Are we, like Joseph’s brothers, expecting some kind of ‘Revenge of the Younger Brother’ for all that his older siblings put him through? Hollywood could write such a script and we would think it fair enough – and dramatically satisfying. But not here. Joseph met God somewhere along the way, and that meeting humbled him and showed him a better way – that of forgiveness. And not just forgiveness in words, but also in life-sustaining action for his brothers and their families.
New Testament: Romans 14.1-12
Welcome is key to making church work. Whatever our preferred menu (vv.2-3), we are all servants of the one master, Jesus. So, we should each know our own minds (v.5b). Paul talked about our minds in 12.1-2, for how we think is key to how we live. And though ‘welcome’ (v.1) is an action, ‘looking down on’ (v.3) is an attitude, and one that leads to passing judgement. It is not consistent with the renewed way of thinking Paul expects.
The theology at the heart of this is that our whole life is lived for the Lord (vv.6-8). Paul emphasises the unity created by Jesus by speaking of the common judgement we will all face (v.10). The whole point of thinking differently (12.1-2) is that the new age has begun in the resurrection of Jesus, and we live in this new age according to the different standards Paul has spelled out in 13.8-14 (especially love of neighbour). And we will have to account for the lives we have lived in the light of this (v.12).
Gospel: Matthew 18.21-35
What Jesus has just said (see last week) gives rise to Peter’s question: How often should I forgive the one who sins against me? There should be a limit, so Peter pitches ‘seven times’ – which sounds generous, and is more than suggested by contemporary rabbis who thought three would be enough. But Jesus tells him to stop counting. Forgiveness is a lifestyle not an equation.
The numbers plunge us into the Old Testament where we come face to face with the logic of Jesus’ response. Peter’s number echoes the seven-fold vengeance threatened to those who harm Cain. Jesus’ seventy times seven echoes the Jubilee at the heart of Old Testament life. Those living the Jubilee are perpetually forgiving.
To illustrate this, Jesus tells a parable that comes from the everyday world of life in the empire – the very world that the Jubilee was meant to regulate. It is a story at once funny and serious. The amounts owed make the story fantastical and amusing. The attitude of the slave is chilling as we realise Jesus is talking about Peter – and us.
A talent was the largest unit of currency (actually a measure of weight, about 30kg, usually of silver) worth 6,000 denarii. A denarius was a good day’s wage for a labourer. Myria (10,000, from where we get the word ‘myriad’) was the biggest number in Greek. So here Jesus is saying that this slave owed the biggest number of the largest unit of currency to his master. We might say that he owed zillions!
Unable to pay such a debt, the slave throws himself on his master’s mercy. The master’s heart goes out to him (‘took pity’, v.27, is the same term that is used of Jesus in 9.36) and he writes off the entire amount. Wow! Having experienced such grace, the slave then demands that a colleague pay back the few pounds he owes him and throws him in jail when he doesn’t.
Don’t we cheer when the first slave gets his comeuppance! Yet, like Nathan’s parable of the poor man’s lamb (2 Samuel 12), we are cheering our own downfall. This, says Jesus, is the outcome of Peter’s calculus. The parable serves to illustrate the foundational principle of relationships among disciples – namely that they are built on perpetual forgiveness.
The links between the readings
Relationships depend on forgiveness and focusing on what brings us together rather than what drives us apart. Joseph is the embodiment of a forgiving heart, and Paul argues that relationships within the church depend on us cutting each other some slack. The Gospel reading gets to the heart of the issue: the people of the kingdom live the Jubilee in their relationships with one another – forgiveness of debts and sins flow in equal measure.
This week's Bible study