Sermon Sept. 13, 2026

Title: Jesus is forgiveness and mercy over and over again!
Text: Matt. 18:21-35

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21 Peter came up and said to [Jesus], “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.

You remember the story of Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens, A Christmas Carol? He was a man of means and one who held onto what he had in this life with little or no love for those around him. He had no  interest in Christmas, Bah Humbug! and were it not for the visits of the ghosts of Christmas past, Christmas present and Christmas yet to come he would have remained in his state of miserly misery until death closed his dark eyes and he returned - in the sleep of death - to the earth awaiting the final yet to come visit without hope, without peace and without comfort in his life.

We too are all born Scrooge like in our sinful state and destined to die with the idols we cling to in this life left behind for others, while we await the judgment to come.

But in the Christ of Christmas, there is a marvelous change that takes place whereby we are made new and hope, peace and comfort are given freely in an eternity yet to come - that never ends.

“That is the mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners: Luther writes, wherein by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours but Christ’s and the righteousness of Christ not Christ’s but ours. He has emptied Himself of His righteousness that He might clothe us with it, and fill us with it.

And He has taken our evils upon Himself that He might deliver us from them [and] in the same manner as He grieved and suffered in our sins … we rejoice and glory in His righteousness.”

–Martin Luther, Werke (Weimar, 1883), 5: 608.

In the gospel reading for today Peter asks Jesus a probing question.

“Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”

It’s easy to see that Peter believes himself to be quite generous in his view of forgiveness. Maybe even thinking that at some point certainly after seven times, I’ll be able to justly not forgive my brother and end this nonsense.

To this Jesus replies:

“I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”

It is not the Lord’s intent to show a definite number of times where forgiveness is to be delivered but that for God’s people who have been forgiven by grace, may understand that the content of their hearts should contain … only God given love and forgiveness.

But for we who are Christians, saved by the mercy and grace of our Lord, we live daily within that tension of being both saint and sinner. Both, brought forth in iniquity, and conceived in sin as Psalm 51:5 reminds us, yet justified by faith, receiving God’s peace through Christ’s work by the power of the Holy Spirit as St. Paul writes in Romans 5:1.

We have received in essence, the favor of God on account of Christ through this blessed exchange, our sin … for Christ’s righteousness.

“The idea is not simply that we have been forgiven, and therefore ought to forgive [others], but that God Himself, in Christ, has forgiven us, and therefore our debt is truly incalculable.

No matter how much has been done against us, it is little compared with the offense we have thrown in the face of our Lord.

Take for example the parable our Lord tells today in the Gospel:

The servant owes his master 10,000 talents.
This is a large sum.

1 denarii = a day’s wage
1 Talent = a hundred days wages
10,000 Talents = you are in big trouble!

For you and me when we think of billion dollars. It is a bit beyond comprehension.

$100, 1000, 100,000, 1,000,000, 100,000,000, 1,000,000,000, it’s beyond what we can even think or imagine in reality … the sum is that great.

Now, you are called in to the King and he gives you your debt. Let’s say it is $100,000,000. What do you do? If you are like me, you can’t pay. Even if you sell everything you have at the best possible price, your home, your stuff, and at the most favorable time and price you can’t even cover 1/100 of the debt.

So you go to the King, which in our case might be the IRS – it’s a joke - and you say as you fall on your knees:

“have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.”
You know you can’t … and you’re just pleading for mercy.

And this is the part of the story that won’t pertain to you or me,

27 And out of pity for him [the IRS] released him and forgave him the debt.

But Jesus says, in light of the great debt and the Lord’s great mercy, you and me and the servant in the parable are forgiven!

If we know anything of [our own] forgiveness, if we have glimpsed anything of the magnitude of [our own sin] and the debt we owe to God … our forgiveness of others will not seem to be such a large leap.”

–D.A. Carson, Love in Hard Places (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2002), 80-1.

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God. … not even one.” Rom.3

The truth is that as sinners we have a very high view of self and a very low of sin. To that end, the indebtedness that we owe to Christ for our rescue is devalued and you either see your sin as really not all that bad or Christ’s forgiveness and rescue as really not all that good or necessary.

The servant in the parable’s joy didn’t last very long.

When he was confronted with a fellow servant who owed him 1/10,000 of the debt he himself had owed and had just been forgiven of, he showed no mercy to him and had him put in prison until he could pay.

What should he have done?

Well, he should have forgiven the debt, bought him the big Christmas Turkey in the window, picked Tiny Tim up in his arms and proclaimed,

“God bless us, everyone!”

As sinners, we too can be Scrooge like with grace. We expect it for our own wrongs but are stingy and hell bent at times when doling it out.

But, apart from God’s action and working, every one of us would remain, dead in trespass and sin. And like Lazarus who was unable to free himself from the bonds of sin, death, and the tomb, wrapped in grave cloths and dead until the voice of Jesus called, “Lazarus, come out!”
We too would remain entombed in our own sin, dead to God, forever separated from the love of Christ found only in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Christ’s mercy for we who deserve death is a nothing but pure gift.

Even one sin would separate us from the love of God in Christ, not to mention the 10,000 talents, worth of sins and more that we have been forgiven of!

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,

This 5th petition in the Lord’s Prayer has real significance for you and me in how we see sin - our sin - and how we see the Lord’s forgiveness and grace.

21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

God bountiful mercy is given us for the sake of Jesus, who paid the debt of our sin.

He has [freed] us from the imprisonment we deserve and has forgiven the debt.

Therefore, we have the obligation of gratitude resting upon us that we gladly forgive our fellow-men what they have sinned against us.
Even if such a [sin] great in the sight of men, it cannot come into consideration in comparison with the debt which God has mercifully forgiven [you and me].

Luther – Kretzmann NT pg. 103

22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.

You have been set free from eternal death may the love of Christ live freely in each one of us.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Sermon Sept. 5-6, 2026

Title: Seeing Jesus through the eyes of faith!
Matt. 18:1-20

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18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Some years ago, after I finished one of our Sunday services, I was standing in the Narthex greeting the people by the door as they came out of church. It was a time of joy and laughter; hugs and handshakes as was the norm for that time. As I stood there, little four-year-old Atarra Rich walked out, looked at me, waved and said, “Hi Jesus!”

It’s funny. I laughed as did those who heard it. But in reality Atarra didn’t see me – as Russ, or even Pastor Tkac.

In the robe and stole she saw the one called to be Christ’s under shepherd, here at Peace.

She saw Jesus and heard his word proclaimed, not in my person but in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ.

Though she might have not heard and understood all that was proclaimed. God, by the working of his Spirit as one baptized and marked as God’s redeemed, she recognized Jesus by faith.

Today in our lesson we learn of this faith, and that to be true Disciples of Christ one must first:

Be childlike in faith and love!

18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Last week we talked about being a disciple of Jesus and picking up our cross to follow Him. The bearing of one’s cross can, in this life lead to death, or as Jesus said:

“… whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

But, the disciples start talking among themselves wondering who, among them, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

The work of Satan and their own sinful pride were at work in them.

Though they had been discussing this privately, Jesus knew what had been going on as he in the gospel of St. Mark asks them specifically, in chapter 9:

“What were you discussing on the way?” Mark 9:33b

So, Jesus, as has been his way, teaches again the disciples an important lesson. He calls a little child to himself so as to illustrate the point in a very tangible way.

St. Mark goes on to say that Jesus took the child in His arms [Mark 9:36] and we could understand the Lord’s comfort, to this little one, as he places the child in their midst saying:

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

To this we need as well to be reminded to be childlike in faith and love!

Because, sinful pride can become arrogance.

During the Civil War, Union general John Sedgwick at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, was inspecting his troops, urging his men to leave a ditch in which they lay in order to cover from the Confederate snipers hidden 800 to 1000 yards away.

According to Martin T. McMahon, Brevet Major-General, he and General Sedgwick were walking along the line when General Sedgwick noticed a soldier dodging a near-passing bullet, and said to him:

"What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."

Seconds later he fell forward with a bullet hole below his left eye.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitworth_Sharpshooters

How also our own sinful pride can drop us once again to the dirt and sin, back into our own filthy rags from which we have been washed clean, by the righteous blood of the Lamb.

Pride can cause us to look at who we are in the Kingdom, and what status we hold, or to even look at others and be ashamed with our own prideful arrogance.

Jesus says that:

5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

Those who trust Christ with simple faith have Jesus and receive all that Jesus has promised.

Martin Luther writes:

Consider Christ himself, how he draws little children to him, how urgently in Matthew 18 he commends them to us and praises the angles who wait upon them, in order to show us how great a service it is when we train the young properly.

LW Vol. 45 pg. 372

As we consider our regular worship, school, and all that our normal life is, we also need to get back to the good and holy work God has given us to do,

To, train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. Prov. 22:6

The responsibility even from the time of infancy calls parents of those who have been brought to faith in baptism, to not let these little ones who believe in me to fall - back into the sinfulness they were born into - before being called to faith in Jesus Christ by the working and power of the Holy Spirit.

You have a Godly calling as a parent to raise your child in the faith, especially if they are baptized, and to make sure that they are brought to God’s house for worship, where Christ gives his gifts of word and sacrament.

Also, the good work done by many in Sunday school and VBS helps all of these little ones, by God’s Holy Spirit, to see Jesus and to stay connected to him.

We all have in Christ, a Godly calling to keep children connected to Jesus and his word.

So why do so many parents and their children who have been baptized or confirmed, fail to do this and not remain connected to the church and Christ?

It’s work!
Children fight against it!
It is not fun like the world offers.

When I worked in the piano business I attended a piano teachers forum. One question was asked about parents who find it difficult to get their children to practice.

One teacher replied:

“If you don’t make them brush their teeth, they won’t do that either.”

The devil, the world and our sinful nature rebel against that which is good in God’s economy.

Piano lessons, travel teams, theatre and other programs are good in the life of children but they can get to these unless parents take them and much the same for church. If parents don’t come to church, children can’t and won’t and both suffer the loss of the gifts Christ gives in his word and through his sacraments, here.

12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Friends,

Parenting is hard, but the reward great in God’s mercy and forgiveness for we who have been brought to the knowledge of the truth. Christ has promised to be where his church gathers.

Let us come and receive all that he has promised in humility and joy!

So that, he will bring forth, by faith, those who believe in him so they too can confess as the church confesses in Jesus,

“You are the Christ the Son of the Living God!”

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen