Jesus The Jester #11 | Unforgiven

0:01 This fall, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church has been engaged in a study of the biblical parables. Along the way, we've been working with a basic premise. In the parables, Jesus acts the part of a jester. He questions the broken wisdom of the world. He invites people to look beyond vindictive patterns to adopt a new way of seeing. The banners outside our church, the ones facing Fifth Avenue, promote the parable series with these words. Christ's point is simple. The rules in God's realm are different.

0:50 Is that true? Does Jesus ask the disciples to go about their lives in ways that are fundamentally different from the ways of the wider society? To answer, let's turn our attention to another of Christ's parables. A somewhat shocking story that comes to us from Matthew chapter 18, beginning with the 21st verse.

1:26 Then Peter came to Jesus 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, 77 times. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him. And as he could not pay, his Lord ordered him to be sold together with his wife and children and all his possessions and payment be made. So the slave fell on his knees before the king saying, have patience with me and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the Lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii. And seizing him by the throat, he said, pay what you owe. Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me and I will pay you. But he refused. Then he went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, They were greatly distressed. They went and reported to their Lord all that had taken place.

3:31 Then his Lord summoned him and said to him, you wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave as I had mercy on you? And in his anger, his Lord handed him over to be tortured until he should pay his entire debt. So my heavenly father will also do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart. This is the word of God for you, the people of God. Thanks be to God. Thank you. In watching current events play out on the stage of human culture, it feels to me like this moment in history has embraced a distinct theme. It's there in pop culture, it's there in politics, It's there in foreign relations.

4:51 It's there in every news cycle. It's there in sports. Everyone seems to be on a revenge tour. In recent weeks, I've lost count of the number of times that the news cycle has centered on vengeance. Two significant figures in the world of rap, Kendrick Lamar and Drake, have engaged in a very public feud, each calling the other out with ever more intense lyrical insults. Heck, even Taylor Swift has gotten in on the payback scene. The singer who once counseled Shake It Off has more recently crooned, there's nothing I do better than revenge. The President of the United States has declared his fondness for taking revenge.

5:51 After declaring his intent to punish his enemies, the president has asked the attorney general to charge his political foes with crimes. Some, on hearing this shrug, say, well, they, the other side, weaponized the law first. After declaring that America runs on revenge at the highest levels, Slate, an online magazine, recently celebrated Revenge Week. During Revenge Week, Slate ran a series of stories detailing how revenge fuels and consumes American society. There were stories about spouses seeking revenge against ex-spouses, workers seeking revenge against bosses, students seeking revenge against teachers, children seeking revenge against parents, and neighbors seeking revenge against next-door neighbors.

6:58 It was a week full of pettiness, sneaky meanness, and out-and-out cruelty. What's behind all this vitriol? Why are we so consumed by thoughts of vengeance? Psychologists tell us that the answer to this question is fairly simple. When we suffer, we are quick to identify the cause of our pain. Who's doing this to me? Who's impugning my character? Who's trashing me on Instagram? Who's shooting missiles at my village? Who's dating my ex? Who's bullying my kid? Who's taking my business away? Who's humiliating me at work? Who is causing me pain. When I find out, I'm going to make them pay. This impulse, this instinct runs deep in us.

8:05 When we suffer at the hands of another, thoughts of vengeance quickly spring to mind. Look at our literature. Start with the Greek tragedies, move to Shakespeare's darker plays, and keep turning the pages until you get to the Count of Monte Cristo, the tale of a man who lives solely in the hope of implementing an elaborate plan for revenge. The arts know what boils in our veins. And they know that this issue is complicated. Even the most moral people, those who argue that revenge never really solves anything, can express sympathy for those seeking retribution. In the quest for revenge, we see shadows of humanity's search for, yearning for, justice.

9:06 I say shadows, for while notions of justice dance alongside people's plans for revenge, these plans are steeped in something darker. something harmful to the soul. In Shakespeare's A Merchant of Venice, Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, reminds his rivals that while Christians and Jews come from different cultures, they are both equally human. They share the same basic traits. You've heard his famous and eloquent speech before. If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you and the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge.

10:17 If a Christian wronged a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me, I will execute and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction.

10:38 I'm not that different from you, Shylock threatens. you may teach me to suffer, but I promise I will return the favor, and I intend to be a better instructor. To be human, Sherlock argues, is to hold others accountable for our pain, to calculate the damage, to up the ante, and to repay suffering with greater suffering.

11:14 God, on the other hand, we like to say, is above this. God is merciful, loving. God does not pay us back for our sins. That's what Barron said this morning. God does not seek revenge. Or so we thought. Today's parable begins with a description of enormous indebtedness. According to Jesus, a servant owes a king 10,000 talents. Now that's one heck of a tab. In the first century, it would take an average worker 16 years to earn one talent. 10,000 talents then is a king's ransom, a crushing debt, an impossible sum. The parable wants us to see the number here is ridiculous.

12:12 Scholar Tom Long suggests that Jesus is basically saying that the servant owes the king a bazillion dollars. Out of mercy, then, the king forgives the servant this impossibly huge debt. And that's when it hits us. Enormous debt, king's mercy. this isn't a story about money. It's a story about sin. We cannot work hard enough, long enough to rid ourselves of sin. So fortunately, the good book tells us God, out of mercy wipes the ledger clean. All that God asks in return as thanks for this great mercy is that we forgive our debtors. Easier said than done. The parable follows the servant as he runs from the king's chambers. Thank you, thank you, sir, the man shouts over his shoulder, and then cartwheeling down the hall, he careens into a co-worker, another palace grunt, who happens to owe him a hundred denarii. Now, a denarius is the sort of coin you might expect for a day of work.

13:41 A hundred denarii is a hefty bet in a poker game, but it's nothing compared to a bazillion dollars. Does this matter? No. Full of righteousness, the man whose debts were just forgiven grabs his colleague by the throat, smashes an IOU in his face, and demands payment. This tense and unsavory moment is depicted on the cover of your bulletin today. I have to admit, this is the first time I think I've ever put the scene of one person choking another person on our bulletin. But it's there, it's in the parable, right? When the second indebted soul cannot produce the cash, the previously forgiven servant throws him in prison. Do the forgiven servant's actions surprise us?

14:42 I'm guessing no. As much as we want to be forgiven for the wrongs that we have committed, as much as we want our friends and our family and even God to tear up the debts we have incurred, we also know how hard it is to let debts go. We hold on to grudges. We cling to grievances. We keep a ledger full of slights, insults, and injuries tucked away up here. We are loathe to tear up those pages. We want vengeance. It's so, so hard for us to forgive. And we wonder, does Jesus even realize what he's asking?

15:39 Forgive our debtors? Has he seen the nasty emails in my inbox? Has he met my boss? Does he know my dad? Has he spent time with my sister? He obviously hasn't been to Thanksgiving at my house. Does Jesus realize the size of the debts in our ledger? The only way that these old hurts can be satisfied is by some fresh suffering. There are people out there who ought to pay a price, a steep, steep price for all that they've done to us. That's how it works.

16:17 And here, you can actually see Jesus nodding. Have it your way, but be forewarned. When the king learns that the forgiven servant fails to extend the same grace to another citizen, the king hands the man over to be tortured. This about-face makes us want to cry foul. Really, Jesus, that's it? If we can't forgive, we're packed off to the torture chamber? That's God's sentence? No more chances? It's time for the rack, the electric prods, the thumb screws. Is God also on a revenge tour? Good question. Let's start with this.

17:13 The king's pronouncement is so harsh that we can almost miss its incredible descriptive power. In other words, as unsettling as it may seem, the fact is, this parable is true. Those who cannot forgive are without a doubt tortured souls.

17:47 Consider the world. Look at conflicts across the globe that fester, that linger, as each side gives an endless account of the wrongs that have been done to it by others. Wrongs incurred over decades, over centuries of conflict. These are tortured places, tortured peoples. A few years ago, a woman came into my office with a binder that she had filled with personal entries, copies of emails, pictures. It was a catalog of all the grievances she had against a former love. She handed it to me with care. It represented a thorough chronicling of all the wrongs that had been done to her.

18:46 I held it in my lap as we talked. It felt very heavy. When she left, she slipped the binder back into her backpack. Friends, the whole time that we sat together, I wanted to weep. I wanted to take her book outside on 55th Street, pour gasoline on it, and set it ablaze. But it was not, of course, my book to burn. So I watched her walk away with that weighty thing slung over her shoulder. Do we have any doubt, any doubt at all, that the debts we hold in our ledgers torture us? They torment us.

19:42 Is there a more tortured soul in all of English literature than Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly man who keeps a careful ledger of all the debts owed to him by the people in his impoverished London neighborhood? In the musical version of A Christmas Carol, the one with Albert Finney, not the one with the Muppets. Scrooge visits hell in the company of the ghost of Christmas future. In the dreamscape of hell, Scrooge is wrapped in a terrible chain that he is told is of his own devising. Link by link and yard by yard. Scrooge has shaped his own terrible torment.

20:43 And this revelation changes things for this keeper of debts. When Scrooge awakens and discovers that he hasn't yet been consigned to hell, He throws open the windows of his apartment. He declares to the world that he is ready to live. A new man, he goes out and buys a Christmas turkey for his clerk, Bob Cratchit. And then Scrooge runs to the center of town where, to the delight of his borrowers, he shreds page by precious page his book of IOUs. He tears up all the debts owed to him, and he dances away. my friends we all want to be forgiven of course we do but the strange harsh and yet very good news embedded in today's text is that Jesus will never let us forget how crucial it is how absolutely critical for the well-being of our souls that we extend forgiveness to others, that we shred the records that we're keeping of wrongs suffered and debts incurred. Theologian Lewis Smedes puts it this way. When we forgive, we set a prisoner free and we discover that the prisoner was us.

22:29 There's one surefire way to escape torment, says Jesus in today's parable. Forgive your brother or your sister from your heart. Do it. Do it again. Do it 77 times. And you will see.