The following homily was shared at our Sunday Evening Eucharist service 9/16/26.

Scripture Reading:

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
‘Pay back what you owe.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
But he refused.
Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18:21-35)

Forgiveness can sometimes seem like a scandal to me. If you sin against God and your neighbor, you can be absolved of it, can be unassociated with the act as if you never did it, if you just repent and ask for forgiveness. It can feel unfair, undeserved. But if you have been the one in need of forgiveness, then you know that forgiveness is a blessing, it’s a gift, it’s mercy. When I think of forgiveness, I think of Peter being afraid and beginning to fall into the waves, and Jesus reaching down to save him. These are all things I thought of when I read our passage from Matthew. I also thought of Psalm 32, which starts off by saying “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” Although our gospel reading today may seem like it is more about forgiving others, we can see in Matthew that the two are actually inseparable.

In our reading from Matthew, Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother who has sinned against him. As part of his question, he basically asks, “Jesus, would it be crazy to forgive my brother as many as seven times?” to which Jesus replies “No bro, you should forgive him like, ten times that amount,” or, depending on your translation, seventy times that amount, which is a pretty crazy answer, honestly. I mean, we’re basically expected to forgive someone an innumerable amount of times.

Jesus then says the forgiveness expected of us is why the kingdom of heaven can be compared to the king we see in his parable. A servant owes a huge, unpayable debt to his master. From my readings, it’s an amount that would never be possible for him to pay back in his lifetime. But as his servant asks for more time in paying it back (which they both know he can’t pay back), the master has mercy, and instead of selling him and his family into slavery, forgives him this scandalously large amount of money. After this, the servant seeks out a fellow servant to extract a much smaller debt owed him, and throws him in jail when he cannot pay. The master finds out, is incredibly angry at his lack of mercy in throwing his fellow servant in jail over a small amount, especially because he had just been shown much more mercy, and throws him to a fate of pain until he can pay it back (which, again, he cannot). Jesus says his father will do the same, unless we forgive one another from our hearts.

We can see from this parable that the forgiveness expected of us is within the context that we have been endlessly forgiven because of Jesus. The forgiveness we receive is not one that we have to pay. We don’t have to pay in money, we don’t have to pay in guilt from being undeserving of this incredible forgiveness, and we don’t have to continuously work as if we are in some kind of pseudo repayment for this forgiveness. You cannot pay him back. But there is an expectation that, as we have been forgiven and shown mercy, we forgive and have mercy on those who have wronged us, or owe us.

Our reading from Matthew is Jesus’ commands on how we should treat the transgressions of our Christian brothers and sisters. In the same way that we are blessed when we are forgiven, and clean in the sight of God, we should offer the same blessing, that same scandalous freedom, that has been offered to us. These guidelines for how to treat each other's sins are the ways that we should try to be reconciled to one another, as we have reconciled to God. If you are a Christian, then you have tasted and seen the sweetness that is forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus Christ. We should desire the same for our brothers and sisters. So let us follow the example Jesus has given us and love our brothers and sisters who have sinned against us and seek to be reconciled to them. Amen.

Scandalous Forgiveness: Tayt Thomas

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