Matthew: Chapter 18
Chapter 18 focuses on forgiveness and how it relates to sin from God's perspective.
The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven
The chapter starts with the disciples asking Jesus, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" In response Jesus calls a little child and makes him stand among them and says,
... "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3,4
Quite directly, Jesus points out that humbleness is required to be the "greatest" in heaven, and specifically, one who humbles himself like a child, before the LORD. Firstly, a childlike stance, would take away pride and other qualities which would make one want to be "great" in a conventional sense. A child does not care if he/she is the best at a particular thing, but rather enjoys the present as it is. Further, a childlike faith, and childlike innocence helps in seeking the LORD much more easily. Also, just like children experience the world first hand and take everything in, changing like children in things pertaining to the scripture, would help us in taking things in first hand and to see the perspective of the Father.
Following this, Jesus mentions how the world entices people to sin, and how severe the judgement will be on those who bring the sin or make the little ones to stray and sin.
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. Matthew 18:6
To the people who believes in him, Jesus says its better to completely cut off anything which could potentially cause them to sin, out of their lives. This way, despite not having something on the earth, one would still escape the punishment for sin, which is hell.
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. Matthew 18:9
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
Jesus continues and says not to look down on any of these "little ones" who wholeheartedly accept Christ. They are precious in the sight of the LORD. Jesus substantiates this by telling the parable of the lost sheep.
A man who owns a hundred sheep realizes that one of his sheep has wandered away. He, despite having ninety nine sheep left, will put these ninety nine sheep in a safe place, and will go to find that one sheep which wandered away. And when he finds it, he'll rejoice because he found it safe. Likewise, the Father does not want anyone to be lost. But wants to save everyone. For this purpose, Christ came to the earth, and we are forgiven of our sins by his blood.
In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. Matthew 18:14
A Brother who sins
At times, the sin one might have to deal with, would not be his own, but rather it would be done by someone else. In this case, Jesus states the optimal way to intercede for this person, which is to first talk to them directly, showing their fault, if they listen and repent, the job is done. If suppose they do not listen, take two others along, and let them try to reason with him. If he refuses even then, let it be known to the church. If suppose he refuses to listen even to the church, then he is to be treated as an outsider. Nevertheless, this isn't the end. We can still pray for this person, committing them to the LORD.
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. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. Matthew 18:19,20
The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
It is one thing to realize our own sins, repent and ask for forgiveness. Another is to see and warn someone else of their sin and help them to repent and ask forgiveness from the LORD. Yet another, is to forgive someone who has wronged us personally, and quite often, this might be the hardest thing for a person to do.
Peter, mindful of this, comes to Jesus and quite bluntly asks, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answers, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."
This exchange doesn't mean that we should only forgive someone who has wronged us seventy-seven times (or seventy times seven). But rather, this just says, we are expected to keep forgiving what others did to us always, because the LORD forgave all our sins completely. Jesus explains this by telling the parable of the Unmerciful Servant.
A certain man owed the king a debt which was over millions in their currency units (ten thousand talents). Since he couldn't pay off the debt, the king ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. At this the man, servant of the king, fell on his knees and begged the king to be patient with him and that he'd somehow pay back. The merciful king took pity on him, forgave the debt he owed, and let him go.
But when this servant went out, he found one of his fellow-servants who owned him a few units of currency (a hundred denarii), grabbed him by his neck and demanded to be paid back.
This fellow-servant begged in the same way as the man did, but this man refused to hear his pleas, and had his fellow-servant thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.
The other servants who saw what happened were greatly distressed and reported the incident to the king. The king called the servant in and said, "you wicked servant, I cancelled all the 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 his anger, the king turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
Jesus concludes by saying,
"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." Matthew 18:35
We are to forgive, because we are forgiven a greater deal. In fact, we have seen this in the Lord's prayer as well.
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Matthew 6:12
This again, is much easier, when we become like children. Children don't have any grudges and hard feelings against one another, they are quick to forgive and join together in a short time.
To summarize, becoming like children, completely dependent on the Father, transforms us into wonderful humans, living a life without pride but humility, a life away from sin, a life which leads others away from sin, a life where we are ready to forgive, understanding the fact that we are forgiven first from our greater deal of sin than anyone. See you in the next one. Take care of yourselves and each other!
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