Forgiveness Is the Key to Peace

Homily for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost

1 Corinthians 9:2-12......................Matthew 18:23-35

Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. ~ 1629 AD Claude Vignon

We don’t come across many places in the Holy Gospels where Jesus threatens us or warns us about the anger or punishment of God the Father. Usually, the Gospels tell of God’s mercy, love, forgiveness, and healing. So, when we do read a Gospel story that tells of anger and punishment, it really stands out. When we read such a story, we have to pay close attention to see what sorts of actions or sins provoke God to respond in such a terrible way.

Today’s reading from St Matthew’s Gospel is one of those stories. When the servant who owes his master millions asks for mercy and more time to pay, the master wipes out his whole debt. Yet, when that servant meets someone who owes him only a small amount, he attacks him, rejects his plea for mercy, and has him thrown in jail. The master hears of this gross injustice and turns the wicked servant over to be tortured until he repays his debt.

At the end of the passage, Our Lord Jesus tells us quite clearly that God will do this to us unless we forgive others from our hearts.

I think it is obvious that Jesus threatens us with eternal punishment if we do not forgive because forgiveness is the key to peace. Only mercy and forgiveness make possible peace between friends, peace in families, in communities, in countries, between countries.

And God knows we truly need peace in the world—Russia continues to attack Ukraine; the White House and the Pentagon thought the US could score a quick and easy victory if we would attack Iraq, but instead prompted military retaliation and aggression all over the Middle East and also wreaked havoc on the world economy; authoritarian regimes deploy masked military forces to terrorize their own people; anti-Jewish violence destroys synagogues and schools and innocent lives; public figures suffer verbal threats and physical assaults. And those are just the incidents that come to mind first.

Like the master in today’s Gospel reading, we must forgive, or like the wicked servant, we will be punished. Each of us can do better at forgiving—someone in our family we refuse to speak to, someone at work who gets in our face, another child at school who bullies or cheats, an abusive spouse or parent, someone who has offended or betrayed or hurt us or someone we love.

Yes, forgiving is difficult. Instinctively, we want revenge or retaliation. In the two verses just preceding the passage we read today, Peter asks Jesus, “If my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive?” And Jesus replies, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy times seven times.” The Lord doesn’t mean this as a limit; He’s not saying you can forgive 490 times, then take revenge. He means that forgiveness doesn’t happen on the first try, but must be repeated over and over again. Forgiving from our heart requires a conscious and deliberate decision to move beyond the offense we have received. The offense remains, but we give it to God to deal with. We remember the hurt or the betrayal or the insult, but by forgiving repeatedly we no longer have to dwell on it or let it burden us or tempt us to sin in return.

We can do this, and we must do it. If we understand that today’s reading is a parable, and that the merciful master represents our merciful God, and if we also recall that we are created in the image and likeness of our merciful God, then by our nature we should forgive. If we refuse to act according to our creation in God’s image and will not forgive, how can we hope to be forgiven? If we don’t forgive our brother’s or sister’s sin against us, we compound the offense by sinning against God. In God’s justice, then, we condemn ourselves to eternal punishment.

But if we show mercy and forgive, we shall receive mercy and forgiveness when we ask God for them. Peace in our families, our communities, our countries, and our world can begin with us, when we do the will of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever and to ages of ages. Amen.