Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity

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One could assume from today’s Collect that when the household of GOD, who is the Church, prays fervently for a virtuous outcome, the ALMIGHTY seizes upon that earnest desire and acts accordingly. That is, if we are given to good works, GOD will protect us, reciprocating our virtuous intentions with His keeping and protecting, His household, as the paterfamilias (being the fatherly head of the household). Yet, does GOD really act so unconditionally on behalf of the Church that there are no expectations of us? — And even though we refused to purchase the soup and grilled cheese sandwich for the homeless person who was asking for food at the diner today, should we expect a Christmas feast to be waiting upon us when we arrive home, courtesy of the blessings of GOD? — If we are not aware, we should understand that there are conditional commands in Scripture that direct and support the relationship between GOD and His household.  

Let me be clear, GOD’s mercy and blessings cannot be earned; they are given freely by His grace when we believe Him for who He is and what He promises. Yet, we cannot demand signs from GOD like the nobleman from last week’s Gospel. We cannot expect that GOD will come down at our command and heal our child. We must obey Him, and when He says, ‘go and believe, if you would like my blessing,’ His conditions, not ours, we must be keen to follow. — This lesson is again presented to us today in our Gospel lesson, St. Matthew 18. In fact, JESUS says something so startling there, that I hope you sat up and thought intently about its consequences when you heard it. He said: “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses” (St. Matthew 18.35). — Reciprocal forgiveness is not only expected in the Christian Faith – JESUS says that Christianity is untenable without it. 

This lesson on forgiveness is developed in conjunction with JESUS’ teaching on how to resolve conflicts within the Church. At the conclusion of that teaching, JESUS says, ‘Where two or three witnesses gather together in agreement against another brother in the Church, (rightly and with Scriptural justice on their side), the authority of Christ the King is there with them. Christ’s judicial authority is given to those faithful members of the Church to bind or loose another brother from a charge, especially if he insists on not repenting. (cf. vv. 19-20)  

Peter, (as you might have guessed), struggles with this teaching, particularly because the LORD instructs members of the Church to engage in one-to-one arbitration before going to the Church counsel to seek a remedy. He says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him about his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother” (v.15). — The implication being, that if your brother sins against you, and he hears your complaint and repents, you are to forgive him – even if he has committed the offense against you before. — This is a hard pill for Peter to swallow. Thus, Peter approaches JESUS on the matter and says: “LORD, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” — Why did Peter select ‘seven’ as his limit for pardoning his neighbor?    

Well, Peter knew that to be a follower of JESUS, a disciple was expected to forgive his neighbor. In fact, the LORD had said as much in the Sermon on the Mount and at other times as well. JESUS said, “If [your brother] trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, ‘I repent’; thou shalt forgive him” (St. Luke 17.4). “As Christ’s disciple, Peter knew that he must not bear a grudge against his brother, nor meditate revenge, but be as good a friend as ever, and forget the injury. [Thus, coming to JESUS], he thinks it is a great matter to forgive till seven times; he means not seven times a day, as Christ said, but seven times in his life; supposing that if a man had any way abused him seven times, though he were ever so desirous to be reconciled, he might then abandon his society – having nothing more to do with him.”¹  

To Peter’s surprise, the LORD offers a different suggestion, putting out there an inconceivable, inhuman challenge to our capacity to have mercy. He suggests, not (7) times, but (490) times. JESUS seems to say to Peter: “If you are still counting how many times you have forgiven someone, you are not really forgiving them at all, but simply postponing revenge. ‘Seventy times seven’ is a typical bit of Jesus’ teasing [of our mortal concepts of charity. By saying that we should be prepared to forgive up to 490x], what the LORD means, of course, is ‘don’t even think about counting; just forgive.’”² To qualify such a wild bit of instruction, JESUS tells an equally extraordinary parable to give meaning and moral to His exhortation of Peter, and of us, His household.  

JESUS tells the parable of the Unforgiving Servant (better named ‘the Extremely Forgiving King’). In this parable, JESUS makes two particular points. First, sin destroys communion and fellowship with the LORD and with our neighbor. — Lest we forget, the worship of the Holy Communion service is not only about hearing GOD’s instruction and singing His praises; it is also about renewal of relationships. In this service, we are to lay bare ourselves and souls to GOD, confessing and repenting the sins of omission and commission from the past week – both against GOD and our neighbor. And in so doing, by the power of the Holy Ghost, our spirits are made white as snow by the Blood of the Lamb. Thus, we can regain lost or broken fellowship through GOD’s forgiveness paid for by Christ’s Life.  

Secondly, in JESUS’ parable, we learn that to receive the full renewal of those relationships once spoiled, we must be willing to also forgive our neighbor, in kind. — When we leave the chancel rail after participating in the Holy Communion, our prayers for forgiveness are heard, received, accepted, and granted through Christ’s sacrifice. — Yet, if we leave the rail and return to those things in thought, word, or deed that have caused the relational breaks in the first place, then it was as if we never came and received the blessing of forgiveness at all. But, brothers and sisters, let us not do this! 

The precious mercy that GOD has given us and continues to give us through His forgiveness in Christ, is like a barrel full of water, which we are to take, drop by drop, and distribute to others, just as mercifully as we have received it. We are to go from GOD’s holy Presence, each Sunday, in joy and peace, living in this world purely while also lavishly loving our neighbors as graciously as our King has lavishly loved us. — By telling Peter that the amnesty that he should be willing to give his neighbor is to be even unto 70×7, JESUS is telling us to be like GOD in our distribution of forgiveness and kindness not like our fellow, mortal man. — As we will see in the parable, the barrel full of forgiveness the servant receives is incalculably more than the drops of forgiveness that the man is expected to give. For, of a truth, what man could forgive his neighbor 490 times? JESUS uses this extreme example to point out that such absolution and pardon are only possible with GOD. For it is we, throughout our lives, that sin (even after rebirth in the waters of Holy Baptism), again and again against GOD; even unto 7×70 times. — And it is only GOD that forgives us again, and again, and again when we ask. This is JESUS’ point: we should be like GOD our Father, not like the ‘ideal man’ that Peter imagined, believing he is valiantly forgiving, if he forgives his brother seven times in a lifetime. 

In the parable of the Unforgiving Servant, these truths are illustrated for us clearly! — JESUS introduces us to a man, a servant of the King, who, because of his financial debts to the Crown, has lost fellowship with the King. We can see that he is in a tight spot because it is impossible for him to repair the relationship with his Sovereign. He owes the King such a debt that he can never repay, even if he had three lifetimes. To underscore this fact, JESUS gives the debt a value: ‘ten thousand talents’, usually measured in silver. That means the man owed 750,000 pounds of silver to the King, but since he could not pay it, the King commanded that the man, his wife, and his children all be sold into slavery until the debt was paid, every penny.  

The servant, comprehending the dread that was to be released upon him and his family, begged the King for mercy. “And being moved with compassion, [the King] released him, and forgave him his debt” (St. Matthew 18.27). — Alas, the forgiven man was unmoved by the king’s kindness and mercy. — This is evidenced in the next scene, when we see this same man demanding a debt owed him by a fellow servant, a small debt in comparison to the debt he owed the King. In fact, the second servant owed the first servant 100 denarii, or 100 days of wages. Now it takes 6,000 denarii to equal 1 talent, of which the first servant owed 10,000 to the King. — The first servant showed no mercy to his neighbor and would not even give him a drop of forgiveness, though a barrel full had been given him. Instead, he refused to hear his peer’s cries for mercy (the same cries he had earlier offered to the King), and then demanded that this second servant, with his whole family, be sold into debtor’s prison until that servant could repay the original debt.  

Upon hearing this news, the King called the forgiven servant back into His Presence. Once there, the King said, “’You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not have had compassion on your fellow servant also, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him” (St. Matthew 18.32-34). — At the completion of the telling of this parable, JESUS says to Peter: “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses” (18.35). 

For a time, one could readily hear it said or read it on bumper stickers: ‘Christians are not perfect. They are forgiven.’ — No doubt, but I think the phrase needs a bit of sprucing up. — ‘Christians are not perfect. They are forgiven. And, so too, we forgive.’ — Is that the type of Christians we are – the type of Christian you are – the type of Christian I am? — Presented with the same scenario as the servant given a barrel full of divine forgiveness, how would you have acted? Would you have forgiven your fellow servant, or would you have cast him into debtors’ prison, he and his whole family, until he could repay his debt to you?  

St. James, the brother of our LORD, said the following: “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy” (St. James 2.13). — Brothers and sisters, the mercy of GOD demands reciprocation! It is not optional, but conditional, that we forgive as we have been forgiven. This principle is not about earning divine justification and forgiveness: it is about revealing the fruit of divine justification and forgiveness. — We cannot earn the King’s forgiveness, but in receiving it, we are required, as Christians, to reciprocate it back to Him by reflecting it in the world – forgiving others as we have been forgiven. The Apostle John puts it this way: “In this is love, not that we loved GOD, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if GOD so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4.10-11).  

We are to live like, love like, and forgive like GOD – not like the world – not like the academy – not even like our fellow Christians, but like GOD. — He is willing to forgive us 7×70 times, and then to keep forgiving as many times as we ask. — But after being forgiven such a large and incalculable debt and being kept from debtor’s prison, which of us would want to go on sinning and acquiring a new debt load? To this end, St. John says again: “Whoever has been born of GOD does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of GOD” (1 John 3.9). 

Today, the household of GOD, the Church, asks the Father to keep us in all godliness, that through His mighty protection, we might be kept from all adversities and permitted to do good works to the glory of His Name. To receive these benefits of GOD’s grace and mercy, let us understand that we must reciprocate the godliness that He has already shown unto us. — Thus, St. Mark’s, ‘if your brother sins against you, go and tell him about his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But be prepared, dear church, he might sin against you again – be prepared to forgive again and again and again, just as your Father has forgiven you – again, and again, and again.  

‘’Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times? — What do you think? — In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

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1 Henry, Matthew. BlueLetterBible.org. “Commentary on St. Matthew 18:21.” Accessed 11 November 2025. https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Mat/Mat_018.cfm?a=947021. 

2 Wright, Bp. N.T., Matthew for Everyone, (London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 40.