Matthew 18:21-35: Forgiven People Forgive People

Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”  Matthew 18:22

"God has forgiven me much, so I think it's my responsibility to forgive others."

Gracie Burnham on being asked if she forgave her kidnappers whose actions resulted in the death of her husband Martin.  The Burnhams were missionaries serving in the Philippines when they were kidnapped by Islamic terrorists in May of 2001.  A rescue attempt in June 2002 resulted in the death of Martin while Gracie was freed. 

“My brother’s burden which I must bear is…quite literally his sin.  And the only way to bear that sin is by forgiving it in the power of the cross of Christ in which I now share…Forgiveness is the Christ-like suffering which is the Christian’s duty to bear.” 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship

Jesus’ passionate message about taking care of His little ones continues (Matthew 18:6,10,14).  Peter, after listening to Jesus’ instruction on restoring a sinning brother (Matthew 18:15-20), asks: “How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?  Up to seven times?” (v. 21)

It was rabbinic teaching of the day to extend forgiveness three times.  But not after four.  So Peter likely doubles the number and throws an additional measure of forgiveness.   Once again, Jesus explodes our expectations and answers Peter’s question with, “seventy times seven” (v.22).   And Jesus uses a parable (vv. 23-35) to explain his answer.

A slave begged forgiveness of a debt from a king he could not repay (v. 26).  The text lists the debt as 10,000 talents (v.24), an amount that could be over a billion dollars in today’s money.   The king assumes the debt and frees the slave.  That slave then finds a fellow slave who owes him a paltry few days wages and imprisons him when he cannot repay (v.30).  The king learns of what the forgiven slave did and immediately hands that slave over to the torturers (v.34).  

There is deep theology here that cannot be missed.   Sin is not just mere moral failure.   If that was the case, then human correction would be all that is needed for our forgiveness.  But sin is much, much more than mere moral failure.  Sin is rebellion against Almighty, All-holy God; sin is a God-centered action.    Sin cannot exist in the presence of absolute holiness without corrupting holiness.   Therefore an impenetrable barrier exists between Holy God and sinful man.   Yet God loves with an infinitely greater love known to man.    For Almighty God assumed our death penalty Himself on the cross; Jesus paid for our sin.   As the song says, “He paid a debt He did not owe; we owed a debt we could not pay.”  

This realization that the Lord God Himself has paid our sin penalty changes hearts and makes them soft.  The weight of our guilt, shame and sin has been lifted.   As the beautiful Christmas hymn proclaims, “God and sinners reconciled.”   The impenetrable barrier has now been breached through the cross of Jesus.   Man has been forgiven the greatest debt ever in the universe and now has the offer of fellowship with Almighty God!    What an awesome God we serve!  

Forgiveness is difficult; forgiveness is suffering, as Timothy Keller reminds us in his great book, The Reason for God in the chapter “The (True) Story of the Cross.”  When we forgive we forgo our opportunity to return affliction on our perpetrator.  We assume ourselves the debt of the transgression against us.  But this is exactly what the Lord God did for us on the cross.   And if we claim His forgiveness without forgiving others while remaining petty, grudge-holding people, then we do not fully understand the cross and we retain upon ourselves the death penalty for our sins (v. 34).  

Forgiveness can be a process and it may require a needed conscious choice to forgive over and over again (even more than 490 times if needed!).  Some of us are victims of unspeakable crimes and the passage of time provides little healing to those wounds.   In such cases, forgiveness can take years and require the help of professional counselors.  But what path are you on?  Are you on a path of forgiveness or on a path of a hardening heart? Those are the only two choices.  Pursue forgiveness with all you have just as the Lord has pursed us.  Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.  Ephesians 4:32

Matthew 18:11-20: Saving that which is lost

“If he finds [the lost sheep], he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.”
                   Jesus in Matthew 18:13

"In 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed; perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not see then what is now the most shining and obvious thing: the divine humility which will accept a convert on even such terms."
                   C.S. Lewis from his autobiography, Surprised by Joy.


"Christ allows His money to be taken from Him, but never His sheep."
                     Pasquier Quesnel, French theologian who died in 1719

These verses are a continuation of the passionate message Jesus is giving on the value of His little ones and His desire that none wander.   It is reasonable to believe that as Jesus is speaking, He is in Peter’s house in Capernaum (Matthew 17:24).

This passage begins with a questionable verse with a beautiful message:  For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost (v. 11).   The oldest and most reliable copies of Matthew’s gospel do not contain this verse.  But since it is nearly identical to Luke 19:10, we can be confident in the Scriptural truth of verse11 even though the verse itself may be in doubt as an original part of Matthew’s gospel.   However, this does not cast doubt on the reliability of either Matthew’s gospel or the New Testament.

There are over 5000 Greek manuscripts containing all or portions of the New Testament (Norman Geisler, Christian Apologetics, p. 307).  These manuscripts can be cross-referenced and double checked against each other so the New Testament we have is extremely reliable.  No other work of antiquity can even come close to this kind of manuscript authority.

Jesus says in v. 14: “It is the will of our Father who is in heaven that none of these little ones perish”.   And Jesus uses the parable of a shepherd who leaves his ninety-nine sheep to find the lost one as a way of illustrating the heart of His Father.  Imagine!  When other religions teach of a distant God and the extreme requirements needed to get His approval, our God comes in search of us!  And He searches for us not when we have been good or real religious but when we are a straying sheep wandering the mountain side!

And when our brother does sin, Jesus gives specific instructions for bringing that brother back (v.15-17).   First, approach him privately.   If he does not listen, then take two or three witnesses.  If this fails, then involve the local church body.  The goal is never to humiliate but always to restore.  We are to be the earthly expression of the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep (John 10:11).

Galatians 6:1-2 reminds us that we are to restore a sinning brother “with a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted.  We are to bear one another’s burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”  It is easy to become smugly self-righteous or even passively indifferent in these circumstances.  By the same token, it is unacceptable to say that we are “too loving” to confront a sinning brother.   We are to have the same humility and broken heart that the Lord has for His little ones.  

The Lord has put a high value on bringing His lost sheep back into the fold.  It naturally follows that He has given into the hands of His church great resources to rescue His little ones from wandering.  The authority that was given to Peter in Matthew 17:19 is now given to His disciples and His church:  “Whatever you bind [and loose] on earth shall have been bound [and loosened] in heaven” (v. 18).

Jesus says, “if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father” (v. 19)  This verse is often used as a “blank check” to justify a kind of Christian magic in some circles.  That is not the point of this promise.    Jesus also promises to be in our “midst” as we act as His body to reclaim one of His lost little ones.  Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:15).

But it is often difficult to get directly involved with a wayward believer; it is easier to avoid these tough situations.   That is why the Lord is promising us that when two or more agree on a certain course of action in reclaiming a wandering brother, that He will be in their midst; they will not be alone in their efforts to bring back His stumbling ones.

His little ones may be the boisterous atheist, the prodigal, the stranger you pass every day, the Chinese field worker, the shop keeper in Turkey, or the bus driver in Buenos Aires.  Are we ready to venture out into the mountains in search of His lost ones?   As His hands, His feet, His body, we should be prepared to go to great lengths to be sure that not one of His little ones perish.  Whether it is a lost soul or a wandering child, the hounds of heaven will find that little one and the Lord will safely bring His own back into the fold.

Pray for that wandering brother, sister, child, spouse, neighbor or friend.  Pray for the Christ-less nation on the other side of the world.    Know that His heart desires reconciliation even more than we do.  Don’t be afraid to pour out your heart and shed tears on behalf of His little ones.  Your brokenness is a reflection of His brokenness.  What an awesome God we serve!        

Matthew 18:7-10: Don't Be a Stumbling Block

"Woe to the man through whom stumbling blocks come!" Jesus in Matthew 18:7

“I think organized religion is a crutch. Cause it's controlling. Organized religion tells you what to believe, tells you who to be...It's an abuse to tell a child that God sees everything and knows what you think about and that you are going to be burn in hell. It's a huge abuse to teach children that God is not within themselves...That God is bigger than them. That God is outside them. That is a lie. That's what causes the emptiness of children."
Sinead O’Connor, Spin Magazine, November 1991

After being asked by His disciples, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (18:1), Jesus gives a passionate message stretching over all of chapter 18 about how His sheep should take care of one another. In fact, John MacArthur says in his commentary on this passage, “It is no exaggeration to say that this is the single greatest discourse our Lord ever gave on life among the redeemed people in His church. Sadly, because it has been largely misinterpreted, its profound riches often have been lost.”

In verse 7 Jesus says, “it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come. But woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!” Most moms can relate to carrying a load of laundry and tripping over a toy at her feet. Such an event at times can even be humorous. Yet transfer that scenario to a spiritual reality and it is no longer funny. In fact Jesus uses drowning and eternal fire as a way to emphasize just how serious stumbling blocks are.

Romans 14 teaches how to avoid being a stumbling block. We are free to eat and drink whatever we want but if that freedom causes one of His little ones to stumble, then we are no longer walking according to love (Romans 14:15). James also warns us against causing others to stumble because of the words we say (James 3:1-12). May we not destroy with our food (or drink or words) him for whom Christ died (Romans 14:15).

Simon the Tanner

If your hand or your foot [or eye] causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you (v. 8). It is better to remove the offending appendage than to be cast into fiery hell. During a recent trip to Egypt we visited a monastery that was the home of Simon the Tanner who lived a little over one thousand years ago. There is a painting of his likeness with his right eye missing. He plucked it out, according to the tour guide, as a way of being obedient to this very passage. It is said that he was a pious man who took the Bible very seriously. Fortunately, neither his hand nor his foot ever caused him to stumble since in the painting he had all four still attached.

But why don’t we take this passage literally? Are we guilty of cherry-picking which verses we obey? Was Simon the Tanner and others like him in church history (i.e., Origen) more obedient Christians than us modern, more enlightened believers? I think there are several ways to answer that. First, if we did pluck out our eye when it caused us to sin, then the church would be, according to Bryant Wright our pastor in Atlanta, full of one-eyed sinners. The issue of sin is not a physical issue but a heart issue.

Second, Jesus taught often in hyperbole. In the previous chapter Jesus had used both a mustard seed and a mountain as figures of speech when teaching on faith (Matthew 17:20). We believe the words of Jesus are true but we also believe Jesus used hyperbole and other literary elements in His teaching. For example, no one believes that Jesus is a door (John 10:7) or a piece of bread (John 6:48).

But these verses about cutting off hands and feet are a part of Holy Scripture and therefore we must pursue their meaning. Jesus wants us to put supreme value on our relationship with Him as His children, His little ones. Our relationship with Jesus is so precious, so vital, so all-encompassing that we should remove ANY obstacle that keeps us from enjoying our identity as His adopted children. What are the idols in our lives that keep us from experiencing the all-satisfying relationship with the Lord? Let’s identify them, sever them and throw them out.

Those idols can take many forms for us who are 21st century Christ-followers. They may be materialistic pursuits where the American dream becomes a greater passion than Christ and His kingdom. It may be the belief that an elected official or a political party will meet needs that only God can meet. It may be earthly relationships that are more important to us than our relationship with our Heavenly Father. I have heard recently about a pastor who has told his congregation to delete their facebook accounts because the rekindling of old flames via facebook is destroying marriages within his church. “If facebook causes you to stumble…”

What about TV? What about the internet? What about food, sports or sex? Do we create boundaries in our lives to protect us from the sin which so easily entangles us? I have accountability software on our family computers because I know the lure of dark places all too well. For the same reason we have no incoming TV signal in our home. I don’t want to be responsible for stumbling blocks for either my family or myself.

Stephen Arteburn in his excellent book, Every Man’s Battle, says there are three “gates” that each man must guard in his attempts to not stumble sexually. We must guard our eye gate (what we see), our mind gate (what we think about), and our heart gate (where we place our affections).

Another teaching from this hyperbolic passage would be directed at those who cause His little ones to stumble. I fear for those atheists who smugly use quasi-intellectual reason to say God does not exist. Surely there are some who are weak in faith who have stumbled because of these hardened naturalists. It is one thing to deny God yourself, it is another to drag others down with you into fiery hell.

Jesus commands that we do not despise one of these little ones (v. 10). For He Himself makes intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25; Romans 8:34). And He has given us guardian angels that continually see the face of His Father who is in heaven (v. 10). The Lord is committed to protecting His little ones.

Christian, the greatest treasure we have is in Jesus Christ. Are you willing to forsake all treasures in order to obtain and enjoy your relationship with our Heavenly Father as His child? Whatever is between you and the Lord, cut it away and cast it for from you. Do this daily, hourly and even each minute; do it as often as you need to. Our forgiveness is complete in the cross; we are free to be His children. Nothing else lasts, nothing else compares, and nothing else can satisfy like our Lord Jesus.

Matthew 18:1-6 “Becoming Like Children”

“Whoever humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus in Matthew 18:3

"I am so weak that I can hardly write, I cannot read my Bible, I cannot even pray, I can only lie still in God's arms like a little child, and trust." The last words of Hudson Taylor, missionary to China in the 1800s.

While in Capernaum and likely at Peter’s house, Jesus asks His disciples, “What were you talking about on your way here?” (Mark 9:33) At first there is only silence as the disciples look at each other, like kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Finally one of them answers Jesus: “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? (v.1)”

The disciples know there is something unique about Jesus, even though they cannot firmly grasp what it is. They know they are part of His inner circle, the political “cabinet” of this rising messiah who will return the kingdom to Israel. Or so they believe. They also know that Jesus is “showing favorites,” since only three of them accompanied Him to the Mount of Transfiguration. And they are all jealous of Peter who receives a lot of attention from Jesus.

The male ego is extremely fragile; it breaks easily and it constantly needs to be stroked. As a male, I understand why the disciples asked about who was the greatest; with my ego bruised, I too would have been wondering the same thing. And as usual, Jesus totally turns upside-down their expectations and breaks their paradigms.

Jesus sets before them a child, likely Peter’s child, and holds that child in His arms and says, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (vv.3-4).”

I just returned from the Middle-East where what is valued is strength, self-reliance and pride. Acquiescing to the socially low, or worse yet to a woman, is shameful, weak, and worthy of God’s anger. We heard the story of a wife who not only failed to birth a son for her husband but birthed a handicapped daughter instead. He divorced her on the spot and left her all alone to care for their handicapped daughter. Failure and shame are not to be tolerated.

Likewise, in Christian America we value achievement over child-like faith. We have our “celebrity Christians” and everyone wants to go to a church exploding in growth. Can one find a Christian book where praise for the author and a list of his achievements is not printed on the back cover? Everyone wants to be first; few want to be last.

Humans value self-reliance and strength, but Jesus teaches us to value child-like trust. The Moody Gospel Commentary on Matthew says that Jesus here contrasts “the attitude of self-sufficient with the attitude of childlike dependence.” Childlike innocence doesn’t boast or brag; a child rests and trusts. There is no place for status or boasting in the kingdom of God. Rather, we hope, we rejoice, and we rest in the Fatherhood of God.

This is in sharp contrast to how the world around us thinks. Even the religious world believes ironically that in order to get God’s approval we must prove we have no need of God. Each of us, myself included, must repent of our self-sufficiency and ask God for the faith to trust Him like a child.

Jesus also readily identifies Himself with children when He says, “whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me (v.5).” As we proclaim Him, we must not ignore those who are abused, hurting and hungry. We who have been blessed must not say, “Be warmed and be filled” as we turn them away empty. If we love the Master, we will love sacrificially those who are invisible, ignored or cursed by the self-reliant and self-seeking.

Judgment Day is coming. And on that Day, when He separates the sheep from the goats, he who has caused His little ones to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and drowned in the depth of the sea (v.6). But those who have a child-like trust will be ushered into the very throne room of God where at the very first glimpse of our Lord, they will cry out with great joy, worship and delight, “Abba! Father!”