Hey everybody, this is Steve, and this is a broken clock.
I know, right, who still uses clocks?
Have you ever heard the expression, “even a broken clock is right twice a day?”
Even though a broken clock doesn't tell time particularly well, it still tells time.
It's still a clock, even if it is broken.
But it’s far easier to focus our attention on its brokenness rather than its clockness.
Clockness?
Is that a word?
If we have a clock that's broken or doesn't tell time as well as we'd like, we tend to
throw it away.
We add it to the mountains of trash we create every year.
Have you ever noticed that we sometimes treat human beings like those broken clocks?
Rather than focus on their humanness, we focus on their brokenness.
We dismiss them as being bad or evil or worthless.
We get rid of them.
We insult each other and tear each other down.
But the truth is, we're all broken clocks.
None of us tells God's time 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We all have our weaknesses, we all have our failings.
We're all imperfect.
But sometimes, we forget that.
We forget that, just like everyone else, we fall short of acting according to Christ’s
Word.
And, when we forget about our own sins, it’s that much easier to be critical of the sins
of others.
This is exactly what happened in Jesus’ Parable of the Unmerciful Servant.
So there was a servant who owed his king ten thousand bags of gold.
An almost unbelievable amount of money.
But the servant couldn’t pay, so the king decided to sell the servant and his family
to settle the debt.
When he heard this, the servant begged the king to have patience and to give him time
to pay back the money.
Even though paying it back was probably impossible.
Remember, this is an incredibly large amount of money.
Have you ever seen one bag of gold, let alone then thousand?
But the king did something surprising.
Instead of giving the servant time to pay back his debt, the king just canceled his
debt completely!
The king set the servant free.
Was the servant grateful?
Did this act of forgiveness change his life?
You probably know the answer that...
As soon as the servant’s debt was forgiven, he ran to a man who owed him a hundred silver
coins.
That’s a tiny amount of money, especially compared to the thousands of sacks of gold
that the servant owed the king.
Yet the servant demanded that this second man pay him back.
When the man said he couldn’t pay the servant back, the servant had him thrown in jail.
When the king heard what happened, he was not happy.
The king was angry that the servant refused to offer the same mercy that the king had
offered him.
So the king ordered that the servant be thrown in jail and tortured until he could pay back
his original debt.
The massive debt that was pretty much impossible to ever pay off.
Jesus used this story to show His disciples how easy it is to forget about God’s patience
with our many shortcomings.
And that when we do forget those shortcomings, it becomes very easy for us to lose patience
with the shortcomings of those around us.
So why is it so easy to judge others?
Well, there’s probably a couple reasons.
First, because we forget.
We forget our own sins.
And, perhaps even more importantly, we forget that we too have been forgiven.
And forgetting our sins, forgetting God’s forgiveness... this makes it less likely that
we’ll be patient with the failings of others and fail to forgive them too.
It sure seems like that’s what happened with the Unmerciful Servant.
And the second reason why it’s so easy to judge others is because we misunderstand who
we’re called to be.
That’s what Jesus’ parable is all about.
The parable reminds us that our debts are forgiven, and that we too should willingly
forgive and overlook the debts of others.
[TITLE] As Jesus reminds His disciples: “Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.”
(Luke 6:36)
The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant is a reminder that we are called to be like the
King.
Unfortunately, rather than imitating the mercy of our Father, instead of building up what
is good in others, we’re often judgmental and cruel.
If you don’t believe me, just look at how we talk to each other.
Both in the real world, and especially online.
Instead of asking to share the Lord’s mercy, we try to sit in His Judgment Seat, and tear
down what we think is evil in other people.
But that’s not our role.
[TITLE] As Jesus Himself tells us: “Judge not, that you be not judged.”
(Matthew 7:1)
There is one Judge, and spoiler alert: It’s not you.
Let’s go back to those broken clocks and make this concrete.
If we look at a clock and see that its arms aren’t moving and that it isn’t telling
time the way it’s supposed to, we might be tempted to just throw it away.
But we need to remember that sometimes, when we’re running low on energy or need a spiritual
reboot, we don’t behave the way we’re supposed to either.
If we can remember that, we might be more patient with the broken clocks around us.
We might be more willing to take time to see what’s causing those clocks to tell time
wrong, and help them get back to a better state.
In fact, if we focus more on our shortcomings, we become far less interested in the sins
of others.
[TITLE] St. Gennadios of Constantinople said,
“Whoever thinks about the multitude of his own sins in his heart never wants to make
the sins of others a topic of conversation.
To judge a man who has gone astray is a sign of pride, and God resists the proud.
On the other hand, one who every hour prepares himself to give answers for his own sins will
not quickly lift up his head to examine the mistakes of others.”
St. Gennadius of Constantinople, The Golden Chain, 53-55
Unfortunately, most of us spend too much time obsessing about the mistakes of others.
As if it’s our job to call out or fix those mistakes.
As if people are just like broken clocks that we need to fixed.
After all, when a clock isn’t telling time, the solution could be as simple as switching
out the batteries.
But things usually aren’t that simple with people.
Because let’s be clear.
Clocks are things to be fixed.
But people aren’t just things.
People are God’s image bearers.
People need to be loved and forgiven.
[TITLE] Indeed, as Fr.
Thomas Hopko says, “Forgiveness is the singular expression of love in this fallen world.”
(Lenten Spring)
Dealing with a person’s brokenness is way more difficult than just switching the batteries
out of a clock.
And, to be honest, that’s not what we’re called to do.
We’re aren’t called to identify the problems in other people and fix them.
We’re not called to point our fingers at the sins of others, as if that will somehow
make everything better.
We aren’t called to be the Savior.
Just like there’s only one Judge, there’s only one Savior.
And it’s neither you nor me.
Our job isn’t to judge or fix others.
It’s to be merciful, and welcome them into the Church where they can accept the peace
and healing that only God offers.
We sometimes call the Church a hospital for sinners.
But a hospital doesn’t reject people because they’re sick.
I mean, if it did, those people would stay sick.
So, should we reject people because they’re broken?
Of course not.
We must learn that we ourselves are broken.
That we ourselves are sinners who need forgiveness.
And we must remember that it is our call to become like the merciful King who graciously
overlooks and forgives the shortcomings of others.
We are called to help bring the mercy and healing of Christ into this broken world.
Because maybe this way, people will see that they too can find a path other than that of
judgment.
Maybe they’ll see the way of Christ in the Lord’s Church.
Rather than pride and finger pointing.
Maybe when people encounter us Christians, our love will help them love others and seek
the healing and salvation that only God offers.
So let's be the bee and be merciful.
Be the bee and live Orthodoxy.
Remember to like and subscribe.
I’ll see you all next week.
Closing voiceover from past episodes.