March 13, 2013
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 18:23-35
OBSERVATIONS
Jesus is a good story teller. The man owes more money than he could pay back in multiple lifetimes. Yet he pleads for mercy, and he gets it. The master absorbs the debt himself, no one pays it back, the master basically pays for it out of pocket. This is amazing generosity.
You’d think the guy would be blown away with gratitude, but when someone who owes him a couple of bucks asks for mercy, he refuses and sends him into debtors prison. Forgiven so much, yet he cannot forgive someone else a small amount.
Jesus point, what people owe us is nothing compared to what we owe God; if He can absorb our debt (and that of anyone who wrongs us too), should we not do the same?
Conclusion: “He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.”
What do you notice in this passage?
APPLICATION
My debt to God, others debt to me? No comparison.
But wait a minute, some people have had huge, horrible crimes committed against them, nothing compared to any debt anyone owes me, how can we compare them?
We can’t, and we shouldn’t. Among us we may speak of differences in debts owed, but when we stand before God, all of us have a huger (sp) debt to Him, no comparison.
How can my debt to God be so huge? Sins of commission (bad things I do) and sins of omission (good things I didn’t do), sins of the mind and sins of the body, every minor and major hurt that I have caused God or others or creation… it all adds up, beyond what I could ever straighten out with God.
Amazing grace!
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, I need forgiveness, and the people that have hurt me need forgiveness. We all do. Help me not to break the very bridge (ie forgiveness) that I need to reach You!
Jesus follower
trying to find His way
There is nothing like a practical example to bring home what a talk on theology never can. Forgive others as you are forgiven is what today’s story is about. In a timeless story like this, we can imagine being in the story, either as the person initially forgiving, or as the person who is forgiven, but cannot forgive others, or perhaps as the servants who report the unforgiving servant to the master.
Did this person not grasp the forgiveness he had just received? Do I grasp the forgiveness I have received? It is a hard concept to believe, in terms of eternal forgiveness of all my wrongs. It needs to be based on faith, and a belief that I need forgiveness, and that by grace, I am set free of all that I have done.
What then do I do with this? Certainly, I need to provide grace to others, I need to act out using the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience … . I can also be a conduit by which God’s forgiveness can be seen by others. I pray that I will be able to teach others, and make disciples. I pray that I will be able to freely forgive others.
Observations:
The first servant owed many lifetime wages in debt and could have never repaid. Oh what a relief. What a burden was lifted. And yet, a fellow servant owed him a few coins and the servant put the servant in ‘debtors’ prison for a lifetime since how can a man earn money from prison to repay the debt?
The attitude of gratitude didn’t last very long with the first servant and the Lord ‘recalled’ him and put him in ‘debtors’ prison til be paid back what he owed which would be never!
One needs to forgive from the heart.
Application:
The main point is in the last statement of Christ. Forgive from the heart.. When we do that, our actions, our doings, our emotions, our feelings, our all in all will show that we are Christians by our love. As the Lord God did the most amazing thing for me – forgiving my great ‘debt’ of more than 100,000 lifetimes but who’c counting – so too I must forgive those around me. Through Christ’s amazing love I too can love. Through His amazing grace I too nee to be graceful and that is only a possibility through His amazing grace – the cross which bridges the gap. Love one another. One-anothering.
Prayer:
Lord help me this day to live out Your grace in me to all those around me. Thank you for life everlasting and help me to live that life today.
Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear,
And Grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come.
‘Tis Grace hath brought me safe thus far
And Grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me.
His Word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.
When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.