Summer Preaching Series July 5-6, 2025
“Forgiven and Forgiving” Matthew 6:12
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Mathew 6:12
There are some things that are asked of us, as Christians, that are very hard to do. Forgiving another person who has hurt us deeply is one of those hard things. But forgiving others is most necessary.
On June 5 – just a month ago, James Kimmel Jr. wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal titled, “This Is Your Brain on Revenge”. He tells his story:
I grew up on a small farm in central Pennsylvania with a small herd of cattle, pigs and chickens, but my folks weren’t real farmers. My father was an insurance agent and my mother a homemaker.
This became a source of contempt from the neighboring kids whose fathers tilled the land. My dad walked into his office in town around 10 a.m. wearing a suit and shiny shoes; their dads were in the milking parlors before sunrise, wearing overalls and manure-covered boots.
I was desperate for the farm kids to like me. I joined Future Farmers of America, built a hay wagon from scratch, gushed about heifers and harvesters at farm shows and wore the same style of western jeans and trucker boots they did. None of it worked, and when their shunning didn’t deter me, they turned to bullying.
Late one night when I was about 17, my family woke up to the sound of a gunshot; I recognized a farm kids’ pickup truck speeding away. The next morning I found our beagle, Paula, with a bullet hole in her head. Two weeks later, I was home alone when there was an explosion. The same pickup roared off as smoke from our mangled mailbox soared into the cornfield.
I wanted revenge, bad. Living in the country and being hunters, we had plenty of guns. I grabbed a loaded revolver from my father’s nightstand, jumped in my mother’s car and tore off into the night, shouting and cursing at the top of my lungs.
I didn’t get revenge that night, but eventually I went into the professional revenge business: I became a lawyer. The way I saw it, lawyers get paid, a lot, for selling revenge to the masses. Getting revenge for my clients occupied the next 20 years of my life.
Revenge, some say, can be sweet. But living a life of revenge, bitterness, and hatred can destroy you. It can destroy you physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Jesus, in the prayer that He taught His disciples says, “Father, forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” And then, after the Lord’s Prayer has its “Amen”, it is the only petition He addresses again, “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Mathew 6:14-15) I guess Jesus is serious about this.
And so is the rest of the Bible. Hebrews 12:15 says, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” In Ephesians 4 Paul has these words, “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” (Verse 26) A few verses later it is this word which speaks to us, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Verse 32) You know the “Love Chapter” (I Corinthians 13). It says this, “Love is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” (I Corinthians 13:5)
Jesus speaks a parable, a story, about this very thing in Matthew 18. It is known as the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. (See Matthew 18:21-35) Peter raises the question about how often he should forgive a person who sins against him. Would seven times be enough? Jesus says, “Not seven times but seventy-seven times.”
Jesus then tells this story. The king was settling accounts with his servants. A man who owed him millions of dollars was brought in to settle his debt. But he couldn’t pay. Back then there was a thing called a debtor’s prison. Not only was he to go there but also his wife and kids would join him. They were to be sold and become slaves.
The man pleaded with the king, “Be patient with me, I will pay you back everything. I promise.” You know what the king did? He tore up the bill. He forgave it. The man was free.
But that man, who had just begin forgiven, on his way home, looked for this guy that owed him 20 dollars. This is what happened next, “He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me’!! That guy fell on his knees and asked for patience and said that he would pay the debt. But that man refused. He threw him in prison until that debt was paid.
The king caught wind of what had happened. “You wicked servant!! I canceled all that 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 anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back what he owed. Jesus says of this, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18:32-35)
Why can you forgive others? Because you have been forgiven. The parable that Jesus tells has three characters. The King – God. Us – the one with a debt we could never pay. And others – those who have sinned against us. The King – the Lord who is our judge is filled with compassion towards us. We ask for mercy, for kindness, and He goes beyond that. All that was against us is ripped up. All charges are dropped. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)
This ability to clear the books of all sin and evil is pure grace. Grace is free. But grace is costly. For God, the Father. For Jesus, the Lamb of God. He carried all our sin, paid our debt. The drops of blood in the Garden shows how intense this work of forgiveness needed to be. Giving His very life for us allows that sin to be forgiven and forgotten. Free to us. Costly for Him.
How many times, in a worship service, do we ask God to restore us by this forgiveness? Here is what I know. We walk past the baptismal font and acknowledge that God’s blessed waters washed us clean. We speak our confession of sins and hear God’s absolution of sin every Saturday or Sunday. Every sermon must contain news of Christ’s work for our redemption. The Creed speaks of Jesus, our Savior and His work so that we are born anew. Lord’s Prayer – “Forgive us our sins.” Holy Communion – “Take and eat, Take and drink – this is my body and blood for the forgiveness of sin.” The Benediction – “The Lord bless you and keep you.” All costly grace, freely given, joyfully received.
And we get to freely forgive others, as well. Though it may be costly to us. Though they don’t deserve to be forgiven, though they haven’t acknowledged their sin, though they haven’t even repented, we share a gift with them that we received from God, though we didn’t deserve such kindness.
Mike Price, one of our members, was one of the first to give me a verse to preach on for the summer preaching series. In his e-mail he adds this thought, “Having been through a lot with some very sinful people, I found it easier to just forgive them whether they seek forgiveness or not – it sure keeps me from carrying around anger and grudges.”
I started this sermon telling you about what those farm kids did to James Kimmel – killing his dog, Paula, and blowing up their mailbox. How did it end when he left that night? He wrote:
That night when I was 17, I eventually cornered the farm kids. They climbed out of the truck, three or four of them, squinting back into my headlights. They were unarmed and didn’t know that I had a gun. I grabbed it from the passenger seat and started to open the door. And then I had a sudden insight: The cost of getting the revenge I craved was more than I was willing to pay. I put the gun back down and drove home, terrified at what I’d come within seconds of possibly doing.
Some of the best words you are ever going to hear are some of the best words you are ever going to speak. They are: I forgive. Amen!!
