Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" -Matthew 18:21
Two pleas for mercy have been placed into our ears by the Word and Spirit of God this day:
1.) Enter not into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight shall no one living be justified.
2.) Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.
“Enter not into judgment with your servant” is a fervent plea to the Lord God that He not even go there. “Please do not even consider me and my life according to my thoughts, words, and deeds.”
“Have patience with me and I will repay you everything” is a fervent plea after the Lord God has already entered into judgment. It means, “Now that I’ve already been found out, please give me time to work it out.”
We make a big deal out of the fact that we cannot be saved before God by our works; by our pleas for more time so we can make amends – and rightly so, for by grace are you saved, not by works.
But look at what happens in this Gospel: The one who aims to pay God back, despite his complete inability to do so, is also the one whom the Master forgives and releases: “And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.” He forgave him even though he was intent on paying back eventually, somehow, some way, by his own works.
He did not “have the means.” He did not have any way, no matter how much time, no matter how much effort, to make up what was owed. But here is the kicker: Even though he entertained the ridiculous thought he could pay back his debt, he was not taken to task or penalized for thinking this way.
And neither are you, even though you often think it is up to you to please God. God in His mercy places His Word into your midst and heart, so that you think and speak according to His will, and know Him as He is.
Whether you plead from the get-go that God not enter into judgment with you, or whether you are caught in trespass and sin with an enormous debt to pay, your Lord – Your Creator – feels compassion and releases you and forgives your debt.
You do not have the means to pay back your debt. God does. And what means does He have? His own Son, Christ Jesus, begotten of the Father from eternity as only God can be; born of a woman, just as you are. He it is Who has removed your sin and transgression.
The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;
Who keeps lovingkindness for thousands,
Who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin;
Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished,
visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children
and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.
When was the last time you begged for mercy? What was at stake with your begging?
It is much easier to offer excuses than to beg for mercy, but when it comes to doing wrong against God and neighbor, mercy is the only thing that will remove and repair the damage done.
Through mercy and forgiveness, that which *is* may be called that which *is not.* This is what your Father in heaven does, just as He called the heavens and earth into being which were not but now are.
When you say “Excuse me,” you are, in a small way begging for mercy. It may merely be bumping into someone, or just being in their way, or leaving the seat up when it should have been down. [A word of wisdom for those of you who struggle with this or who are about to enter the estate of Holy Matrimony: leave both seats down if you can remember, so both of you must lift – not at the same time of course.]
But the occasions to beg for forgiveness are quickly multiplied and amplified in life, as when you speak evil of your neighbor, or your neighbor speaks evil of you; as when your actions – whether out of negligence or spite - result in serious injury, or even death to another.
Today your Father in heaven calls you to examine yourself in light of His Law and the enormity of your transgression against Him. Your idolatry. Your lack of trust. Your hatred and envy. Your pride. All of those things which, by all rights, He is entitled to enter into judgment against you.
The Lord God is a perfect Master of His accounts, and He knows precisely where you are lacking. For example, the Lord will not hold Him guiltless who takes His Name in vain.
When was the last time you begged for mercy? It is less than an hour ago when you said, “O most merciful God, who has given Your only-begotten Son to die for us, have mercy upon us.” Likewise did you sing: “Enter not into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight shall no one living be justified.”
What it at stake with your begging for mercy? Nothing less than your life. Your temporal life. Your eternal life. Your soul. Your body. Everything. These your Father is heaven has spared for you through His only Son, Jesus Christ, crucified, dead, and buried. Risen from the dead to live and reign for you to all eternity.
Again, you do not have the means to repay. You never will. It is God who has the means, first by delivering His only Son up for you on the cross, and now by delivering the fruits of His innocent suffering, death, and resurrection into your heart, mind, body, and soul - through Holy Baptism into His Name and very being, through His Holy Supper, and through Holy absolution spoken through His servants.
Offenses are bound to come your way, just as they came to Joseph, the Son of Isaac, who was sold into slavery just because his brothers were jealous. How petty is that, and yet how far reaching the consequences?
Joseph was given to be the proclaimer of good news to his brothers, forgiving their sin and loving them, because he, by the Word and Spirt of God understood, as you do by that same Word and Spirit, that He does not deal with us as our sins deserve, for He is slow to anger, abounding in mercy.
"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones."
This you know not in part, but indeed, for Christ is risen from the dead, having been put to death for your transgressions and then raised again from the dead so that whatever wrongs you commit in your body and with your mouth and thoughts may be taken away.
You are a new creation in Him. God the Father entered into judgment against His Son, His only Son, Whom He loved, heaping all transgression and sin upon him to that you are now most pleasing in His sight.
Offenses are bound to come your way, some of them very serious. Some of them not so much. But all of them without a single exception are taken away by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
It is the part of a priestly kingdom, a holy people, to forgive trespasses and sin. You belong to that kingdom. You are that holy people. God the Father Almighty has placed the Cross of His beloved Son into your midst and life; into your hearts and minds and bodies by His Word and Spirit so that you may freely exercise toward your neighbor the full and complete forgiveness of trespasses and sin, whether it be toward those who offend you in a small way, or toward those whose offenses cry out to God for swift and immediate retribution.
Therefore you, O priestly kingdom, O holy people, redeemed of the Lord and baptized into The Holy One of Israel, Christ Jesus, love and forgive one another and your neighbor, as your Father in heaven gives you grace and strength to do so.
You may not be called upon to be a martyr like Polycarp, or like those who are being martyred this very hour for confessing Christ. For you, whose very life and being are now placed into and comprehended in the cross of Christ Jesus, forgiveness, patience, love, endurance – along with persecutions – are your lot in every station and place where you go.
Teach me to do what pleases You, for You are my God;
let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
Revive me, O Lord, | for Your name’s sake;
for Your righteousness’ sake, bring me out of trouble.
Lord, hear my prayer, and in Your faithfulness heed
my supplications; answer me in Your righteousness.
Your Father in heaven is not slack in answering your pleas for mercy. He has taught you to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
The depths of His mercy in Christ Jesus are inexhaustible. They are from everlasting to everlasting, and so you need not keep an accounting when it comes to those who trespass against you, as if it is the end when your neighbor – your spouse, your co-worker, your brother or sister, you father or mother, or even the stranger who cuts you off in traffic, sins against you the 491st time. (For those of you with a common core, that is seventy time seven, plus one.)
You sin daily and much. God the Father daily and richly forgives, and does so with a joyful heart.
O Lord, let your mercy be upon us, as our trust is in you, through Christ Jesus who four our sakes is crucified and risen from the dead; Whose body and blood we are about to receive.
