Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity 13 09 26
OLD TESTAMENT READING: Exodus 14.19-end
NEW TESTAMENT READING: Romans 14.1-12
GOSPEL Matthew 18.21-35
One of our everyday experiences is feeling hurt or feeling bad. Some one would say something that would deeply hurt us or do something that hurt us. People disappoint us by not giving the help they could have given. These things make us very sad and sometimes very angry and the result is that we lose our peace. Some people carry this in their heart and live with resentment and deep anger, some people give it back. Relationships get strained and relationships are lost.
The Bible tells us that the nature of God in the book of Psalms, ‘For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you’. (Psalm 86.5). Another writer says, ‘But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered’. (Psalm 130:4).
It is in this context we are heard an amazing teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter keeps hearing Jesus talk about forgiving others, he is perturbed and he asks Jesus, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Peter was asking should I forgive someone who wrongs me by speaking against me, hurts me, speaks ill of me and works against me, Jesus had this to say, you have to forgive ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times’. Jesus was telling Peter there is no limit to forgiveness, you will have to keep on forgiving as God keeps on forgiving you.
We have to forgive people because God forgives us all the time. We are always conscious of what people do to us and the way people act against us but we may not be so aware of the things that we do to other people causing deep hurt. We sin against God sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously. God forgives all the time.
The essence of Christian discipleship is forgiveness. Jesus makes it clear that being unwilling or reluctant to forgive others is not acceptable to him. That is the reason Jesus places forgiveness at the heart of the Gospel.
It is easy to say that one has to forgive others. We know that it is not very easy to do, it is difficult. Forgiveness is just not a simple act, it is a work. To forgive someone we need to work within ourselves to be able to say I forgive you with our whole heart.
Paul speaks of forgiveness in his letter to the Ephesians,
‘Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you’ (Ephesians 4:31-32). When we do not forgive we give room to bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander. This is not the way a disciple of Christ should live, so Paul says forgive one another as Christ forgives you..
Jesus makes forgiveness so important, when we don’t forgive, we are not forgiven by God. Jesus says, ‘So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart’ (Mathew 18.35). He also taught us to pray: forgive s our trespasses as we forgive the trespasses of others.
Jesus tells us that we can approach God only if we forgive one another, ‘Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. (Mark 11:25).
Forgiveness brings about peace. Forgiveness brings about joy.
Forgiveness is more than a feel good experience. By forgiving we are able to resurrect a relationship.