Pious Lutheran

Parable of the Unforgiving Servant,  Claude Vignon, 1629 The Abundance of God’s Grace God’s forgiveness is boundless Our forgiveness must also be boundless As we approach the end of the church year we begin to think about the end times and the last day when Christ shall return to judge the earth. Whenever you are nearing the end of any long and difficult project you need two things: encouragement and sobriety. You need encouragement so that you don’t give up and quit. You need sobriety so that you don’t get sloppy and ruin everything. Since the end of this life is so near Christ does those two things for us: He encourages us and He warns us to keep us sober. Jesus assures us of His grace, and He warns us of dangers that may lead us astray from His grace. Indeed, today is about the abundance of God’s grace , and so we’re encouraged to hear that God’s forgiveness is boundless, and we’re warned that our forgiveness must also be boundless. This is a crucial reminder for us Christians i...

There’s a lot of talk about debt in our lives. We talk about the $27 trillion US national debt, the student loan debt, credit card debt, mortgages and car loans. Politicians use debt as a means to get you to vote for them, promising to lower your debts. Men like Dave Ramsey are very popular because they give common sense advice to help people get out from under their debt.  But Jesus today talks to us about a different kind of debt, a debt due to our sin. “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.” That debtor who owed the master 10,000 talents, that’s us! It’s not an insignificant debt, either. One talent is the equivalent to 20 years’ wages. Thus, a debt of 10,000 talents is the equivalent to owing 200,000 year’s worth of wages. It’s an impossibly huge burden from which you could never hope to escape. No politician could make that kin...