It Is and It Isn't . . .

"Forgiven People Forgive"


SCRIPTURES - Micah 5:2-5a (5:1-4a); Hebrews 10:5-10;
Psalm 80:1-7; Luke 1:39-55

 “The Unmerciful Servant” - Matthew 18:21-35

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”

Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is a like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying,  "Master, have patience with me; and I will pay you all." Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.”

“But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii: and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, „Pay me what you owe!‟ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, „Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.‟ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. 

So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, „You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?‟ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.”

“So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”


HYMN OF THE DAY -  "Are Ye Able?" 


“Are ye able,” said the Master,
“To be crucified with Me?”
“Yea,” the sturdy dreamers answered,
“To the death we follow Thee.”

(Refrain)

Lord, we are able. Our spirits are Thine.
Remold them, make us, like Thee, divine.
Thy guiding radiance above us shall be
A beacon to God, to love and loyalty.

Are you able to relinquish
Purple dreams of power and fame,
To go down into the Garden,
Or to die a death of shame?

(Refrain)

Are ye able, when the anguish
Racks your mind and heart with pain,
To forgive the souls who wrong you,
Who would make your striving vain?

(Refrain)

Are ye able to remember,
When a thief lifts up his eyes,
That his pardoned soul is worthy
Of a place in paradise?

(Refrain)

Are ye able when the shadows
Close around you with the sod,
To believe that spirit triumphs,
To commend your soul to God?

(Refrain)

Are ye able? Still the Master
Whispers down eternity,
And heroic spirits answer,
Now as then in Galilee.

(Refrain)

(Public Domain -- Words by Earl Marlatt)

 Give some notice to  verses three and four, both of which focus on "forgiveness" . . . one is on  OUR ability to forgive each other even in the midst of our personal anguish, and the other is on Jesus forgiveness of the thief on the cross and HIS ability to forgive US.

 MEDITATION - “Seventy Times Seven”
Seventy times seven!!!! Can you imagine forgiving anybody that many times? Do you think you could do as Jesus says, and extend forgiveness to someone four hundred and ninety times?

 We exclaim at such an idea, but these are Jesus’ instructions in this parable. It seems pretty obvious that he is trying to convey to us the sense that we are to forgive as many times as we are asked to forgive, but is that all of it? Are we to forgive only those who ask our forgiveness? I’m not so sure.

According to Jewish teaching in Jesus’ day, one should forgive a repentant offender four times. After that, you were off the hook, so to speak. Peter was much more generous, but was still setting a limit beyond which he need not forgive. Neither Peter nor Jesus, however, add any condition that the offender must repent!!! Jesus commands us to forgive no matter what the attitude of the offender. Seventy times seven, then, is found to mean "without limit"!

Without limit. I am, in order to live as Jesus commands, to forgive others without limit. Uh-Oh! Does He know what he’s asking? Have you ever experienced forgiveness without limit or condition from other human beings? Of course we believe and trust in God’s forgiveness of our sins against Him if we but confess them, but finding this in human relationships is a bit of another matter, I think.

So of course Jesus knows what He’s asking. He knows how difficult it is, and more importantly, He knows how important it is!! He knows about the jeopardy of our souls when we harbor ill will against each other; when we bear grudges for years and years; when a minor offense becomes an indictment against a whole group of people; when we feud with our neighbors for generations, and so forth. 

Our need to forgive each other is an integral part of our Lord’s prayer - “…Forgive us our trespasses (debts) as we forgive those who trespass (our debtors) against us … “ and we pray this prayer at least weekly, if not more often. Do we listen to the words that fall from our lips as we pray this? Do we believe the Lord’s prayer? Do we consciously try to live it? Tough questions, aren’t they? It’s one thing to call Him “Father” and “hallow” His name, another thing to pray for His “kingdom to come” and His “will to be done on earth as it is in heaven” - these are things we do reverently and gladly. We also have little difficulty praying earnestly and fervently for God to “lead us not into temptation” or to “deliver us from evil” and we certainly acknowledge that the kingdom is His, along with the power, and the glory forever.

What I have trouble with sometimes, and what I think is the problematical part of the Lord’s Prayer for everyone, is right there in the middle part . . . Jesus has spoken to us in parables about the middle part of how He instructed us to pray. “Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses [debts] as we forgive those who trespass against us [our debtors],” He tells us. We read about the daily bread in another parable along with the lilies of the field. We were told to have no anxiety on a daily basis about what we will eat, where we will live, or how we will be clothed, because God will provide for our needs. So all that’s left right now is to deal with these twelve words of Jesus about how we are to forgive each other.

 We learn in the parable that God forgives us freely, and that He takes upon Himself the loss for our debts. What does He expect in return? He expects us to demonstrate gratitude for our forgiveness. How? By forgiving others as we have been forgiven. In the 13th chapter of Romans Paul writes about Christian responsibility to the State (governing authorities) and he has much to say about how we are to regard authority, how we are to approach matters of government, and then in verses seven through ten, he tells us how we are to regard each other:

“Render therefore to all their due; taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely,  "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

When we love our neighbor, our intentions toward him go beyond the requirements of the old Mosaic law. Lest we misunderstand Jesus in His teachings and Paul in his writings, we should be sure to recognize that this love of which they speak is more than a feeling. It is a way of life in which we are not intentional only about not causing harm to others, but also about treating them justly and doing good toward them. Love demands from us that we do no harm and that we purposely do good to them. This must include forgiving over and over and over again without regard to the acceptance or rejection of the offender. Forgiveness becomes an act of our will toward another even if that other is unable to deal with being forgiven!!

I have experienced the freedom and the joy that comes from forgiving someone who wronged me deeply. It was killing me not to do so. The offender was going about life enjoying many of the material blessings of life, without an apparent backward glance, and I was caught somewhere wallowing in despair, and dying emotionally and spiritually. I was justified in any anger I felt because the offense was heinous by anyone’s standards. It would have been understandable to all who know about the situation had I felt a desire for revenge. There is no reason for me to have forgiven this person, no reason at all - except love. My forgiveness, by any worldly standard, was not warranted. The offender didn’t care to be forgiven, indeed didn’t see any need for asking my forgiveness. I could have easily explained a lifetime of bitterness toward the offender.

I spent many years waiting until I could “forget” the offense before I attempted to forgive my debtor. After all, I had been taught to “forgive and forget”, and I believed in the absolute necessity of the “forgetting” part to prove that forgiveness had indeed taken place. Even after I began to say in my heart, “I forgive you. I forgive you because Jesus says I must forgive you in order to enter the Kingdom of God. You don’t deserve my forgiveness, but rather my wrath for the rest of your life and the wrath of God at your passing from this life, but I forgive you anyway,” I couldn’t forget. The offense was unforgettable, so I assumed that I would have to wait a while longer before I could truly forgive.

I went for a number of years more with this malignancy of the spirit eating away at me because I was so hurt, so offended, so beaten down and bitter by the offense and the refusal of the offender to acknowledge what had happened and to apologize sincerely and bear some of the responsibility for the effect the offense has had on my life.

Some of you have heard me speak of this before, and I apologize for repeating myself, but I had a long conversation with Terry one day about forgiveness . . . what it is and what it isn’t. I had been reading a lot of books about forgiveness, attempting to come to some place of peace in my soul as I approached the age of 50. I had grown some in my understanding of the Christian life, not nearly as much as I want to, need to, and hope to, but some. Terry and I began discussing the translation of the word “forget” in this context, and he told me that it is does not literally mean in the original language “amnesia” for an event. They are not synonymous. A quick glance through a Thesaurus finds words like “overlook” and “disremember” in the synonym list, and they are “verbs”! Verbs are action words. Does this mean it is possible to actively “disremember” - to choose to “overlook”? Yes! It does.

There’s nothing anywhere that says this is easy. It isn’t. Sometimes that which is being deliberately forgotten or overlooked is something very bad, and the natural inclination is to remember it always and extract penance from the offender. When we begin, however, to understand that forgiving doesn’t require us to develop amnesia for an event, but rather to cease holding the offense against the offender, and when we begin to understand that forgiving doesn’t depend on the attitude of the offender at all, and it doesn’t demand a restoration of the previous relationship if doing so is dangerous to our well-being, in order to be valid and obedient to the teachings of our Lord, we approach understanding of how even the most horrible offenses we can commit against one another can be forgiven. 

Forgiveness is not the same thing as absolution. We are not, in forgiving the trespasses of another, setting aside culpability for the trespass. We are not granting absolution and pardon for the offense. Criminal behavior, for instance, is still criminal behavior, and there are consequences for our actions that are just and appropriate, and forgiveness does not demand that we set aside these consequences. What is demanded is that we release ourselves from any responsibility for seeing that the consequences are carried out! We release ourselves from any responsibility for what happens next, because we are able to stop holding the offense against the offender, just as we pray that God will weigh our merits and pardon our offenses and not hold them against us any longer!

When we understand this, we are able to begin to understand God’s forgiveness for our sins. We are able to begin to understand grace. We are able to understand mercy. In our understanding, we are better able to emulate our Lord and follow His teachings and His leadership. My offender may never know of the forgiveness I have expressed for the wrong that was done. It doesn’t matter. Not really, it doesn’t, because I have released this person to Almighty God, and the offense is now between them!!! Vengeance now belongs to the proper party, and it’s not me! It’s God . . . the offender is now God’s to deal with, and I trust Him to do so, in His way and in His time. I am free!

The man in the parable who said, “I will repay all”, did not understand the magnitude of his debt, but he had the proper attitude. He owed the equivalent of 60 million denarii, and a denarius was about a day’s wage. This was a debt that was impossible to repay, yet he was forgiven. In contrast the amount owed to him by the servant he did not forgive in turn amounted to something around 100 denarii, nothing at all when compared to what he owed to his master. God’s kingdom is like this king who freely forgave the helpless debtor, but also required his people to forgive others. When we have been forgiven much, much is required of us in forgiving others. Today is the day to begin the work. Don’t tarry!!! 

This is a season of miracles like no other! The miracle of forgiving others the offenses they commit against us is one that is within reach of all of us. How wonderful to start a new year, clean slate before us  and clean hearts within us - - - something we call "peace of mind, soul, heart and spirit."  Whom do you need to forgive in order to bring this to pass?  Think about it!!! God bless you.

 PRAYER - Dear Father in heaven, we thank you for forgiving us our sins, our trespasses and our debts. We pray that you will give us the spirit of forgiveness that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, so that we may the more earnestly pray on a daily basis as He taught us to pray, including saying, “…forgive me my debts as I forgive my debtors…”.  Help us to remember that "as I forgive" means "to the extent that I forgive others". Make us willing to stretch the limits of our understanding about what this means to US in a personal way, and help us to grow toward the end that "as I forgive" may come in perfect line with Your own measure of grace and forgiveness toward us.

Mold us and make us in your image so completely that we are willing at all times to forgive others, to stop holding their offenses against them, and to release them to you. We acknowledge the great difficulty we have in so doing, and we pray for your eternal guidance, for wisdom and for strength for the task, and at the same time we rejoice in the knowledge of the reward for living as you would have us live, which is life in your kingdom with you for eternity. In the blessed name of the Prince of Peace, we offer our prayer and our lives to you, Amen.