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September 11, 2011 Romans 14:1-12 Matthew 18:21-35 '488 Times Too Many
Dr. Ted H. Sandberg

You`ve perhaps heard the story oI the Iarmer who was driving his wagon down the road. His wiIe was
seated next to him and a stubborn mule was pulling the wagon. For some reason, when they got to the
Iork in the road, the mule stopped and wouldn`t go any Iurther. So the Iarmer got down Irom his seat,
went to the Iront oI the mule and twisted the mule`s ear until the mule started up again. Once the mule
was moving, the Iarmer got back up on the wagon. As he was doing this, he said to the mule, 'That`s
once.
They continued on towards town, but again, just beIore they crossed the bridge, the mule stopped and
reIused to go Iorward. So the Iarmer got down oII the wagon again, once again twisted the mule`s ear
until it began to move, and then got on the wagon as it went by. This time he said to the mule, 'That`s
twice.
About a mile outside oI town, the mule stopped a third time, reIusing to pull the wagon any Iurther.
This time, the Iarmer got down, went to the Iront oI the mule, pulled out his gun, said to the mule,
'That`s 3 times! and shot the mule dead. The Iarmer said to his wiIe, 'Nothing crosses me. Now go
into town and buy us a new mule to pull this wagon to market. His wiIe replied, 'It`s too Iar Ior me
to walk. I think you should go. With that, the Iarmer set out, but as he did, he turned and said,
'That`s once!
Three strikes and out; three mistakes and we`re done. Society oIten seems to judge us that way
proud that they`ve given an extra mistake. The rabbis in Jesus` day had a similar theology. Because
the prophet Amos in his series oI condemnations oI the various nations had used the Iormula, 'For
three transgressions and Ior Iour... the rabbis decided that God would Iorgive three times, but punish
on the Iourth. They thereIore said, 'II a man commits an oIIence once, they Iorgive him; iI he
commits an oIIence a second time, they Iorgive him; iI he commits an oIIence a third time, they
Iorgive him; the Iourth time they don`t Iorgive. The thinking went that iI God punished on the Iourth
occasion, humans couldn`t be more gracious, more Iorgiving than God, so the limit on Iorgiving was
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Peter must`ve Ielt he was on pretty saIe ground, was being very generous when he suggested to Jesus
that he Iorgive 7 times. He was more than doubling the grace oI the rabbis. Can`t you just imagine
the selI-satisIaction that must`ve Iilled Peter when he asked Jesus about the Iorgiveness? 'Lord, iI
another member oI the church sins against me, how oIten should I Iorgive? As many as seven times?
Peter, I suspect, expected to be warmly commended; but Jesus` answer was that the Christian is to
Iorgive seventy-seven times, |or 70 x 7 times, depending upon the translation used.| In other words,
Jesus says there`s no practical limit to Iorgiveness.
To reinIorce this teaching, Jesus goes on to tell oI the king who was owed 10,000 talents. Remember,
each talent here was more than 15 years` wages oI a laborer. The incredible Iigure oI 10,000 talents
would represent the total revenue oI a wealthy province. According to the Jewish historian, Josephus,
the taxes paid in a year by Judea, Idumaea, Samaria, Galilee, and Peraea amounted to only 800


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talents.
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We`d say this servant was in way over his head. He was almost as much in debt as the U.S.
Anyway, when the King wanted to settle accounts, he called this servant beIore him, and since the
servant couldn`t pay what he owed, the king ordered him to be sold with his wiIe and children and all
that he had, and payment to be made. |Foreclosure in that day was even worse than it is today.| When
the servant heard the order, he Iell on his knees and begged the king, 'Give me a little more time. I`ll
have the money Ior you in 2 weeks. Actually, the check may even be in the mail as we speak. Jesus
then says, 'Out oI pity Ior him, the lord oI that slave released him and Iorgave him the debt.
It`s obvious that the servant was never going to be able to pay back the money he owed the king.
10,000 talents was equivalent to our own national debt. The king Iorgave the servant not because he
was never going to get his money, but because he was a gracious, Iorgiving King who Ior some reason
was Iilled with pity. And we must say he was an extremely rich king, a king willing to lose 10,000
talents.
The servant himselI, however, wasn`t nearly as generous with the Iellow servant who owed him a
hundred denarii, or a Iew months wages, about 1/500,000 oI what he himselI had just been Iorgiven.
'Pay what you owe, he demanded oI the servant. But when this servant pleaded Ior more time, and
we have every reason to believe that he could`ve raised the money with more time, the Iirst servant
reIused, and instead, Ioreclosed on the mortgage and sent the servant to prison until the debt was paid.
This kind oI thing doesn`t stay secret, however. The other servants spread the word oI the servant`s
cruel behavior to the King. When the King got those reports, he summoned the servant back and said
to him, 'You wicked slave! I Iorgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not
have had mercy on your Iellow slave, as I had mercy on you?` Evidently, the Iorgiveness oI debt
papers hadn`t yet been Iiled in court and so 'in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he
would pay his entire debt.
Jesus` point is that iI God has Iorgiven us the tremendous debt we owe God, then we`re to Iorgive the
small debts that are owed to us. Nothing we`re called upon to Iorgive can even remotely compare with
what we`ve been Iorgiven. We`ve been Iorgiven a debt that`s beyond all paying Ior the sin oI
humanity brought about the death oI God`s own Son and, iI that`s so, we are to Iorgive others as
God has Iorgiven us, or, Matthew says, we can expect no mercy Irom God. That`s a Irightening
thought.
But we all know it`s hard Ior us to Iorgive. There`s a rabbinic story about a beggar who stopped at
Moses` tent seeking bread. Moses invited him to dine at his table. However, beIore eating, while
Moses praised God Ior the Iood, the beggar sat in silence. 'Why do you not praise God? Moses
demanded. The beggar shrugged and said, 'Why should I praise God? What has God done Ior me?
And why has God allowed me to be so poor?
This response so angered Moses that he took up his staII and drove the beggar out, unIed. When the
beggar was gone, God came to Moses and asked, 'Moses, why did you not Ieed the beggar, and why
did you beat him? 'Because, replied Moses, 'he would not praise You, Lord. 'Moses, said God,

1. Beare, Francis W., The Gospel According to Matthew, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA, 1981, p.
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'I have had mercy on that ungrateIul man Ior thirty years; could you not put up with him one night?
It`s not easy Ior us to Iorgive. It`s not easy Ior us to be merciIul. We`re more like the Iarmer who`s
willing to shoot the mule dead on the third mistake. We may Iorgive once, maybe twice. But we
don`t oIten think about Iorgiving the 488 more times that Jesus teaches we`re to Iorgive, or even the
75 more times that we`re to Iorgive iI we go with the NRSV`s translation. We more oIten want
justice, at least Ior the other person. We want justice when we`ve been wronged; mercy only when
we`ve wronged another.
I conIess that preaching on Iorgiving is a diIIicult task on this Sunday when we remember the great
atrocity committed by the jihadists 10 years ago today. II it`s diIIicult Ior us as individuals to Iorgive,
how much more so is it Ior us as a nation to Iorgive such unconscionable acts. Even as I watched the
World Trade Towers collapse, I remember wanting justice even revenge against those who`d
planned and carried out that terrible act. I didn`t even think about Iorgiveness then. Indeed, I`m not
sure even today what Iorgiveness means in the aItermath oI such senseless destruction. What does it
mean to Iorgive those who killed nearly 3,000 people, people who were simply going about their
normal, everyday lives? What does it mean to Iorgive those who hate America so much that they
would go to such lengths to kill men, women, and children who`d done nothing to them? Is the
Iorgiveness that Jesus demands Irom us even in the realm oI possibility?
I believe the answer is 'Yes, Iorgiveness is possible, even required, even Ior those who planned and
executed the attack 10 years ago. But beIore you jump up and say how crazy I am Ior suggesting that
Iorgiveness is possible, let me hurriedly add that Iorgiveness is possible when we understand what
Jesus means by Iorgiveness.
First, understand what Iorgiveness isn`t. Forgiveness is 34t letting bygones be bygones. Forgiveness
is 34t turning the other cheek and allowing our enemies to injure or destroy us. Forgiveness is 34t
saying to al-Qaida, 'You shouldn`t have done that, but we Iorgive you, and then going back to liIe as
usual. That`s not Iorgiveness and I don`t believe that`s what Jesus is teaching here or anywhere else.
To understand what Jesus is teaching, it`s important to understand what Jesus means by Iorgiveness. I
suppose most oI us would say that Iorgiveness means the removal oI sins, and we`d be right in
thinking that. This is what God does Ior us when God Iorgives us. God removes the sins Irom our
souls that Iorm a barrier between us and God. We can`t remove those sins on our own. We can`t
remove the barrier between us and God that our sins erect, but God can and God does Iorgive,
removes the barrier oI our sin so that we can be one with God. And God continually Iorgives, because
we continually sin. God Iorgives us much more than the 490 times Jesus tells Peter that we`re to
Iorgive others.
As I`ve just suggested however, only God can Iorgive sins. Humans don`t Iorgive sin. So what does
Jesus mean when he tells us to Iorgive one another? I believe that at the heart oI what Jesus is
teaching us is that we`re to remove the barriers between us and the one who has harmed us, or go to
the one we`ve harmed and work to remove the barrier that we`ve built between us. I believe
Iorgiveness, on the human level, is all about reconciliation between people.
Reconciliation includes, but is not limited to, justice Ior the injured party. I don`t know how the US
could`ve been reconciled to our enemies iI true justice wasn`t a part oI the equation. Reconciliation, in
part, meant bringing those responsible Ior those terrible attacks to justice. That probably meant


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sending troops into AIghanistan, although I`m not positive about that. I do know that reconciliation,
removing the barriers between the injured party and the party that has done the injuring, is seldom, iI
ever, accomplished by true war. War brings out the worst in people, and basically creates more
barriers between Ioes.
I`m much more inclined to believe that what`s needed to enIorce justice between nations so that
reconciliation can be brought about is something like a police Iorce, rather than armies. This isn`t the
time or place to outline what I mean by this other than to say that a police Iorce would have a limited
objective. Find Osama bin Laden, Ior example, and bring him beIore the world court, iI possible.
That probably would`ve also meant diminishing the power oI al-Qaida. It wouldn`t have meant 10
years oI war, costing us the lives oI nearly 5,000 troops, the lives oI countless civilians, and billions
and billions oI dollars.
There are those who say that seeking peaceIul solutions to world problems is Iutile, is naive.
Negotiations, talking about peace, working towards peace, doesn`t work, they say. Only a military
option works. AIter 10 years oI war, I don`t believe that war works all that well. I`m much more
willing to take a chance and work Ior peace by striving to Iorgive our enemies, which means to be
reconciled with them.
Jesus concluded this teaching by saying, 'So my heavenly Father will also do to every one oI you, iI
you do not Iorgive your brother or sister Irom your heart, that is, God will not Iorgive unless we
Iorgive. We are to work to break down the barriers between us and those around us. And iI we don`t?
II we seek revenge, or close our hearts to those who`ve injured us then Jesus seems to be saying that
God will require Irom us the debt that we owe God. I don`t even want to think about that debt. May
we as individuals, and we as a nation, work to be obedient to Jesus` teachings. Amen.