Unfinished Business of Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

September 14, 2008

Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.

If we were asked to choose a place around the world that is unsettled, divided, and a powder keg ready for an explosion, we would say, “the Middle East.” A few of you thought about joining the Holy Land Tour this past summer but decided not to come because you were afraid of this troubling part of the world.

If you have been to Israel or other countries in the Middle East, you would know what I am talking about. Security is on high alert. Soldiers carrying submachine guns around. And while statistically speaking, Jerusalem and Israel are just as safe as visiting or living in San Francisco and Oakland, we were warned to be on guard.

The reason for this fear is the tension that exists among the people who live in the Middle East. After the 1967 War and the Six-Day War, Israel has increasingly occupied more of the land that the United Nations assigned to the Palestinians in 1948. There’s tension everywhere that you can feel and sense.

But did you know that Christians have our own tensions too? In the Old City of Jerusalem, one of the most sacred sites is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is the recognized site of where Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb. Since the time of King Constantine in 326 AD, this is the place where Golgotha, the place of Calvary and the crucifixion and the tomb where Jesus rose on Easter morning are located. Down through the years, a very large structure has been built over these sites so pilgrims like us can come to visit and pray.

But did you know that there are 6 sanctuaries representing different Christian groups in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre? Over the centuries, these Christian groups could not agree on things leading to rivalry and mistrust. They couldn’t agree on simple things like who should clean the church or open up the church in the morning and close the church at night. In order to settle these disputes, known as “The Status Quo,” the Ottoman government in 1852 assigned a Muslim key holder who has no interests in these religious sites to open and close the church!

To this day, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a divided church. Down through the ages, Christians have had their share of divisions, conflicts and tensions that call for reconciliation and forgiveness. The twelve disciples argued among themselves about favoritism and power. In Acts, we see the splits between Peter and Paul and Apollos. There were holy wars done in the name of God and heresies since our beginnings until this very time. There is not a major denomination in this country that is not having serious trouble today.

What are we to do with our troubles? We do what Christians have been doing in worship since our beginnings. We open up the book and listen closely. When the apostolic church started to experience division and strife, they piece together the teachings of Jesus that we now know as the Gospels. One of the things Matthew wanted to do was to help the struggling church find its way through these differences and tensions. Those early believers were looking for help on how they might create and sustain real community. So Matthew’s Gospel provided direction to help the church maintain a meaningful fellowship in a hard time.

How Often Should I Forgive?

What is the glue that holds this thing we call the church together? What is it that keeps the walls down or at least tears the walls down once they’ve come up? What is it that moves us down the road without killing off each other? What keeps the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem opened to pilgrims besides the Muslim that has no interests in Christ at all?

To understand today’s text, we will need to go back to the beginning of the chapter in Matthew 18. Peter and the other disciples wanted to know who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven; perhaps hoping that Jesus might point to one of them. Jesus said the greatest would be like a child. Jesus told them not to put a stumbling block between those who are weak from getting to know him. They were to help one another. He told them to be like a shepherd who goes out after one lost sheep. Even if the sheep shouldn’t have gotten lost, Jesus said we still have to go after it. And if a member of the church sins against you—hear this—sins against you—you have to do something about it. You have to reconcile. You have to get together. You can’t just sit there all puffed up saying that you’re the victim—no fault of mine type of attitude. You have to do something about those warring groups in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre!

Peter heard everything that Jesus said. He took that whole conversation to heart. The Lord’s words were about greatness and about helping the weak ones. He heard about finding the lost sheep. He heard Jesus’ words about reconciliation. Peter must have thought about those who he had disagreement with. He must have remembered the faces of those who despised him. Jesus’ words must have made him remember all the troubles that he has had following this rabbi.

From this context, Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy times seven.”

Notice what Peter said, “How often should I forgive someone who has hurt me?” He decided to be generous. Seven times, Lord? The rabbis always said to forgive someone three times. Peter was going more than the second mile. But if someone offends me, trips me, makes me lose my job, or just cheats and lies and just makes life miserable for me—how often should I forgive them? Seven times, asks Peter. Wouldn’t that be great, Lord?

It was quiet for a moment. Jesus answered his friend. “Peter, not seven times but seventy times seven.” Now some Bibles say seventy-seven times while others say when you multiply seventy times seven, that’s 490 times! The point that Jesus is making is that it’s unlimited. You don’t need to take out your calculator to figure out that seventy times seven gives you 490. When someone in the church sins against you, you as the victim seek for reconciliation and forgiveness as long as it takes.

There was a cartoon about the prodigal son. The father was going down the road to meet his boy and the caption reads: “I’ll be glad when this boy grows up; this is the sixth calf I have had to kill.”

Now Peter would have empathized with the prodigal son’s father.

Matter of the Heart

Jesus teaches us that it’s not three times or seven times or seventy-seven times or 490 times. It isn’t about math. It isn’t about score keeping. Forgiveness is an attitude, a way of life. It’s a matter of the heart.

Matthew envisioned the Christian church as a community where we learn to forgive. When there are differences, the church is the place where we hammer out these hard things between us.

Have you ever watched or participated in some of those town hall meetings about some problem in the community—perhaps the tree-sitters on the UC Berkeley campus? People are just furious, red-faced, sitting there all puffed up, saying some of the ugliest things to their neighbors or to the officials who have come to explain things.

Now things like this doesn’t happen at FCBC! But it does remind me of some church meetings I have been to through the years. We in the church have not always done a very good job of dealing with forgiveness and reconciliation. But this is to be one of the differentiating points between Christians and the rest of the world.

Four hundred and ninety times. Peter says—490? And Jesus nods his head. And 490 times does not mean to keep a record. It does mean that forgiveness is a way of life and never some isolated, occasional act of generosity. Forgiveness, then, is the constant work of Christians. Forgiveness is our unfinished business.

Who is it you cannot forgive? Who is it that hurt you so bad?

They may be dead but the power of that hurt still lingers. You may have thought that once that person is gone, out of sight, never to be physically here again would bring an end to this hurt. But somehow this person in the grave continues to hurt you. Jesus tells you that when you forgive this person in your heart, there will be no more hurt anymore.

The person who hurt you could be sitting week after week on the pew in front of you. It maybe someone in one of our other worship services who may have misunderstood you or you may have misunderstood him. Jesus tells us that you have as much responsibility as the other person to seek reconciliation.

The person who have hurt you so bad might be someone you feel betrayed you, dragged your feelings down the pits. You may feel that your heart is broken. Jesus tells us that forgiveness in the church is a two-way street. We can learn to forgive even when we think that those who hurt us have not apologized. It’s not something that we keep score. It’s 490 unlimited times because it’s a matter of the heart.

This is what makes the Christian community different from the rest of the world. We choose to forgive first.

There’s an unbreakable bond between the forgiveness of God and the forgiveness we are to offer one another, making it illogical and impossible to accept the mercy of the Lord and then refuse to extend mercy to others. Jesus taught us this in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12).

Forgive us our debts—that’s what we ask of God. As we have forgiven our debtors—that’s what we offer to others—especially those who have hurt us. You can’t have one without the other. Knowing that God is merciful to us, we become a community of merciful people. We can never finish the business of forgiveness because there’s so much more forgiveness we need to do.

Forgiveness in the World

We are in the midst of an important election year. With election day less than two months away, the campaigning, debates, news hour interviews, and smearing will no doubt be ugly and unforgiving. My personal hope is that someone will come out at the end committed to a safer and more peaceful world.

This message and the season that we are in reminds me of a story at the end of the Civil War and a group gathered outside the White House and President Lincoln came out to say a few words to the crowd. It was a great time of celebration. A band was there. The President talked briefly about the horrors of war and then he joked a little because he had a sense of humor. The people were delighted and exuberant that they have won the war that had been going on for four years. Lincoln talked about how important it was to get back together and heal the nation’s wounds and let brothers and sisters join each other once again. Then he said, “In a few moments, I want the band to play and I am going to tell them what I want them to play.”

The crowd thought he would get them to play “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” that had become their theme song. But Lincoln said, “I wonder if we, in winning the war, have the right now to play the music again…if maybe that’s not appropriate.” That should have been a clue to what he was going to say. Because he turned to the band and said, “Now this is what I want you to play—I want you to play Dixie.”

The band almost dropped their instruments. For a minute they just stood there with the crowd openmouthed. They looked at one another. They didn’t have the music to Dixie. They haven’t played Dixie for quite a while. Then after a long pause the band finally got together and they played Dixie. There was not a dry eye in the crowd.

I wonder when will the Israelis and the Palestinians come together and live as sisters and brothers. I wonder when will Christians around the world and particularly leaders at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem begin to see that they all make up the Body of Christ.

When we forgive we play music we never thought we could play and sing songs we never thought we could sing. This is really one of the great distinguishing marks of the church. Seventy times seven. Forgiving seventy times seven is our unfinished business that we have in the world.

Let us pray.

Lord, you taught us in the disciples’ prayer to ask God to forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors. We confess that we forget our own indebtedness to you and to so many others. We confess that sometimes it feels good just to look down our noses in judgment on one another. Teach us to deal with our own unfinished forgiveness. Help the church give out this healing treasure to one and all. And help us to do our part to make this forgiveness a reality. Amen.