NewCreation

Homily for Sunday 24 in Ordinary Time Year A

Welcome, my sisters and brothers, to the homily for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Today Matthew's Gospel continues directly on from where we left off last time. Last time, if you remember, I showed you the build-up to Jesus's discussion of how to undo the scapegoat mechanism in constantly seeking to avoid driving people out, constantly learning what was really going on rather than kicking them out, and setting up the mechanism to make it really difficult for someone to throw someone out. And even when they did, then to start all over again, bringing them in. You remember that in order to point that out, how that worked, I brought out how shortly before this passage, Jesus was explaining to the disciples what greatness looked like in their midst, and he brought a servant boy and said, "That's the criterion." It's as a servant boy — in as far as you know how to treat a servant boy well, how you listen to them, etc. etc. — that's what it's going to be like, that's what greatness is going to look like amongst you. And then he talked about the dangers of scandalizing a little one, such a one as this. It's people of no importance at all who could easily be rejected and thrown out — it's scandalizing those that is really terrible. So then when he explains, then he explains the power of the lost sheep. I'm really insisting on this: if one goes astray, leave the 99 and go after the one who's gone astray. In other words, He's really laying it on strong. And then he comes to the actual mechanism, saying you've got to undo any possible lynch mechanism so as to try and bring your sister, your brother, the person who's offended you, back in. And guess what, I'm going to be in your midst, just like the serving boy I'm going to be. The criterion for this is: in as far as I am in the midst of you, you will in fact be undoing the scapegoating mechanism. Yes, because the presence in our midst of Jesus is as the forgiving victim. In as far as we learn to pray alongside and with him, and do things in his name, we are undoing the victimry mechanism. And this is then backed up — this reading is then backed up — by St Peter having understood it. He's understood it partially, as is always the case for St Peter. And remember that shortly before this section, Peter has been told that he's the rock; this is going to be the foundation stone. So there's going to be a certain greatness attached to him in the midst of all this, and yet he in particular runs the risk of being stumbled on. So he is the one who's really going to have to learn even more strongly than the others what it's like to be in the constantly forgiving mode. So Peter comes up to Jesus and says — he comes up to him, doesn't try to take him aside as he did before; now he's in a learning position — he comes up to him and says, "If another member of the Church sins against me" — which was what was originally being talked about — "how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" Apparently the counsel at the time was four times; that would have been the standard response. So seven times — he's already saying, yep, there's got to be more. And Jesus gives him the right answer: "Now I tell you, seventy-seven times," or "seventy times seven" — it depends; there's a translation question to do with the Greek version of the book of Genesis behind that. Because Jesus is pointing him to Lamech in the book of Genesis. Remember, after Cain killed Abel, within a very short time there was a spiral of violence, with people attacking each other, so that it was not one for one or two for two, but "for every seven you killed, I will kill seventy." So vengeance had reached the point — before the flood, with Noah — when seventy times seven was the amount of violence and vengeance. So what Jesus is saying to Peter, giving him that number, is: "I'm not giving you a specific number. What I'm telling you is, go back to the foundation of the world and undo the spiral of violence." Ever since, there has been a spiral of violence in human Ministry. That is what this is about. This is about undoing the whole network of the way violence and vengeance works. That's what forgiving is about. And then he tells the parable – a parable about a king wanting to settle accounts. And a huge amount depends on translations here. The typical translation "slaves" is probably wrong. The king is talking about people who might have been slaves in the technical sense, but much more properly speaking were ministers – ministers who were part of his tax collection system. This is a pagan king who runs a tax collection system. This was not instantly how the Jews were allowed to work their own economy. So Jesus's listeners would have understood straight away that he was talking about a pagan king engaging in the sort of things that pagan kings do. So he's not talking about good guys here. And it's quite typical of him that he starts talking about the kingdom of heaven by talking about not good guys. There's a king. The king has a country to run, and he has ministers – ministers who are tax collectors, people who have bought the rights to farm the taxes. That's how they're going to make money. And therefore at the end of each year they come to the king and say, "Okay, we bought the right to farm the taxes in such-and-such an area, and therefore we owe you X, and here we are paying it. We've made a nice profit on the side by overcharging them, but that's what we're allowed to do. That's why we bought the right to farm the taxes." A certain profit margin was expected. So the king is wanting to do his annual accounts, and the first and most important of his ministers gets brought in. And this minister has an absolutely huge debt. Just to give you an idea: a talent was approximately 30 kilos of gold. 10,000 talents – that's 300,000 kilos. This is a simply staggering amount. However, it's the sort of amount that, supposing you were the tax farmer for a large-ish area – which would be proper if you were a high-ranking satrap or high-ranking Roman official, Roman governor – you might well have the rights to produce such an amount of income for your master. You might well have bought that right, in which case it would be that at the end of the year in which that tax collection was done, that's what you would owe your master. You would have contracted to produce that amount for him, and you would have received a portion of that. But supposing there's been a famine, or Covid, or whatever – in this year revenues are down, you haven't been able to do it. So suddenly you're stuck. You're called in. It's the accounting year. You haven't got the money that was contracted. And so you're in trouble. So the king says, "Well, okay, we'll sell you in" – to do all the standard… Things we do – you've given yourself as surety, you gave your family as surety; we'll just sell them. And you say, "No, no, no, give me time." And it's interesting that the phrase isn't "have mercy on me," it's "give me time," meaning: why don't you roll the debt over to next year, and then I'll produce – see whether next year I can make enough so that I can pay you next year's and this year's at the same time. In other words, he's asking to turn the debt into a loan. And actually the Greek word for loan appears in the text, so you can tell that's what's going on. So the king says, sensibly enough – after all, this is a talented official who's been running systems for him really quite well, but there's been a bad year – okay, let's roll, we'll roll it over, and this your debt will now turn into a loan, and you have time to sort it out. Whereupon this official goes out and he finds a lower official in the queue, no doubt to present his own accounts, who owes him 100 denarii. A denarius was one day's wage, so 100 denarii, 100 days' wage. Okay, a significant amount for a worker, but an infinitesimal amount in comparison to the tax revenue of a large governorship. And this minister falls on the shoulder of the other minister, the lower official, and says, "Pay me what you owe," and insists on it and threatens to put him into prison until he can pay. And this causes concern amongst the other ministers, the other tax-collecting figures. And it's not because they're, you know, suddenly nice people thinking, "Oh, what a pity, he's mistreating another tax collector." No, far more wisely than that, they realize that the whole system of governance, of keeping order and of tax-raising, depends on people not being taken out. It depends on keeping the loans going so that they can all make good. In other words, it's a system in which turning debts into loans, and thus keeping the whole thing going, was an absolutely standard part of the proper function. And if you take someone out of that system suddenly by putting them in prison, you threaten the whole thing – you've taken a cog out of the machine, the whole thing might crash. So they're very upset. They go to the king and say, "Listen, didn't you – he's screwing up the system." So the king calls back the previous guy and says, "Didn't I just change your debt into a loan? In other words, didn't I just act in order to keep the whole system going, with a very, very significant amount? Why aren't you doing the same?" You've, for a far, far smaller amount, you've stopped the system. You're putting it into great risk. So I'm going to treat you just as you treated this other person: stop you, hand you over to the torturer. Incidentally, it is actually a torturer, not just a prison guard — the torturer. The point of a torturer would be — it could be assumed that a minister of a tax-collecting sort would have riches hidden away, squirreled away in different parts, would have hidden things in different parts of his family, in fields, precisely so that they couldn't be stolen if his surety failed. So he would be sent to the torture so that he would end up revealing exactly where all his properties were. So the king is starting to say, okay, you don't want to keep the system going, right? You're not going to be part of the system. And then at the end of the sentence: "So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from the heart." Now please notice that the key figure in this is the second servant. The second servant is the equivalent of the servant boy; it's the equivalent of Jesus who will be in the midst of you. It's the one who has been scandalized. It's in not forgiving him that the person was bringing the whole thing down. You've got to forgive. As you forgive, so forgiveness spreads. It's forgiveness that keeps the whole system going. This is what Jesus is teaching. It's very, very remarkable. Whereas in a pagan kingdom it's debts and loans that keep the whole system going, and if you interfere with it you crash the whole system, Jesus is saying… actually know I am introducing into the midst the real working of creation, the real opening up of creation, which is going to be from forgiveness. In as far as you keep the system of forgiveness going, carrying on forgiving each other endlessly — seventy times seven, leaving the ninety-nine sheep and going after the one — all of that: in as far as you do that, then with me you are opening up creation and allowing creation to be brought into being. That is what my Father wants to do, and that is why I have come into your midst to open up the new creation through forgiveness. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.