“TRINITY 22”
Saint Matthew 18: 23-35
22nd Sunday after Trinity: 22 October Anno Domini 2023
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
You were/are taught in Catechism class that there are three Kingdoms of God—the Kingdom of power; the Kingdom of Glory; and the Kingdom of Grace. Three is Trinitarian; very fitting. But Three is One and One is Three with The Lord. All the Kingdoms are The King.
In Christ’s Parable the King is God, yes, but more specifically The Son of God, Christ Jesus—God in the Flesh! For did you not just confess: “…and He shall come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end?”
And while we are not yet arrived at the 2nd Last Sunday in The Church Year (the great judgment; the separation of the sheep from the goats…BY JESUS) know well and take to heart—Christ will judge you.
His return, death, the grave, and the last things—the forever things—are of great weight and eternal importance to all—even (especially) Christians.
You have studied St. John’s Apocalypse with your brothers and sisters in class (SounDoctrine)—you know of the image of Christ on His Throne with a sword of judgment coming from His mouth.
You have also this day confessed your sins and your sin. You are brought to contrition/repentance by The Holy Ghost and the Holy Law to know your misdeeds in thought, word, and deed. The wages of sin is death The Apostle warns you.
And now this morning Jesus tells you that you, your old fallen nature, is the man, the servant, who owes “ten thousand talents.” That amount is unpayable. Your works and prayers and self-efforts cannot pay to The Lord the perfect obedience His Law demands.
But The Spirit constrains you to confess—truly to ask for forgiveness. To be forgiven, to have sins remitted—ABSLOVED—is to be given freedom and liberation from being “sold!” The unforgiven i.e., the unrepentant, the rejecting, are sold to Satan with hell as their jail cell—forever. But what is God’s Name? His revealed “proper work,” His Person and Work is given by His Name which is above all names: Jesus! Jesus means savior. Jesus is not just God in the Flesh, Light and Life in the flesh, but He is Mercy Incarnate. His nature is to forgive His dear children—His brothers and sisters.
Yes, the Commandments/The Law KILLS! But Jesus put that Law into a tomb, first into the golden Ark which was covered over with…The Mercy Seat—the Forgiveness Seat. That covering was anointed with Blood. For in Blood is the Life as Moses wrote. Jesus also put the Law you break, your hard and unforgiving hearts, into the wounds of His flesh on Calvary, drenched in blood, and then into the sealed tomb in the garden. In the Blood of The Lamb is atonement for the sins of the world and for your release. That Greek word luo—“to be loosed” is beautiful and true. In Christ’s parable the king of his own will and desire was “moved with compassion” and freely forgave the man the unpayable debt. He “loosed” him from prison—a horrible fate.
But we need clarity. One is saved by Grace through faith. The king’s Grace (mercy undeserved) saved the first servant. The servant did nothing to earn mercy. But without faith in that forgiveness (in the king) he is at the end of the story damned—captured, condemned, and sentenced to the “tormentors.”
What does this mean, the Reformer might ask?
Receiving forgiveness, the objective justification of the world (“For God so loved the world”) and even the subjective (in your own personal and direct life) justification when faith is created in your heart and soul by The Spirit, can be spurned, rejected, and apostatized from. Take heed lest ye fall writes Paul.
Saint James is correct. Faith without works is dead. So-called “faith” as even the demons have, that is intellectual (the first servant most assuredly knew he had been forgiven) is useless. Faith without works is false and fake and non-existent faith. It is mere moralism not reciprocating mercy. When that servant refuses to forgive a fellow servant (the second servant) who owes him but a trifling sum, he is showing his true heart and nature. He has no real faith in his king or in his king’s mercy.
Do not be like him! How is that for Third use of the Law?
You are brothers and sisters of The King Jesus. You are beloved children of The Father. Listen hard and believe what you pray in that most precious prayer—It is Jesus your Savior forgiving you with His blood red, salty, sticky, pure and cleansing Blood: “and forgive us our trespasses AS WE FORGIVE those who trespass against us!”
This is not an option. If someone has sinned against you, hurt you, you should first of all use your Sanctified wisdom in Christ to self-analyze your own heart. You may be responsible and a co-conspirator in the harm. But even if you are innocent and have been sinned against, YOU MUST FORGIVE the guilty party. You need not become friends and pals and room-mates, and baseball going buddies, but you must forgive. Period!
And now I hear your silent voices already self-justifying your lack of mercy “well, they have not asked for forgiveness, like in Saint Peter’s question to Christ; and I would forgive them if they asked for forgiveness and were TRULY sorry!”
God hanging on the cross, suffering, bleeding, dying: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do!” The seat, the throne, the place of mercy was the Crucifix where The Lord forgave unconditionally. His Word preached and administered sacramentally is where NOW Jesus forgives you unconditionally. You are to do the same.
If you cannot…pray for more Grace and Faith and Scriptural Truth that would enable you to at last let go of grudges and blood vendettas. Forgive. But, if you simply will not…pray for The Lord to intervene in your life with more forgiveness and mercy towards you, lest you die before He returns in Judgment. Lest ye be delivered to the tormentors.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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