DESIRING MERCY | The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost | 13 September 2026 | Matthew 18:21–35 | David H. Brooks

Matthew 18:21-35 English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles

²¹ Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.^[a

²³ “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.^[b] 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.^[c] 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. ²⁶ So the servant^[d] fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ ²⁷ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. ²⁸ But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii,^[e] and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ ²⁹ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ ³⁰ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. ³¹ When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. ³² Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³ And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers,^[f] until he should pay all his debt. ³⁵ So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

DESIRING MERCY

 There is a story from the Second World War of an elaborate and long-running rivalry between a German SS Commander named Herman Kapler, and an Irish priest who was a senior official of the Vatican Curia named Hugh O’Flaherty. Father O’Flaherty was able to use his diplomatic credentials and his charming personality to ensure that more than 6500 Jews in the city of Rome escaped the hated Kapler’s clutches. Kapler made it his personal mission to capture and make an example of the person disrupting his efforts to exterminate Roman Jews, but even after he learned O’Flaherty’s identity, he was unable to capture him, and over time, O’Flaherty earned the sobriquet “The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican” due to several astonishing escapes from Gestapo assassins, commando teams and raids.

After the war, O’Flaherty saw grim satisfaction as his bitter enemy Colonel Herman Kapler was sentenced to life in prison at Nuremburg for his crimes.

Reading stories such as this one makes a desire for revenge understandable, to dispense the sort of rough or poetic justice that such awful people obviously deserve. When I first read this tale as a boy, I yearned for O’Flaherty to get the drop on Kapler (in the fashion of a good ol’ American Western), or for some of the persecuted Jews to cause a satisfactory end to land on another hated Nazi; to be honest, I that the regular, ordinary justice that resulted unsatisfying.

We need to have the idea of revenge in mind when we hear this parable of a king that forgives an impossible sum and a servant that cannot let a small payday loan go. We began with a question: how often should I forgive? Now, we have just heard (a few verses earlier) how important forgiveness is within the Church, how the goal for those in Christ to maintain unity is uppermost, and how even excommunication (treat that one as a Gentile and tax collector) is really a call from St. Matthew the tax collector to never give up on reconciliation.

Peter asks this question and Jesus responds with words that those rooted in the Bible would recognize: he uses the words of Lamech, a son of Cain. We meet Lamech in chapter four when he declares to his family that if injuries to Cain can expect seven retaliations, then an injury to Lamech would be revenged seventy-seven times. Here, (and translators are divided on the best way to render the Lord’s words), the same phrase as Lamech’s is in Jesus’ mouth to insist on forgiveness. At a minimum, Jesus turns Lamech’s phrase on its head; or, equally possible, Jesus pushes forgiveness far beyond Lamech’s vision.

But we are not Lamech; we don’t have mortal enemies; we are not living in a state of war where our persecutors are waiting outside the gate. No, our slights and injuries are far more personal. The back-stabbing jerk at work. The antagonistic next-door neighbor. The self-absorbed family member who makes every holiday a disaster. The jerk who just cut you off in traffic.

Of course, we live in an age that encourages and rewards revenge as an act of heroism, the work of a modern Lamech who rises above petty niceties to engage in a spectacular propaganda deed. We are all encouraged to embrace what we believe is righteous hatred: we know we’re right, we know that someone else has done wrong, we’re certain that the villain owes us or our loved ones or society something. But make no mistake—it is only the hatred of the unforgiving servant who throttles his fellow and has him thrown in jail. “He can die there, but I’ll get what I am owed!”

It is interesting, this parable. It begins with a question on forgiveness, and Jesus uses the word forgiveness liberally within it. But at the end, there is a change. When the unforgiving servant is confronted, the king accuses him of being evil, for he, having received mercy, has none to give. Please understand—this is not about consequences deserved or what is owed to whom—in the end, we all can see ourselves as needing mercy, even if we might say we don’t deserve it. What Jesus calls Peter and us to understand is that God’s mercy is so great and so overflowing that we, even we, might see one another as also needing mercy, not condemnation; needing reconciliation, not revenge.

As I’ve already noted, Kapler was sentence to life in prison for his crimes. It would have been easy to forget him and let him die behind bars. But there was one person who would regularly visit him. Once a month, Monsignor  Hugh O’Flaherty would visit his former enemy, for he could see even him as one to whom God could show mercy; and in March of 1959, Herman Kappler, former SS colonel and Nazi war criminal, sought forgiveness for his many debts and found mercy in the waters of baptism poured by the hand of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty.

Amen.

© Pr. David H. Brooks
Raleigh, NC USA
Pr.Dave.Brooks@zoho.com