POWER UP VBS #2/3
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
SEVENTY-SEVEN TIMES
July 25, 2004
Text: Matthew 18:21-35
Hugh OFlaherty was not the type of person one would expect to be serving
in the job he had. A tall, tough, broad-shouldered Irishman, OFlaherty
was an accomplished amateur boxer who didn't run away from a fight. Not
the kind of person we would expect to be serving in the Catholic
priesthood at the Vatican. Yet, that is exactly where God placed
Monsignor Hugh OFlaherty during World War II.
During Nazi occupation, the city of Rome was commanded by Colonel Herman
Kappler of the dreaded German SS forces. Kappler fit his role very well.
Upon the occupation of Rome, the Gestapo demanded a multimillion dollar
ransom for the lives of the Roman Jews. With the help of Pope Pius XII,
the chief rabbi of Rome raised the money within 24 hours, but under
Kappler's supervision began to herd the Jews away anyway to the
concentration camps. Kappler's SS routinely tortured and executed
suspected members of the resistance. When a bomb planted by the militant
underground killed 32 German soldiers in Rome, Kappler responded by
randomly selecting 320 prisoners, mostly civilian, for slaughter. They
were bound, marched through the streets of Rome, herded onto trucks, and
mowed down by machine gun fire in the Ardeatine Caves. The entrances to
the caves were blown up, sealing the dead and wounded behind hundreds of
tons of rock.
As a result of the atrocities he witnessed, the priest from a country,
Ireland, that was remaining neutral in the war and who served in a
location, the Vatican, which was also neutral, decided not to be neutral.
Hugh OFlaherty saved thousands of Allied POWs and Jews escaping the
clutches of Kappler by using the contacts he had made in Rome before the
war. For all his brutality, Kappler was unable to capture the man who was
behind the massive underground network that aided escaped Allied POWs and
Jews. Kappler knew it was OFlaherty, but because he was a Vatican
priest, Kappler couldn't touch him as long as he remained on neutral
Vatican territory.
Kappler and O'Flaherty played a life-and-death cat-and-mouse game in
which O'Flaherty always managed to stay one step ahead of his arch
nemesis. In frustration, Kappler even attempted to have the Irish priest
forcibly dragged off the neutral Vatican territory and assassinated.
O'Flaherty's network got wind of the plan and arranged instead for the
two Gestapo assassins to receive a good beating at the hands of four
Swiss guards. The bitter rivalry between this German Nazi and this Irish
priest sets the stage for O'Flaherty's most remarkable rescue. (J. P.
Gallagher, The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican, New York: Coward-McCann
Inc., 1967.)
Like Jesus Luke 10 instructions to love our neighbor as ourselves,
Christians are once again confronted by an instruction that can present a
challenge. In Matthew 18, Peter asks his Master about forgiveness. Then
Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my
brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? Jesus answered, I
tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. The wording among
translations is either seventy-seven times or seven times seventy; either
translation works equally as well for Jesus point.
Like any Jew of his day, Peter had an idea what the answer should be.
Judaism of the first century taught that one should forgive another
person one, two, or three times, but probably not four times. In short,
there was a limit to the requirement for forgiveness. I am certain that
Peter expected a different answer from the Lord, but I doubt that Peter
was prepared for the answer that he did get. Jesus responded with an
answer denoting the unlimited and almost absurd quantity of forgiveness.
He indicated that there is no longer any limit.
Jesus then amplified his answer with the telling of the story we refer to
as the parable of the unjust steward. To listeners of Jesus both then and
now, his answer is impractical, if not absurd. One must be willing, if
asked, to forgive even the unforgivable, un-payable debt because such is
the mercy of God. This is one of the lessons that will be taught at VBS
in about a week; should we not also learn and apply the lessons we hope
our children will learn?
The idea that a slave would be indebted to his master for a small amount
of money was probably not uncommon. However, a slave with an indebtedness
ten thousand talents is inconceivable. Ten thousand talents is an
astronomical amount. It would be more than the richest citizens in the
empire would ever hope to accrue. Professor Eduard Schweizer tells us
that, the sum is made up of the highest number used in arithmetic and
the largest monetary unit employed in the ancient Near East. (Eduard
Schweizer, The Good News According to Matthew, John Knox Press, 1975, p.
377) The servant, realizing the impossibility of his situation, throws
himself upon the mercy of his master. All is hopeless, yet, just as the
amount of debt is inconceivable, so, too, is the master's mercy
inconceivable. Only God can do the unimaginable.
So the parable moves from the merciful to the malicious. We have read the
story this morning and have probably heard it many times before. The
servant who has just been forgiven this staggering debt refuses to
forgive a debt owed him which is five hundred thousand times less than
the debt that he owed the king. Unable to pay a pittance sum of one
hundred denarii, the second slave is thrown into prison by the forgiven
slave. Naturally, other slaves are aghast at this turn of events. They
run and report to the king what has occurred. The king, in turn, recalls
the first slave and demands a response. As none can be given, the slave
is tortured until he can pay his entire debt. The meaning is plain: As
God has been merciful to the believer to an infinite degree, so, too,
must believers be merciful to one another to any lesser degree.
(Commentary on Matthew 18:21-35, Saving Colonel Kappler,
http://www.homileticsonline.com, 9/12/1999)
This is hard, and we know it. There are any number of scenarios in which
we or someone else would be quite justified not only to withhold
forgiveness, but to seek revenge. At the very least, questions are raised
concerning the balance between the punishment resulting from legal
justice and forgiveness. The problem is that we can talk ourselves into
so many worst-case scenarios, that we ignore the instruction at much
simpler, lesser complex levels. As I shared last week, Christians need
not worry too much about what we do not know because applying what we do
know will use up plenty of our lifetime.
It is intriguing that most of the time the debates concerning just
exactly how much to forgive and what to forgive rage among Christians who
never face any worst case scenario in their own lives. Amazingly, those
who do face the application of the parable in the severest times of
testing miraculously rise up to the challenge. A Turkish officer raided
and looted an Armenian home. He killed the parents and allowed his men to
rape the youngest daughters. He kept the eldest daughter for himself.
Some time later she escaped and trained as a nurse. As time passed, she
found herself nursing in a ward of Turkish officers. One night, by the
light of a lantern, she saw the face of this officer. He was so gravely
ill that without exceptional nursing he would die. The days passed, and
he recovered. One day, the doctor stood by the bed with her and said to
him, "But for her devotion to you, you would be dead." He looked at her
and said, "We have met before, haven't we?" "Yes," she said. "We have met
before." "Why didn't you kill me?" he asked. She replied, "I am a
follower of him who said 'Love your enemies.'" (L. Gregory Jones,
Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1995, pp. 265-266.)
After the end of World War II, Colonel Kappler was tried and convicted
for war crimes. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Only one person
ever visited Kappler in prison. For years, almost every month, a tall,
broad-shouldered figure of a man would call on the former Nazi. It was
Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty.
More than most of us, this tough Irishman had the courage to fight evil
and to seek justice at tremendous personal risk. But he also knew that we
are called to love our enemies and that even villains need mercy. Peter
came up and asked Jesus, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother
when he sins against me? Up to seven times? Jesus answered, I tell you,
not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Forgiveness is not saying the offense never happened. It did. Forgiveness
is not saying that everything's okay. It isn't. Forgiveness is not saying
we no longer feel the pain of the offense. We do. For Father O'Flaherty,
forgiveness was saying I still feel the pain, but I am willing to let go
of your involvement in my pain. For Father O'Flaherty, forgiveness was
an attitude of faith whereby he was able to turn over to God the business
of how the other guy is doing. For Father O'Flaherty, forgiveness was
saying to Kappler, I'm okay, and I am willing to let God deal with
whether you are okay, and I am willing to let go of my need to be the
instrument of correction and rebuke in your life. Father O'Flaherty
continued to visit Kappler and show him the love of Christ. In March
1959, Herman Kappler, former SS colonel, Nazi war criminal, sought
forgiveness and salvation for a debt that only the Divine King, our
Heavenly Father, could forgive. (J. P. Gallagher, The Scarlet Pimpernel
of the Vatican, New York: Coward-McCann Inc., 1967.)
Jesus does not want souls to be lost to sin. How dare anyone to receive
forgiveness for an incalculable debt and turn around and refuse to
forgive his brother for a trivial debt. Jesus knows better than anyone
else what happens to the heart of one who refuses to forgive. It grows
hard with bitterness and heavy with hatred. That is not the kind of life
one can take to Gods throne. It takes forgiveness to get rid of that.
But the one who refuses to give forgiveness is also the one who refuses
to seek forgiveness. And the one who refuses to seek forgiveness can
never be one who God can redeem. Father OFlaherty was willing to give up
his resentment, perhaps even hatred, toward a man who sent thousands to
their deaths and sought even to take the life of the heroic man who
rescued as many as he could. As a result, Colonel Kappler finally let go
of his own hardened heart to receive that which only God could give.
Praise God that this is a story that has been repeated numerous times
throughout the history of the Christian faith. Jesus answered, I tell
you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN
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