Whatever else might be said about Eliza Doolittle of "My Fair Lady," you could not say that gracious forgiveness was her first instinct.

       However, Eliza's desire for vengeance cannot compare with perhaps the greatest figure of revenge in literature.  He is the intractable, ever-searching detective, Javert, of Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables."  The central figure of this novel is Jean Valjean, an honest peasant who steals a single loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving children.  For this, he is sentenced to five years in prison at hard labor.  He is caught trying to escape, and given an additional nineteen years on the galleys, from which he eventually does escape.  Throughout this lengthy book, Javert never ceases tracking Valjean.  No one deserves forgiveness and kindness more than Valjean.  And no one is more obstinate in denying forgiveness than Javert.

       Or you may vaguely recall a film, "Death Wish."  Charles Bronson’s wife and daughter are violated by a violent gang.  Bronson takes to the streets of New York, setting himself up as a target for muggers.  When the muggers predictably materialize and attack, he shoots them.

       Well, we can laugh along with the music comic figure, Eliza.  We can be astonished at the dogged hatred of Javert.  We can at least come close to sympathizing with the hero of "Death Wish."  We’d probably sympathize even more if the role was played by Billy Crystal rather than Charles Bronson.  But we would probably also admit that there are some offenses committed against us which we have been unable to forgive.  Or, at least there are some offenses which we have been able to forgive but which we are unable to forget.

       If you have absolutely no problem whatsoever with forgiving everyone everything, I urge you to take no more than academic interest in what I am about to say.  However, if you are a bit more human, I suggest we think carefully over today's gospel.  For Jesus tells us the essence of what we must know and do to exercise forgiveness.

       Peter starts things off in Matthew 18 by trying to pin Jesus down on this forgiveness issue.  How many times would Jesus suggest?  Seven?  Seven is the traditional Jewish round number.  So Peter considered his offer pretty solid.  He expects Jesus to say, “That’s pretty darn generous, Peter.  Way to go!  I think you’ve got it!” 

       But Jesus amplifies Peter's suggestion into infinity by taking his number and multiplying it into limitless roundness; "No, Peter, more like seventy times seven times."

       Then Jesus tells a story to illustrate His point.  And it is a point that is of vital importance to us.  The parable is a drama in three scenes.

       Scene one shows us a powerful and wealthy king.  The time has come for the king's officials to settle their accounts with the royal treasury -- sort of what April 15 does to us each year.

       One official finds he owes ten thousand talents.  Now to put this in its proper context, we must note that this is a preposterous sum.  One talent is a weight of silver equivalent to six thousand Greek drachmas.  Each drachma is more than a worker could earn in fifteen years.  The debt, then, was worth approximately 150,000 years of hard labor.  That’s a huge number.  But Jesus wants to impress us with the debt we owe our heavenly Father.

       Since the official cannot pay, the king orders the man and his family to be sold into slavery so that at least a small percentage of the debt can be recovered.  But the official begins to plead with the king for time -- time in which he pledges to pay his debt.  Now remember, the debt is so enormous that no matter how much time he can gain, the official will be unable to pay more than a tiny fraction of the debt.  But it at least will serve as a warning to others.

       Then a most incredible thing happens.  The king is moved by the official's plea, forgives him and cancels the entire debt.  Because of the king's gracious forgiveness, this impossible debt is lifted.  The official is snatched from the jaws of slavery, and made a debt-free man.       

       The king’s gesture, however, doesn’t make him a kind man.  He hasn’t learned at thing from the gift of great forgiveness.  He goes out fresh from the forgiving act of the king and meets someone who is in his, the official's debt.  This debt is but a very small fraction of what he had owed the king. 

       In scene two, the official treats his debtor violently, and demands payment.  Just as the official had pleaded with the king, so this man begs for time.  But, unlike the king, the official throws his debtor into prison to force him to raise the money by some means, perhaps by selling or borrowing.  The official proves himself to be as unforgiving as his king was forgiving.

       In scene three, several outraged bystanders report to the king what the official has done to his debtor.  The king immediately orders the official back, berates him, and then hands him over to the torturers.  He may be forced to reveal some hidden reserves.  He may simply be used as a warning to others.  In any case, that is the first day of the rest of his life and it promises to be grim.

       Then in the epilogue, Jesus warns, "My heavenly Father will treat you in exactly the same way unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart."

       I don’t think that is vague or hard to understand. Jesus is teaching us that we will receive in mercy what we are willing to extend in mercy.  We will receive what we give so we had better watch what we give. Jesus said, "By the standard you use in measure, it will be measured to you.  Simply speaking, the one who refuses to forgive breaks down the very bridge over which he or she also must pass.

       It is not that God puts conditions on His love.  Long before you and I became merciful, God was merciful to us.  But, in the parable, Jesus is saying that the person who is really transformed by God’s love is overwhelmed.  They want to share with others what they have received from God. 

       The merciful know that they are themselves the recipients of mercy from God.  They know that but for the grace of God they would not only be sinners, but condemned sinners.  So they try to reflect in their dealings with others, on a smaller scale, the same mercy that God has shown them.

       I’m going to be very blunt.  Your mercy toward others is a sign that God is at work in your life.  If you have received God’s mercy and are not beginning to show mercy to others, you are acting like God has not really done very much for you.  You are suffering from a deep spiritual sickness that needs to be cured. 

       God’s mercy to you is not initially dependent on you showing mercy to others.  But if your faith is real, ultimately there will be a tie-in.  The receiver of mercy will be the giver of mercy.  In the same way, the one who is given gifts by God joyfully shares those gifts with others.  That is what we promise to do as we bring our pledge cards forward and place them on the table.  What God does for us shows up in what we do for others.

       The Apostle Paul uses several words that characterize mercy.  The merciful person is forbearing --not taking of revenge.  The merciful person is tenderhearted -- merciful as much in judgment and in attitude as in action.  The merciful person is active...not just willing to forgive if one comes in heartfelt repentance but is proactive in looking for ways to reach out and reconcile the person who has caused the hurt.

       What does this look like in practice?  Let me suggest what it looks like in the life of the church using the words of the great Victorian preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  Spurgeon once said to his congregation:  "I recommend to you, brethren and sisters, always to have one blind eye and one deaf ear.  I have always tried to have them; and my blind eye is the best eye I have and my deaf ear is the best ear I have.  There is many a speech that you may hear even from your best friends that would cause you much grief and produce much ill, so do not hear it.  They will probably be sorry that they spoke so unkindly, if you never mention it and let he whole thing die; but if you say something about it and bring it up again and again, and fret and worry over it, and tell somebody else about it, and bring half-a-dozen people into the quarrel -- that is the way family disagreements have been made, Christian churches broken up, the devil magnified and God dishonored.  Do not let it be so with us, but let us feel, if there is any offense against us. ‘Blessed are the merciful, and such we mean to be.”

       When Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful,” He was saying, “On the right road to a good life are those people who do not take to heart the injuries that are done to them’ happy is the person who is not destroyed by insults, intended or unintended.  Miserable is the person who allows himself to go through life with an unforgiving spirit.  He becomes shriveled-up, twisted and unhappy.”

       We are about to come to the table of the Lord.  It is a place to recognize the forgiveness we have received --the Body of Christ broken on our behalf and the blood of Christ shed on our behalf.  You are invited to come to the Lord's Table if you trust him.  But if you are coming with a heart full of anger, bitterness or unwillingness to forgive, this table will be of no value to you.  Make peace now in your heart.  Extend forgiveness now and commit yourself to making that forgiveness concrete with a phone call, or a latter or whatever it takes.  Then come and celebrate the forgiveness you have received.

       We could not even attempt this measure of forgiveness without the strong love of Christ in our hearts.

       But, as usual, Jesus does not make a difficult demand of us without first setting the example.  Jesus was executed in one of the cruelest, degrading and agonizing methods people ever devised.  In the midst of that punishment, a punishment in his case of unique brutality, Jesus prayed,  "Forgive them, father, for they know not what they do."   None of us will ever be asked to forgive more than that.

        Jesus calls us to greatness of action – but not of and by ourselves.  We are called to great-heartedness with and because of Jesus and His power working in us and because of the great forgiveness we have received."  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."