My family always struggled with a shortage of money. I really don’t think we didn’t make enough; I do think that my family had trouble with money management. Eventually because of the farm crisis of the eighties and rising debt we were forced to sell hundreds of acres of farmland that my father had purchased over the years. I imagine it was heartbreaking for him and I know that it was an awful experience for the whole family. And even so, some debt that was owed to a farm-credit company had to be forgiven once we had no more assets to sell. Debt is a heavy weight for a family or an individual. And it always had been.
If you read the ancient laws of the Israelites, debt is a common topic. There are long sections that explain how to deal with debt, especially the debts of a fellow member of the nation of Israel. A man or woman could be sold into slavery until the debt was paid—but they could not be kept in perpetuity. Land could be sold to pay debt, but every seven years could be redeemed back to the original owners and every Sabbath of seven year period or every 49 years, all debt would be forgiven.
When the Hebrew people were in Egypt, they had come there because of a famine several generations before; they left after years of slavery and were probably in debt to the dominant culture of the Egyptians। Those who rule tend to hold the majority of assets । । . it keeps the owners above those being owned. When slaves own land, assets, homes, animals, etc. they tend to be able to free themselves. This would make a culture based on slavery hard to maintain.
Is it harder to forgive sin or forgive debt? And is there a real difference . . .?
Outside of the church, the words redeem and forgive are used most often in the financial world—at least that’s my impression. You can redeem coupons, discount cards, gift certificates or other money substitutes. Redemption in the bible often has a monetary side to it.
One of the familiar examples that occurred to me is in the book of Ruth. When Naomi returned to her homeland with Ruth, her daughter-in-law, she had to find a male family member to redeem the land her husband had sold when he had left there. She found Boaz, who later married Ruth, but Boaz was not the closest kinsman she had—another had to cede his right to the land and to Naomi and Ruth before Boaz could claim the land and Ruth and Naomi. It’s one of the weirder incidents in that book—Ruth and Naomi came with the land of Naomi’s husband or ancestors, Naomi for legal reasons and Ruth because she had vowed to remain with Naomi.
Marriage often contained a financial or economic transaction; modern weddings contain a vestige of that tradition in the exchange of rings—deliberately made from precious metals and sometimes gems to symbolize an economic pledge. Often marriage vows even contain the words “. . . all that I have, I give to you.” Basic family and kin relationships have financial or economic facets, most people expect family to care for family in times of hardship. And there are times when family members can be held responsible for the financial problems of another member.
Redemption of people, especially in the ancient biblical world, means buying them back from something or setting a level of worth in their lives. When God redeems, God reveals that God holds someone to be very valuable.
The biblical stories today reveal that God took the value of the people of Israel very seriously and valued them as highly as anything else that God had created.
God had called the people of Israel out of Egypt so that they could take on their full identity of God’s own people—so that they could be free to reveal the fullness of what God had in mind for them. When they were held in slavery, their self-worth and value dwindled. When others oppress you and convince you that your worth lies only in the fulfillment of their needs, you sink very low in your own eyes. As they followed God’s messenger, the angel as the pillar of cloud and fire, they moved toward being a free people again. When the Egyptians threatened to keep them from that freedom, God intervened again by Moses’ agency.
And by God’s intervention, God expressed God’s intention for the freedom of this small nation for people—for this people of wanderers and for this poor nation without a permanent home.
The warriors of Egypt died as the Pharaoh attempted to renege on his word to free the Hebrews from slavery. It seems his fear of God’s power when his son was killed was overwhelmed by his need to control the Hebrews and his anger at having been defeated in any way. And they died in the vain attempt for oppression to overcome the will of God for life and mercy—for just treatment of one another and for compassion between human beings.
Each party involved—both Moses and Pharaoh was sure that a god was on his side—Moses’ God demonstrated the power necessary to release people from their slavery. And that power came from God’s power to redeem and God’s power to forgive. God redeemed the people of the Hebrews by putting value on their lives and making them as valuable as the Egyptians saw themselves. It may have been stated in the opposite way—they are costing us too much—but in made them valuable enough to be freed. The inconvenience of their freedom became less valuable than the cost of their slavery.
So God redeemed them by showing they were worthy and valuable enough to be loved.
That is powerful stuff—to give another person worth and value. That’s the stuff of incredible love—to love someone in such a way that they feel worthy and valuable of that love. The intention of God was not the violent death of the Egyptians—but to free the Israelites from the forced bondage they experienced. The only way God could stop Pharaoh was to turn back his army at this crucial point in their journey.
And I believe that the Israelites developed a forgiving attitude even toward the Egyptians. As I explained last week, the Passover Seder meal contains elements of mourning for the losses of life experienced by this early enemy. The wine is spilled in mourning and the salt water tears mean sorrow for slavery and for the deaths of the enemy.
Redemption often contains elements of forgiveness. It meant that the Israelites had to leave behind the desire for revenge and that Egypt had to give up what they probably thought the Israelite owed them for saving them a few generations earlier.
Forgiveness of perceived debt—forgiveness of sin—compassion in the face of overwhelming violence—moderation in the face of rhetorical polarization—these are the kinds of forgiveness most needed today and probably forever.
Owing another anything is a difficult place to be—we perceive oppression where there may not be any and we feel that debt deep within us, or at least I do. So when we forgive and . . . AND . . . allow that forgiveness to stand without ever speaking of it again, we do something very powerful—but only if we truly do not hold a debt against another after we have forgiven it.
The power of forgiveness exists in its ability to free—and we must be willing to receive it as well as give it. We have to believe it as strongly when we receive it as when we give it or the power there is also diminished.
The lesson from Matthew’s gospel and Paul’s words in his letter to the church at Rome lift up the importance and power of letting debt and judgment go—especially within the church. They reveal the power of being forgiven as well as the depths of despair in not forgiving another.
Peter’s question to Jesus says that he was trying to be generous to others, but didn’t really understand what that generosity meant. He probably couldn’t imagine being forgiven more than 7 times—how could he imagine forgiving that much? Imagine his face when Jesus told him to forgive 77 times or as many as 490 times—70 x 7 times. But what if they owe me $20 bucks? What if they were responsible for the death of my child? That’s just crazy! And crazy is often very powerful. Crazy just goes where it wants and doesn’t moderate itself. That’s 70 x 7—for every sin, for every person. . .
And so the parable reveals that the generosity of the kingdom must be contagious for it to work—one can’t expect to be forgiven a great debt and not forgive a lesser one. The economy of the kingdom—the household rules—must be held in honor by all and not just some or they don’t work. And this servant/slave must forgive to maintain an economy of generous forgiveness—or it won’t work for anyone.
Several times, I have heard a story about a dream. In this dream, the dreamer is transported to hell where a guide shows room after room of people starving at tables full of food. The problem is that the people’s hands hold long forks too long to reach the mouth of the one holding it. And the forks cannot be put down. So the people struggle and struggle to feed themselves—the dreamer is horrified and asks to see heaven.
So the guide transports the dreamer to another place full of rooms. In this place, room after room of people sit at tables full of delicious food. In their hands, too, are forks too long to get into their own mouths, but in this place, the people do not starve, they feed one another and enjoy the feast. They don’t worry that someone else will get more because they recognize that only by helping and being helped does anyone get anything.
Forgiveness and generous treatment of others is so powerful that it can keep people alive in the midst of a starving world—when poverty threatens some in the world, the hope lies in the fact that there is plenty to share globally. The power of God isn’t in wrath—it is in God’s will to redeem in the face of violence from others. The power of God isn’t in vengeance—it is in God’s will to love in the face of overwhelming greed and jealousy.
Redemption means that we have been—and all have been—recognized to be valuable to God, now and forever. It means we have been assigned worth through the attention of God—that all of creation has been assigned worth for the same reason. “For God so loved THE WORLD that God gave God’s own and only son so that all who belief will be redeemed—saved. God did not send God’s own and only son into the world to condemn, but to save—to redeem.” Redemption means not judging another because, in Paul’s words, “10Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister?* Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister?* For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.* 11For it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to* God.’ 12So then, each of us will be accountable to God.”*
In today’s world, it is hard to imagine forgiving the trillions of dollars of debt owed by the billions of people who inhabit this world. Yet it is a global truth that all of us are in debt in some way to another—and certainly we indebted to God. Even those who do not believe in a God who blesses are able to see that holding people hostage with debt is not the same as holding them accountable for how economies are conducted. Nations often function in debt—but that’s not the same as irresponsibly amassing debt in feats of futility. Even individuals may occasionally have necessary debt—it’s hard to own a home or a car without debt for most people in affluent cultures.
The indictment of the biblical system of slavery—where one slave could be forgiven and hold another accountable—reveals the corruption of any ownership of one person by another. And it reveals the evil of a system that holds economic debt above life. . .
In Paul’s words, “For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.*” and in Jesus’ words, “in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he should pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister* from your heart.”
In the name of God, holder of power—the power to redeem all from whatever enslaves, the power to forgive all that holds us in chains. Amen.
