“DWELLING IN THE UNITY OF HIS BLOODY FORGIVENESS”
Saint Matthew 18: 23-35
22nd Sunday After Trinity: 23 October Anno Domini 2016
Father Jay Watson SSP
“If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities; O Lord who shall stand?” No one! All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The debt, which is how the sectarians (the Reformed) translate the Commandment, is the trespass—your trespass. Not a violation of property Law but a violent violation of Gods Holy Law. Adam and his mate trespassed at the Tree of Knowledge. You’ve trespassed an almost infinite number of times…many already this morning. Your debt to God is nearly uncountable and you can’t pay it. The wages of sin is death.
God died. God died for you and your unloving, uncaring, un-obedient, and unforgiving heart. Repent! Or do you not know what The Christ says: “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” [Mt. 7.21]
The same 1st Person of The Trinity which Jesus gives you permission to address as “Our Father.” Christ’s forgiveness of your debt is why His Father is your Father. The same Father, The same Christ which gives you the 5th Petition of said prayer: “forgive us our trespasses AS WE forgive those who trespass against us.” Do you not know what that means? As dense as the “12” were, you are, and thus He has given you this Good News from Matthew’s Evangel to be read and preached to you every 22nd Sunday after the celebration of The Holy Ghost’s descent upon Saint Matthew—that the Office of Christ’s Word would continue to the end of the age! The parable is for you; Christ is for you!
Jesus is the King and you—your sinful nature, your old fallen creation, is the servant who owes the ten thousand talents.
The story of Christ gives you two realities. The first is the bountiful, amazing, eternal and infinite love of The King. Jesus forgives you the entire debt by His will, Word, and in time—His Body given and His Blood shed at Calvary’s cross. Amazing Grace is not a weak, doctrinally deficient protestant favorite hymn, Amazing Grace is that Jesus suffered and died on the Tree for you the undeserving reprobate prodigal.
He doesn’t just give you this parable and a preacher for a yearly remembrance; He gives you His entire counsel contained in a book that is at your fingertips. Sacred Scripture for you to mark, read, learn, memorize, and internally digest. All Scripture speaks of Jesus and gives Christ Crucified for your forgiveness. “The Lord…moved with compassion…loosed…and forgave…the debt.”
All the great old stories in Hebrew writ illustrate Jesus for you. Noah’s two believing sons, Shem and Japheth, (which makes one think of the Christ’s Two Natures in perfect communion) covered their Father’s sin instead of mocking and holding it against him as the rebel Ham did. The blanket they used to cover their Father is a type of the robe that Jesus covers you with so that His Father accepts you as His own child.
Ishmael and Isaac were able to come together and forgive one another at the death of their Father Abraham. In faith, by God’s Grace the unity of the children with Their Father, in their Brother Jesus, by the Paraclete, forgive and restore. Do you?
After fearing his brother for close to two decades, for the sins which he had committed upon him, Jacob is forgiven by a magnanimous and grace-filled Esau. No acts of satisfaction were accepted by the hairy Edom. Do you demand your way and your triumph before freely forgiving that one person who owes you a debt…who has sinned against you?
Have you really been harmed more than was Joseph, the son of Rachel and Israel? Hated, almost murdered, lied about, and sold into slavery; have you endured his life of toil and betrayal? He forgave his brothers with tears of joy and peace—He was Christ for them! Do you forgive your sister, your brother, your Mother, your Father, your worst antagonist?
The 5th Petition means what it says. If you fail to forgive your enemy, your former friend, your…neighbor as yourself…then you are the first servant who did not accept, trust, and believe in His own Lord’s forgiveness of him. Then you are the unbelieving weed, tare, false-hearted pretender at the banquet. If you refuse to forgive you have no faith and The Holy Spirit will not be bound to your damned soul.
Repent. You do not want to hear Christ from His throne speak to you at His imminent second Advent “O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt [‘Father forgive them’]…shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee?”
And He has had pity and mercy and remission and loosing on you! He has washed you. He has placed you into His wounds. He will shortly be on your tongues. Do not despair fragile and incomplete one…He is your completion…the Author and FINISHER of your salvation. The good that you should do…that you don’t—forgiving your neighbor; the bad that you should refrain from that you don’t—holding grudges and marking scores…who will release from this bondage to hell? Thanks be to The God/Man who suffered and died for your atonement. Repent and believe the Kingdom of God is at hand. It is here at the altar and rail for this is where the pitying and forgiving King makes His home with you and for you. Come to His Table to receive forgiveness and to be united with The Forgiver. That where His pierced Heart continue to overflow in bloody love for all men…you too would, by the power of The Holy Spirit, love and forgive all…In Christ.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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