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Lectionary blog for Sept. 13, 2026
16th Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 50:15-21; Psalm 103:8-13;
Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35
We love grace! Can’t get enough of it, really. “Amazing Grace” is widely regarded as the most popular English-language hymn for a reason. The idea of God not just forgiving our sins but adopting us as God’s children seems almost too good to be true. God’s gracious love is probably one of the few things that Christians of various denominational flavors can agree on, even if we theorize it differently. But what about humans? Are we to be known by our readiness to forego revenge and act graciously?
The lectionary passages this week insist that our forgiveness of other humans is directly tied to God’s gracious forgiveness of us.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives a longer speech that we chop up into pericopes and weekly lectionaries. But we need to hear this week’s reading from Chapter 18 as a direct continuation of the previous sections. Jesus first discusses a shepherd leaving 99 sheep to pursue one that has gone astray. Then he talks about how humans should repeatedly try to rescue a human who has gone astray through sin. The Gospel passage this week begins with Peter asking how many times he should forgive and be reconciled to someone who sins. This conversation is in direct response to Jesus telling the disciples to pursue and be reconciled to one who sins.
Jesus’ famous answer to Peter’s question of how many times he should forgive can get bogged down in math. Is it 77 or 490 (70 x 7)? But the exact number isn’t the point so much as rejecting hypocrisy.
To make his point, Jesus told a parable of two debtors. One owed a ludicrously unpayable amount that was forgiven. Another debtor owed a large, but reasonable, amount to the man who had been forgiven. Yet, the one who experienced massive forgiveness wasn’t willing to offer medium forgiveness to others. The owner of the first debt had the hypocrite tortured for 60 million days (the amount of time to pay back 10 talents). Jesus really doesn’t like hypocrisy! He ended the parable by saying that his Father in heaven will do the same to us if we don’t forgive our siblings from our hearts. Whew!
It isn’t wise, healthy or particularly Christian to carry grudges or want revenge. In fact, revenge or payback are the most anti-Christ thing we can do.
What do we do with that linkage between our forgiveness and God’s? I, for one, do not wish to be either a hypocrite or tortured for 165,000 years. Whatever else, it isn’t wise, healthy or particularly Christian to carry grudges or want revenge. In fact, revenge or payback are the most anti-Christ thing we can do.
In the interest of health and holiness, who do you need to forgive? What person, what institution, what system, what country do you need to forgive? And let’s be 100% clear: forgiveness is not amnesia or a suicide pact. Forgiveness is exactly, only and fully this: foregoing your right to revenge or repayment. That doesn’t mean you lower your guard and give people the opportunity to hurt you or take advantage of you again. I heard a preacher once say that we only have two cheeks, and once they’ve both been slapped (Matthew 5:39), we have demonstrated enough peaceful fortitude. Then it’s time to display our running skills. Far too often human forgiveness is confused with being a doormat. Jesus wasn’t that, and we aren’t called to be either. But neither are we called to be avengers. That’s the whole point, really.
Way back in Genesis, Joseph had forgiven his brothers several times for selling him into slavery. He didn’t have them killed or enslaved when they showed up to buy food (though Simeon did spend several months jail). He didn’t have the brothers sold or killed when they returned to buy food again. Instead, he revealed himself and invited all the brothers and their families to come to economic safety in Egypt. At any time, Joseph could have enacted revenge against his brothers, but he didn’t.
But after their father died, the brothers feared that Joseph might have a change of heart. They told him that Jacob’s dying wish was that Joseph would forgive the brothers who wronged him so greatly (the text doesn’t give us enough information to know if this is a lie or the truth). Joseph was aghast. Had he not already forgiven them? Joseph insisted that he was not in the place of God to repay humans for their sins. Instead, he provided for his nieces and nephews and spoke kindly to the hearts of his brothers so they would let go of their fears of retribution (Genesis 50:21).
The moral of the story is that for those who follow God, retribution and revenge are out of question. We are not called to be servile doormats or willing pincushions. We forgive, but we don’t look for opportunities to be abused. Whatever else, Jesus and Joseph agree on this: since God forgives and uses things for good, humans have no right to withhold forgiveness.
