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The Parables
of Matthew
Escape The Dungeon
Matthew 18:21-35
Introduction: The Inescapable Prison
Many of you have visited the Isle of the Pelicans—better known
as Alcatraz—that sits surrounded by the cold water and hazardous
currents of the San Francisco Bay. From 1933-1963 it served
as a prison for some of the world’s most notorious criminals
like Al Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly and Robert Stroud
(better known as the Birdman of Alcatraz). We took many trips
there with people when the price for the boat ride and tour
was $2 (now around $25). The prison was considered virtually
inescapable. Only 14 attempts were ever made. One incident,
made famous by the Clint Eastwood movie Escape
From Alcatraz, remains unresolved as to whether or
not the inmates ever made it to safety or were swept by the
currents under the Golden Gate Bridge and out into the Pacific.
When it comes to confining prisoners, inescapable
prisons are a good thing. When it comes to life, however,
they aren’t. There is a prison that is far worse and infinitely
more difficult from which to escape than Alcatraz. It is a
prison in which we lock ourselves. It is the prison Jesus
talks to us about this morning from our parable in Matthew.
It is the prison created by the person who will not forgive.
It is the dungeon of an unforgiving spirit.
Insights From The Context
Matthew 18 finds Jesus instructing His
disciples. In the opening verses the disciples are still struggling
with figuring out
who is the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven. Do you think they expected
Jesus to pick one of them? I suspect some of them hoped He
might just point at one of them. He doesn’t. He uses this
question to teach them the importance of humility by calling
a little child out of the crowd to stand among them as the
greatest in God’s Kingdom.
He follows this with a parable emphasizing
the
importance of just one lost sheep. We used this
parable a couple of months ago to talk about the core value
we have here at Discovery Church of a heart for people who
are lost. One of the ways the disciples were to serve with
kingdom humility was by actively searching for the one lost
sheep instead of expecting the lost sheep to come find them.
Jesus takes the disciples into an even
more difficult arena for expressing humility by teaching them
how to deal with
someone who has sinned
against another brother or sister in the church. This
is a crucial family lesson on being open and honest with one
another in order to deal with sin and forgive one another.
Because it is between just two individuals, Jesus says start
there. If someone has sinned against you, tell that person—and
that person only—so he can have the opportunity to repent.
Far too often we choose what we see as the noble—but actually
sinful—step of seeking advice from others about how we should
handle the awful person who has done this horrible thing.
The beauty of Jesus’ advice is that if it’s handled between
the two people, no one else ever knows. If this effort is
refused, then take two or three others to serve as witnesses.
If that opportunity is refused, then the church should be
told. We see here the tragedy of unconfessed sin as it escalates
from having very few people involved to the whole church.
Peter enters the discussion with a question.
It’s a good question.
Then Peter came to Jesus and
asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother
when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Matthew 18:21 NIV
Peter’s offer of seven times is generous.
The Jewish Rabbis advised three times. Peter makes two errors.
1st Error: He Assumes He Would Be The One Doing The Forgiving
He didn’t consider he might be the one
who had offended someone else. It has been wisely observed
that many reconciliations have broken down because both parties
have come prepared to forgive and unprepared to be forgiven.
2nd Error: He Wants To Measure And Limit His Forgiveness
Jesus shatters that fallacy.
Jesus answered, "I tell
you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”Matthew 18:22 NIV
Many translations make it 70 times 7. Whether
it’s 77 or 490 times, Jesus’ point is that forgiveness is
unlimited. When we repeatedly forgive, forgiveness becomes
our natural response when we are wronged.
Having challenged Peter’s expectations,
Jesus tells a story about the Kingdom of Heaven to reinforce
His principle of forgiveness. It is a story that can be told
in under a minute but takes a lifetime to live out. It is
an unsettling story. It stabs us awake as Jesus hammers the
point home. And hammer He does, for He knows us and how we
try to evade the arrow of truth seeking to find its mark in
our hearts. Listen to Jesus’ story.
"Therefore,
the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle
accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a
man who owed him ten thousand talents[a]
was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master
ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that
he had be sold to repay the debt. "The servant fell on
his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and
I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity
on him, canceled the debt and let him go. "But when that
servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who
owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him.
'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. "His fellow
servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with
me, and I will pay you back.' "But he refused. Instead,
he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could
pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened,
they were greatly distressed and went and told their master
everything that had happened. "Then the master called
the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled
all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't
you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on
you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to
be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. "This
is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you
forgive your brother from your heart." Matthew 18:23-35
Principles
For Understanding
As we begin working our
way through the story there are some principles we need to
spell out in order to understand Jesus.
1st Principle: Jesus Talks About Forgiveness—Not Salvation
Some cite this parable as evidence that
salvation can be lost. This isn’t a story about salvation.
Jesus isn’t teaching that God saves one day and then condemns
the next—all depending on how well you are doing at obeying
Him.
2nd Principle: Jesus Talks About Insiders—Not Outsiders
The parable is concerned with the importance
of one believer forgiving another believer in the family of
God. Again, this is not about God forgiving sinners and making
them a part of His family. This deals with family relationships.
3rd Principle: Jesus Talks About Present, Relational Judgment—Not
Future, Eternal Judgment
Jesus wants His point to be understood.
If we obey; we grow. If we disobey; we will be judged. In
fact, we will judge ourselves as we find ourselves locked
in the dungeon of an unforgiving heart.
The Meaning of the Story
I have approached this series with the
assumption that many people really do want to get to know
God better. The parables are stories about God—an autobiography
of sorts. The king in this story represents God. The king
shows his mercy by forgiving one of his servants, a provincial
governor, a huge debt. The debt is 10,000 talents or millions
of dollars. The going wage for a common laborer would result
in one talent in a thousand weeks of work. That’s one thousand
weeks to earn it—not to save it. A governor might expect to
earn around 1,000 talents in his entire lifetime. The entire
annual tax revenue collected from Judea, Samaria and Galilee
was 800 talents. In other words, he couldn’t even tax his
way out of this problem. He has a huge, incalculable, unpayable
debt which represents the debt of sin we owe God.
The King announces his judgment: because
the debt can’t be paid the man is required to sell everything
he has, including his family, to pay the debt. He falls on
his knees and begs for patience to provide time for him to
repay his debt. Amazingly—because God’s grace is always amazing—the
king forgives him.
The forgiven servant must actually think
he should try to repay the debt. He may even have been so
pretentious as to think he actually can. With mercy extended
he meets another man who owes him the small amount of one
hundred denarii—or a few dollars. The forgiven servant’s debt
was 600,000 times greater than the repayment he now demands.
The debt could easily be repaid with just a little patience.
The forgiven servant has no patience as a plea very similar
to his is made. While it’s not stated here I wonder what thoughts
were going through this man’s mind. Does he wonder how the
king could ever fall for his story? Does he think he really
pulled this one off? Does he determine that he’s not going
to fall for the same lame excuse?
The plea is refused. The man is thrown
into prison. And then, the offense is reported to the king
by other servants who are distressed by what they have seen.
The king brings him back in to remind him of the debt that
had been cancelled because the king chose to show mercy. The
king reimposes and strengthens the sentence. He turns him
over to the jailers—to be tortured this time—until the debt
is repaid.
It’s this last point that pushes some to
see this as God judging a once-forgiven person and sending
him into torment in hell. The only problem with this view
is that it isn’t the lesson Jesus teaches. Let’s see how Jesus
makes…
The Point of the Story
This is how my heavenly Father
will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from
your heart. Matthew 18:35 NIV
This is a story about forgiveness set in
the context of relationships in the family of God. The failure
of a person who has been forgiven by God to forgive someone
else will result in the same treatment. Unless we forgive
our Christian brother (or sister) from the heart the heavenly
Father will treat us just like the king treated this unforgiving
servant. Listen to this observation from the long-time pastor
of First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, California.
The word heart is like a burred hook. We can’t slip off.
We may say we forgive. We may conceptually forgive. But it
is the vocation of the heart not to forget. Many of us say
we will forgive, but not forget. Or that we will forgive the
person, but not the deed. All are ways of evading the reproduction
of the awesome completeness of God’s forgiveness for us. Lloyd John Ogilvie
The heart often holds on to grudges. Whether
we want to admit it or not there are times we would really
like to see the other person get exactly what they deserve.
It has been said,
Revenge, indeed, seems often sweet to men; but oh, it is
only sugared poison, only sweetened gall and its aftertaste
is bitter as hell. Forgiving, enduring love alone is sweet
and blissful.
Still, we would like to see them get what
they deserve—until we see what we deserve!
The one and only lesson of this story is:
Prompted by gratitude,
the forgiven sinner must always seek to forgive those who
have sinned against him (or her), and must do all in his power
to bring about complete reconciliation.
It’s right here where I understand Peter.
All right, I get it. I have to forgive. How many times? Jesus
says, “Don’t even bother to count! Forgive as many times as
it takes.” Dr. M. R. DeHaan provides insight.
You can’t judge the spirituality of a Christian on the
basis of his prayers, since praying is often done for the
effect on the listener. Nor can you gauge a person’s spiritual
status by the loudness of his “amens” and “hallelujahs!” Even
the liberality of one’s giving is not an infallible test.
It, too, may be done for personal recognition or to ease one’s
conscience. I’m convinced that the surest test of our relationship
with God is found in our willingness to forgive others.
The Point Understood
Let me try to help you understand this
by talking for a few minutes about the two kinds of forgiveness.
Forgiveness As Practiced By God
·
Judicial Forgiveness: The once and for all, permanent forgiveness
of sins past, present and future by God
·
Relational Forgiveness: When believers sin, it breaks the
relationship with God. For that daily sin, believers need
God’s forgiveness and cleansing, not to preserve salvation
but to restore the broken relationship
Forgiveness As Practiced By Believers
·
Judicial Forgiveness: The spirit of forgiveness that is
always ready to forgive even before the request is made for
forgiveness
·
Relational Forgiveness: If and when the offending person
repents, relational forgiveness is readily given and, where
possible, the broken relationship is restored
The point is clear: You cannot share forgiveness with others unless you have received it.
Once you have received forgiveness, you will share it.
Forgiveness goes deeper than the hands or lips—it must possess
and transform the heart. If we do not forgive, we put ourselves
into prison and we take others there with us. I see this all
the time in families where relationships have been strained
and finally broken. It’s also experienced when friends refuse
to forgive. Everyone ends up locked in a dungeon—a deep, dark
dungeon of an unforgiving heart. Every person should have
a special cemetery in which to bury the faults and transgressions
of friends and loved ones.
Conclusion: What Does God Want Me To Do?
Two more questions will help us to answer
this question.
1st Question: Have You Received Forgiveness?
The only person who can truly forgive is
the person who has been forgiven by God. Having experienced
His mercy and knowing what it means to be forgiven we are
then able to forgive others. Jesus consistently tied together
being forgiven and then forgiving others. You demonstrate
your own forgiveness by forgiving others. Failure to forgive
others means we haven’t truly understood and experienced forgiveness.
2nd Question: Are You Sharing Forgiveness?
There are going to be times when you are
hurt. Harboring a hateful, revengeful spirit will lock you
up in the worst prison possible. The first step toward freedom
is to forgive them in your heart. Then, if they do come seeking
forgiveness, you will be ready to forgive them in practice.
There will be times when you hurt others.
When you realize what you have done, don’t you want that person
to be ready to forgive you? You need to go, repent and ask
for forgiveness. Even if the other person refuses, you have
demonstrated to that person—and to God—how much you value
forgiveness. Both of these are ways we share forgiveness.
The test of forgiveness is freedom. Where forgiveness
has truly been sought and granted there will be
·
No More Revenge
·
No More Condemnation
·
No More Bitterness
·
No More Torment and Torture
Yes, it’s much easier to talk about forgiveness
than it is to actually forgive. Corrie Ten Boom was a well-known
author and speaker who shared about her experiences in, and
deliverance from, one of the World War II concentration camps
where millions of people died. She writes about a time following
the war when she spotted one of her former guards in the audience.
It was at a church service
in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S man who stood guard
at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck.
He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since
that time. And suddenly it was all there—the roomful of mocking
men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.
He came to me as the church
was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your
message, Fraulein,” he said. “To think that, as you say, He
has washed my sins away!”
His hand was thrust out to
shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people
in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful
thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ
had died for this man; was I going to ask more? Lord Jesus,
I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile. I struggled
to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest
spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent
prayer. Jesus I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness.
As I took his hand the most
incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and
my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while in
my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed
me.
And so I discovered that
it is not on our forgiveness, any more than on our goodness,
that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells
us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command,
the love itself.
What do we learn about ourselves from this
story that shows us another side of our amazing God? We learn
that God wants us to seek and give forgiveness to others because
that’s exactly what He does.
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