus does what Jesus often does, He shares a parable with Peter.

Let’s give a quick breakdown of the parable.

A servant goes to the king and tries to cut a deal with him.  The servant is in debt to the king and begs for more time to pay him back.

The king graciously and mercifully forgives the debt of that servant because the king knows that the servant would never be able to pay him back.

By doing this, the king sets the servant free from the burden of working himself to the bone on a task that would be impossible to finish.

The completely forgiven servant leaves the presence of the forgiving king and immediately finds others that owe him money. When those who are in debt to him are unable to pay back the money they owed him, the servant who was forgiven of his debt did not forgive those that were in debt to him and instead put them in prison.

The forgiving king found out about the forgiven servant’s lack of grace and mercy, showing that the servant learned nothing from what was done for him, and took that servant and treated him like he treated others by throwing him in prison until he could pay back every last penny—which we know would never be possible.

First, Peter is the servant in the story.  Peter knows he has received forgiveness from Jesus but turns around and doesn’t want to live a life of continually forgiving others with the grace and mercy that he experienced from Jesus.

Second, you and I are like the servant in this story.

We are the servant because we think that we can make a deal with God to avoid being punished and cast away from Heaven because of our the debt our bad deeds and bad heart created.

We go to God, sometimes in personal prayer while lying in bed, sometimes in the pews of a church, sometimes while sitting in a car, and beg and plead with God, saying things like, “God, if you just give me a little more time, I can make things right.”

However, we are also like the servant in that God looks at us with compassion and says, “You are too far gone.  There is no way you can ever close the gap between your brokenness and my perfection.  So, I have chosen to forgive you and set you free from the burden you are currently experiencing.”

Lastly, we are like the servant because after we scream and shout out that God has loved us more than we could ever imagine being loved by doing for us what we could never have done for ourselves—His providing the forgiveness for our Sin in Jesus Christ—we turn around and hold grudges, refusing forgiveness and reconciliation to those around us.

Here at Bethel, you hear about God’s forgiveness for the guilt of your Sin week after week.

We begin our service with a confession of Sin and then hear about God’s forgiveness provided for us in Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection with the Absolution from 1 John 1.9 which proclaims, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”(ESV)

We also sing about forgiveness.

In Elevation’s “O Come to the Altar” we sing:

O come to the altar,

The Father’s arms are open wide

Forgiveness was bought with

The precious blood of Jesus Christ.

In Phil Wickam’s “Living Hope” we sing:

Who could imagine so great a mercy?

What heart could fathom such boundless grace?

The God of ages stepped down from glory

To wear my sin and bear my shame

The cross has spoken, I am forgiven

The King of kings calls me His own

Beautiful Savior, I’m Yours forever

Jesus Christ, my living hope

In Passion’s “At the Cross” we sing:

There’s a place where sin and shame
Are powerless
Where my heart has peace with God
And forgiveness
Where all the love I’ve ever found
Comes like a flood
Comes flowing down

In the 1779 hymn “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood” we sing:

The dying thief rejoiced to see 

that fountain in his day; 

and there may I, though vile as he, 

wash all my sins away.

Even though we are reminded of our forgiveness time and time again, and we speak and sing about our forgiveness time and time again, we continue to struggle throughout the week to live in the freedom of forgiveness by being a forgiving person.

In the words of the Apostle Paul (from his letter to the Christians in Rome), we hear the struggle and the Only solution.

[18] For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. [19] For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. [20] Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

[21] So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. [22] For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, [23] but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. [24] Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 

[1] There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. [2] For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. [3] For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, [4] in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 7.18-8.4, ESV)

Jesus died on the cross so that you can have life and hope with God.  Jesus’ death paid off the debt that your Sin created.  That Sin includes your refusal to forgive others as God has first forgiven you as well as your refusal to forgive yourself after being forgiven by God.  

Jesus’ death did what you would never be able do regardless of the amount of time God gave you here on earth.  In Jesus, God wiped away your record of wrongs and declared you free from the burden of attempting the impossible task of working enough good deeds to make things right between you and God and unlock the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus, the innocent and Sinless one, God-in-the-flesh, died on the cross with your Sin, as one who was unforgiven by God, so that you would not die unforgiven by God.

Romans 5:6–11

[6] For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. [7] For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—[8] but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [9] Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. [10] For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. [11] More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (ESV)

[1] Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. [2] Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1–2, ESV)

Confess your sin of holding grudges.

Confess your sin of being unforgiving toward others and yourself.

Confess your sin demanding from others what God does not demand from you.

Confess your sin of judging others as guilty when God has called you innocent.

And, know that you are forgiven for yesterday’s Sin, today’s Sin, and tomorrow’s Sin through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross for you.

Jesus has forgiven your sin debt.  Go, and forgive others of their Sin debt as well.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

September 12, 2026.