Matthew 18:23-35 (MSG)
“The kingdom of
God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought
before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn’t pay
up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to
be auctioned off at the slave market. “The
poor wretch threw himself at the king’s feet and begged, ‘Give me a chance and
I’ll pay it all back.’ Touched by his
plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt. “The servant was no sooner out of the
room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He
seized him by the throat and demanded, ‘Pay up. Now!’ “The poor wretch threw himself down and
begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ But he wouldn’t do it. He had him arrested and
put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on,
they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king. “The king summoned the man and said, ‘You
evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn’t you be compelled to be merciful to
your fellow servant who asked for mercy?’ The king was furious and put the screws to
the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that’s exactly what my Father in heaven
is going to do to each one of you who doesn’t forgive unconditionally anyone
who asks for mercy.”
There is a truth in this bible story that is wedged in deep
for us to discover. It’s kind of like a
piece of food stuck between our teeth that needs to be flossed out so that our
gums don’t hurt anymore, ignore it and
it could lead to an infection, more pain and perhaps other health issues. Yeah it’s gross, but it is the truth,
nonetheless. Sometimes the truth has to jump up and slap you
in the face before you stop and take notice.
The initial hurt could save you from
a deeper more lasting pain that could damage you permanently if you ignore the
warning.
Let’s try to peel back two very difficult topic to confront
in our lives. Anger and Grudges. Have you ever been angry? Have you ever let your anger fester, over
flow, explode? Anger can be a deadly
weapon delivered first with words that seemingly spill out of your mouth and
flow on into our actions if we let them.
If someone gets in our way during our drive home from work “WATCH OUT
YOU MORON!” might be a tame expression of how we really feel. If we let this type of anger control us, whelm
up in us, then become a slave instead of free…because we are owned by our
emotions and owned by our outbursts.
These outbursts can become damaging to relationships and destructive to
those around us. Ephesians 4:26 says “In
your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still
angry…” in other words, anger by itself
is not wrong, but letting anger enslave you and anger coming home with you into
your house day in and day out is a recipe for destruction. There is a time and a place for anger. Jesus got angry didn’t He? But His anger was righteous anger, or anger
that was justified by the actions of sinful people, making God’s house a Wal-Mart
super center instead of a house of worship.
But when we get so bent out of shape for the smallest of things then we
become known by others as the “angry person.” Do you know anyone like that? They are always flustered, always mad at
something, people walk on egg shells around them. If that was a child, they’d be in a “time out”…sitting
in a chair until they calm down. Maybe
we adults need to take emotional time outs too.
Anger, uncontrollable anger is one of those food kernels stuck between
our teeth that needs to be flossed out to make us healthy again.
The other issue we may face in our life that is detrimental to
us as Christ-followers is Grudges. The
opposite of holding grudges is expressing forgiveness. When we have been emotionally and physically
hurt by people, the easiest and most human response is to lash out and strike
back at them. To inflict the kind of
pain that was done to us. In the
ancient world and still today it’s the “Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth”
mentality. But when we don’t forgive
someone, who are we really hurting? When
we hold a grudge in our lives year after year who’s life are we really
hurting? It’s our own life that we’ve
put on hold in order to stew over those things that people have done to
us. It’s our own life that doesn’t grow
but shrink when we hold onto these bitter roots of anger and hurt. The offending party that may have inflicted
these wounds years ago, maybe not even know or care anymore. They probably don’t lose sleep over this
hurt, but we do all because we haven’t learned to let go of this bitterness in
our lives. When Jesus tells his disciples
and those listening to turn the other cheek, He wants them to let go of revenge
and bitterness, because it brings not a humble pliable heart, but rather a
proud, angry, fist clinched heart. Tell
me which heart is prepared to learn and grow in the knowledge of Jesus? Certainly not the heart that is still broiled
up in bitterness and anger! This kind of
heart is a divided heart. This is a life
that is not completely sold out to God because there is something in the way, a
stumbling block that keeps the person from truly growing. Hosea 10:2 says, “Their heart is deceitful,
and now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will demolish their altars and
destroy their sacred stones.” This is a
reference to Israel, but we could easily put our names here instead if we let
anything divide our hearts and keep us from our intended relationship with
God. God wants a true and sincere
relationship with us, but if we let anger and bitterness (Grudges, lack of
forgiveness) remain a wedge in our lives, then we are no better than the
wretched servant that Jesus speaks about in Matthew chapter 18. This guy receives forgiveness from the
master, but instead of turning around and showing this kind of forgiveness and
mercy to those who owe him; he goes out and inflicts vengeance and anger on them,
and even though this is a fictitious character that Jesus talks about, we could
easily be that foolish, vengeful, blustery servant.
Do you want freedom, or do you want to continually be slaves
of your own making? Anger and Bitterness
come from within, and if we let them, they can be a wedge in our lives that
will fester, hurt and ultimately lead to other spiritual health issues. It’s time to get out the spiritual floss…yeah
kind of gross to think of it this way. But
the truth hurts for an instant in comparison to the kind of damage permanent
anger and bitterness can create. Jesus
said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)
-Just a thought.
