Parables #10: In the kingdom of God, forgiveness is constitutional 

In the kingdom of God, forgiveness is constitutional

Smile

Today, I have a smile, I planned to read a parable of Jesus with you. And so I took a sheet and a pencil and I put down the CCVA…

No, it’s not the abbreviation of a new administration, the CCVA, you know it when you read a parable:

Context
Comparison
Truth
Application.
Even if we do it intuitively in our head when we read the gospels, it is still precious

to do it step by step,
if you don’t want to forget anything.

Interpretation of parables possible with the « CCVA »

Context, Comparison, Truth, Application

Background

What triggers the use of the dish? A parable,

illustrates a subject of life, of spiritual life; so it’s nice, if we understand what Jesus wanted to illustrate.

Comparison

To get on the right track and take advantage of the parable and not turn it into an allegory. It is easy to determine the comparison between

the subject of spiritual life (which triggers the parable)
and the story of the parable in its relative entirety
(and we do not try to find a correspondence to each detail of the parable)!

Truth

Then with our words, we bring out the truth that Jesus has just underlined in this parable, to make it our own.

Application

In order not to remain theoretical, we will try to see how we must bring this truth to life in our lives,

our thoughts,
our ways of thinking,
by taking stock of our flaws, our shortcomings
and by putting in place the action, feasible and verifiable to move forward from progress to progress
So this parable is found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 18, verses 23-35:

Matthew 18

23 Wherefore,

the kingdom of heaven resembles (you get the idea of ​​comparison)

to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

24 When he set to work,

they brought him one who owed 10,000 bags of money (for now that would represent billions, the budget of a state).

25 As he did not have enough to pay, his master ordered him, his wife, his children and all he had to be sold in order to be reimbursed for this debt.

(It’s ironic, it was only a legal penalty because the sale would never cover the amount owed).

26 The servant fell to the ground and worshiped him, saying, ‘[Lord,] be patient with me, and I will pay you everything.’

27 Filled with (“splanchnizeschai”: bowel bowel of mercy when it takes to the guts) compassion,

the servant’s master let him go and forgave him the debt.

28 Once out, this servant met one of his companions who owed him 100 pieces of silver (3 months’ salary, less than the price of a car).

He grabbed her by the throat and began to strangle her, saying:

‘Pay what you owe me.’

29 His companion fell [at his feet] imploring him:

‘Have patience with me and I will pay you.’

30 But the other didn’t want

and went and threw him in jail

until he paid what he owed.

31 At the sight of what had happened,

his companions were deeply saddened,

and they went and told their master all that had happened.

32 Then the master summoned this servant and said to him,

‘Wicked servant,

I remitted your entire debt to you because you begged me to.

33 Didn’t you have to,

you too,

have pity on your companion as I have had pity on you?’

34 And his master,

irritated,

handed him over to the executioners until he had paid all he owed.

35 This is how my heavenly Father will treat you,

if each one of you does not forgive his brother lip service with all your heart.”

Context

So what triggered this parable? It’s very simple, it’s transcribed just before:

« kingdom of heaven »

And what’s interesting is that it concerns the same subject:

“the kingdom of heaven” verse 23
“the kingdom of heaven” verse 1
What is the kingdom of heaven?

The kingdom of God (or of the heavens, according to the gospels) corresponds to what is in the likeness of God.

Jesus made it tangible when he came,
the Church – of which Christ is the head – must make it tangible and
he will live in a perfect way with God.
A different realm

And so that no one here below misunderstands, the attitude in « the kingdom of heaven » bears no resemblance to the power plays that can be observed in the circles of power of men.

Matthew 18

1At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said,

“Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

2 Jesus called a little child, placed him in the midst of them 3 and said:

« Truly I tell you,

if you do not convert and
if you do not become like little children,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

4 Therefore,

he who humbles himself like this little child will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,

5 and whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.

Radical life change. U-turn (Jean-Baptiste did everything to ensure that people were in this attitude).
It is to take the social status of the child which is underlined.
This status is synonymous with humility: indeed, unlike the child-king of our modern societies, the child of the time of Jesus did not exist. His place in society came in pre-adolescence.

The child was at the lowest social position.

God’s gaze on the little ones

However, that does not mean that God does not consider them…

On the contrary, God is very attentive!

Matthew 18

6 But if anyone stumbles one of these little ones who believe in me,

it would be better for him to hang a millstone around his neck and throw him to the bottom of the sea.

7 Woe to the world because of snares! Pitfalls are inevitable, but woe to the man who is responsible for them!

8

If your hand or
your foot
cause you to do wrong, cut them off and throw them away from you.

Better for you to enter life lame or one-armed

than to have two feet or two hands and be thrown into the eternal fire.

9 And if your eye prompts you to do wrong,

tear it off and throw it away from you.

Better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hellfire.

10 Be careful not to despise one of these little ones,

for I tell you that their angels in heaven are continually in the presence of my heavenly Father. 11[For the Son of man came to save that which was lost.]

Even though the angels are mobilized for these “little ones” – look at the care God has for them – Jesus makes a parable comparison!

12 What do you think?

If a man has 100 sheep and one of them gets lost,

doesn’t he leave the other 99 on the mountains to find the one who got lost?

13 And if he finds her, I tell you the truth,

there is more joy in it than in the 99 which have not been lost.

14 Likewise, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones should be lost.

One could say that Jesus compares

the particular attention he has for « the little ones » of his kingdom
to the joy He has when He found the hundredth sheep from the other 99…
So God and the angels have special attention on “these little ones”.

« The little ones »

The little ones are not necessarily those who begin in faith with God.

Simplicity, humility, like the status of child, it is all those who take this status of simplicity and service towards God and their brothers.

Matthew chapter 20 continues to describe it, it happily joins the poor in spirit: this disposition contrary to pride, careerism, domination.

Watch out for those who trouble them

God wouldn’t want them to get lost.

The nuclear fire of hell is reserved for those who could bring them down; Interestingly, « bringing down » could also be translated as « injuring the conscience ».

What hurts them?

And how can they be hurt in their conscience?

When they are confronted with brothers and sisters who do not forgive each other: Jesus, here, points to the lack of fraternal forgiveness.

Read

Matthew 18

15 If your brother has sinned [against you], go and rebuke him one by one. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.

16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two people with you, so that the whole matter can be settled by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he also refuses to listen to the Church,

let him be in your eyes as the member of another people and the collector of taxes.

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

19 I tell you again that if two of you agree on earth to ask for anything, it will be granted to them by my heavenly Father.

20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of them.”

brotherly sin

One might think that the subject to be settled is only sin in general, but it is more precise than that and Peter, the disciple, understood it well. It is a sin committed by a brother against another brother (of the kingdom of God).

Matthew 18

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and said to him, “Lord, how many times will I forgive my brother when he sins against me?

Will it be up to 7 times?

(Which was super generous on the part of Pierre, a rabbi of the time only mentioned 3 times).

22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you up to 7 times, but up to 70 times 7 times.

In short, never tire of forgiving…

We begin to understand why Jesus gave the parable “of the King and his enormous debtor” , because He will compare it to what we have just read.

Summary of background

In the kingdom of God, the change of life is essential:

This change translates into taking the humble position of the least, like the child that no one considers.
The angels and God particularly love this attitude and watch over those who adopt it.
In His justice, God gives no gift to those who might hurt their conscience for lack of brotherly forgiveness.
Indeed, in the kingdom of God, forgiveness is constitutional and one never tires of forgiving in the image of one’s King.

Parabola trigger

And there, so that we understand well, Jesus launches a comparison by illustrating with a parable of a king who hands over an immense debt to his servant and said servant who does not hand over the usual debt to his companion; for not having imitated him in the acquittal of this small prejudice, the king condemns this servant forever…

Comparison

Proposal 1

One of the characteristic features of the kingdom of God is brotherly forgiveness without limitation; contravening it deeply wounds those who love God simply and whom God loves particularly.

God does not support it.

This is compared

at the remission of an unrepayable debt from a King for his debtor servant.

The latter does not do the same for a domestic debt to his companion, so he is punished forever.

Proposal 2

In the image of God who forgives you eternally, forgive also relentlessly and wholeheartedly (!) your brother in faith.

This is compared to an opposite attitude.

Indeed, a King erases a debt of several billion to his servant

who does not do the same for a few thousand francs, when he should have imitated the king’s attitude. This is shocking and the king forever punishes this servant.

The addition of the second proposition

In this second proposition, I added “with all his heart” echoing what Jesus said in verse 35:

“This is how my Heavenly Father will treat you,

if each of you does not forgive his brother with all his heart.”

Trick

Jesus often gives an extra element at the end of His parables.

I forgive but I do not forget

I have a sister-in-law who jokingly says

 » I forgive but I do not forget ! »

From the bottom of the heart

Let us not forgive like evangelical religious who do it because the Bible says so but because they have

the “splanchnizeschai”
bowels upside down, because there is a shadow with my brother or my sister in Christ.
I remastered his sentence to

« I forgive but I do not forget that I have forgiven »!

Truth

It is writing the biblical principle

which stands out,
which was illustrated with the parable,
in my own words.

1) One of my priorities is to make sure that I really and tirelessly live forgiveness with my brothers and sisters in Christ.

2) Be like your Savior; truly and relentlessly forgive your brother or sister in Christ.

3) Child of God rhymes with fraternal forgiveness.

4) No possible justification for the lack of fraternal forgiveness. None !

In the kingdom of God, forgiveness is constitutional

No possible justification for the lack of fraternal forgiveness. None

Application

Deep wounds

In the life of a believer, among the greatest wounds are those coming from other believers.

Jesus was a victim

Jesus knows something about it: He was sold by one of his closest disciples and all the others left him, even denied him…

Moreover, the disciple who generously was ready to forgive 7 times, denied his master Jesus 3 times.

Answer

And Jesus answered with

forgiveness,
rehabilitation and
raising
by 3 times.

John chapter 21

No derogation

But today’s parable shows that there is no possible justification for evading forgiveness, no matter what the harm, no matter how hurt.

Interesting detail

I don’t know if you noticed, but in the parable, the loss between the servant and his companion was not just pennies… but 3 months’ wages!

Jesus is aware of our difficulties

By slipping this detail into the parable, Jesus is not minimizing the difficulties between people; and our relationship wounds can be significant.

But, however great they are, however strong the feeling, they are never an excuse to discard and let resentment eat away at us.

We tend to discard ourselves biblically

And we are very good at dodging.

One of the favorite evangelical avoidance strategies is to pretext a problem of theological disagreement.

Anyway, if there is a problem with a brother or a sister it is always a theological problem…

Theological problem 1 is the lack of forgiveness

But what today’s text tells us is that theological problem n°1 is the lack of forgiveness to a brother or a sister with regard to the immense forgiveness that the Lord

made us and
keep doing.
Because the heart of Jesus’ theology, the heart of His ministry here below, is the forgiveness with God that He offers us at the cost of His life.

There is no excuse, no derogation for not forgiving each other between brothers and sisters.

So forgive!

Practically

How to do ?

We still get a lot of help today: Jesus gives us the steps to follow.

The victim takes the initiative

I suffered a wrong:

I’m not waiting for the one who hurt me to come abjure by crawling on the ground!
I take the initiative in the process of forgiveness, restoration, recovery.
God has been cheated by the autonomy taken by humanity.

It was He who initiated the forgiveness concluded by Christ.

The good moment

So go see it, usefully, not just because you have to, but at the right time. Maybe not when the embers of difficulty are still glowing.

Sometimes it takes a little time, not for forgetting, but for real forgiveness!

Matthew 18

15 If your brother has sinned [against you], go and rebuke him one by one.

If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.

If it does not work

Tensions may continue and forgiveness may not be found. Perhaps a brother or two could be invaluable so that together the goal of forgiveness can be achieved.

The profile of these brothers or sisters is not that of supporters of your cause but of concerned people who aspire to the objective of forgiveness.

Matthew 18

16 But if he does not listen to you, take with you one or two people,

This was how it was done in the OT when situations were stuck:

so that the whole case is settled on the statement of two or three witnesses.

A secret

Often in these situations, it is complicated.

If we are in the role of companions, the first useful thing to do is not to hear the 2 parts but to read at 3 or 4, the whole chapter of Matthew 18 and to discover together that there is more important.

Once the goal is the same for everyone, we can look at how to achieve it.

But it may not work!

Third level

Matthew 18

17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the Church (that does not mean above all: “tell it to worship”).

The goal is recovery, not to discard the problem by throwing it into the public sphere.

All the previous steps were in a private sphere where discretion was required to aim for forgiveness and recovery.

While exposure to the public sphere often prevents

any return,
all the way to forgiveness.
“Telling it to the Church” does not mean unpacking everything to the Church, but simply sharing the difficulty so that forgiveness can be experienced.

But it might not work

Fourth rung

and if he also refuses to listen to the Church,

let him be in your eyes as the member of another people and the collector of taxes.

Someone who has not understood the kingdom of heaven and must understand and accept it.

Two promises

The goal is forgiveness and we have two great promises in this process.

Forgiveness has a heavenly echo

Matthew 18 , verse 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.

This reconciliation has a celestial echo just as the angels and God have an attention on the little ones.

What happens in what unravels here below at the level of forgiveness is well taken into account in heaven; vice versa too…

#God always answers prayers of forgiveness#

#### Matthew 18 , verses 19 and 20 I tell you again that if two of you agree on earth to ask anything, it will be granted to them by my heavenly Father. Indeed, where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in the midst of them.

The subject here is not to have found an introductory verse for a prayer meeting, but the guarantee of the answer of God in the prayers which aim at reconciliation when the two people are in this process of forgiveness. .####