7,8 Apr -- Forgiveness is For Giving
The readings for Sat 7 and Sun 8 April are -- Gen 49:1-50:26; Ps 17:1-5; Pro 3:21-24; Mt 18:10-35.
Happy Easter everyone! "Forgiveness is For Giving" is the title of my message tonight (Easter Sunday). I've chosen that theme because it ties in with the Matthew reading above, and also the Genesis reading. Seeing many of you can't be there, let me briefly mention just a couple of points.
Forgiveness is obviously for receiving as well. Christ died so that we could be forgiven. God offers us forgiveness in Christ. It's available for us to receive, praise God! But as recipients of forgiveness, we are called to forgive others. That's where the servant in Mt 18:23-35 went wrong. He had received forgiveness of a great debt but was unwilling to forgive the small debt of a fellow-servant. Jesus told that parable in answer to Peter's question about how often he should forgive. The common wisdom was 7 times, but Jesus said 70 times 7 and then told the parable.
Forgiveness is a key theme in the last chapter of Genesis too. Jacob (Israel) is embalmed and buried in the first half of the chapter. Then Joseph's brothers panic. They suspect that Joseph is still holding a grudge against them and fear that he will now get his revenge (50:15). So they send a message to Joseph pleading that he forgive them (v16,17). When Joseph received it he wept (v17). I think because he realised they hadn't received the forgiveness he'd offered earlier and were still afraid of him. He didn't want them to be afraid of him. He didn't want them to be his slaves (v18). He wanted them to be his brothers. He told them not to be afraid; he said he would take care of them and their little ones; he comforted them; and he spoke kindly to them (v21 -- a great verse!). Only 5 more verses and Joseph is dead, embalmed and buried, and the book of Genesis has ended. A happy ending -- forgiveness given and received.
An even greater example of forgiven is displayed by Jesus. As he looked at his crucifiers from the cross, his words were: "Father, forgive them..."
Jesus was thinking about forgiveness as he hung on the cross. Not just the forgiveness of those he saw at the foot of the cross that day, but also the forgiveness of those to come in following ages. He died that we might be able to receive forgiveness and he rose to help us give it.
Labels: forgiveness, picture
posted by Ps John @ 3:18 PM
10 Comments
10 Comments:
Matthew 18 has an interesting contrast in two adjacent stories of forgiveness. The second one, with the parable of the unforgiving service was mentioned in this post, and in the service yesterday. Forgiveness is to be dispensed without limit (seventy times seven).
But just a few verses earlier (v15ff), Jesus talks about a procedure for dealing with unforgiveness which leads ultimately to the eviction of the person from the fellowship (he shall be as a tax collector or Gentile to you). In this instance forgiveness isn't given at all, let alone 490 times. How do we reconcile the two teachings?
I have my answer, but I'm interested to see what anyone else thinks.
Haven't you learnt (or learned?) yet, Callum? Ask a direct question and no one but John will answer it. But just to start a new trend ...
The two circumstances are completely different; in one, the person is not sorry/repentant/willing-to-even-accept-their-wrong at all, whilst in the other, the person is muchly sorry/etc.
I'm interested in the timing of forgiveness. We are used to it taking time to come to the point of forgiveness. It is OK to be on a journey to forgiveness, recovering from the hurt and wounds to come to the place when we can forgive. Sometimes we can't demand instant forgiveness from people without it being false forgiveness. However, on the cross Jesus forgave as he was suffering. People weren't repentant or sorry, but were still mocking. How do we deal with that?
Karen B
But then again aren't you christian-types apparently supposed to forgive ASAP (before the sun goes down kinda thing) just in case your friend says "I hope you die" and then two seconds later you move out of an intersection and another car runs a red light and almost kills you ... no ... actually kills you ... Heh, how much would it suck for the both of you that you didn't forgive each other ASAP.
Anyways, I reckon that if you're gonna wait before you're over your hurt before you forgive anyone, at the rate that ppl hurt each other in our sucky lives, you would never get around to forgiving anyone.
See! You were wrong Lisa. 2 people (you & Karen) both replied to Callum's direct question before me. But you were right about the 2 situations being different. I think you're onto it there.
Now a hypothetical from me to really get your minds ticking over. What if the big-debt servant is sorry for his behaviour after he is thrown in prison? Perhaps the torture helps him see the error of his ways! Will the King forgive him a second time?
Yeah, but that's because I started the new trend :P
Anyways, being a 'real' king, then no he wouldn't. He'd have to face a revolt from a mob of his people claiming that the justuce system was corrupt, or complain that their king is weak (cross me once, smae on you; cross me twice, shame on me sort of thing), and thence dethrone him, or begin a civil war. =P
But, being an 'ideal' super-king,, he should forgive him as many times as he's sorry.
Though, although that's ideal, I don't see the practicality in it. The more times you forgive someone, the more you set yourself up to be walked all over by them. Though I guess you can forgive, but not forget; but then the other person will claim that you haven't forgiven them at all.
If I lend you my guitar and you break it, you would be sorry and I would forgive you. If you borrowed my new guitar and broke it, you would be sorry again, and I'd forgive you again (gee, I'm a nice guy).
However, I might stop lending you guitars.
And that's exactly what I meant by forgiving but not forgetting; don't give me anymore guitars if I'm just breaking them. But if you were to keep lending me guitars, that's what I meant by setting yourself up to be walked all over.
Anyways, once you stop lending me guitars, you'll never have to forgive me for breaking them anymore coz you've stopped the cycle. (But that's not always possible in forgiveness situations where you have no control over what they do to you).
But if you were ideal-super-Callum, you would have an endless supply of guitars that all happened to be exactly the same as the first one, and so the number of times you let me borrow and break your guitar wouldn't matter.
i.e. It's entirely possible to forgive endlessly when nothing else is effected; but when other things start coming into the picture, it's not practical.
Plus one other thing ... that scenario works with me coz you know that I would know that you forgave me the second time even though you wouldn't let me borrow guitars ever again. However, if it were me the one lending guitars, and it were Paul the one borrowing and breaking, once I stopped lending guitars to him, he would think that I stopped forgiving him and say something along the lines of "And you call yourself a real friend". Does forgiveness count if the other person doesn't know they're forgiven? Or is it not even forgiveness unless it is suited to the person you are forgiving? ...
N.B. None of Callum's guitars were broken by Lisa in the making of these comments.
There is an argument that says you should actually go on lending guitars (continue turning the other cheek). Then again, you only have 2 cheeks (and I only have a limited number of guitars) so Jesus' gave an example where the potential damage was limited.
If you have forgiven Paul and he can't tell the difference between forgiveness and stupity AND he thinks it's his right to break your guitars whenever he wants, then he is the one that isn't a real friend and it's his problem not yours. And you can tell him I said so.
NB. No Pauls were harmed in the making of this comment.
Hahahahah, will do! Either that, or I will get him to buy me an never-ending supply of high-E strings. =P
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