Extravagant Generosity

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

on Matthew 18:21-35

•This parable made me consider anew
the extravagant generosity of God.

•It starts off with Peter asking a question,
thinking 7x forgiveness is probably generous.
No, says Jesus, 77x.
It’s valid to read the Greek as 70x7 (490),
and based on the numbers in the parable, I favor 490.

•Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven is like this… a king went to settle accounts with his servants. Slaves. His staff, perhaps, managers of his affairs. One man owed him 10,000 “bags of gold” (in CEB. In Greek, “talents.” A rough estimation might be $3.12 billion. It’s not a payable debt. Jesus uses an astronomical number to demonstrate God’s extravagant generosity in forgiving such a debt.)

The king forgives the massive debt. The servant then imprisons a man who owes him “100 gold coins” – nothing to sneeze at, something like $8,000, but payable. ($8,000 compared to $3.12 billion is like one dollar to $40,000). And you know the story…

•It made me consider anew the extravagant generosity of God.
I ask myself “What is the cost of my sin, the weight of my sin?”
More than I can pay. More than I can lift.
My sin causes separation from God,
and on my own I can’t return, reconcile.
It’d be like trying to pay a billion dollar debt.

And God forgives me. You. Us.
How does that feel? Like a weight lifted.
It inspires joy, praise.

Know what else it should inspire? Forgiveness.
I am inspired to forgive because I’ve been forgiven.
I am inspired to be generous
because I’ve received from God’s extravagant generosity.

•Imagine living generously in spirit.
Generous in love, in forgiveness, in grace,
in attitude, in understanding.
Not living in conflict but in grace.

•Forgiveness inspires forgiveness.
Generosity inspires generosity. 

And we live in a world
that could use more forgiveness and generous living.

The opposite is also true:
Unforgiveness inspires same.
Stinginess does not inspire.
The world is a bitter place when blessed people don’t share.

•So live generous in spirit (and grace and attitude and understanding and patience and love, you get the picture)
because you’ve been extravagantly loved and forgiven
by a generous God.

  

• Into Hymn 206 I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light

Matthew 18:21-35       (CEB)

²¹ Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Should I forgive as many as seven times?”

²² Jesus said, “Not just seven times, but rather as many as seventy-seven times. ²³ Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ When he began to settle accounts, they brought to him a servant who owed him ten thousand bags of gold. ²⁵ Because the servant didn’t have enough to pay it back, the master ordered that he should be sold, along with his wife and children and everything he had, and that the proceeds should be used as payment. ²⁶ But the servant fell down, kneeled before him, and said, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ ²⁷ The master had compassion on that servant, released him, and forgave the loan.

²⁸ “When that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him one hundred coins. He grabbed him around the throat and said, ‘Pay me back what you owe me.’

²⁹ “Then his fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ ³⁰ But he refused. Instead, he threw him into prison until he paid back his debt.

³¹ “When his fellow servants saw what happened, they were deeply offended. They came and told their master all that happened. ³² His master called the first servant and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you appealed to me. ³³ Shouldn’t you also have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴ His master was furious and handed him over to the guard responsible for punishing prisoners, until he had paid the whole debt.

³⁵ “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you if you don’t forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”