Matthew 18.21-35

Here's today's text, Matthew 18:21-35:

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

22 Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.

23 Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owned him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26 The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' 27 The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

28 But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. he grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.

29 His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.

30 But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. 

32 Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35 This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

 Many of Jesus' parables are very challenging. That's partly the purpose of a parable, after all. In these short little stories, Jesus gives us a picture of what life looks like in the kingdom of God, and oftentimes, that life looks a lot different from the way we tend to live. The parables demand a reversal in our thinking. And I think this parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 18 might be one of the most challenging of them all.

The story itself is pretty easy to understand. There is a man who owes a large sum of money to his master. I mean, a large sum of money. His debt rings up to ten thousand talents. This is an absurd amount of money. A talent was the largest monetary unit at the time, and he owes ten thousand of them. The point is that the debt is unpayable. This guy is never going to get his hands on enough money to repay his master. So, when he's called to account, he does the only thing he can. He throws himself at the master's mercy, begging for more time. The master then has pity and not only gives the debtor more time, but he cancels the debt altogether.

You would hope that such an extravagant demonstration of mercy would have a lasting impact on the servant's behavior, but that's not the case. Right after having his enormous debt canceled, he walks upside and sees another guy who owes him 100 denarii--a much smaller debt that he had owed the master. And when this other servant makes the same request that the first servant had made ("Be patient with me, and I will pay you back"), he refuses to be lenient. Instead, he has the man thrown into debtors' prison. When the king hears about this, he subjects the first servant to severe punishment because he refused to show mercy after he himself had received mercy.

This parable is an important lesson in how God's mercy and forgiveness should flow through us and impact our own relationships. We are in the position of the first servant in this story. As God's creatures, we owe him perfect obedience. Because of our sin, this is a debt that we can never repay, and instead, we deserve death (Rom. 6:23). The wonderful, mind-blowing news for us is that God forgives us! In the cross, Jesus pays our debt.

And because of this, we are to be channels of God's forgiveness. We have had a huge debt canceled, but so often, we have a difficult time forgiving those who wrong us. We like to receive forgiveness, but we're not so quick to give it to others. What the New Testament tells us over and over again, though, is that because God has forgiven us, so too should we forgive one another (Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13)

Maybe there's someone in your life that you've had a really, really hard time forgiving because, truth be told, they didn't something really terrible to you. I don't want to downplay whatever wrongs might have been done to you, as though forgiveness is something easy. The second servant in the story owed a significant amount to the first servant. A hundred denarii was about 100 days' wages. It was a good-sized amount, just like someone might have done something significant against you. But when we compare these wrongs to the wrong we have done against a holy and perfect God, they don't seem quite so large. If God has forgiven our sin, we too should be ready and willing to forgive others.

So how many times should we forgive? That's the question that starts the whole discussion in this passage. Peter asks, "How many times do I need to forgive? Seven times?" Peter probably thought he was being awfully generous. The rabbis taught that you had to forgive three times, and he's going way beyond that. But Jesus takes the blows the lid off the whole thing and says "Forgive not seven, but seventy-seven times." I don't think Jesus' point here is to put a limit on our forgiveness. He's not saying, "If someone wrongs you seventy-seven times, forgive him, but on the seventy-eighth time, you don't need to." The point is that our forgiveness needs to be limitless. Why? Because that's how God has forgiven us.

Who do you need to forgive this week?

Importance of Context

There are few things more frustrating than being taken out of context.

How many times have you heard some television newscaster or newspaper reporter quote somebody, only to find out that they completely took that person out of context.

For instance, take the word "trunk". This word can mean a number of different things, depending upon the context in which it is used. So if I said, "your bags are in the trunk", the context of the word changes the meaning of the word. For the same word spelled the same way, but used in a different context can mean something completely different, for instance: "The trunk of the tree is very large." Same word, but the context changes the meaning. For example, "The Elephant grabbed me with his trunk."

If we don't pay attention to the context of a word or passage or verse, we can miss the entire original meaning of the word or passage or verse.

If we don't pay attention to the context of different verses of the Bible, we can make the Bible say whatever we want it to say. For instance the Bible says, "Judas went out and hung himself, therefore go and do likewise, but what you are about to do, do quickly."

Does the Bible say this?

Yes, these words are found in the Bible, yet that is not the context of all the verses. There are three different verses used in this sentence to form a very scary command. But if you pay attention to the context of each of these verses, you can see that this is not what the Bible is saying at all.

At my school, I learned that to study the Bible, you got to remember three words, CONTEXT IS KING!!!!!

And there are three types of literary context.

The first is Immediate context. To fully understand a phrase or verse, you have to look at the context of the passage directly before and after the verse to see how it is being used. One famous verse that everyone quotes is Philippians 4.13, "I can do all things through him who gives me strength." We quote this verse before we play basketball games, try out for band competitions, go into a job interview or tough meeting. When we hear this verse, we think it means, "anything that the world throws in my face, any game or challenge or task or anything, I am able to do it." Yet this is not the context of this verse, read this context as a whole:

 ¹⁰ I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do everything through him who gives me strength. ¹⁴ Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. 


So after looking at the context of this verse, what is different about how to interpret or your understanding of Philippians 4.13?


It is not about accomplish a task, but enduring any and every situation. It isn't about defeating cancer, but enduring through it, no matter what. 


So as you read the Bible, pay attention to the immediate context of every verse, but you have to also pay attention to the extended context. For instance, the writers of the Bible wrote books that were very long, but were divided into sections and each section is accomplishing a certain task for the purpose of their whole book. Sometimes these thoughts span numerous chapters throughout the Bible. For instance, Matthew 7.24 says: 


  ²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 


I want to be a the wise man who builds his house on the rock, not the foolish man who built his house upon the sand, don't you? So what do we need to do to be like the wise man and not the foolish man? We have to put "these words" into practice.


Yet what are, "these words"? Whose words? Where are they? Well if you just starting looking backward through chapter 7 of Matthew, you will realize that these words are all red letters, which means they are Jesus' words. But they don't stop at chapter 7, they keep going through chapter 6 AND chapter 5 and they don't stop until Matthew 5.2. "These words" are all the previous words that Jesus spoke, called the Sermon on the Mount. To be like the wise person that built his house upon the rock, put Jesus' words from the Sermon on the Mount, into practice. 


Context is King. 


If you just rip this verse out of its immediate and extended context, you will miss the whole message of the story of the wise builder. 


The same is true of Matthew 18.20, which says, "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." This verse has been used over the years as a proof text that when we have a poor showing at church, as long as there are two or three coming together, God is there as well. 


So is God not with us when we are by ourselves? When we are alone, is there an invisible forcefield that keeps God from coming in the room with us? This is what this understanding of this verse reminds me of:





Yet this is not the context at all of this passage. If you pay attention, as Kyle talked about yesterday, the context shows that this passage is about the judgement made of a rebellious brother, not the fact that God's presence is around only when two or three of us are there.


The purpose of all of this is to begin teaching you HOW to read the Bible. And the first step is understanding this, Context is King.

Matthew 18:15-20

¹⁵ “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. ¹⁶ But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

¹⁸ “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

¹⁹ “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

Peter slammed the door shut behind him as he stumbled into his apartment building.  His coat was soaked, his briefcase hanging limply from his hand like a soggy doll.  He shoved his coat off, letting it splat on the floor and flung his briefcase into the armchair at the far end of the living room.  He stood for a few moments in the foyer, wiping the water off his face.

"Caught in the rain?" he heard around the corner.  His wife Cara was in the kitchen, putting away the last of the dishes from the drying rack.  She was garbed in an elegant green dress, her hair woven and pinned carefully.  It must have taken her hours.  She gave him a sympathetic smirk.

"I'm so sorry, honey.  I forgot about dinner," he said.  "Let me throw on a change of clothes, and we'll go."

As he turned to leave, Cara caught him at the arm.  "Something's bothering you," she said.  "What's wrong?"

He managed a smile.  "Nothing," he said, heading toward the bedroom.

"It's not nothing.  You're upset."

"Well, yes,” he said, his shoulders sagging.  “That's one way of putting it."

"What's another way?" she asked.

"Bill stole one of my clients today," he said, exasperated.

"You mean 'Bill from our small group' Bill?"

"The very same.  Remember when we were giving prayer requests, and I mentioned that I was having trouble with a client?  Well, Bill guessed who it was and undercut me.  I couldn't believe it.  I got the call today."

Cara draped her arms over him, rubbing his back.  "It'll be okay," she said.  "You have other clients, right?  And you can get new ones."

"But this was my biggest client," he said, sighing.  "I'm afraid I'm going to get fired over this."

Cara couldn't say anything at first.  The words choked up within her.  She simply held her husband tighter and listened to him breathe.  His clothes were drenched, soaking her dress, but she didn't mind.  After awhile, he righted himself. 

"I'll get dressed and we can go," he said.

"Wait," she said, pulling out a chair at the dinner table and sitting down.  "Let's discuss this.  There must be something you can do."

Peter cocked an eyebrow.  "Like what?"

"Well, you could talk to Bill.  He goes to our church, and he seems like a nice enough guy.  Just go over and talk to him."

"Right, that'll do a whole lot," he said with a sarcastic laugh.  "What am I supposed to do?  Beg?"

"No," she said, staring straight into his eyes.  "You tell him that he sinned against you."

Peter started at that.  "That's a little harsh, honey," he said.

"No it's not," she said.  "If it happened the way you said it did, then that's stealing.  He stole from you, honey."

Peter looked up at her, helpless.  "What does that change?"

"Everything!" she nearly shouted.  "Go and confront him.  Be a man about this.  Better yet, be a Christian about this.  If he did something wrong, then he should know about it.  Jesus rebuked people all the time for stuff like that.  Bill sinned against you, so you should confront him.  Simple as that."

"Didn't Jesus also forgive us our sins?"

"Yes, that's true.  But at the same time, they also knew that they were being forgiven.  You have to go and confront him before you can forgive him.  Either way, you need to let him know that he did something wrong.  Otherwise, he'll do it again to someone else."

"You don't know Bill the way I do," he said.  "He'll laugh me out of his office.  He'll turn it around so that it's my fault.  He'll say that I was treating the client bad or that I was being lazy.  I've had run-ins with him before.  He'll just turn it around on me."

"Okay," she said, holding out her hands.  "Let's say he does all that.  But you have to give him the benefit of the doubt.  Go and confront him about it.  Tell him that you think he did something wrong.  Tell him that you expect better from someone in your life group and that God expects better from someone who claims to worship Him.  Then, forgive him.  After that, it's up to him whether or not he gives your client back."

"But what if he just laughs at me and doesn't do what I ask?"

"You have Phil and Tom in your office, right?  They go to our church, and I'm sure you already told them what happened.  Take them with you.  That way you have some witnesses to back you up.  Safety in numbers, right?  If Bill realizes that he's affected more people than just you and that you have some Christian friends who agree with you, then maybe he'll be more inclined to listen."

Peter cupped his face in his hands.  "Bill would just get threatened by them.  He'll act like we're ganging up on him.  Like we're holier-than-thou.  Bill's done it before.  He'll get indignant and say that we shouldn't judge other people."

She threw up her hands.  "If it comes to that, then take it to the small group.  Or talk to the pastor.  The elders, even.  Talk to the church.  Bring it up in the elders meeting and see if they can do anything about it.  Or bring it up on Sunday morning and see what everyone thinks.  If everyone agrees with you, then Bill will have to give your client back.  If he doesn't, at least everyone will know you're in the right."

Peter looked up at Cara for a moment, examining her.  She was so determined, sitting in that chair, her eyes bright and blazing like seraph's wings.  The two said nothing, letting the pounding rain outside fill their silence.  After awhile, Peter sighed in resignation.  "Honestly, Cara, what will that change?  The church can't make him do anything.  And if they try, he can leave and go to church somewhere else.  Any way you look at it, he's got the client and I don't."

"It's about more than that, Peter."

"Is it?" he asked.  "What is it about, then?"

She tilted in her chair, taken aback.  "I don't know,” she said.

He leaned forward in his chair, hijacking the dinner table.  "Even if I forgive him, what does that matter?  What changes for us?"

She bowed her head, baffled.  "I don't know."

"It's so frustrating.  What can the church do anyway?"

"I don't know," she said softly.

"Let's just go," he said, pushing himself up from his chair.  He stomped down the hall and into their bedroom.  The door thundered shut. 

She got up from the table and walked over to the closet, pulling out a long black coat and wrapping it around her shoulders.  She turned back toward the kitchen and noticed a picture bound to the refrigerator with a magnet.  It was a picture of their small group volunteering at the local homeless shelter.  Peter and Bill stood next to each other in the photograph, grinning like comrades. 

She lifted the magnet and pulled the picture away.  The photo went loose in her hand, the picture sloping away from her eyes so that she could no longer see Bill's face.  Almost as if Peter was standing next to no one.

"Ready to go?"  Peter stood in the threshold, waiting.

She nodded and followed him.  On the way, she noticed the trashcan standing in the corner of the kitchen.  She looked at the picture again and shook her head.  It’s just too bad, she thought.  But what more can we do?  What can the Church do?

She let the picture fall into the trash, grabbed her purse and followed her husband out the door.

Kyle Welch

Matthew 18.10-14

Towards the end of my senior year of high school, I began playing Frisbee golf. Within a few months, I was waking up at Oh-Dark Thirty every morning to be the first one at the local course. By the end of the summer, I had fifty Frisbees in my possession, most of which I had found. Yes, I too, would occasionally lose the discs in the tree line, but I would never continue on until it was back in my hands, even though I had forty-nine others in my collection. I went as far as driving home to grab a pair of shears to deface shrubbery on city property to avoid my Frisbee falling into the hands of another player.

Chapter 18:12-14
12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

I know I’m comparing Christians to cheap pieces of plastic but like those Frisbees, we are all lost without Our Lord. Whether we recognize it or not, God will use his plan to the greatest extremes to find us and bring his lost sheep back to the flock, even though there are plenty of other Christians who spend each and every day staying in the pasture, trying to live like him. Maybe God won’t go as far as destroying public property to save us, but if that’s what he has to do, he’ll make it happen. He doesn’t need you to follow him, it’s entirely up to you, but he wants you to follow him. We need to humbly accept that we are children of God.

This brings me to the beginning of the parable since I’m moving backwards. Chapter 18 begins with the disciples asking Jesus who is the greatest in the Kingdom and Jesus professes that children, in their innocence, are the greatest in Heaven. In a strange, sport minded sense, God looks at children the way I would look at a brand new Frisbee that is remarkably fresh and free of visible flaws. But I know very well that once I take it on the course that is life, it’s bound to get banged up hitting a few obstacles, get dirty in the mud, or go astray. As we by nature are sinners, Jesus warns his disciples that those who lead those children away from God, are destined for eternal damnation if they do not recognize their ways. 

Chapter 18 10-12
10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. [11] For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.

When I read this I thought of a verse we memorized in my 8^th grade confirmation class from the book of Romans.

Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Like I said, it is a given that we as human beings, without a doubt, will give into our sinful desires, just as anything that is bought new will eventually appear used and beat up. But God sent his one and only son so we could have eternal life as long as we ask forgiveness through communion and repentance. Whenever I have a Frisbee land in the mud, I use a towel to wipe it off and make it clean. When it gets dented and chipped from getting whipped into a tree by misdirection, I can shave off the scar with a piece of sandpaper or burn off the hanging plastic with a gas station lighter. By doing so, they appear brand new again. God will not let his children perish on Earth, for he promises eternal life in his Kingdom. There, we will appear clean, innocent, and new to the angels in Heaven.


Tom Meisinger

Matthew 18:1-9

You can’t study these verses without Matthew 5:3-10 in the back of your mind.  In those verses, known usually as the Beatitudes, set the stage for Matthew 18:1-9 by reminding us that what Jesus says here in chapter 18 is not new.  This is not the first time Jesus has turned the values of the world upside-down.

In Matthew 5, Jesus said “Blessed are the meek…blessed are the pure in heart….”  I can’t imagine that here, when he tells the disciples that they need to be more like little children, that he means something a whole lot different.

What Jesus is saying is that the things to which the world typically ascribes the most value are relatively value-less in His kingdom.  But children—weak, uneducated, in-the-way, non-contributors to society, lowly—have value.  In fact, they should be our example.  Why is that?

It’s probably for several reasons, but let’s talk about a couple.  First, I think that Jesus is giving value to those people who are otherwise relatively value-less (as value relates to contribution to society, not inherent value by way of being human; first century Jews did not value children as viable contributors or citizens of worth, though they were loved and respected as human beings) because He is highlighting the fact that what makes them important is not what they bring to the table but what God makes out of them.

The importance, value, contribution of children is, in and of themselves, nothing.  But, as Paul would write later, God’s power is made perfect in human weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).  The value of children in the kingdom of God is a lack of ego.  Pride so often gets in the way of God’s purposes.  When we think that by our power we change the world, or by our power we can change our own lives, or by our power we can build the church, we are severely mistaken.  But if we were to change and become more like little children, pride would necessarily be taken out of the equation because we would know—as would everyone around us—that we are entirely incapable of anything that significant.

Secondly, as made clear by Matthew 18:7-9, Jesus gives value to the otherwise value-less children because of their inherent innocence.  His discussion in verses 7-9 of sin, its consequences, and the lengths to which we should go to avoid are at least sobering and at most terrifying.  Sin is to be avoided at any and every cost.  It is never worth it.  And if we were to become more like children—to return to innocence—then we would be greater in the kingdom.

Further, in verses 5-6, Jesus talks about the consequences for someone taking part in the removal of innocence from a child.  It is not just of value while it lasts on its own, but innocence is of value eternally.  And because of the value Jesus places on innocence for those who would enter the kingdom of heaven, He is able to say, “You know what?  Why don’t you just become like little kids.  You think you’re so grown up, like you’ve got it all figured out.  But if you really want to see what I’m all about, look at kids.  They don’t have 40 hour/week jobs, they don’t make thousands of dollars, they don’t work hard and change the economic climate.  Even better, they haven’t had some of the…experiences you’ve had.  They haven’t watched the things you have.  Be like that.”

The problem, though, is obvious—once we grow up, we can’t be kids again.  We can’t go back.  We can’t un-grow-up.  We can’t get rid of those stains on our past that robbed us of our innocence.  We can’t undo the sin we’ve done.  We can’t just close our eyes, think really hard, and stop being prideful.  We can’t stop thinking that value has to do with how useful someone is.  That’s a problem.  Jesus says to change and be like little children.  Well I have bad news for you, Jesus.  We can’t.

We can’t…until God went to drastic measures to make it possible.

And if you listen closely, you can hear Jesus still calling us to change and be like little children.  And I know it seems impossible, but if you listen a little longer, you can hear Him say, “Come over here, to the foot of the cross.  Anything is possible here.”


Ben Cross

Intro to Fourth Discourse of Matthew

We have been a long way, starting out in Matthew 1.1 in August. Let me remind you where we have been so far concerning the five sermons of the book of Matthew:

1. Matthew 5-7--The sermon on the proclamation of a king, and the upside-down nature of his kingdom. 

1. Matthew 1-4 was all about the presentation of a king, now we see what this king has to say about his kingdom

1. Matthew 10--The sermon on the ministry of the King.

1. Matthew 8-9 is all about the King's ministry which is two fold: 1. healing the sick and 2. discipling the disciples. This is what his message is about in Matthew 10. 

1. Matthew 13--The sermon on what the Kingdom life is like (in parables)

1. Matthew 11-12 is filled with Jesus training the disciples what it means to be the people of God. 
2. The Pharisees and religious leaders of the day had a different idea of what it means to be the people of God, so there is a lot of conflict involved in this section. 
3. Jesus clarifies it all with his sermon in Matthew 13. 

Now we have spent a few weeks in this section from Matthew 14-17, seeing Jesus feed thousands of people, heeling diseases and sicknesses, walking on the water, and all during this time he had one thing in his mind....to prepare his disciples for his departure. 

Jesus knows that he is getting ready to head to the cross, and he wants his disciples ready for him leaving them. That is why he spends this entire section on preparing his disciples for his departure. 

Matthew 14-17, we see Jesus doing this, and this all led up to Matthew 18, the fourth sermon in Matthew. This sermon is all about Jesus teaching his disciples what the life of discipleship looks like after he has left. 

So take this sermon exactly what it is, teaching about what it means to be a disciple. 

Below is the entire chapter 18, read it all at once and then we will spend the next week breaking it down:

The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven

 ¹ At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” ² He called a little child and had him stand among them. ³ And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
   ⁵ “And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. ⁶ But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
   ⁷ “Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! ⁸ If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

    ¹⁰ “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.^[a]   12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? ¹³ And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. ¹⁴ In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.

A Brother Who Sins Against You

    ¹⁵ “If your brother sins against you,^[b] go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. ¹⁶ But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’^[c] 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.   ¹⁸ “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be^[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be^[e] loosed in heaven.
   ¹⁹ “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

 ²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” ²² Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.^[f]
   23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents^[g] was brought to him. ²⁵ Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
   ²⁶ “The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ ²⁷ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
   ²⁸ “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.^[h] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
   ²⁹ “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
   ³⁰ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. ³¹ When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
   ³² “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. ³³ Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ ³⁴ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
   ³⁵ “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Matthew 17.24-27

Honestly, this passage that we are covering today is a very obscure passage. Take a look at it:

²⁴ After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
 ²⁵ “Yes, he does,” he replied.
   When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own sons or from others?”
 ²⁶ “From others,” Peter answered.
   “Then the sons are exempt,” Jesus said to him. ²⁷ “But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”


What?! 


What is going on?!


We got tax-collectors asking Peter for money, Peter saying that Jesus paid that tax. Jesus telling some parable about the sons of kings not paying taxes, and then instructing Peter to go fishing and in the fish's mouth the money for the tax will be there. 


This is just plain weird.


Yet...Matthew places this story in his book for a reason. And since he was a tax-collector himself, he might have some invested interest in this story. 


This temple tax was not a legal Roman tax, but the Jews expected that each male between the ages of twenty and fifty would support the temple each year with two drachma, which would equal about two day's wages. Perhaps the reason they were asking him now for it was because he missed the Passover last year and there were some rumors spreading that he did not pay this tax. One thing that is interesting is that officially ordained rabbis were exempt from this tax, yet Jesus did not at ten their schools so he had no right to claim this exemption. 


Yet why is this story inserted here, after the confession of Jesus, his transfiguration and the healing of the demon boy and leading up to his teaching on being the greatest in the Kingdom? The key is the theme that is developed in the fourth discourse of chapter 18, the theme of humility.


No one expected Jesus, the Son of God, to pay this temple tax. That is why Jesus brings up the question of the kings of the earth collecting taxes from their sons or from others. Jesus is saying that he is the son of God, and is above the tax, yet, because he does not want to offend the ruling officials, he pays it anyway. 


But why?


Here is a rule of thumb, our ethic, the default action we take as Christians, is that of submission. In the book of 1 Peter, it talks about over and over again how we submit in every realm we find ourselves. We submit to our governing nation, to the class system we are a part of and even to our family members. The reason we do this, is because when we submit, even to unjust suffering, we win.


That is what Jesus did, he submits to the authorities of Rome by going to the cross and offering himself as a living sacrifice, and his submission and sacrifice blesses the nation. 


And we are to do the same.


Jesus is living out a model of humility for his disciples, and this is the theme that he is going to address through chapter 18. 


So what does it look like to live a life of submission today?