Have you ever struggled to forgive someone that has hurt you deeply? Join us as Pastor David reflects on the anatomy of forgiveness from a parable that Jesus told.

<p>Have you ever struggled to forgive someone that has hurt you deeply? Join us as Pastor David reflects on the anatomy of forgiveness from a parable that Jesus told.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

David Shin

Can You Forgive

This morning our message is entitled, The Anatomy of Forgiveness.

And I'd like to begin by telling you a story of Simon Wiesenthal.

He was a Jew that went through the horrors of the Holocaust.

He wrote his account in the book called The Sunflower.

And he talks about how during the Holocaust he was living in a ghetto and he was summoned suddenly into a hospital room where there was a dying man sitting at the bed.

He found out later that this man was a former SS soldier.

His head was bandaged so that you could not see his eyes.

There were only cutouts for his nose and his mouth.

And the dying soldier said to Simon Wiesenthal, I don't know who you are, but I know that you are a Jew.

My heart is filled with guilt, and for the next 2 hours, Simon Wiesenthal heard the SS soldier tell him story after story of how this SS soldier had slaughtered the Jews.

He told the story of how he took 300 Jewish families into this building, doused it with gasoline, and he and his men stood outside with their machine guns raised for any person that would come out of the blaze.

And he told how this young mother and child ran outside and he in cold blood shot this mother and daughter.

And he said, Simon my heart is filled with guilt.

I need to know the answer to that question before I die.

Simon says in his account that he sat there stunned.

He got up in silence and walked out of the room.

That dialogue haunted him for the rest of his life.

Matter of fact, he went to 90 different people, even rabbis, and told them the account and asked them the question, did I do the right thing?

And 90% of them said, you did absolutely the right thing.

Is there a limit when someone has hurt us so bad or done something so heinous and so atrocious that it does not warrant forgiveness?

Is there a situation or circumstance when someone has done something repeatedly hurtful and we, in all justification, can say no.

There is a limitation to even forgiveness.

This is a fundamental question that Simon Wiesenthal was asking, and not only does Simon ask it, but it's actually in the Gospel account, and I'd like to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 18, verse 21.

It is page 1134 in the Bible that is in the pew in front of you, Peter asks this question regarding the limitations of forgiveness.

Is there a time when we can justifiably refuse forgiveness?

Then Peter came to him and said, Lord, listen to his question, how often shall my brother sin against me?

In Hebrew tradition, the rabbis had taught that you could refuse or you could forgive someone 3 or 4 times, but after that, you could refuse forgiveness.

So here, Peter thought that he was being generous.

He could double what the rabbis had told him.

He said, could I forgive someone up to 7 times?

Verse 22, Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to 7 times, but up to, what does your Bible say?

Bible scholars tell us that Jesus was not placing a limit upon forgiveness, but rather he was saying that there is no limitation to forgiveness.

By this time the disciples are understandably stunned.

And as is the custom in the teachings of Jesus, He said, Let me tell you a story.

Verse 23, Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

And when he had begun to settle accounts, 1 was brought to him who owed him 10, 000 talents.

During the time when the Jews were living in the first century, it was the time of the Roman occupation of Palestine, and a talent was the largest form of currency in the Roman Empire.

10000, when you look at it in the Greek, is the largest numerical sum that you could describe.

It is the equivalent of us saying like a zillion or a trillion.

So here, for all intents and purposes, this servant owed the king an astronomical amount.

For all intents and purposes, it was an infinite amount that he could never repay.

You can recognize the desperation when this man owes an astronomical amount in verse 25, but as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and that the payment be made.

Verse 26, the servant therefore fell down.

He falls at the feet of the king and said, master, have patience with me and I will pay you all.

Then the master of the servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.

Notice that the master did not say, look I'll give you more time to pay back your debt.

Now if I got a letter from my bank saying that my mortgage was forgiven and I did not need to pay my mortgage anymore I would be jumping for joy.

I'd be extremely happy but here this man his life, his future is on the line.

His wife, his children could be sold as slaves and yet the king has compassion and says, look, you don't owe me a thing.

Now, whenever you read the Bible and you see the word, but, it indicates a dramatic change in direction.

Look in verse 28, but, you know, there's a problem coming here.

There's a contradiction There's the conundrum verse 28 but that servant went out and found 1 of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii and laid hands on him and took him by the throat.

So his fellow servant fell down at his feet.

This is parallel to what the servant has just done.

He fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, Have patience with me.

And he would not, but he went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt, verse 31.

So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved and came and told their master all that had been done.

Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all the debt because you begged me.

Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you.

And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him." And here is Jesus coming in for the application of the parable in verse 35.

So my heavenly father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother, I should add, or sister, his trespasses.

It's a simple parable and I've summarized it in this way.

Jesus illustrates that the unforgiveness of the wicked servant results in the loss of the king's forgiveness.

There's a lot of time we can spend on this parable.

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Can You Forgive

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