Why Forgiveness Matters to God

This Sunday is the quintessential “follow up” story. Last week, Jesus gave instructions about the process we need to follow when someone sins against us. Rather than retaliating or “hitting back,” as it were, we are to work tirelessly to try and restore the relationship with those who have hurt us.

Only in a worst case scenario are we permitted to then take the final step and, if no other solution arises, treat them, in Jesus’ words, “as a tax collector or a sinner.”

But that was last week. This week the story continues. Immediately upon hearing how we are to work resolutely to reconcile with those who have sinned against us, Peter asks what seems to him to be an obvious question. 

“Lord,” he asks, “if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” 

Oh, Peter! Really? Talk about sinning against someone! Jesus has already had to stop you in your tracks, calling you Satan for trying to prevent him from journeying to Jerusalem to give up  his life for us. And then—as we already know but as you’ll soon find out—when Jesus is under arrest and being beaten and tried, you will deny him three times!

And you dare ask Jesus how many times someone can sin against you and you still need to forgive them? Oh, Peter, if you only knew!

Nonetheless, the question remains. How often must we forgive someone who sins against us? As many as seven times?

Jesus says no. “Not seven times but, I tell you, seventy-seven times!”

And, lest we think Jesus is telling us to keep count of how often someone sins against us—whether they’re reaching the upper limit of forgiveness—Jesus tells a parable that settles the matter. 

How’s your math? A government official owes his ruler 10,000 talents. A single talent is worth 10,000 days wages. This guy owes his ruler 10,000 talents. That’s 10,000 times 10,000 daily wages. 

Do the math if you can! The point is, this guy owes his master a completely unpayable debt. So what does the master do? 

He cancels it! The master forgives the unpayable debt. 

But wait! We’re not done! 

No sooner does the master forgive the debt than the newly-forgiven man cannot find it in his heart to forgive someone who owes him a pittance.

There is a conclusion to this parable. Sort of a moral. And, yes, it’s rather harsh!

Jesus says (presumably to all of us), “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you—meaning, take God’s forgiveness away from you—if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” 

This reminds me of something I often prefer to forget. Do you realize what we’re saying when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”? 

With that “as”—forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us—we’re saying, “God, treat me exactly how I treat others. Forgive my sins and trespasses only as much as I forgive others! Treat me how I treat others!” Ouch! …

So why does forgiveness matter so much to God? Why does Jesus dare to compare God’s forgiveness of us to a ruler who forgives an utterly unpayable debt to one of his subjects?

Is it because we are so monstrously sinful that each of us owes God an unpayble debt? That the only way we are ever going to avoid the hellfire of damnation is through God’s mercy and forgiveness?

That’s what I used to think. And, indeed, that’s what generations of Christians have been taught for ages and ages.

But there’s another way to look at the importance of forgiveness, especially to    God. And that’s what I want to focus on now.

Forgiveness matters to God because relationships matter to God! Remember this? It’s been a while since we’ve done this but: God created us—and the whole universe—so that we could be lika ‘dis!

This is not just a simpleminded or oversimplified expression! God created us and all of life so that we could be in relationship to God and with one another. After all, the very nature of God as Father, Son, and Spirit is a God who is always and forever in relationship! The triune God is a God forever in relationship with God’s self!

And there is nothing God won’t do to keep us or bring us back into relationship with God and with one another!

That’s why this familiar verse is one of the most important in the entire Bible:  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

God made us to be lika dis. 

And God will even give his life for us so that we can all be lika dis!

As I mentioned last week, for much of the summer we’ve had Paul’s letter to the Romans as one of our readings. 

Some verses from Romans that I hope you’re also familiar with says much the same thing. “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” What can break or sever our relationship with God lika dis”?

Paul asks, “Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” 

And then he answers, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced,” Paul says, “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Forgiveness matters to God because—no matter how monstrous the offense; no matter how grievous the offense—forgiveness restores relationships! And God is all about relationships! Creating them. Restoring them. Preserving them.

And yes. Because relationships matter to God, God wants relationships to matter to us! 

We are to embody and reflect the God we believe in. We are to seek to be lika dis, not simply with God, but with one another.

In a word, we are to forgive as we have been forgiven.

In Jesus' name. Amen.