Church staff
 
 
Rev David Diller’s sermon was “The Toughest Job in the World.” In its literary context, Matthew 18:21-35 is about forgiving others, but Rev Diller went behind the text to Jesus’ original parable. Jesus tells of an oriental despot settling accounts with his chief financial officer. It’s a world of powerful patrons atop a pyramid of reciprocal relationships with lower level clients. This client servant is a top-echelon bureaucrat whom the patron king needs, but who must be kept in line. The standard of morality is public honor or shame. Honor comes to those who live up to the expectations of their social peers. Shame falls on those who fail to meet those expectations. The client is shamed for his failure & begs forgiveness. Having secured his power over officials in his bureaucracy, & knowing this client will not fail to pay up in the future, the despot patron bestows unexpected generosity, forgives the debt, & restores the servant’s position & honor. But when the forgiven client comes across one of his own clients he acts as an unforgiving patron. His client is now shamed for his failure & begs forgiveness, but the forgiven patron fails to respond has his patron king had. Jesus’ parable says even a forgiving king could not change the bureaucracy, the honor-shame system, & the ways people with power use it to harm others. So Jesus was declining the role of “Christ,” the royal patron, even though he would be a different kind of sovereign. His kingship is not of this world. To be his subject requires a whole new outlook where no one lords it over another, where all are equals, & where forgiveness is unlimited. Matthew uses the story to emphasize this last point, for the Church is to be the new family of God where no one lords it over another, where all are equals, & where forgiveness is unlimited.