Sermon for the week of Trinity 22
Deuteronomy 7:9-11 + Matthew 18:23-35
You heard a moment ago Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful servant, and of God’s expectation that those who have received mercy from Him will behave mercifully toward others—or else forfeit the mercy they once received from God. It’s a parable that highlights both the Lord’s great goodness and mercy toward sinners, freely shown to the one who humbles Himself before his God, and the warning for those sinners who think they are free to refuse mercy to their fellow sinners.
That teaching of Jesus was actually nothing new. It was the same thing God taught the people of Israel in the Old Testament Law. But most of the Jews misunderstood the Law, and, as a result, they neither kept it, nor did they perceive the Gospel promises that were hidden there.
In our Lesson from the book of Deuteronomy, we see God laying it out before the Israelites. In the verses leading up to our Lesson, Moses reminds the people of the great and merciful deeds God had done for them in bringing them out of the slavery of Egypt, freely, at no cost to them, without their having earned or deserved it. He reminds them of the special place God had given them in His kingdom, bringing them into a covenant with Him, making them His own, special people.
Now, in the words of our Lesson, Moses reminds them to acknowledge the goodness of God, and His faithfulness to His promises: Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.
“With those who love Him.” What does it mean to love God? In this context, love for God includes five things: It includes (1) humility before the Lord, a recognition of one’s unworthiness, an admission of one’s sin and guilt. It includes (2) an appreciation of the Lord’s great mercy. It includes (3) trust in the Lord’s promise to show continual mercy, and to forgive sins. It includes (4) a desire and commitment to follow the Lord’s commandments. And it includes (5) a merciful attitude toward one’s neighbor, a small reflection of the mercy God has shown to us.
In other words, love for God includes repentance, and the fruits of repentance. Where there is genuine repentance, and faith in God’s promise to forgive for Christ’s sake, there will also be fruits of repentance, a desire and a commitment to keep God’s commandments. That’s love for God. And where there was love for God among His covenant people Israel, He promised to faithfully keep His covenant with them, to be their God, to forgive their sins, that is, the debts they had piled up with Him for their failures.
But where any one of those parts of love was missing—humility, appreciation of God’s mercy, trust in His promises, a commitment to follow His commandments, and a merciful attitude toward one’s neighbor—there was not actually love for the Lord, but hatred of Him, no matter how much they claimed to love Him. In such a case, God promised to repay, to punish, to destroy the one who hates Him. He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.
That’s what we saw the king doing in Jesus’ parable with the unmerciful servant. That servant who had received such a great gift from the king—the forgiveness of a debt that was 600,000 times greater than the debt his fellow servant owed him—didn’t actually love the king, even after that great forgiveness took place. If he had loved the king, that love would have spilled over into his dealings with his fellow servant. Instead, he was ruthless toward his fellow servant and refused to forgive him even the small debt he owed, even when his fellow servant humbled himself before him, showing that he, the unmerciful servant, actually hated the king who had shown him such great kindness. When the king heard about it, he repaid the wicked servant who hated him to his face, just as God had said, through Moses, He would do.
Therefore, God said to Israel, you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them. It was for their own good to keep them, and for their own downfall if they refused.
These words echo the words in the Conclusion of the Ten Commandments in our Small Catechism: What does God say about all these commandments? He says: “I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, who visits the sin of the fathers upon their children who hate Me, to the third and fourth generation; but to those who love Me and keep My commandments, I do good for a thousand generations.” What does this mean? God threatens to punish all who transgress these commandments; therefore, we should fear His wrath and not disobey them. But He promises grace and every blessing to all who keep them; therefore, we should also love and trust in Him, and gladly obey His commandments.
One of those commandments is to love your neighbor. Another is to appreciate how greatly God has forgiven you, and the high price He paid to earn your forgiveness—the suffering and death of His beloved Son, that you might be saved from sin, and death, and the devil. And if you appreciate the mercy you’ve been shown, you won’t be a heartless wretch who refuses to show mercy to the one who seeks it from you.
This isn’t a command to forgive the one who willfully and impenitently sins against you. It’s a command to forgive the penitent, from the heart, and to recognize, with great humility, that any amount of mercy you might show to your neighbor, is a drop in the ocean compared to the mercy you yourself have received from the God who loves you, from the God who is also worthy of all your love, and obedience. And if you have failed to forgive when you ought, if you’ve hated God for a time, then it’s time to start the process over, by humbling yourself before God in repentance and fear, standing in awe of His ongoing promise to forgive you for Christ’s sake, and then producing the fruits that are in keeping with repentance, including the fruit of forgiving others, out of love for God. Amen.
