The Irrational Power of Forgiveness!

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him” (Matthew 18:23-24)

When I think of the stories Jesus’ told about mercy and forgiveness, the first person that comes to mind for me is not a Christian person at all but my dear Muslim brother, Dr Hassoun, the former Grand Mufti of Syria.

For those who don’t know the story, Dr Hassoun’s youngest son, Sariya, was murdered by rebel insurgents in 2011, and at the funeral, Dr Hassoun delivered a eulogy where he spoke of forgiveness and reconciliation.

You can still watch it online. It’s about 20 minutes long. Towards the end he says:

“Those who are listening to me, who killed my son, Sariya, I’m addressing you. May God preserve you from heartache, and may you never experience the agony that you have caused us. I am asking God to inspire you to repentance before you leave this life, so as not to be your accuser on the day of judgement. … I forgive you.”

It is hard not to see the presence of the Spirit of God in those who truly forgive. From a Christian theological perspective, forgiveness is the ultimate gift of God to humanity, and those who compare the religions of the world tell us that Christianity is indeed distinctive in its emphasis on the divine nature of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a beautiful thing. It is a divine force that has the power to heal individuals, to end wars and to bring peace to nations. In this story Jesus gives us in Matthew chapter 18, though, forgiveness is also a bit scary!

“One who owed [the king] ten thousand talents was brought to him” (Matthew 18:24)

A talent in this context is a weight of around 34 kilograms, presumably of solid gold. On today’s market, with gold selling at just under AUD $200,000 per kilogram, this slave had somehow incurred a debt of roughly two billion dollars – quite possibly greater than the GDP of his entire country! How had the king not noticed this?

I’m sure you’ve heard it said that ‘when you owe the bank a million dollars, you have a problem, but when you owe the bank a hundred million dollars, the bank has a problem’. In the case of this guy’s debt, the whole country has a problem!

Parables, of course, are often a form of humour, but if this is a joke, it is dark humour. This slave has somehow generated this impossibly large debt. The king responds by imprisoning the man and his family until they can pay him back in full, which is obviously futile. The debtor-slave pleads for more time, as if this will help, and then he finds himself forgiven of everything, which is the craziest thing of all!

The story reminded me of a relative of mine who had worked for a large winery on the south coast. One day he was responsible for monitoring the wine while it was pumped into a large container truck when he took a call on his phone and wandered off, resulting in something like 10,000 litres of wine being poured out on the ground!

What do you do with someone who stuffs up like that? I’d assumed he would have at least lost his job but, curiously, he didn’t. Apparently, you had to lose about twice that amount of wine before it cost you your job! That seemed crazy to me, but nothing like the craziness of a king who forgives his slave a debt so large that it would have surely thrown the entire country into an economic depression!

Is forgiveness on that scale even responsible for a national leader?

The size of the debt is outrageous, and the mercy of the king is incomprehensible, but the craziest thing of all is what happens next.

“But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.” (Matthew 18:28-30)

The debt of 100 denarii is not nothing (about three month’s wages for a labourer) but it is insanely trivial \when compared to the debt that the man was just forgiven. The king hears what has happened, of course, and the story ends with the first slave “being handed over to the torturers until he pay his entire debt” (Matthew 18:34). If this is a joke, the punchline is dark humour indeed!

Forgiveness, at any rate, is serious business. According to Jesus, it’s not an optional extra. Forgiving those who have wronged us ‘from the heart’ (Matthew 18:35) is a deadly serious obligation if we don’t want to be ‘handed over to the torturers!

The painful irony for me, of course, is that the most forgiving man I have ever met—my friend, Dr Hassoun—is the one who has literally been handed over to torturers!

He is eighty years old now, and I’m told that the wounds he has received in prison over the last eighteen months are so severe he will never recover, even if he were to live for many more years, and the conditions in his prison are apparently so appalling that he is unlikely to live long (which I suspect is by design).

I continue to pray for my friend. I pray for mercy. I pray for justice. But I recognise that Jesus’ parable does not end with a happy resolution. Both slaves are in prison. The king’s treasury is empty, and the kingdom itself is struggling. It is a bleak story,

And yet one truth shines through the darkness: forgiveness has power.

Forgiveness blesses the forgiver as much as the forgiven. It can liberate both individuals and nations. It is the secret weapon of the spiritual warrior — irrational, yet divine. Wherever forgiveness appears, it generates faith, hope, and love.

Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother? Up to seven times?” Jesus replied, “Not seven times, but seventy times seven times.” (Matthrew 18:21-22).

Forgiveness is not reasonable, efficient, or safe, but it is the way of Jesus, and it is our only path to the Kingdom of God!

Our Sunday Eucharist

We enjoyed another wonderful Eucharist last Sunday, though it all seemed a bit rushed, with me barely returning to the studio in time from an induction service in Concord, and David needing to rush to a Father’s Day luncheon straight after giving prayers. Even so, we read the Scriptures, shared out insights and celebrated the Eucharist with joy.

A special thank you to Tom too who shared with us insights from the Shia Islamic perspective that most of us would otherwise never have access to. I’ve clipped the discussion on the Exodus reading this week where Tom helped us see links between the Jewish festival of Passover and the Islamic celebration of Ashura. The way the two link to our Christian celebration of Easter was also discussed. You’ll find that 18-minute discussion at the end of today’s post. The two most popular short vidoes of the week are directly below.

Catch all the short videos on the Sunday Eucharist Instagram page, and our full video archive on Rumble.

At this coming Sunday Eucharist I’m looking forward to having Andrew Logan and Diane Bates join me on the panel.

Yes, Andrew is back, and both he and Gigi are in good health and spirits. I’m looking forward to hearing of a few of their adventures when we meet. We start, as usual at midday on Rumble, Facebook, Twitter (X) LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia and StreamYard.

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What’s On?

Sunday, September 13 – Our Eucharist from noon @thesundayeucharist.com, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia, StreamYard and Rumble.
Tuesday, September 15 – Boxing at the Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm.
Thursday, September 17 – Bible Study @www.thesundayeucharist.com/bible from noon.

It’s looking like a quiet week ahead in terms of boxing sessions. Just the one session at Mundine’s and then I’m off to Melbourne to see my darling daughter, Imogen, who has just celebrated another birthday.

As to the big trip to Syria, I’m still not sure what’s happening. I haven’t had any definitive word from my friends in Syria who invited me though I have heard from multiple friends in this country – all telling me NOT to go! They are mainly Alawite friends who have a strong sense of the risks involved. I’m very grateful to them.

I feel a bit like Paul in Caesarea when the prophet, Agabus, and multiple friends from the church there told him not to go to Jerusalem (Acts 21:8–14). They sensed that Paul was going to meet his doom there, which was more or less what happened. Even so, Paul knew what he had to do, and if returning to Syria is the best way for me to support my friend, Dr Hassoun, I will try to go. I’m sure he would do the same for me.

I hope you’ve been benefiting from the ‘healing sounds’ videos that I’ve rolled out over the last two weeks. This week I’m completing the set by giving you my morning breathing routine. It’s been my practice almost every morning since I first met Wim Hof in 2017. Of course, I’ve developed my own variation on Wim’s system, but I do believe that daily breath-holding is one of the reasons I’m one of the world’s oldest professional boxers.

This completes my sharing of my daily ritual. I do my praying and breathing exercises each morning before leaving the bedroom. Then I make myself a cup of coffee and go through my morning sound routine. I sincerely believe that this routine plays a key role in keeping me physically healthy and emotionally stable. If you’re feeling in any way off-balance yourself, I urge you to give this a try. You might develop a routine slightly different from mine but I’d encourage you to give attention to each of the five key elements I’ve isolated:

B – breath
L – listen
E – eat (diet)
S – sleep
T – train

If you have your own wisdom and experience in these areas, please share. I’m keen to learn more. I’m also keen to pass on what I know and what is working for me. Come and join me for a weekend in the bush some time if you want an immersive introduction to the BLEST system. Otherwise, stay tuned and I’ll try to share more over coming weeks.

One more thing – it seems that SBS has finally screened the documentary on bare-knuckle boxing that I took part in some time ago. I’ve posted the whole 15-minute piece below. I don’t appear till around the 10-minute mark but I think you’ll appreciate the whole thing so long as you’re not expecting to see me doing any bare-knuckle boxing.

That’s plenty for today.