Christ Lutheran Church: Welcome

The Pot and the Kettle - September 14, 2008

The Pot and the Kettle

Matthew 18:21-35

September 14, 2008

Rev. Dave R. Garwick

(Following the reading of the Epistle Lesson of Romans 14:1-12) I hope you heard those last couple lines there: "For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God."

These days that kind of warning in church is really out of style. Our grandparents and every other generation heard that kind of warning all the time. But these days, to preach on that kind of warning goes down as "fire and brimstone". It is old fashioned. These days we want to hear only that God is cuddly and sweet no matter what we do. Oh, God may be disappointed in us, or she spends a lot of time crying over us and wringing her hands in sadness...but most preachers these days would not be caught dead talking about a God who did anything unhappy toward us.

But you also heard what Jesus himself said in the Gospel Lesson that is our Bible Focus this morning. He told a parable - a teaching story - about a guy whose big debt was forgiven, but who then refused to forgive another guy who owed him a lot less. In the parable the master who forgave the first guy guy called him in and let him have it for not showing the same mercy. So the master threw this fist guy in prison and had him tortured until he could pay everything back.

Now that was a make-believe story. But it was told by Jesus, who is God himself who came in person to tell us what to expect. Then, Jesus explained the point of the parable in no uncertain words: "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

THAT is what the apostle Paul was referring to when he wrote: "...we will all stand before God's judgment seat. So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God."

Scary stuff. So many times I conduct funerals here between one Sunday and the next for someone who was sitting in the pews last Sunday who had no idea that he was listening to his last sermon. And before the next Sunday, that very person is standing before God's judgment seat, giving an account of himself to God.

"But, Pastor, I just cannot forgive what she did to me. I've tried. I really have tried." What am I supposed to say? The fact is, my friend has no idea how much time God is going to give her to work that out. And when He does call her home, she will live for eternity by her own judgment. For two years she may have refused to forgive another mortal, and now she gets to wear that same judgment herself as she faces all eternity? Not fair? So what? I did not come up with this. This is no MY idea. I don't even agree with it. But it IS reality.

"But every time I try to put it behind me, she does it to me again. Am I supposed to stick my neck out again?" Not at all. You are commanded to forgive, not to hand that person a weapon to use on you. You can forgive even while you make it hard for that person to sin again.

Yeah, yeah...forgive even seventy times seven if you have to. Oh, that's easier to say in a sermon than to do in real life. Get over it - jump higher: try saying THAT to someone whose legs were just blown off in Iraq - or whose legs were just blown off in Iraq - or whose heart has just been crushed by someone they had trusted. How do you do THAT?

I think that is why Jesus told the parable He did. Place yourself in that story for a minute. Imagine that it is real. That guy who refused to forgive - he had not been warned ahead of time that he would suffer the same fate. THAT is not why he was expected to forgive.

In fact, he had not even been told THAT he should forgive anyone himself. In his mind, that could have been apples and oranges: that his master forgiving his debt was completely unrelated to what he later "had" to do. After all, the master was a wealthy man who might easily have been able to afford the write off. "But I cannot afford to write off what people owe me. Besides the guy who owes me has done this to me time and again."

So WHY was this guy held accountable for not forgiving others? He was not told ahead of time to do this. He had not been warned that he would be punished. So what would have been his motivation to forgive?

Plain and simple. He himself had been shown mercy by someone else. I myself know two things about myself. There is no sin that I see someone else do, that I have not committed myself to one degree or another, in one form or another. Though I have never murdered anyone I HAVE felt the hatred that Jesus put in the same category. The second thing I know about myself is that Jesus willingly went through torture and death to get me forgiveness for all those sins.

Jesus died to spare me the punishment I myself deserve. How can I remember THAT and then have a clean conscience when I condemn others? How can the pot call the kettle black - especially when it took someone else to scrub me clean? How can I scream at someone else for missing a meeting when I have missed many myself? How can I accuse someone for a mistake when I have been forgiven for making many myself? How can I accuse someone for hurting me when I have been forgiven for hurting others myself?

 How can I forgive someone else? I imagine Jesus looking down on the cross at me.