Forgive Me

Forgiveness is an excellent idea until you need to offer or receive it. Disappointingly, it then provides little more than additional injury and pain. It mitigates justice, excuses wrongdoers, and heaps another layer of abuse onto the victim’s shoulders. Isn’t that so?

To experience its priceless value, you must understand forgiveness as a kingdom citizen does. It is a gift that enlarges and strengthens all you are becoming and all you are called to be. It is a high point, an Everest, and there are panoramic views you will not see if you bypass the summit of generosity.

It is another big issue (no surprise) best divided into two posts. Let’s start with what forgiveness is, then what to start doing and what to stop doing if, like me Beloved, you need to know how to give and receive it.

Jesus had skin in the game. He offered forgiveness to His executioners while they were killing Him because, in His love for them, He gave what He knew would most perfectly meet their needs. Forgiveness was the champion, a priceless, peerless, unequalled, unsurpassable, unbeatable gift.

Jesus uses the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:21-35 to teach us His unprecedented truth about forgiveness. It’s a treasure that comes directly from the Father’s heart. (John 12:49) Don’t let the glory and authority of this pass you by. No one had said, or even thought, anything like this before. (John 7:46)

Then Peter came and said to Him, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus told him. ‘I do not say to you seven times but seventy times seven. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him 10,000 talents was bought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold along with his wife, children, and all he had, and repayment be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you everything.’ The lord of that slave felt compassion for him and released him and forgave him the debt. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay me back what you owe.’ So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you.’ But he was unwilling and went and threw him into prison until he could pay back what was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then, summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ And his lord moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from the heart.

In the heart and mind of Jesus, forgiveness is:

• given freely and repeatedly wherever it is required. The Talmud instructed Peter to forgive three times. Jesus has a very different view, expressed with precision and beauty in Luke 7:41-42, but He does not minimise the difficulty of forgiveness. And…
• given for a specific transgression—a wrong act that is clearly understood and mutually agreed as deserving of punishment. And…
• compassionate. It understands why mercy is the desirable option. And…
• costly, the one who forgives assumes and pays the full debt. The largest number named in the Greek language was 10,000. If a talent, the largest monetary unit of the day was about equal to an average annual income, then the debt, in today’s terms, is at least $400 million. The annual revenue of Herod’s whole kingdom was 900 talents. Forgiving a debt more than ten times this size would destabilise and probably destroy the lord’s kingdom. And...
• where possible, reconciliation of the former relationship. No cold shoulder, hard feelings, residual resentment. Don’t be fooled, dear one. These belong to revenge and retaliation, not to forgiveness. And…
• a gift to be received. Like all gifts, it can be rejected as it was in the parable. The debtor slave was threatened with justice; he begged for mercy, but then his ill-disposed actions showed that he valued justice more, and so justice was what he finally received.

Jesus’ final words are crucial… continued in I Forgive You