12-18-2020

 Good Morning All, 

        Matthew 18:21; “Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

     “Mom, Tommy hit me!”  The mother replies, “Tommy, tell your sister that you are sorry.”  Tommy, “I’m sorry.”  It may or may not be heartfelt.  This usually ends the parental lesson for the day, but it should not.  How come the mother never tells Tommy’s sister to forgive him?  This is an important part of the event.

    In our verse, Peter is being generous.  It was the custom to forgive someone three times; after that you no longer were expected to forgive.  So, Peter was more than doubling the requirement.  He was being twice as generous as needed.  It would be like giving 20% of your income rather than the expected 10%.  It was doing what was required but the problem with doing what was required was that you often had to “keep track” in order to do what is required.  In this fashion, forgiveness is an act of the law and not an act of love.

    So, Jesus told Peter, “not seven times but seventy-seven (or seven times seventy, depending on the translation) times.”  Either of these are a bit of hyperbole as to show that you cannot keep track and that is the point.  Forgiveness is about letting go of the past.  Forgiveness is about the future.

    What occurred in the past cannot be undone.  We cannot undue any action we did yesterday.  We cannot “unhit” our brother or sister, we cannot take back the insults to our spouse, we cannot take back the cruel remarks to our children or co-workers or the gal in the checkout line.  We can apologize for them, but we cannot take them back.  The person who received those actions or comments cannot “unexperience” them.  There is only one option; you must forgive yesterday and move on to today.  You must forgive, no matter how many times, if you plan on moving forward.  Failing to forgive will only hold you down and only hold you back.

    One way to view this is that forgiveness is about looking out the windshield rather than looking out the rearview mirror.  We need to look out the windshield looking forward rather than looking in the rearview mirror where we only see what was.  It is far better to look ahead and look forward to the wonders and the grace that God has in store for us.  If we look back, too often, we focus on the pain and the sorrow.   If we look ahead, we can look ahead in hope of God’s mercy. 

    Our future is in God’s loving hands.  We should savor that and look forward to that eagerly.  By failing to forgive, we hold ourselves back by keeping the hurt within our heart.  Forgiveness is about letting go of the pain.  It is about ending someone else controlling our happiness.  By forgiving others, our happiness depends solely on God’s grace and not on our sinful desires.  Forgive and look forward.

Father, help us to see that by forgiving others, we heal our hearts.  Help us to see that forgiveness relieves the sinner and those who are sinned against.  Be with those who are struggling to forgive and to look forward to your continued love.  In the name precious of Jesus, our risen Savior, Amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret