The 6^th Sunday After Trinity

SERMON

Text: Matthew 6:12

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

In Christ Jesus, our precious Savior from sin, dear fellow redeemed:

The 5^th Petition confronts us with the issue of sin. Sin is not a very popular or comfortable topic for discussion even among those who confess to be Christians. Oh, most people do not get too excited about sin, when it is discussed in abstract, impersonal ways. Objections, however, tend to arise when discussions hit too close to home. There is an old story, which goes something like this. A young fundamentalist preacher was called to a congregation in Kentucky. The first Sunday he preached on the evils of gambling. After the service, his elders took him aside and mentioned that this was a sensitive topic generally to be avoided given the fact that 1/3 of his members raised racehorses. The next Sunday the young pastor preached on the evils of drunkenness. After the service, his elders were waiting for him once again and pointed out that in view of the fact that 1/3 of his members were employed producing Kentucky bourbon, this too was an area where he should tread lightly. On the third Sunday, the young pastor took up the evils of tobacco, and once again as you might expect, his elders met him and explained that the other 1/3 of his members were tobacco farmers. Struggling to come up with an acceptable topic, the young pastor in his fourth sermon tackled the evils of military dictatorships in Central America. No elders were seen visiting with him after the service!

My dear friends, a clear understanding of our sinfulness and our need for God’s forgiveness is absolutely fundamental to the Christian faith. Without a straightforward discussion of sin, the meaning of the gospel message of Christ’s redemption is lost to the human heart. God’s forgiveness is something that we need not just when we become Christians. No, it is something that we need day in and day out as we live our Christian lives. No one is perfect either before or after his conversion. “We sin often every day,” Luther explains in his Small Catechism. Consequently, whether it is the pastor in his pulpit or any parishioner in the pew, there is no place for smug self-righteous attitudes, for that which we all have in common is our need to meet at the foot of the cross! Let us, therefore, consider today the 5^th Petition —FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS! Jesus is here teaching us that we need God’s forgiveness, for we all sin often; that we can be confident of God’s forgiveness for Jesus’ sake; and that we are freely to forgive others, as we have been forgiven!

I.

C.S. Lewis once wrote, “A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world—and might even be more difficult to save.” We are living in a world, in which people are convinced of their own niceness! They choose to deny the possibility of sin, or if they allow for the existence of sin, they choose to define sin in their own terms. Consequently, any discussion of moral truth—what is right or wrong is considered relative. What is right for you may not be right for me, and what is wrong for me may not be wrong for you. Hogwash! God has revealed to us in His Word His law, which tells us exactly what is right or wrong in His eyes. His commandments are not suggestions, nor are they subject to appeal, alteration, or rejection. Oh, there are those in our world who attempt all three of those things with God’s law and they may even appear to succeed for a time. Ultimately, however, as the Scriptures assure us, “every knee (shall) bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue (shall) confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11). We will stand before our Savior God on Judgment Day and answer for our every action. Woe to those individuals who reject His Word and in their sinful pride assume they can dictate to God!

The reality of our situation is that we are sinners—each and every one of us! The Scriptures reveal this and our consciences inform us of this truth. Which one of us can claim that we have loved God above all things, at all times and under all circumstances? None of us can, yet that is what God's law demands! Which of us can claim to have loved our fellowmen as ourselves, once again at all times and under all circumstances? None of us can, for as we have already confessed, “We have done those things, which we should not have done, and we have not done those things, which we should have done!” The result, my dear friends, is that we need God’s forgiveness, for we all sin often! To deny this truth is to deny reality and to slap God in the face! That is why when teaching us how to pray Jesus taught us to pray FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS!

II.

Jesus is here also teaching us that we can be confident of God’s forgiveness for Jesus’ sake! Just as the fact of the matter is that all of us are sinful and need God’s forgiveness, so the fact of the matter is that God in spite of our sin loves all of us! The extent of that love can be seen in God’s plan for mankind’s redemption. Instead of destroying human beings when they first fell into their sin and rebellion, God promised to send a Savior to conquer our enemy Satan and to deal both with sin and its devastating effects, which inevitably culminates in death! Yes, God sent Jesus, Whom He identified at His baptism with these words, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). He sent Him into this sinful world, not to be a glamorous and adored figurehead as members of the royal houses of our day tend to be. No, He came to be a servant—to suffer as our substitute enduring the dreadful punishment sin deserves. Isaiah, prophesying of what would happen seven centuries later, wrote, “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:3-5). Yes, Jesus permitted Himself to be captured, tortured, and ultimately killed for you and for me. That is how serious our sins are! That is how serious God’s love is!

How can we be sure that this love of God indeed extends to each and every one of us? Listen carefully to what St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:19,21, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them….For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Notice how God reconciled not some people but the entire world to Himself in Christ! In similar fashion listen to St. John who writes in 1 John 2:2, “(Jesus) Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” My dear friends, Jesus paid for and God has forgiven the sins of the whole world. You and I are part of that world. Therefore Jesus paid for and God has forgiven our sins! Consequently, because God justified the world in Christ, we can be confident of God’s forgiveness for Jesus’ sake! Let us only follow our Savior’s instruction, confessing our sins as we are told in the Lord’s prayer knowing that as we do God “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

III.

Finally, as we pray FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS, may we be led to understand that Jesus is teaching us that we are freely to forgive others, as we have been forgiven! Oh, how we need to learn this lesson and allow the love of God in Christ to overflow from our hearts as we deal with others! I read recently in a Christian magazine the comments of a Christian counselor. He stated that overall 70% of the problems he counseled people about in virtually any area of Christian life dealt directly with an inability to forgive. Those of you who were involved in our two marriage seminars will perhaps remember that Dr. Wilkinson stated as well that in counseling Christian couples, whose relationships had reached an impasse and divorce apparently loomed ahead, inevitably a lack of forgiveness lay at the root of the problems. My dear friends, Satan will try to harden your hearts to the need to forgive others when they sin against you. Do not allow this to happen, but rather run to the cross and remind yourself of the forgiveness you have received from your gracious God!

Consider the warning contained in our Gospel Lesson today. The unmerciful servant, who initially is a picture of you and me—owing God all things and receiving His gracious forgiveness for a debt we could never pay, turned around and with hardness of heart refused to forgive his fellow servant who owed him but a pittance in comparison. What happened to that servant? In view of his hard-hearted dealings, that very servant was deprived of his master’s gift and forgiveness. When we refuse and fail to forgive others, we in effect deprive ourselves of God’s grace, forgiveness, and blessing. People at times pride themselves in their stubbornness in this area. They assume they can hold grudges and seek vengeance with no cost to themselves, but this is not true! If Satan has deceived you in this way, send him packing as you return to your knees before your Lord!

We can and should freely forgive others, even when it is difficult to do—even when I dare say the people involved do not deserve to be forgiven! We can do this if we bear in mind that the reason why we should forgive others does not lie in those whom we are to forgive. Rather we are freely to forgive, even as we have been freely forgiven in Christ! St. Paul instructs us, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

We did not deserve to be forgiven by God, but in His grace He did so any way in Christ! We owe Him much more than anyone could every owe us! Therefore, let us rejoice in God’s forgiveness and by faith rejoice in the fact that God enables us to set aside our anger and bitterness and allow love’s forgiving balm to heal our own hearts and those of others. Yes, may we pray with faith and confidence: FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS! Amen.

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting