Proper 18, Year A 2026: Matthew 18:15-20

One July, we were visiting family for our summer vacation. And I had had it. I was getting more and more annoyed and my pot of anger was about to boil over. And I didn’t want to let it boil over. Partially because losing it would accomplish nothing but to make me instantly the bad guy and partially because that wasn’t the person who I wanted to be, the one who gets mad and explodes. So I found the Episcopal church in town and I went to church. Saturday night rolled around and I said to my husband, “I need to go to church tomorrow.” Not “I’d like to”. Not “it would be really nice if I could”. “I need to”. Because I did. I needed to go into a church building surrounded by my siblings in Christ, kneel on a kneeler, take a deep breath, and pray for these people who I loved but who were infuriating me. And so I did. And when I made it back, they hadn’t changed. But I had. And the pot was no longer in danger of boiling over.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives steps to follow “if another member of the church sins against you”. I don’t love the translation. The Greek word is “adelphos”, which means “brother”. Jesus, of course, does not mean your literal brother but uses the familial word that suggests more warmth and a closer relationship than “another member of the church” might suggest to us. I would translate it as “if your sibling in Christ sins against you”. Jesus then references Deuteronomy. No one would be taking notes at this point. Jesus isn’t saying anything new to his Jewish audience. To quote Deuteronomy: “A single witness shall not suffice to convince a person of any crime or wrongdoing in connection with any offense that may be committed. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be sustained. If a malicious witness comes forward to accuse someone of wrongdoing, then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days, and the judges shall make a thorough inquiry.” (Deut. 19:15-18)

And then, Jesus continues, after you take the case to the church - the word used here is “ekklesia”, which could also be translated as “assembly” which doesn’t even necessarily imply a religious group in the same was as “church” does - so basically a wider audience than one-on-one, and “if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

Relations between Jews and Gentiles weren’t violent, but the groups did not mix. One of the problems Paul addresses in First Corinthians is how Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians can break bread together. As for tax collectors, they were themselves Jews, but they were Jews who colluded with the occupying Romans, collecting Roman taxes and extorting their fellow Jews for additional money. If you had a tax collector in your family, it would be more difficult to marry off your children, as others did not want to marry into a family with tax collectors as members.

So upon first glance, it might seem like Jesus is letting us off the hook - treat this person who has wronged you in the same way in which you treat these other people you don’t like. But that should raise a giant red flag, because Jesus - the same Jesus that just said in last Sunday’s Gospel reading “if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24), doesn’t have a history of making things easier for his followers, especially when it comes to how we treat one another. His disciples may have been thinking, “Great! We already don’t like Gentiles OR tax collectors, so we’ll treat this person who has wronged us in the same way we treat these other people we don’t like.” But what are the odds that the same Jesus who was constantly in trouble with the religious authorities over being too welcoming to outcasts is telling us that if we have a falling out with one of our siblings in Christ that we can shut them out too?

For answers, let’s look at how Jesus treats Gentiles and tax collectors.

In Matthew 8, a centurion - read: Gentile - comes to Jesus to heal his servant. Jesus said, “I’ll come heal him.” The centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.” Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.”

In Matthew 9, Jesus saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, as he was a tax collector. Jesus said to him, “follow me”, and he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners.”

It seems the disciples have an inkling of what Jesus means by saying “treat them as Gentiles and tax collectors,” because after Jesus finished speaking Peter had this follow up question: “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” By using the number seven, which suggests completeness, Peter seems to be offering a pretty good deal, right? Seven feels like a more than fair number of times to forgive. But Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven, or seventy times seven, times,” the Greek is unclear. Either way, it’s not meant to be a tally. It means continually forgive.

So what are we to do with all of this? Jesus is providing us guidance with two important relationship points: reconciliation and forgiveness. Oftentimes when we hear this, we jump to respond with situations in which we clearly ought to not be in relationship with the person who has wronged us, asking questions like, “so does that mean we’re supposed to welcome our abusers with open arms?” The answer to that question is “no.” Jesus provides the answer within “treat them as a Gentile or tax collector.” We are to work to mend mendable relationships. He didn't meet with every single tax collector. If the other party isn’t ready, they won’t sit down at the table and you cannot reconcile with someone who is unwilling to do the work of reconciliation. We see willingness to reconcile in the way the tax collector Zacchaeus responded to Jesus’ invitation: to repent and change his ways, repaying anyone he had defrauded multiple times over. An expensive act of reconciliation.

Peter’s question reinforces our call as followers of Jesus: we don’t get to just write someone off because we don’t like them, like Jesus’ disciples learned regarding the Gentiles and tax collectors. Even with those with whom they, and we, cannot reconcile, we are called to continue to pray for them, not literally seventy times seven times, but to Jesus’ point, always. That is where healing takes place, because healing and love are not found in alienation, but in forgiveness because forgiveness changes me, it changes us.

Jesus concludes today’s Gospel with a hopeful reminder, “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Jesus constantly reminds us, we are not alone. Just as I found at that church on vacation, we have one another and we have Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew ends with Jesus saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” - the word used for nation is derivative of the word used for Gentile, meaning the nations of which the Gentiles are members - “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Keep the door open, forgive one another to set ourselves free in love, and know that Jesus is always there with us. Amen.