forgiveness

How Many Times?

How Many Times

November 17, 2024
Matthew 18:21-35, Matthew 6:14-15, Colossians 3:12-14


Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Should I forgive as many as seven times?”

 Jesus said, “Not just seven times, but rather as many as seventy-seven times.

 Matthew 18:21-22

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Seventy seven or more accurately 70 x 7 times.  In one humorous telling of this story, Peter continues the conversation…

“Seriously Jesus, first you tell me to forgive the one  who sins against me and now you’re going to make me to math too?!”

Taken literally, I suppose that means we only have to forgive someone 490 times, but if we’re counting that high, I’m not sure genuine forgiveness is really on our minds.

Seven is commonly used in scripture as a number of completeness or fullness.  In other words, we are to forgive the full or complete number of times… which would be every time.  At first glance, this seems a bit unreasonable, until we understand the parable that follows. 

A servant owed the king 10,000 talents.  I have seen several different calculations on what this would look like in 21st century American dollars, but needless to say, they are all exorbitant amounts.  There is no way this debt can ever be repaid, and yet the king releases him of the debt rather than forcing him to pay for the rest of his life. 

Of course the servant is beyond grateful, until he comes across someone else who owes him a much smaller amount, perhaps only a few dollars by comparison.  In turn, he refuses to forgive the debt owed to him.  When the king learns of this, he is furious.  He reinstates the tremendous debt and throws him into prison.

Perhaps one reason we struggle so much with forgiveness is because we don’t realize just how much we have been forgiven.  We don’t appreciate the value of the forgiveness and mercy we have experienced in our lives, not only from God but also from others.

It’s amazing how stark this truth becomes when we look at it in the financial terms Jesus lays out.  Forgiveness sometimes feels abstract.  We can’t always put a price on how much someone has hurt us.  But when money is involved, we know exactly how much we are owed and how much we owe others.  When we see others in debt, we can be quick to judge.  We don’t ask what happened that led to such debt, what tragic circumstances or exploitive systems may have led them to being in over their head.  We simply demand that they pay up, just like the man who the servant refused to forgive.  Yet when it comes to our own, though we my do our best to pay, there may very well come a time when we ask for mercy, for an extension, for a reversal of unfair fees, or some other relief during a hard time when other expenses overwhelm us. 

When Jesus forgives those who hung him on the cross, he declares that they do not know what they are doing.  Perhaps that alone is a good reason to forgive.  We simply don’t know what’s going on in the other person’s life.  Maybe they don’t fully understand what they have done.  Maybe a bit of mercy will help them turn things around.  May we forgive as God has forgiven us. 

 

When the Rooster Crows


When the Rooster Crows
I Have Seen - Part 3
Sunday, May 1, 2022
John 21:4-19

He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

John 21:17

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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We had seen Jesus several times since that unbelievable morning when we found the tomb empty.  There was no question for any of us now that he was alive, but life still wasn’t quite the same. 

The roosters still crow every morning, reminding me of all I’ve done wrong.  They remind me of how unworthy I am.  I thought I was a sinful man when I first met him, but now I knew that I was even more of a sinner than I had once realized.  I wonder if he still would have wanted me to join him if he knew how much I would fail him.  Would he have still called me a friend if he knew that when he needed me the most, I would turn my back and claim not to know him?   

I was the chief of sinners, but Jesus forgave me.  Jesus loved me.  And I wanted so badly to love him no matter what the circumstances.  Every morning I hear the roosters crow and I hear those people in the courtyard saying “Aren’t you one of Jesus’ disciples?”

“Yes, yes I am a follower of Christ,” I answer myself.  “Not a very good one at times.  And I certainly don’t deserve to be.  But I still love him and he told me to fish for people and to feed his sheep.  And no matter how many times I fail, that’s exactly what I’m going to keep doing…”

“…I know now that Jesus will forgive me when I fail, but I don’t want him to have too.  I can’t stand the thought of disappointing him again.  I wonder sometimes, if he still feels the nails every time I fail.  Does he hear the crowd cry “Crucify” again.  If I’m causing him pain, then I really need to change, because I just can’t bear the thought of hurting him.” [1]

When the rooster crows reminding me of all I’ve done, I know I’m forgiven, but I also know that Jesus has trusted me with so much more.  “The world will fasten a belt around you and take you where you don’t want to go,” he told me… but then he said, “Follow me.”

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[1] lyrics from “Can You Still Feel the Nails”, Ray Boltz

 



As We Forgive

As We Forgive

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

For some, this is the kind of prayer that comes out in a desperate situation. We seek God’s mercy to get us out of a bad place, to heal us or a loved one from a terrible disease, or to forgive us from some deep dark sin that keeps us riddled with guilt, shame, or regret.

In the flow of ordinary life, however, our need for mercy rarely comes bubbles to the surface. After all, we are good people. We’re not out committing immoral acts in need of constant forgiveness. Perhaps that’s why it’s so easy to condemn others we deem “sinners” because their so-called immoral behaviors or beliefs are unthinkable to us, even if we don’t know them or if they have not done any harm.

The problem is that the more we focus on everybody else’s “sin”, the less we are able to experience God’s mercy for ourselves and in turn, the less we are able to extend God’s mercy to others…