*The following article was published in The
Henderson Daily Dispatch, Saturday edition, June 22, 2013.
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 said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to 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 ten
thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to
repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and
all that he had, and repayment to 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.’ And the lord of that slave felt compassion
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 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 in prison until he
should 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 your heart.”
This story from Matthew 18:21-35 reveals
profound truths about the nature of forgiveness, but it also helps us
understand the heart-level motive behind our desire to forgive. We’ve all been
wounded and we’ve wounded others with careless words and actions. Sadly, there
are families in ruins today because of fractured relationships that have never
received the healing balm of God’s mercy and grace.
The metaphor of debt cancellation describes the
nature of forgiveness. The merciful king in this story absorbed an enormous
debt that was owed to him. When we forgive someone, we are cancelling a debt.
Rather than make the offender pay for the offense, we are forfeiting our right
to collect. By doing this we are making at least three promises:
- We are promising to
never use the debt as leverage. In other
words, we will not make the offender pay by reminding them of what they’ve done
in an effort to control them.
- We are promising to
never bring up the offense to others to slander the person who sinned against
us. This does not mean that we cannot seek
godly counsel and advice, but it does mean that we will not gossip about what
the person has done to us.
- We are promising not to
dwell on the offense. Perhaps one
of the greatest challenges is not to replay the scenario over and over again in
our minds. We must let it go.
The Bible commands us to
forgive one another - not because we deserve it, but because of the mercy and
grace God has given us. Lest we ever think an offense is too great to forgive,
let’s look to the cross of King Jesus and be reminded of the enormous debt we’ve
been forgiven.
By: Brett W. Marlowe
