Cops and robbers
This week is on Matthew 18:15-35:
These are two stories about sin and forgiveness. I don't think it's any accident that they're placed next to each other in the gospel of Matthew. People take one story without the other and use it to beat each other up, or push their agenda, or justify themselves, or deny Christ's love to people who need it.
First off, let's talk about sin. Sin's a bad thing which goes against the ideal plan God has for our lives. It's like a virus that gets into us and has to be eradicated in order for the machine to run smoothly. It's a bad decision or pattern of bad decisions which produce bad fruit. Paul's letters do a good job of listing the bad fruit of sin. You can also find it in the first chapters of Revelation. We're talking about stuff like idolatry, sexual immorality, cowardice, deception, drunkenness, etc. It's not just "Joey ate a cheeseburger and that's against the Levitical law!" It's stuff that hurts people and keeps us from living enjoyable free lives.
So Jesus talks about what you do when there is sin in the church? Notice that he doesn't say sin in general. What do we care if the pagan down the street sacrifices pigeons to idols or is sleeping with a woman he's not married to? Our responsibility to them is to introduce Jesus to them, not to make them follow rules. But for Christians, sin matters. Jesus died for our sin, and he wants us to be free of it. People persisting in it make that process difficult. The virus can spread.
In a church, or in your household, there are sometimes people who are steeped in sin. The funny thing about sin is that you don't always know you're doing it. That's why we worship as a community, and aren't just living in isolation. We have to watch each others' backs. So if you see someone in sin, you're supposed to warn them. Wouldn't you tell someone if their zipper was down, or if their shoes were untied, or if their car's headlights were out? How much more important it is that we warn each other about something that means death!
Sometimes people are all hard-hearted. They refuse to be warned because they can't see their sin. They'll say things like "You're just jealous," or "You're judging me," or "I don't know what you're talking about." So for that, Jesus asks that you bring others who have seen it. That eliminates the possibility that you're crazy, that you're the only person to spot this, or that you're on some kind of witch hunt.
But there are people who are even too hard-hearted for that. Maybe they like their sin. Maybe they want badly to continue in it, and figure they can just keep stalling people until they give up and go away. Maybe they see their sin all too clearly but just don't want the embarrassment of having admitted to doing what they did. Clinton's affairs fell into that category, I think. He perjured himself in order to not have to be labeled as an adulterer. The evidence was there from numerous witnesses but he hoped he could just blow past the issue by sheer force of will and avoid the bad press. For those people, Jesus says to tell the whole church. It's not gossip. It's a spotlight. It defuses the desire to hide in darkness by removing the darkness from the issue. Your kid hurt his finger and he's hiding in the cellar. He needs help but he won't come out. So you turn the lights on so people can see him to rescue him.
Some people persist in sin even past that point. At that point there is no explanation other than the person's steadfast desire to continue sinning. They are a bad example for everyone at that point and can embolden others to make similar compromises. They are their own god. For those people, Jesus says to throw them out of the church and treat them like they're not Christians. "Shun the unbeliever! Shun him!" :) If they repent, we welcome them back into the church the same as any person who decides again to become a Christian.
People use this story of church discipline to be hard-hearted people. They blast through the stages Jesus describes in an afternoon. They take treating someone as a pagan or tax collector as a license for hatred and unforgiveness, even when the person has repented. They take someone leaving the church because it doesn't suit their tastes as a license to shun them as if they were ejected for sin. All of those interpretations are wrong in so many ways.
That's why Jesus tells about forgiveness and hard-heartedness. The guy in the second story was forgiven of a great debt. He then refused to forgive others who asked him that their debts be forgiven. Both said to the people against whom they'd sinned "Be patient with me!" Those are the words of a person who knows their indebtedness and has a desire to get out of debt. They're not asking for justification, they're asking for mercy. The first guy had his huge debt forgiven, but wouldn't forgive the second guy. He missed the point. He wasn't justified as never having owed any money. He was given mercy that the debt wouldn't be collected. It would be forgiven.
All of us have been forgiven of something. We have no place to hold condemnation over the heads of others for what they've done. Can the serial rapist really justify despising the pedophile? Can the embezzler really prosecute the shoplifter? Forgiveness is a case of not exalting ourselves to a position of master over others, of not claiming to be perfect and demanding perfection in others. That's a separate issue from church discipline, which is more of a case of protecting the flock from wolves. We can't claim that we deserve forgiveness but others don't. We can't react in outrage to something we ourselves have done.
Both discipline and forgiveness are things based in love. People won't love us for doing them, but they are both representing Christ's love for us. Nobody wants to be the cop, but everyone wants someone to protect them. Nobody wants to lose money but everyone wants their debts canceled. You don't chase the thief down because you want to crack skulls or you hate his kind. You do it because he has the old lady's purse and he's off to take another. You don't forgive people because money and contracts have no value to you. You do it because you want them to have an opportunity to do the right thing again without being in bondage for the wrong things they can't undo.
“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
“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.
“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 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.
“At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
“But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
These are two stories about sin and forgiveness. I don't think it's any accident that they're placed next to each other in the gospel of Matthew. People take one story without the other and use it to beat each other up, or push their agenda, or justify themselves, or deny Christ's love to people who need it.
First off, let's talk about sin. Sin's a bad thing which goes against the ideal plan God has for our lives. It's like a virus that gets into us and has to be eradicated in order for the machine to run smoothly. It's a bad decision or pattern of bad decisions which produce bad fruit. Paul's letters do a good job of listing the bad fruit of sin. You can also find it in the first chapters of Revelation. We're talking about stuff like idolatry, sexual immorality, cowardice, deception, drunkenness, etc. It's not just "Joey ate a cheeseburger and that's against the Levitical law!" It's stuff that hurts people and keeps us from living enjoyable free lives.
So Jesus talks about what you do when there is sin in the church? Notice that he doesn't say sin in general. What do we care if the pagan down the street sacrifices pigeons to idols or is sleeping with a woman he's not married to? Our responsibility to them is to introduce Jesus to them, not to make them follow rules. But for Christians, sin matters. Jesus died for our sin, and he wants us to be free of it. People persisting in it make that process difficult. The virus can spread.
In a church, or in your household, there are sometimes people who are steeped in sin. The funny thing about sin is that you don't always know you're doing it. That's why we worship as a community, and aren't just living in isolation. We have to watch each others' backs. So if you see someone in sin, you're supposed to warn them. Wouldn't you tell someone if their zipper was down, or if their shoes were untied, or if their car's headlights were out? How much more important it is that we warn each other about something that means death!
Sometimes people are all hard-hearted. They refuse to be warned because they can't see their sin. They'll say things like "You're just jealous," or "You're judging me," or "I don't know what you're talking about." So for that, Jesus asks that you bring others who have seen it. That eliminates the possibility that you're crazy, that you're the only person to spot this, or that you're on some kind of witch hunt.
But there are people who are even too hard-hearted for that. Maybe they like their sin. Maybe they want badly to continue in it, and figure they can just keep stalling people until they give up and go away. Maybe they see their sin all too clearly but just don't want the embarrassment of having admitted to doing what they did. Clinton's affairs fell into that category, I think. He perjured himself in order to not have to be labeled as an adulterer. The evidence was there from numerous witnesses but he hoped he could just blow past the issue by sheer force of will and avoid the bad press. For those people, Jesus says to tell the whole church. It's not gossip. It's a spotlight. It defuses the desire to hide in darkness by removing the darkness from the issue. Your kid hurt his finger and he's hiding in the cellar. He needs help but he won't come out. So you turn the lights on so people can see him to rescue him.
Some people persist in sin even past that point. At that point there is no explanation other than the person's steadfast desire to continue sinning. They are a bad example for everyone at that point and can embolden others to make similar compromises. They are their own god. For those people, Jesus says to throw them out of the church and treat them like they're not Christians. "Shun the unbeliever! Shun him!" :) If they repent, we welcome them back into the church the same as any person who decides again to become a Christian.
People use this story of church discipline to be hard-hearted people. They blast through the stages Jesus describes in an afternoon. They take treating someone as a pagan or tax collector as a license for hatred and unforgiveness, even when the person has repented. They take someone leaving the church because it doesn't suit their tastes as a license to shun them as if they were ejected for sin. All of those interpretations are wrong in so many ways.
That's why Jesus tells about forgiveness and hard-heartedness. The guy in the second story was forgiven of a great debt. He then refused to forgive others who asked him that their debts be forgiven. Both said to the people against whom they'd sinned "Be patient with me!" Those are the words of a person who knows their indebtedness and has a desire to get out of debt. They're not asking for justification, they're asking for mercy. The first guy had his huge debt forgiven, but wouldn't forgive the second guy. He missed the point. He wasn't justified as never having owed any money. He was given mercy that the debt wouldn't be collected. It would be forgiven.
All of us have been forgiven of something. We have no place to hold condemnation over the heads of others for what they've done. Can the serial rapist really justify despising the pedophile? Can the embezzler really prosecute the shoplifter? Forgiveness is a case of not exalting ourselves to a position of master over others, of not claiming to be perfect and demanding perfection in others. That's a separate issue from church discipline, which is more of a case of protecting the flock from wolves. We can't claim that we deserve forgiveness but others don't. We can't react in outrage to something we ourselves have done.
Both discipline and forgiveness are things based in love. People won't love us for doing them, but they are both representing Christ's love for us. Nobody wants to be the cop, but everyone wants someone to protect them. Nobody wants to lose money but everyone wants their debts canceled. You don't chase the thief down because you want to crack skulls or you hate his kind. You do it because he has the old lady's purse and he's off to take another. You don't forgive people because money and contracts have no value to you. You do it because you want them to have an opportunity to do the right thing again without being in bondage for the wrong things they can't undo.
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