In 1986, the World Cup was held in Mexico. You wouldn’t remember it because, sadly, the US didn’t qualify. The tournament is best remembered for bringing to a world audience that pre-coronavirus activity loved by crowds gathered in stadiums known the Wave.
These days, the crowds who start the Wave tend to be really bored and it’s gives the fans something fun to do. This is why I’m really glad it hasn’t started here in our church. I would try it here in worship but it wouldn’t be very impressive with just the five to six people here for our online recording.
I was thinking of the the Wave phenomenon when reading over our Gospel lesson for today where Jesus tells the story of the unforgiving servant. This unforgiving servant was like that guy in the stadium who didn’t stand up when the wave made its way to his section. The only way the wave works is when people in each section of a stadium participate.
We have probably all been part of those times when a wave begins but then it fizzles out. It usually takes several starts before it catches on. They can be fun when they work and they can look really sad when they don’t.
In Jesus’ parable, he is telling us that this is how God’s forgiveness works. Forgiveness is meant to be like a great wave in which everyone participates.
Jesus begins his little story by telling about a king who was owed a lot of money. And by a lot of money, I mean a fortune that would take the average person many lifetimes to pay back. Even paying a little back at a time would not save this man. He and his family would have been caught in an unending financial disaster not just for their generation but for future generations as well. This servant was facing the crashing wave of long-term financial ruin.
And then Jesus, the story teller tells us the shocking news that this King out of an extraordinary act of compassion, forgave the massive debt that he owed. Instead of a wave of financial ruin, this gracious king unleashed a wave of amazing grace.
Now, wouldn’t this have been a great ending to Jesus’ story telling time? And the man was forgiven his gigantic debt and everybody lived happily ever after.
It’s this next part of the story that reveals where Jesus is going with all of this. As this servant was fresh off of his massive financial bailout by this gracious king, he runs into a slave that owes him some money, just a tiny fraction of the debt that he had just been forgiven.
The shocker in this parable is that the man who had just been forgiven of his massive debt, grabs this poor guy by the throat and demands that he pay it back immediately or he would have him thrown into prison. And this leaves us scratching our heads wondering, how this man could do such a thing.
It’s not rational. It’s confounding. You’re thinking, “there’s not something right with this guy.” Who would do such a thing?
If that is what we are thinking, then we are on the right track in understanding the point that Jesus is making about not being forgiven of a financial debt, but about being forgiven of a spiritual debt.
Receiving God’s grace and forgiveness is an incredible thing because there are a lot of people who are walking around thinking that they have to pay off their spiritual debts to God. They are walking around thinking that they have to live with the burden of carrying their regrets and their shortcomings for the rest of their lives. And so they end up punishing themselves and living in a prison of their own making.
But then God reminds them whether during a worship service when they hear the worship leader say, “In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven,” or when a friend comes alongside them and says, “Hey, God forgives you and you don’t need to carry that guilt,” or when you read a parable like the one today that reminds us that God is gracious, forgiving, compassionate and loving.
We are like that servant in the parable who owes God so much because of our sins and our brokenness and God tells us that his grace is sufficient. When that weight that you have been carrying for so long is finally lifted, it is replaced with a peace that is beyond human understanding.
I cherish those moments when people come to me as their pastor just to let me know that they have experienced the love and mercy of God in a new and fresh way. You can tell that they are different. You can tell that they have been transformed from the inside out.
When I was serving in my first church as a student pastor, my church organist called me on the phone and asked to see me. I said, “sure.” Thinking that I had done something wrong as a new pastor, I was worried about what she wanted to share with me.
I’ll never forget that meeting with her because as soon as she came into my office, her eyes were just gleaming. Without even saying a word, I knew right away that something really special had happened to her.
She said, “Robert, I just have to tell you this. Here, I have been a church organist all my life, and about a month ago, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.”
She said that even though she had always gone to church and knew all the hymns, that in many ways, she was just going through the motions in being a Christian. She had been feeling really empty and so she started to pray about it and that’s when she experienced Christ in a new way. She felt her sins forgiven, like she was a brand new person.
She said, “I’m now finding myself praying to God in a very natural way like two people having a conversation in the middle of the day.”
She said, “I feel so much more joy when playing the organ for worship. When I hear the people singing, it just fills my heart. I’m now listening to you when you preach. And the prayers we say now have meaning for me.”
I said, “Wait, what was that about my sermons?”
She couldn’t stop talking and telling me about all the ways that she felt different because of this new found peace in Christ.
She said that she just wanted to tell me about this change in her life. And she asked me for my thoughts on how she might keep that new fire kindled in her life. Her fear was that she would fall back in just going through the motions.
After celebrating her renewed faith, I told her to not be surprised if some of the joy she was experiencing would eventually subside because human emotions can do that from time to time. And I also told her that the best way to keep that joy alive would be to share it with others.
And so, Janet started finding ways to share her testimony and she got involved in the missions team of the church where she helped start some new projects to bless people in our community. Janet’s faith was alive like never before and she kept it alive by sharing it with others.
Janet started a wave in our little church and it grew and grew to where more and more people got splashed with God’s love.
This sharing of God’s forgiving grace is what was missing from the servant in Jesus’ parable. He thought that God’s love was meant only for him.
Jesus’ parable has a very unsatisfying ending as most of his parables do. After the servant refuses to show forgiveness toward someone just after he had been forgiven, the king in hearing about this had him thrown into prison.
At the heart of being a follower of Jesus is in not only receiving forgiveness, but being forgiving toward others as well.
In God’s economy, forgiveness begets more forgiveness. Compassion changes us and motivates us in being compassionate toward others. When we who are forgiven do not respond by being the ripples, being conductors of that mercy, we prevent God’s grace from spreading. This is the cost of God’s mercy.
And so, if you have received mercy, if God has forgiven you, the next step is to share it with others. Forgive those who have wronged you. Show mercy toward those who said something to you that probably could have been said in a much nicer way. Share what God has done for you especially with those who feel they are not worthy of forgiveness.
Go to those places of despair and brokenness and shine God’s love. Because when you keep God’s forgiveness to yourself, you’re really not free anyway.
You’re really only free when your willing to stand up when God’s wave of mercy reaches you. And even when you sit down, if you find that you enjoy seeing others taking their turns in standing up and making the wave even bigger, that’s when you’ll know that you are truly free.
The Wave
Sermon Discussion Questions
Matthew 18:21-35
September 13, 2020
Jesus’ parables like today’s of the unforgiving servant are always thought provoking. A man who owed an unbelievable amount of money to a king was to be thrown in prison but pleaded for mercy and the king forgave his debt.
How would you react if you had been forgiven that enormous amount of money?
The twist in the parable was that immediately after this man was forgiven an impossible debt to repay, he demands that someone who owed him a much smaller amount to pay him back in full or suffer the consequences. The person who owed him pleads for forgiveness but he threw him into prison.
Why do you think this man who had been forgiven a large sum of money turned around and refused to offer grace to someone who owed him money?
In his parable, Jesus is referring to receiving and offering forgiveness. Pastor Robert shared this thought in the sermon: “In God’s economy, forgiveness begets more forgiveness. Compassion changes us and motivates us in being compassionate toward others. When we who are forgiven do not respond by being the ripples, being conductors of that mercy, we prevent God’s grace from spreading.”
In what ways can we be the “ripples” in receiving and sharing God’s mercy and grace with others?
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