Dear Family at Christ Community,

This Sunday we will again be reminded of the merciful and gracious forgiveness that has been afforded to us through the broken body and shed blood of Christ as we celebrate the Lord’s Table together as family. The common elements of bread and cup will point us graciously to Christ’s payment of our incalculable debt due to God. The gravity of this reality should serve to sober and humble us given our utter inability to save ourselves. It should also stir within us a longing for others to be able to walk in light of this same forgiven freedom.

    Our time of worship will focus on the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant from Matthew 18: 21-35. In this parable, Jesus tells of a servant who owes the king a debt of 10,000 talents. This debt placed in terms that we can understand equals 200,000 years of wages (or millions, possibly billions, of dollars). In short, it is an insurmountable debt that this servant can NEVER repay. The servant even makes a ludicrous request by asking the king to have patience with him as he promises to pay it all back. The king responds by releasing him from his servitude which means he will NEVER again get into this kind of trouble with the king, AND he forgives the servant’s current debt in full. This means that the servant has been set free from the past, present, and the future. One would think that this would have a profound impact on the former servant and that his newly granted freedom would affect how he lives.

    Unfortunately, he immediately seeks one who owes him a manageable debt of 4 months wages (100 denarii) and physically assaults him. The fellow servant pleads for the same mercy and grace as the former servant but receives neither as he is thrown into jail. This sorrowful situation makes its way to the ear of the king who is greatly displeased with his former servant. His expectation was that the former servant would be transformed into an ambassador of forgiveness by his measureless forgiven-ness. The lack of transformation warrants judgment and results in the former servant being thrown in jail to pay the debt he had previously presumed paid. Jesus warns that unforgiveness in our hearts calls for the same judgment as evidence of our rejection of the payment of Christ on our behalf for our incalculable sin debt.

    This is the reason that we are called to leave the elements untouched until we have forgiven those who owe us so little in comparison to what we owe to God. Circumstances vary in terms of gravity and complexity, however, Jesus’ words do not allow us to declare a situation unforgivable that He has not declared unforgivable. Charles Simeon in his sermon “The Unmerciful Servant: Matthew 18:32-35” declares, “Every man owes to God a debt that exceeds all calculation – Nor can the debt which any fellow-creature owes to us, bear any proportion to that which we owe God. Yet we all hope to obtain of God a free remission and forgiveness; yea, provided we believe in Christ, our debt is already cancelled. Should not then a sense of mercy received, incline us to show mercy? Should we “take a fellow-servant by the throat,” when the great Lord of all has spared us?...It would be base indeed not to act towards an offending brother, as God has acted towards us, when we were enemies and rebels.” Take the time to consider your forgiven-ness and how it has made you more forgiving. Ask the Spirit to show you any areas of unforgiveness or people that you are withholding forgiveness from. Repent because of what Christ has done for you and seek change in your newness of life in Christ so that you may be nourished by the means of grace this Sunday!

In Christ,

Cameron