Book Keeping

Last Sunday, we discussed what forgiveness is and isn’t. I like how Rob Bell thinks about it. Forgiveness is not condoning what happened. Forgiveness isn’t saying that what happened didn’t matter or affect us. Jesus still bore the scars of the crucifixion. Forgiveness isn’t reconciliation. You can forgive and never even tell the person or see them again. Forgiveness isn’t waiting for the other person to say they are sorry, we could be waiting forever. Forgiveness isn’t enabling the behavior to continue, it often comes with boundaries.

Forgiveness is a part of who God is. Forgiveness is a process.

Last Sunday, Peter asked Jesus how often he should forgive, “Like, 7 times?”

Jesus says, “Not seven, but seventy-seven or seventy times seven times.” And then he tells the story we have heard today.

There’s a lot going on in this text, so we’re going to take it line-by-line, as we can miss what all is going on in the text. The Bible is a wonderful thing, yet it’s over 2,000 years old, set in a different time, culture, and context than ours.

“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him;

10,000 talents is a huge some of money. Jesus starts this parable at an absurd place. A king has given a slave a bajillion dollars. A king, top of society, totally in control, his word is law and his family’s word is law, they are the richest people around… gave a nobody, someone at the bottom of society, someone who doesn’t have family name or title or anything…. A bajillion dollars.

25 and, as he could not pay,
Of course he couldn’t pay! According to scholars, a talent was worth more than fifteen years’ wages of a laborer.[1] We’re looking at 150,000 years’ worth of wages. He’s not going to be able to pay this.

The king ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made.

This may sound cruel, and by our societal standards it is! In context, this is what good rulers do. This is the tradition, it’d be what we expect from our king. This is good book keeping.

If we were in business together, and one of our customers couldn’t pay, we’d sue. It’s what good businesses do. It’s the natural course of things. We must settle up accounts. We must make sure our income is greater than our expenses and live within our means. We must make sure we’re getting what was promised. Which reminds me, how are you doing on your tithe to the church?

26 So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’
I love this line. It’s like me coming up to you and saying, “Look. You owe me $50 million, and it’s time to pay up.” And you say, “Yeah, uh, I don’t have it right now. Can I pay you Thursday?”

That’s hysterical! There’s no way for this guy to pay back what he owes in his lifetime or in the lifetime of his children’s children. But he says, “I just need a little more time…” Come on now! I love this! It’s great storytelling.

27 And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.

The king hears this and forgives the debt. This is bad book keeping. Kings don’t do this. The king is no longer playing the book keeping game. He’s playing something else. “Out of pity for him” in Greek is the word “splanchnízomai”[2] which literally means to have your bowels yearn. To be deeply moved, to be viscerally moved in your guts. You know that feeling?

I think of that first drop of a roller coaster. Or going over a country road too fast. Or a commercial that you cry at. Or that song that really gets to you each and every time you hear it. You know that feeling?

So the king, due to his own internal calculations that we aren’t privy to, is moved in his splanchnízomai, and forgives the debt.

28 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.’ 29 Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.

The roles now are reversed. That same slave goes to one of his coworkers, seizes him by the throat, and says, “Give me that $1,000 you owe me!” But he doesn’t forgive the other slave and he throws that guy in jail. The stakes weren’t as high, it was way less money. And the slave who was just forgiven a MASSIVE sum of money won’t forgive what he’s owed.

I think the first slave thinks that his argument worked with the king. “I went in front of the king, and I argued my case and won.” The slave is still playing the book keeping game that the king stopped playing. He misses the entire point of the exercise and goes on to assault and throw another slave in jail.

Here is a universal truth. I’m very careful about making bold proclamations of things that are always true, but here’s one I think is always true: We always ask forgiveness when we know we’re wrong. We’re reluctant to give it when we’ve been wronged.

“Hey man, so sorry. Can you forgive me?” I have said this a million times over to friends I have wronged. Forgiveness is what we immediately turn to and rely on. Yet when the tables are turned, is this the first thing we’re looking for?

When we have wronged someone, we want them to erase the accounts, to toss the books, to forget all about it. Yet when we’ve been wronged, we can go right to the books. We go right back into that game. I know it’s true for me, and I think that’s true for most of us.

In my senior year of high school, my friend Chad asked if I could buy his lunch. We were at some fast food place. It wasn’t going to break the bank. Yet I responded how he still hadn’t paid back the $5 he borrowed from me sophomore year. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I was embarrassed. Chad just looked at me.

I was keeping books on my buddy. How petty. How insignificant. How harmful that could have been to our relationship at that moment. I was surprised at my angry tone. I was surprised that it came out. I bought him lunch and apologized. I was so ashamed.

What petty stuff we carry around. We often keep a record of all the slights inflicted upon ourselves.

The slaves saw what happened and they reported his actions to the king. The king said, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ Then the slave his handed over to be tortured until he can repay his debt.

Then Jesus’ chilling conclusion… “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

I believe it as Robert Capon once said, “The human race is positively addicted to keeping records and remembering scores. What we call our ‘life’ is, for the most part, simply the juggling of accounts in our heads. And yet, if God has announced anything in Jesus, it is that God, for one, has pensioned off the bookkeeping department permanently. The shop is closed, boarded up, and gone.”[3]

Yet it’s hard to shake our addiction. It’s deep within us. The first slave couldn’t. His mental process thought he earned his way off the books, but the forgiveness didn’t reach his heart. He was a bitter person, who then inflicted his unforgiven state on others.

I once heard a story from the Pashtun Tribe who live in Afghanistan. There once was a boy from a certain tribe whose goat was killed by a rival tribe when he was 6 years old. The boy grew into a man, and then to an old man. He never forgot and he never forgave. This is the way of the world, ‘we keep the books,’ said his family and culture. “We never forgive, we never forget. Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

On his 100th birthday, God revealed to the man it was the last day of his life. The old man hobbled over and took his revenge, killing a goat of the rival tribe. And as he lay on his death bed, his family scolded him for taking his revenge too soon.

Do you see where our book keeping gets us? Do we want to live in such a world? A man held a grudge for 94 years… That man was tortured for 94 years and taking revenge solved nothing. It only kept the pain in the world. It only kept it in circulation.

As disturbing as the ending of the parable is, I’m more disturbed and puzzled by the King’s forgiveness. God is not keeping the books on us. God will if we want, but that’s a choice we make.

Not forgiving is like taking a poison and hoping the other person will die. The God we find in Jesus is a God that would rather die than keep violence in circulation. God does not want us to be tortured, but to live a free life that gives life to our neighbors and creation. God is not in the book keeping game, why should we be?

It’s very tempting. It’s easier because it’s cause and effect. Yet God is not playing that game. Due to God joining our common life, dwelling among us in Christ, God bowels yearned, splanchnízomai and forgives the debt due to God’s own internal considerations, known only to God. Hence our Catholic kin and our own German Reformed ancestors would call this, “The Mystery of Grace.”

The Good News is that we are forgiven! Yet we often keep the books. Both individually and corporately. Compromise is a dirty word in our politics. One side wants a certain thing done and another wants the opposite, and the far ends of the political spectrum will not accept anything less than their own way immediately… that’s hell. That’s torturous. That’s keeping the books. How’s that working out for us? Here’s how we’ve been slighted and we’ll remember and take our revenge in 94 years! Democracy cannot work without compromise. Our unforgiving hearts are a danger to our life together in the church and in America.

Yet we are citizens of another community as well. Heaven isn’t going to be like that. The currency of heaven is forgiveness because that leads to joy. So if you’re doing something in your life that doesn’t lead to joy, if you’re doing something and you’re only feeling bitter and resentment then don’t do it. And look, clergy succumb to this all the time. “I have a meeting to go to.” People are always calling me. “I have this bible study to lead…” I’m guilty of this as well. There seems to be this idea that the more you sacrifice then the more points you earn in heaven, but that’s not it. There is a cost, but I get to go to a meeting, I get to talk to people, I get to lead a bible study at the coffee hour on Vitality which everyone should go to. I GET to. The engine is joy! And if I mess up or someone says something not nice, then I forgive and move on. The engine has to be joy, and not bitterness cause then we’d just spread the bitterness around like the first slave. The Good News isn’t that we’re going to Heaven, it’s that heaven is coming here! It gets here when we act more like the King and less like the slave.

Forgiveness closes the books, settles the accounts, allows a space for solutions other than violence to come into. It allows for compromise and not constant revenge. I believe forgiveness isn’t reconciliation, but the bedrock of reconciliation is forgiveness. Grace is the final word if we choose it. Considering the alternative, I am choosing grace.

Works Cited

[1] New Interpreter’s Bible, Anchor Bible, and https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+18%3A23-35&version=NRSV all agree on the 15 years worth of wages fact.

[2] https://www.messie2vie.fr/bible/strongs/strong-greek-G4697-splanchnizomai.html

[3] Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus by Robert Farrar Capon

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *