Forgiveness

You know why so many of us write about forgiveness? Because it is one of the most important things we do as a result of our faith in Jesus. Yet, at the same time one of things we struggle in doing. Here's a little different "take" on that old subject.

            Matt. 18:21-27 - "Then Peter came to him and asked, "Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?"  22 "No!"  Jesus replied, "seventy times seven!   23 "For this reason, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him.  24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.   25 He couldn't pay, so the king ordered that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt.  26 But the man fell down before the king and begged him, 'Oh, sir, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.'  27 Then the king was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt."

   Have you ever thought you were being generous only to find out that the person you were trying to impress wasn't impressed at all?  That's what Simon Peter was doing here.  He had been offended, hurt by someone. We do not know the exact thing that precipitated the question, but no doubt someone probably made reference to Jesus in a disparaging way. Or maybe he heard someone refer to the disciples as shiftless, or lazy because all they did was follow Jesus from town to town. Perhaps someone referred to them as  beggars because people were feeding them along the way. Who knows? But now Peter is upset, he’s had enough and the question comes up in his mind, “Lord, how many times must I forgive these ignorant people for their bad, offensive behavior?”   He wanted to know how many times he had to forgive the hurt.

            Isn’t this something we think about? More likely the question that comes up for me is “how do I forgive, when I did not do anything wrong.? I am terribly hurt, and I never want to see this person again”.

            Often, for me at least, the major part of the “rub” is that I will have to deal with that person again. Sometimes it may not be appropriate though, and it is important for us to remember that forgiveness is not the same thing as reconciliation, and I still believe that is true. Reconciliation is a different process, and I would not go to the place of putting yourself in harms way. However, there is a trust issue here isn’t there?  Not ‘do you trust the person who harmed you’ but, rather do you trust God to keep you from harm. Maybe it is NOT a good idea to reconcile because the person who harmed you is not remorseful, or thinks you are the problem, when in fact you are not. Should I reconcile with someone who I am sure will do again what they did before, because they don’t “get it”? And the other question is what does reconciliation really mean? 

The dictionary defines reconcile as 

1 a : to restore to friendship or harmony 〈 reconciled the factions 〉

b : settle , resolve 〈 reconcile differences 〉

2 : to make consistent or congruous 〈 reconcile an ideal with reality 〉

3 : to cause to submit to or accept something unpleasant 〈 was reconciled to hardship 〉

            Reconciliation has a sub-concept – vulnerability, trust.  Otherwise setting aside differences for the sake of harmony, trying to redefine the ideal, or just accepting what we consider to be unpleasant. 

    The rabbis of the time taught that the correct answer to Peter's question was three - three times was all that was required.  So Peter, in a perfectly understandable way of thinking, took that teaching, doubled it and added one more for good measure and came up with 7 as his suggestion, no doubt hoping Jesus would compliment him for being so generous with his forgiving.  Much to Peter's surprise, Jesus wasn't impressed at all and told Peter that he was way off.

   In the story that Jesus told, the king is God, and you and I are the debtors.  We have a debt that is too big for us to pay - way too big for us to pay.  There's no way we can pay the moral debt for sin that we've incurred.  We deserve to be thrown into the prison.  In fact aren’t you glad that God does NOT give you what you deserve, rather He gives us grace. After all, the world operates on the principle of "You owe, you pay."  If you don't believe it, just go to your bank and ask them to forgive you for the mortgage loan against your house, or to the car dealer who financed your car and ask them to forgive your debt.  I'll tell you right now what would happen: you'd get laughed out of the place because in this world, if you owe a debt, you have to pay it. 

   That's the situation with the debtor - up until the point that he cries out to the king (God) for mercy.  And, he didn't even ask for the debt to be forgiven - just for time to pay it off.  But the king knew that there was no way the debt could be paid by the debtor, so in pity, he released the debtor and forgave the debt.

   Here's a key point: just because the debt was forgiven, it didn't mean the king still wasn't out the money. In other words, the king was still out millions of dollars, it COST the king a great deal to forgive the debt.  But forgive it he did.  Why?  Because God doesn't operate according to the world's economy.  Instead, God's economy is this: "You owe, I'll pay."  Just as the King absorbed the debt (essentially paying for it himself), God in the person of Jesus Christ paid the debt, absorbing it in with His own flesh and blood, that we couldn't hope to pay.  Interesting Jesus tells this story when he does, because at this point in Jesus’ life no one could even dream that He was talking about Himself. Only Jesus knows.

            But here's the point of the parable if you read the whole thing: not only did God pay the debt, He expects us to forgive and absorb loss, too, by forgiving those who have hurt us, who owe us a moral debt.  Have you been terribly hurt by someone and had those very human thoughts of repaying in kind the hurt they put on you?

            Do you live out "You owe, you'll pay" or are you imitating God's plan of "You owe, I'll pay?"

Calling of ALL Saints

Colossians 1:12 says:

12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

We are very apt to regard the apostolic saints as if they were “saints” in a more especial manner than the other children of God. All are “saints” whom God has called by His grace, and sanctified by His Spirit; but we are apt to look upon the apostles as extraordinary beings, scarcely subject to the same weaknesses and temptations as ourselves. Yet in so doing “we are forgetful of this truth, that the nearer a man lives to God the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart; and the more his Master honors him in his service, the more also does the evil of the flesh plague and tease him day by day. The fact is that if we had seen the apostle Paul, we would  have thought he was a lot like the rest of the chosen family: and if we had been able to talk with him, we would have thought that we found his experience and ours are much the same. He was more faithful, more holy, and more deeply taught than we are, but he has the same trials to endure. In some respects he was more intensely put to the test than most of us. Do not, then, look upon the ancient saints as being exempt either from infirmities or sins; and do not regard them with that mystic reverence which will almost make us idolaters. Their holiness is attainable even by us. We are “called to be saints” in the same manner in which they were called to their lofty place. It is a Christian’s duty to force his way into the inner circle of saintship; I say force because it is not natural for us to act this way, our nature is to act selfishly, not selflessly, and forgiveness requires by its very nature for us to “get out of ourselves, consider the plight of the one in need of forgiveness and gracefully give it. And, if these saints of the ancient days were superior to us in their attainments, as they certainly were, let us follow them; let us emulate their persistent pursuit of saintliness and holiness. We have the same light that they had, the same grace is accessible to us, and why should we be satisfied until we have equaled them in heavenly character? They lived with Jesus, they lived for Jesus, therefore they grew like Jesus. Let us live by the same Spirit as they did, “looking unto Jesus,” and our saintliness will soon be apparent.

          Now, self forgiveness does not entail rationalizing your bad behavior, or thoughts or desires. Rationalizing is a tool we use for an excuse to get away with, in our own minds, things our mothers would have put us in time out for, or our fathers would have spanked us for. One of the differences between us as parents, or even our own parents, and God the heavenly Father, is that he forgives us without punishment. Notice I did not say without consequences. God, from my personal experience does not necessarily relieve us from the consequences of our actions and choices. He allows those things to manifest in our lives, so we can learn the hard lessons of life. The good news is that He does forgive, He will not hold things against us, though He surely should, according to the world. But as I said earlier God operates on a different economy

          Forgiveness is truly a supernatural concept. It’s worldly counterpart is revenge. The whole point of Jesus’ parable is that you are forgiven for the way you treat God, the one died for you in your place for the wrongs you committed against Him, why can’t you do the same. This is part of every Christians calling. Are you living it, or ignoring it?