Micah 6:6-8; Philippians 1:3-11; St Matthew 18:21-35
Hymns: LSB 562, 611, 621, 614, 646, 608, 559​

In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.   

Dear redeemed sinners of Christ, today you have set before you a splendid little sermon from our Lord Jesus on the Fifth Petition of the Our Father: And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. You have and believe God’s Word, you do and submit to His will, and are supported by His gifts and blessings, yet your life is still not sinless. You stumble daily and transgress because you live in the world as a sinner among sinners. Thus you are given to pray often and with ferventness this petition, pleading for forgiveness before your King and Lord.  

Our Lord has been catechizing on forgiveness. On the necessity of reconciliation between Christian brethren. He has already even given the Our Father as a beloved prayer to the children of His heavenly Father, the Church. 

And so Peter, as a disciplined catechumen, wants to apply this catechesis. His question evidences that he is beginning to understand the importance of forgiveness. The rabbis taught that one should forgive up to three times for sins committed against them. Peter doubles that plus one!  Yet even with his generosity, the Apostle does not fully grasp the limitless nature of God’s forgiveness and its implications for the community of disciples of Jesus. And so the catechesis on this importance and fundamental topic continues, even as it does for us. “Can we finish learning in one hour what God Himself cannot finish teaching?” (LC Preface 16). 

Our Lord’s answer of seventy times seven cannot mean 77 or even 490 times. The point is that there are to be no limits to the willingness to forgive. The kingdom of heaven operates on forgiveness. And this is more than a one time event. The superabundance of the King’s continual generosity ought to overflow from the forgiven heart of the servant unto his fellow servants.  

Therefore the reign of heaven may be likened to a Man, a King, who wished to settle accounts with His slaves. He’s auditing His books and the debts are being called in.  Catechumens of St Matthew’s Gospel are already familiar with the word “debt” as sin; back in chapter six you were taught to pray, Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors (Mt 6:12). This word connects this catechetical parable to that petition of the Our Father. 

When He began to settle, one was brought to Him who owed Him ten thousand talents. Before we go any further, do this: put yourself in the role of this servant. That is how our Lord Jesus would have Peter and His disciples understand this parable. This is goal of catechesis: the proclamation of God’s Law and Gospel for the preaching of repentance and faith; placing the catechumen into the text. 

So you are the servant. You don’t voluntarily present yourself to your King. Rather you are hauled before your Master, to whom you owe an inconceivable sum: 10,000 talents! An amount equivalent to 200,000 years work.  We’re talking tens of billions - trillions - of dollars! This isn’t a mortgage payment, a car loan, or even student loans. This is you got in really bad, way over your head, racking up debt well beyond your ability to pay, even in a thousand lifetimes. This debt is on the backs of your great-grandchildren’s great-grandchildren, and even then, its unpayable.

Now the very fact that the King allowed you to incur such debt is a testament to His mercy and compassion. He didn’t call in your debt when you owed one talent - about 20 years wages - or even 100 talents - 200 years wages! The King is patient and forbearing.  He is long-suffering. For this is God’s way, His character with us. And as St Paul writes to the Christians in Rome, Do you presume on the riches of God’s kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Rm 2:4).

So now you are standing before your Maker and Judge. Your outrageous debt is being called in. He’s going to sell your house, your goods, all your worldly possessions, even you and your family into slavery in order to reap some small amount of His money back.  At such a prospect, what do you do? You do what the flesh always does - you plead more time! You beg that future obedience can make up for past disobedience. But this won’t do. This is the way of the world. The way of all the -isms out there. It won’t work here. You’ll never pay it back. Ever.  

What does the prophet Micah ask? With what shall I come before the LORD and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Nothing will satisfy the debt you owe. Not your own life, let alone the lives of ten thousand calves and rams, or even the life of your oldest son.  

Nothing, that is, but the compassion and mercy of the King who is moved with pity to forgive all the debt. But understand this - the debt isn’t merely canceled or written off. Debts must be eaten by someone. If the King goes around forgiving debts to all of His servants, His kingdom will soon go bankrupt! Someone must pay. You can’t do it, but Someone has to. This King is not only merciful, He is also just.  

Here you catechumens ought to have the words of the explanation of the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed singing in your memory: “not with gold or silver.” And you’d be right. But we’ll come back to that. 

Right now all that’s on your mind is the freedom of conscience and from fear you can enjoy. Loosed from an inconceivable debt you ought to go skipping from the presence of your King rejoicing! Fully and freely forgiven you owe nothing to Him any longer! Your whole mind and heart are different. This joy and peace ought to completely transform your entire outlook on life. Does it? What happens?

You find a fellow servant and choke him out for the 100 denarii he owes you! Mercy! Dear God! This betrays a heart that has not been forgiven. A heart that has rejected the mercy shown to it. In his treatment on the Fifth Petition in the Large Catechism, Luther said it this way, 

    “If you do not forgive, then do not think that God forgives you. But if you forgive then you have this comfort and assurance, that you are forgiven in heaven. This is not because of your forgiving. For God forgives freely and without condition, out of pure grace, because He has so promised, as the Gospel teaches. But God says this in order that He may establish forgiveness as our confirmation and assurance, as a sign alongside of the promise, which agrees with this prayer in Luke 6: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (LC III 95-96).  

The forgiven servant, who was keeping tally of his forgiveness toward others, refuses and consigns his fellow-servant to the punishment of which he was spared. Their own consciences convicted - for observing the sins of others always gives pause for self-reflection - the servants report to their Master. This scoundrel is then hauled before the King again and in anger handed over to the jailers. That is, he is condemned to everlasting death in Hell! May this not happen to you! 

But be warned, the Day of Judgment is real. St Paul calls it “The Day of Jesus Christ.” The books shall be opened and the balance due. It is real and it is imminent. This parable is for us, disciples of Jesus, a warning.  

Thanks be to God that it is Christ our Lord who was handed over to our punishment. As our Suffering Servant He took the enormity of our debt. And not ours only, but the sin of the whole world. He was handed over by the Father to be our Ransom. He was handed over in betrayal. Handed over to the authorities. Handed over to the Cross, to death, so that in His resurrection He could hand over to you forgiveness of all your debts, freedom from guilt and shame, and a good conscience.  

Back to that explanation of the Second Article. How does it go? “I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. Why? “So that I may be his own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.”

What does this mean? This means that the King’s forgiveness of your debt as a slave is the foundation of this catechetical parable. You are no longer a slave, but a son. Fully and freely forgiven, owing nothing to anyone. And yet, as a son and heir of the King, you are a slave to all and servant to all, even as the King Himself transferred your debt to Himself and became a Servant. This is the paradoxical nature of the kingdom and of being a Christian.  

It is as St Paul writes to the Christians in Philippi: you are partners in the Gospel, having fellowship with him in Jesus Christ, who began a good work in you. Abounding in His love you approve what is excellent and are filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. This is what the prophet Micah means when he says, What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?  

So if you, dear Christian, find yourself unwilling to forgive, if your heart stews on wrongs and seeks vengeance, return to the beginning of the parable and hear again the enormity of your debt. You deserve, just as you say, both temporal and eternal punishment. But the Lord is rich in mercy and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. He has canceled the record of debt that stood against you, nailing it to the Cross (Col 2:14).  In short, “If God does not forgive without stopping, we are lost” (LC III 91).  

But He has. He does and He will. If You, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared (Ps 130:3-4). When you recognize the full magnitude of your sin, then, by His grace and Spirit, the depths of His compassion and mercy upon you become apparent. You freely receive forgiveness in Jesus Christ and so you freely forgive. This serves as an outward sign to confirm to your conscience that you are forgiven and causes you to rejoice.  “It is especially given for this purpose, so that we may use and practice forgiveness every hour, as a thing that we have with us at all times.” (LC III 98).  

We practice forgiveness, but never fully perfect it.  We are in the world where we sin and are sinned against, always in need of forgiveness and constantly giving it. Such is the Christian life of faith and love lived in the flesh under the Cross. A life of repentance and faith. A life lived in being forgiven and forgiving. A life lived by faith before God where you are entirely free and slave of none. A life lived in love toward the neighbor where you are bound and a servant of all. 

What shall you render to the Lord for all His benefits to you? Lift up your hearts and receive the Cup of Salvation and call on the Name of the Lord in prayer and praise and thanksgiving. He has loosed your bonds. Offer Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving (Ps 116:12-17). For I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the Day of Jesus Christ.    

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:12-19; St Matthew 11:12-19
Hymns: LSB 947, 656, 555, 645, 355, 569

In the Name + of JESUS. Amen. 

Some countries have institutionalized revolutions. The revolutionaries who overthrew the older governments have themselves become the establishment. Cuba is an obvious example. Castro dressed in the combat gear of a revolutionary, but he was really a dictator. Communism is generationally institutionalized there. 

Of course, “institutionalized revolution” is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. Water is not dry. Infants are not adults. Murderers are not humane. Thieves are not honest. So revolutions are not institutions. Revolution means overthrowing a government by force and then that’s it. Its over. The soldier lays down his arms and returns to his farming. The French Revolution was not the American. Russia and China had their own issues. No doubt you can discern for yourselves present-day examples. 

As Lutherans, we cannot allow the Reformation to be institutionalized. We may be tempted to do this by stressing past grievances without facing present problems. 

Lutherans are often labeled Protestants. Protestants are people who protest. Protest means that we are against something. You have to continually rehearse in your mind what your against. The mantra must be repeated like a creed. Shouted and sloganeered. But you then also have to make sure that those we dislike are still doing the things we dislike. Eventually a time will come when no one remembers what the protest was all about. Its like disliking a person, but not remembering why you dislike him. 

Those who have read or are participating in our study of the Book of Concord are hopefully realizing that true Christianity is not simply a matter of what we are against, but primarily of what we believe, teach, and confess. 

Being against something never brings people together for too long. After World War II one-time allies came enemies. After the statues were dismantled and the cities demolished, summer protestors quickly turned on each other. Revolutions are inevitably cannibalistic. Reformation Day must be more than an institutionalized revolution intended to relive old battles and refight old wars. The Lutheran Reformation requires an eternal vigilance. It cannot simply be defined as an opposition movement. 

Today Luther reminds us again - well, really its Jesus - reminds us that the Reformation is not simply the celebration of a past event. On-going, ever present reformation is a necessity in the turmoil from which the Church can never extricate herself.  From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. The Church of the Lutheran Reformation is not a revolution, but she is counter-cultural. She is always struggling for her existence. She is always the minority. Always canceled as obscene and vulgar in a world preaching tolerance and immortality. 

Its tempting and easy to shout back. To resort to equal malignity and hatred. Jesus reminds us that this generation, like every generation, are like petulant children, demanding the Church step in line. That she dance to the world’s tone. Where they want and when they want. 

But on this Reformation Day we come together not to stand up as revolutionaries, shouting for change. More importantly, we come together, by the Spirit’s word, to affirm that Jesus Christ is the center of everything we do and say. We insist on Baptism because there Jesus makes us participants, gives us fellowship, in His atoning death and resurrection. By making the Lord’s Supper the heart and center of Christian worship, we are placing Jesus Christ where He belongs. Everything in our Lutheran faith - from creed and confession, Word and promise, liturgy and hymns - has its chief and only focus on Jesus Christ. 

Simply put, Christianity is the Apostles’ Creed. But if this seems too narrow a definition for the Reformation, then define the Lutheran faith by the catechism. Next to the Creed place the Ten Commandments, the Our Father, Holy Baptism, Confession and Absolution, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Daily Prayers, Table of Duties and Christian Questions and Answers. 

The Small Catechism isn’t our version of Rules for Radicals. Rather, it is your manual for the Christian life of faith and love. It is, as Luther called it, the lay person’s Bible. In these evil days, where violence and persecution are not just lurking on the horizon, but have already appeared, even among us, just praying and discussing the Small Catechism will keep every Christian busy and occupied until Christ returns in glory. Maranatha!

As the Church is bombarded with one program after another, promising one glory after another, the Small Catechism appears as the clearer path to heaven. As she offers mewling statements, acquiescing to earthly authorities who have abused their offices, the Small Catechism is a full throated confession of where we stand. Here I do not find what I must do. Here I find Jesus Christ who grasps me and by His Cross takes me to His God and Father. This is justification by grace through faith. 

When the Lutheran Church began celebrating the Reformation it had to choose sections of the Bible to be read. Obviously Luther is not mentioned in the Bible. But the Lutherans saw three persons who, in their estimation, were like Luther. 

The first was Josiah, a king of Judah and a descendant of David, who found the Books of Moses in the Temple basement and had them read to the people. So did Luther rummage around in the Church basement - the Scriptures and the Fathers. He pulled back the tarp on what he found there and behold it was the Sacraments and the promises! 

Then there was Elijah. He minced no words in telling King Ahab that he had broken the laws of Moses in confiscating his subjects inherited property. Here was Martin Luther who stood at Worms, 500 years ago this year, and faced the emperor himself, refusing to back down on what he believed. “Unless I can be convinced from the Holy Scriptures and from sound reason, I shall not and will not recant. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.” God’s Word is our great heritage. It cannot be confiscated or stolen. 

Finally there was John the Baptist, whom Jesus called the New Testament Elijah. His command to repent and believe the Gospel reminded people of the first of Luther’s 95 Theses that the life of the Christian should be one of continual repentance and faith. As the artwork in the undercroft chows, both John and Luther pointed to Christ as the Lamb of God who takes way the sin of the world. 

And this is why we still need the Reformation as a call to return. Why the preaching of a man like St John still makes us uncomfortable. For though we adore the Lamb, that pointy finger of the baptizer scolds us. He reminds up that what God requires of us is more important than what other people think about us. He knew that moths soon devour the finest apparel, so he wore an untanned animal skin. Stomachs are destined for destruction, so don’t bother looking at the menu, stick with the locusts. 

The message of preached and lived by men like St John and Elijah and Josiah is that if God means anything than everything else means nothing. Luther said the same in “A Mighty Fortress.” Its a great hymn, but its not a rally cry to revolution. Its the stark reminder that though grace is free to you, it isn’t cheap. Christ paid with His lifeblood. His Passion and Death. As Christians, we’ll bear some splinters of the Cross too. We’ll share in His suffering. 

In other words, if they take away the lives of our family, take away our stuff, our reputation, even our own life, still they gain nothing.

Jezebel pursued Elijah’s life. Herod imprisoned John and took his head. Charles V extended the hunting season on Luther’s life for twenty-six years. The year that Luther died, the emperor stood on his tomb. We can try to run away from the Reformation, institutionalize it, ignore it, sloganeer it, but its martyrs keep coming back. Keep preaching to us of repentance and faith. Keep proclaiming not us, but this Word of the Lord which endures forever. 

And that’s what its about. The enduring Word of the Lord. The Lutheran Reformation was more than the repetition of slogans. It was about Jesus Christ. The good news that your sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake. The good news that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law. A righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. This may sound radical. It is! But its not revolutionary. 

If you look on the back of a dollar bill, you’ll see under the pyramid to the right these words in Latin, Novus ordo seculorum, “A New Order of the Ages.” The Reformation was not a new order of the ages. Luther was not a revolutionary. He did not claim any new discovery for himself. What was necessary for salvation was found in the Creed, which is as old as the Church itself. 

He took the Creed seriously: for us men and for our salvation Jesus Christ came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.

Luther only pointed to what was already there. We are to continually do the same. We conserve the old ways. We return to the faith once for all delivered to the saints. The Reformation is not a mandate for change and protest and revolution. It is a command to retain the one, holy, Christian and apostolic faith, without which, as the Athanasian Creed says, we cannot be saved. 

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.