Jump Start # 1760

Matthew 18:25 “But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made.”

  Our verse today comes from the powerful parable that illustrates the enormous problem that sin puts us in and the Biblical definition of forgiveness. This was told immediately after Peter’s question, “How often must I forgive someone?” Peter pushed the question further with, “up to seven times?” Peter was on that side of the cross. We are on this side of the cross. That very question is troubling to me.  Should there ever be limitations or a number on forgiveness? There certainly isn’t when God looks at us.

The Lord answered Peter by saying, “up to seventy times seven.” Forever is what Jesus had in mind. Endlessly. Then Jesus tells our parable. A man owed 10,000 talents and he was unable to repay. This number is hard for us to understand. First, 10,000 of anything is a huge number. If you have 10,000 baseball cards in your collection, that’s a huge collection. If you have 10,000 photos of Elvis, WOW! If you have 10,000 do-dads in your china cabinet, that’s massive. I have a lot of books. A lot. But I do not have 10,000. The number is large. But it wasn’t $10,000 that he owed. Based on the fact that a common laborer made a denarius a day and it took about 600 denarius to make one talent, this man owed roughly 6 million days of work or about 16,400 years. How in the world did he get into that kind of debt? This massive problem shows us what sin is. The lesson of this parable is forgiveness. Sin is more than a mistake, a boo-boo or simply off my A-game. Sin hurts. Sin hurts us and it hurts God. The master in this story lost out. He was owed a ton of money, literally, and he would never see it. Sin is something so terrible and massive that we cannot do anything about it.

When the slave fell and begged for patience saying, I will repay everything, that is humorous. Really? Is the master to wait 16,000 years for you to do this? This would never happen. The master forgave him and released him of the debt because he felt compassion for him. That’s the definition of forgiveness. It is to release one from what he owes. Forgiveness is grace centered. It doesn’t make sense, nor is it right or fair.

Having said all of this, I want to look at that one expression, found in our verse today, “since he did not have the means to repay.” Christmas is over. All the holiday decorations have come down. We are back to work and back to school. And now, here comes the bills. The joys of Christmas are often short lived because of the worry that comes in January of how we are going to pay for what we purchased. The kids had a blast opening up their presents. Now the parents are stressed because they don’t know how they are going to pay  for these things.

In our parable, the man who owed 10,000 talents, was to be put into prison, along with his wife and children, until repayment was made. Everything he owed was to be sold. I have wondered how the master thought the man now in prison, could make payment back to him? Can you imagine what would happen in our country if instead of bankruptcy whole families were locked up because of debt? Can you imagine a little four year old going to jail because mom and dad over spent and couldn’t make good on what they owed? Our country would be horrified.

Our paycheck to paycheck lifestyles will someday catch up with us. Too many are living without any savings, investments or future thought. The statistics about what too many are doing today is shocking. More than 50% could not come up with $600 to cover an emergency. The furnace goes out. The car won’t start. A short visit to the hospital. These things catch us off guard. They are not planned for. They throw us into an immediate tail spin. And more than half of our country could not pay for those emergencies. They would have to go deeper into debt. That hole gets larger and larger.

Other stats indicate that a large segment of working families are not saving or investing. We are spending. We are spending it all. Retirement looms on the horizon, yet nothing changes. One stat indicated that a nearly 50% had less than $10,000 in retirement or investments. And worse than that, they have no plans to do anything about that. Their ship is heading toward the waterfalls, and they are doing nothing to change the direction that they are going.

God’s people must be careful stewards of all things, including the wallet. I like the story of a man who was going to be baptized. As he put on the baptismal garments, he put his wallet in a pocket with him. The preacher told him that his wallet will get wet. The man smiled and said, “I know.” His wallet was his problem. Baptizing your wallet is a funny story. What needed to be done was a change of thinking and a change of practice.

If the current picture doesn’t change for many of us, in the future, we may be running to churches asking for help when in fact we are not true benevolent cases. Our lack of planning and stewardship got us into this trouble. If a person can’t manage $30,000 a year, he couldn’t manage $3 million a year. It’s not the amount coming in, it’s what we are doing with it and our choices. There is an old liquor expression that says, “he has champagne tastes on a beer budget.” I don’t know much about booze but the idea is he has expensive tastes and he can’t afford it. Not only will many of us be in trouble if things do not turn around, in the future, this will affect the kingdom. Limited in what one can give will affect future building projects, evangelistic ideas and cripple what a church can do.

He did not have the means to repay—we wonder why? Did he not think? Did his buying get ahead of him? Did he not know how to budget? Did he think that no one would notice? He was in a real mess. The compassionate master gave him a second chance. That master was God. Your creditors will not be as compassionate, nice or forgiving as God.

As this new year starts, make a budget for the year and stick to it. Start thinking about retirement. You may have plans to work until you drop. That’s fine, but what if they don’t want you or if you can’t? Then what? Will you have a means to repay? Will you have means to survive and live?

Don’t fall into the trap that you have to go everywhere and have everything. If you spend more than you make the only place that will get you is a seat in Congress. It doesn’t do well at home. So cut the fat. Trim down where you can. A little here and a little there. Stick some away in case that furnace does go out. Budget so you can take a vacation and it’s paid for before you leave home. That makes your trip more enjoyable. There’s nothing good about paying for last year’s vacation this year and still paying for Christmas in July. Do better. There are brethren all over the country that work in finance. Talk to some. Get a plan. Get  smart in your finances.

He did not have the means to repay…what a chilling statement. I could see the tears coming down a little girl’s face as the men took her off to prison because of her parents debts. So sad.

God is good to forgive us. Be good and faithful stewards, even in your finances. We preachers, need to talk more openly about this subject. Jesus said more about money than He did Heaven. Unable to pay is clogging our spiritual arteries and creating worry and stress. We need to learn. We need to be taught. We must do better.

No means to repay…

Roger