11th Sunday After Pentecost / Afterfeast of Transfiguration

Matthew 18:23-35

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, over the course of these past few days – as we celebrated yesterday the feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord and as we celebrate today His Holy Resurrection – we have been given important lessons regarding the justice and the mercy of God.

Before reflecting on the Transfiguration of Christ, let us take a look at the Gospel appointed for this Sunday. In the Gospel reading for today, we hear of a man who was deeply in debt, owing a great fortune to the king. The king wanted to settle his accounts with his servants and therefore demanded the payment of this debt. The poor servant could in no way pay back this great amount and so the king ordered that he and his wife and children should be sold into slavery to repay the debt. The man fell on his knees and begged the king for mercy and patience to give him time to try to pay back what he owed. The king was moved to compassion by the cries of the debtor and, with a loving heart, forgave him everything.

But then what happens? As soon as this man went out, he found one of his fellow servants who happened to owe him some small amount of money. This time, the one who had just been forgiven so much, showed no mercy and threw the debtor into prison. When the king heard about this, he called the first man before him and said, ‘You wicked servant, I forgave you the great debt that you owed and you have turned around and shown no mercy on the one who owed you so little.’ In righteous judgment the king put this man into prison until he was able to pay back all that he had originally owed.

Our Lord Jesus Christ concludes this parable telling us that this is how our Heavenly Father will treat each of us unless we forgive our brother from our heart. The message is very clear – if we expect to be forgiven, if we expect to receive mercy, then we must forgive and show love and mercy toward others.

I think it is very easy for us to withhold a spirit of forgiveness and instead to get hung up on a false idea of justice. If someone wrongs us, we become indignant and full of self-righteousness. We demand that justice must be served. And yet… does God deal with us with justice? St. Isaac the Syrian said: ‘Never say that God is just. If he were just, you would be in hell. Rely only on His injustice which is mercy, love and forgiveness.’

A story is told of a mother pleading with a king to spare her condemned son's life. The king said the crime was dreadful, that justice demanded his life. The mother replied in tears, ‘But your majesty, I beg of you not justice, but mercy.’ ‘He does not deserve mercy,’ was the answer. ‘But, sir, if he deserved it, it would not be mercy,’ replied the mother. ‘Ah yes,’ the wise king relented, ‘you have spoken the truth. I will have mercy.’

We should thank God that His judgment of us will not be based on our worldly conception of justice. We are mistaken if we think that our good deeds, our fasting, our prayer, our almsgiving, all of the things that we do in our Christian life, are going to earn us our place in the Kingdom of Heaven. If we have this expectation, then it is simply more evidence that we still think WE are the ones in control. If I do everything right, if I follow all the rules, then God will be compelled by justice to reward me.  

St Seraphim of Sarov instructs us: ‘Prayer, fasting, vigil, and all other Christian practices do not constitute the aim of our Christian life… the true aim of the Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.’

If our good deeds, our prayers, our fasting, do not bring about a change in our heart, then we are missing the point. Don’t misunderstand me… all of those tools of our faith: the prayer, the fasting, the vigilant watchfulness over our selfish passions – these things are critically important. But they are important not because they make the case for us before the judgment seat of Christ. They are important because they are the means by which our heart and mind and soul are transfigured.

Let’s use that segue to speak of the Transfiguration of Christ. Our Lord brings the Apostles Peter, James, and John up to the top of Mt Tabor and there, He reveals His glory… shining like the sun. And whom do we behold appearing with Christ? It is Moses and Elijah – two of the great figures of the Old Testament. And what is the significance of having Moses and Elijah standing to the right and left of Christ as He manifests His glory? Moses is the representative of the Law and Elijah is the representative of the Prophets. Both the Law and Prophets bear witness to Christ.

Christ spoke many times about how He came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. And His entire life stands as a testament to the fulfillment of the prophecies of old, which foresaw and awaited His coming.

Christ had spoken about the Law and the Prophets in the following way… When asked what the greatest commandment in the law was, He responded: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ And then he said this significant thing… ‘On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.’

The Law condemns us. If God were to judge us based on the Law and bound by justice, we are surely doomed. And such we were, until the prophecies were fulfilled by the birth and life and death and resurrection of Christ. This is the great mercy and love of God… and now, with Christ, we are called to the greater law of love and mercy.

God is the merciful King Who forgives our debts, our sins, and the tragedy of our fallenness. There is no cold karmic justice in this… it is an outpouring of the warmth of Divine Love! We don’t deserve such mercy… it is a gift from the abundance of the unfathomable and limitless compassion of our God. If we, then, are offered such forgiveness and generosity… how can we not extend the same to all those who may offend us?

The whole point of our earthly life is to grow in the mercy and compassion of our heart so that our heart may more and more reflect that image and likeness of the mercy and compassion of God. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are each destined to stand before the bright light of the grace and love of God. May we acclimate ourselves to that transfiguring light by loving God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength!