[AI translation] People who read the Bible know that this parable of Jesus goes on, so I've only read the first half of it. Deliberately, because this evening I want to preach God's word to you based on the first part of the whole parable, and tomorrow morning I will continue with the second part. For here it says that "the king will give account of his servants". Yes, God is now calling us to such an account. When we gather together for worship on the last day of the year, we involuntarily feel that such an evening has the character of a reckoning. Although it is only a calendar date that the year is ending again - it could be any other day by mutual agreement - we feel in all its terrifying reality that time is passing and that one day our lives will run out like this year 1966, and that the great reckoning will come before the judgment seat of God! It is good not to give account to God at the end of life, but before it. You can't really start afresh with an old heart. It makes sense for this evening here and for the new year that begins tomorrow, if we can truly begin anew, leaving behind old burdens.At such a reckoning, if it is truly before God, sad things are always revealed. This parable speaks of man - for the servant means man: you and me - that is, man is hopelessly in debt to his supreme Lord. The ten thousand talents that the servant owed is a large sum, hardly expressible in our Hungarian money: it is total bankruptcy. That servant, that man, had obviously felt in the depths of his soul that his accounts before his lord were not quite right, that there might be trouble if everything came out, but somehow he got over it, with some incomprehensible light-heartedness he did not want to face the real situation, did not want to think about it, because then he might have despaired...
It's almost incomprehensible: how can anyone live with such a burden, walk around, do his business, smile, look his children in the eye, and deal with the biggest problem of his life with such light-hearted optimism that he'll get it sorted out when he gets to the judgment seat of the Lord! It is easier to live in a false calm than to face reality!
But God does not want to leave you in this apparent calm. And so today, with its sense of the rush of time, it not only warns us of the inevitable day of reckoning, but also calls us to account, judges us by the mere fact that "it is past". The last 365 days of your life have become the past again: what has happened, has happened; what you have missed, remains a deficit; you can bring nothing back, you can make no amends, you can change nothing. Even in the passing of the last minutes of this year, it is as if God were saying to us, "Behold, I have given you another year. What have you done with it, how have you used your precious time? Not only some time in the future, but here and now we must give account to him of a whole year given to us as a gift. And when God begins to give an account, then more and more details of the debt, the bankruptcy of one's life are revealed. He begins to see with horror: here I have made a mistake here, there I have made a mistake there, I have made a mistake there, I have done this wrong, I should not have done that wrong... Debts, burdens, bankruptcy everywhere! Memories from the past come back to me: sometimes God spoke to me so clearly, so clearly with a word or a painful blow - and I let go of his word by my ear. God spoke in vain! Someone has left me disappointed, sad or even stunned, not receiving the love and help that God wanted to give them through me... How much more the world was ruined in 1966 by my not speaking up when I should have spoken up, by my not setting a good example of understanding and kindness when it should have been the most eloquent testimony of Christ to the world. We were always in a hurry, we didn't have time to sit down with the other person and calmly discuss their problems. It's always a fresh grave or a closed barrier that reminds us of what could have been done, how beautiful, how precious, how much better life could have been...
There's a little word in the Bible we don't like to hear: sin! Three letters in all, and yet what immense weight it can have. Yes, it can weigh heavy on our souls on the night of reckoning! Once, in a group, they were discussing what sin was. There was someone who said that sin is when a person becomes unfaithful to himself, does something unworthy of himself, something that he is ashamed of later. Another added: Sin is when something in one's being goes off the rails and starts to go its own way, like sexuality, which becomes self-controlled, so that one can no longer control it. Again, someone else said: 'Sin is to regard one's fellow man, perhaps one's own wife or child, one's neighbour or boss, not as a human being in the full sense, and therefore not to love him, but to use him as a means or to discard him; to regard him as something to be achieved, to be used for pleasure or for elevation. And when the conversation got to this point, someone read this passage from David's prayer, "I have sinned against Thee alone, and have done that which is evil in Thy sight." - The story is familiar. This man, David, had indeed done a thing that was not worthy of him. Something in him was derailed, and it was his sensual desires. But that was not what was weighing on his soul. It is a well-known fact that he used a man - a woman - as an instrument of his own pleasure, and that he put her husband out of the way, killed him. And even this was not what gave him a truly painful sense of sin. Sin is always a confrontation with someone, and that someone is not my better self, not even primarily my neighbour, the other person... In guilt, one is always before God! Before God, who created me, who I know loves me, who cares for me. What makes sin a sin, what makes sin such a painful burden on the soul, is that there is always an immense shame before God.
And now imagine what it means to stand before God to give account of it! Before One who knows everything about us: every secret, every word spoken, every dream in which our subconscious soul-world bursts to the surface, knows the whole of our vile self that is hidden behind the facades of our exterior. Before the gaze of such a Someone, one can only truly cringe. Yes: it is I, you are the wretched servant who owes his Lord ten thousand talents. When shall we wipe off all that God claims from us? Not if we live a thousand years, for our debt will be multiplied.
And now look what this servant in the parable did when the bankruptcy was revealed. Here we read, "And the servant fell down before him, and besought him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will repay thee all things." - He asks for patience, for delay, for time. I admit that I have made a lot of mistakes, that I have neglected a lot, that I am in immense debt, and Lord, I will try again in the new year! I will pay for everything! Well, that's the promise, the vow, that's not worth the pains one takes to say it. For even if a really serious resolution awakens in a man, what can he pay with, what can he pay his debt to God with?! By going to church more diligently? - But does God need that? Or by praying more, which you feel yourself to be torturing yourself with? - By many touching good intentions, which you feel yourself will not be done as well as before? Or if it does, you do yourself credit... With more serious Bible reading, which only multiplies the unkept verses? - By a lifetime of honest work? - for you would only be doing what is your first duty! Suffering, which only increases your self-indulgence? - Don't we feel that with all this the debt is not diminished but increased?!
We can't produce anything to pay for it. There is no point in conscience-squashing procrastination, big bets, well-meaning promises. The best thing is to come before God ourselves, and voluntarily disclose the whole debt, and ask not for a respite, but for forgiveness!
Look what Jesus says in this parable about that reckoning Lord our Father: two wondrously great and joyful facts. One is: "The Lord had compassion on that servant." This means that God is not an angry God. This is a great message: "God is not an angry God. He is not angry! He pities. Pity is an expression of kindness, of helpfulness, of love. Only one who loves very much can pity. And God loves even such a hopelessly indebted servant, because he is his child! He loves not our sin, but us. Not the trash, but the pearl that is mixed in the trash. It is the very fact that the man he loves is in the garbage that makes him feel pity. It's not his place! The witness of God's compassionate love made flesh: Jesus! If he had not pitied us, if he had not been angry, what would have been the point of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost? - Yes, "The Lord had pity on that servant...!" And if just now you were the one who was brought down to earth by the realization of the bankruptcy of your life, now you are the one whom the Lord has pity on!
And hence the other great fact: "The debt was forgiven him!"-Brothers, this is the very essence of the Gospel that Jesus brought: this is the most divine act of God, that the debt was forgiven! He forgives sin that is acknowledged and repented of. There is no question of collection, reparation, repayment! There is no other way to settle this matter but in this royal way. There is only one thing to be done with an unpaid debt: it must be forgiven! There is only one true solution to sin: forgiveness! Behold, this servant also asked for a respite and was granted full remission. God wants to give us more than we expect. We always ask for help with partial problems, but he wants to give us a whole new foundation for our lives: forgiveness of sin. Full forgiveness, unconditionally, for everyone - not because you asked for it or earned it by repenting, but simply because He loves you! Because God - love! His greatest power is that He loves. He is able to love even you, even me, in an unlimited, undeserved way. God is ready to forgive us our sins. That is the secret of salvation!
For that is why Jesus came: to redeem our debt. There, on the cross of Calvary, that is what happened: our life's ransom was paid. No more debt: Jesus took it over. Satisfaction has been made. We are absolved! So it is written literally, "The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin." Yes, this holy blood is the only one that settles all debts, atones for all failings. Only this redeeming blood can set your year-end reckoning right before God. So do not vow that "I will repay you", but accept the good news that Someone has already repaid you!
According to psychologists, the grace of forgiveness is a concentrated force that truly starts a healing process in our lives. Often physically, but certainly spiritually. It is a decisive event that closes the past, lifts us up, gives us new possibilities and a new beginning: "He has released the servant." My brethren, whoever now truly feels that he stands before the living God on the last night of this year, burdened with an immense debt, and at the same time believes in the merit of Jesus' redemptive death, I now proclaim it with full awareness of my responsibility: God will close your accounts for the year, sealed with the blood of Christ, and you can begin the New Year, and in it a truly new life, unburdened!
Now let us remain in complete silence, alone with God, who now wants to give an account of himself to his servants. Appearing before God, try to think over and confess to Him your sins and omissions of the past year. Think that God knows much more about you than that, Do you feel sincere repentance? Are you burning with shame before the God who loves you? If so, hear Jesus say, "Your sins are forgiven." Tell Jesus that you love Him and want to be His with all your heart! Hear Jesus' absolution, "Go and sin no more!"
Gentle eyes, Lord Jesus,
He sees all my sins well,
Thou shalt not condemn my person
Thy gentle eye, Lord Jesus.
Gentle eyes, Lord Jesus,
Look upon me when I fall,
Give me peace and forgiveness
Your gentle eyes, Lord Jesus.
Gentle eyes, Lord Jesus,
I know he'll accuse me;
I have sinned, judge me
Your gentle eyes, Lord Jesus.
Gentle eyes, Lord Jesus,
Judge me though, see me again
Just waiting for you to look at me
Your gentle eyes, Lord Jesus!
(hymn 465)
Amen.
Date: New Year's Eve 1966.