Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35; Matthew 6:12; Luke 11:4
Listen Link: www.lcepc.org then look for “sermons” tab
Well, is it sins, debtors or trespasses? I hope you’ll forgive me if this comes across as controversial, but this may be the most argued about line in the prayer. This is because in our own experience we hear at least two different versions of the prayer depending upon which church we go to, even in the same town! Have you ever attended a wedding or funeral at a different church, and the pastor leading the service starts reciting the Lord’s prayer and everybody joins in? Have you been distracted while your reciting the part you know, by wondering which word the pastor was going to use? Some churches pray this prayer saying “debts,” some say “trespasses,” and some say “sins.” How do we explain this difference?
The Greek words used for "debts" in Matthew and Luke are different from each other. Matthew uses a term that means to owe someone or to be indebted or obliged to another, so that’s translated debtors. While Luke clearly uses a word that means to miss the mark God has set for us or cross the line. That’s what leads to using the English word “trespasses.” And both are ways of describing sins. The Reformed tradition, including Presbyterians, follow the lead of Matthew, and in the footsteps of Swiss theologian, Ulrich Zwingli, primarily have used debts and debtors. Most other churches, including Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics, have caught Luke’s emphasis and preferred "trespasses."
That wasn’t much of a problem in the old days, when each town usually only had one church, the official church legal for that country. For example, Spain was all Catholic. England was all Anglican. Germany was all Lutheran. In those countries everybody grew up saying the same version of the prayer and nobody ever heard any different.
But here in America of course, every branch of every church has a congregation in every town. So, if you attend a funeral or wedding at a different church than you normally attend you may very well hear a different version of the prayer than you are used to. And when you try to pray it out loud with everyone else at the service, you might be the one who feels like you stick out like a sore thumb if you say debts and everyone else says trespasses, or vice versa. What makes it worse is that one version takes longer to say than the other and so you also get out of sync with everyone else who said it differently. I am talking practical realities here.
And of course, everybody feels that the version they grew up with must be the “right” version. But now go back to the fact that we have two versions right in the Bible and you have to accept the fact that there is no “right” version, no particular exact wording required, so that all Christians ought to pray the prayer using the same words. God, as he himself inspired the writing of this book, made sure that this line would serve to “prove” that the prayer is not a rote prayer to be taken as dictation and to be prayed word for word.
I find it really interesting that this is the line that does that, almost as if God knew ahead of time that we would all have to learn to put up with each other’s differences and preferences and forgive each other for actually being different and actually having preferences. But then, God would know, wouldn’t he? So, I get to repeat my general teaching about the Christian’s Prayer, that it is a pattern, flexible and adaptable to whatever language is being used, not locked into these particular words, but inviting us to reflect upon how all the prayers we may pray fit into one place or another along the outline given by Jesus.
So, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” is just as good as debts or trespasses because all three mean sins. But not only is it just as good. In today’s English I believe that is the best word choice for us because it is the plainest meaning of what we are praying about. If we say “trespasses” some new baby Christians just learning this prayer might think that’s easy. They never do go on anyone else’s property so they don’t even need to be forgiven for trespassing. That’s as easy as keep off the grass. If we use the word debts, some new baby Christians just learning this prayer might wonder why being in debt is a sin at all. They would think about modern finances. Everybody has debts. And sure, I’d like to be forgiven of my debts, so I never have to pay them back. But that’s not quite what Jesus was really teaching us to pray about here is it?
Oh, and I just want to say that if you really already know what is really already meant by trespasses or debtors and you really strongly prefer to keep using the word you grew up with, that’s ok. If we ever do pray the Christian’s Prayer together you go ahead and use whatever word you like best. But as your worship leader and disciple maker I have a responsibility to make disciples and as new believers are welcomed into our fellowship and faith, I will be teaching them the version of the prayer that I believe will best instruct them into a healthy prayer life. I did a little research in the Lord’s prayer in the EPC and I found a Confirmation class curriculum for an EPC church in Texas and they are using the word “sins.”
But now let’s dig into the real meat of the meaning of this line in the prayer. The Parable of the unmerciful servant should teach us the true meaning of this line in the prayer. As you heard in this morning’s reading, Jesus gave this parable because his disciple Peter wanted to know, “How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?” The question arose because Jesus had just given a teaching about how to deal with a brother who sins against you.
He had outlined a plan of action. First go and talk to him yourself. Show him his fault. If he listens, good. If not, get two other trusted brothers or sisters in on it. The first thing that tells me is better have a strong case and you need to be open to correction. The next two witnesses might not agree with your view. They might advise you to drop it if they see that you’re the one being offensive in the matter. That helps with the log and speck issue too. You know, first get the log out of your own eye, to be sure that the speck you see in your brother’s eye is really something that does need to be dealt with.
Then if the two witnesses agree with you that this needs to be dealt with, you all go and talk to the sinner. If the offender still refuses to deal with it, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, don’t let him off the hook. Don’t give up the fight. Pray for the man and administer a wise and just discipline of consequences. That’s what Jesus means by “treat him as a pagan or tax collector.” It doesn’t mean despise him and stop loving him. It really means start over with evangelism and compassionate concern because you have a real unbeliever on your hands.
But after Jesus outlined that process for dealing with conflict in the church, Peter noticed that Jesus had left out an important detail. So, he asks, “Lord, what if he says he’s sorry, repents of his sin and I forgive him, but then he goes and does it again? How many times do we have to put up with this? Up to seven times?”
Peter was being pretty generous right? I mean seven is the perfect number and all. But think about this. How many marriages would last very long if each spouse counted the number of times the same offense was repeated and then quit the relationship once they got to seven?
I remember a story about a rather extreme version of that kind of marriage. This was in the horse and buggy days. The lovely couple got into their carriage right after the wedding and headed off for their honeymoon. After a little while, their horse was a bit distracted and stopped along the way to munch some lovely grass. When the groom realized what was happening, he pulled up the reigns and gently whipped the horse to get him back on track. And then he said, “That’s one.”
A little later, another horse and buggy came along down the road towards them. It must have been a mare because when the other buggy turned at an intersection, the groom’s horse wanted to go that way too. The groom yanked his horse back to the right road and said, quietly, “That’s two.”
Yet again, down the road apiece, this time a car came along and its noisy engine frightened the poor horse. He reared up and whinnied his fright. And he bolted, dragging the carriage at a high rate of speed. When the groom got things back under control, he stopped the buggy, got down in front of the horse and shot him dead!
His new bride saw that they were now in a situation! She finally had to say something! “What in the world do you think you’re doing? That was a perfectly good horse! He was strong and healthy! Now we have no horse and no way to get to the hotel. And furthermore, none of this is the horse’s fault! You’re the trainer! You must not be very good at it!”
Well, when she was done with her anger, the groom looked her square in the eye and quietly said, “That’s one.”
The practical reality is relationships won’t last if we stop at three, or seven either. Jesus knew that and gave a much higher number, something hard to keep track of, with the point being that you won’t keep track because you can’t, but instead you will just keep forgiving, as long as your both growing together. But I have to add a note that forgiveness still comes after also following the conflict resolution plan Jesus had just given to hold sinners accountable for their sins and help them face the appropriate consequences so that they truly change. Forgiveness doesn’t mean letting people off scot free if they are not genuinely repentant. Forgiveness seeks to preserve and protect a healthy relationship.
So, Jesus answered Peter’s question about how many times to forgive by giving an illustration of two servants. The first servant we meet owes the King a hefty debt of millions of dollars that he cannot possibly repay. Now the King did not just write it off without caring how the servant felt about it. He was going to punish the guilty servant. But the servant humbly fell to his knees and begged for mercy. He promised to do his best to pay the king back if he could just get some more time. That’s when the king was moved with pity and decided to show mercy. It looks like the conflict resolution process is working. And though he didn’t have to, the King graciously forgave that great debt because the servant looked and sounded as if he was sorry about it.
But of course, you know what happened next. That sorry servant found someone who owed him a few dollars and grabbed him by the neck, showing no mercy! His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged, just as the first servant had begged before the king. It is a great mystery to me why the performance of the second servant didn’t strike a chord in the heart of the first servant, unless the first servant’s own plea for mercy had been an act, worth a try for a man in a desperate situation. And, he got a satisfactory result. But he wasn’t about to let anyone pull that stunt on himself!
Then we read a most interesting bit. When the other servants saw what happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told the King all about it. Wait a minute. What business is it of theirs? They were snitching on a guy who had a right to demand payment from a debtor! Why didn’t they mind their own business? They did mind their own business. We must keep in mind that Jesus was creating a new body, a knit together community of people who really care about each other and love one another. Remember how we pray the Christian’s Prayer? Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Those plural pronouns are very important to our understanding.
I know we are so humble that every time we pray this prayer, even though the words say forgive us our sins, each of us chiefly thinks of his or her own sins as if the prayer were given in this form, “Forgive me my sins as I forgive others theirs.” or “Forgive me my sins because I forgive those who sin against me.” And each of us sits in fear of what others will say if they find out about my sins.
We must see this clearly. We are a family of brothers and sisters, the children of God. We love each other and do not condemn each other. We want to see all of us serve God well. We are also fellowship of saints who struggle against sin. You have sinned. I know you have. I must forgive you as Christ has forgiven me. Therefore, if you were to confess your sin to me, I would have no right to condemn you the way the unmerciful servant condemned his fellow servant. Instead, I must show mercy and grace to you just as God himself has shown me. This is another aspect of Jesus saying, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Jesus loves us by forgiving us. We can do no less for our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
If we could live up to that we could all remove the masks we tend to hide behind to protect us from being shamed by each other’s disapproval of our sin, or sitting in judgment upon us. This is a difficult thing for humans to do without the power of the Holy Spirit helping us because our normal state of being is to look down on others as much as we can in order to elevate our own esteem. We often may pray more as the Pharisee did, “Well, Lord, at least I am not that bad.” And we look for examples of how bad others are. In such an atmosphere, the others around you dare not let you know how bad they are, since you could capitalize on that for your own selfish gain or advantage.
But in the atmosphere of love created by the unity of the Holy Spirit we can understand the other servants are not just condemning and telling on the first servant. They are praying to God the King about this situation. They were asking the Lord their master, is this right for one to treat another like this? Their concern is not just to get the bad guy punished. Their true concern is that everyone in the community should reflect the same grace and character as the King, the Lord, the master who forgives the sins of those who come to Him in repentance. They were basically following the conflict resolution process Jesus gave just before the parable.
And what the Lord said about it is clear, “I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” This line of the Christians prayer really comes down to this. Forgive us our sins as we have been forgiven” means, “Lord because we have been forgiven so much, we have the power in your Spirit to forgive others too. In fact, it is our duty to forgive as we have been forgiven. Since we cannot pay you back for your great grace, we must pay it forward.”
In that way we can breathe the grace of God and create an atmosphere of mutual acceptance and forgiveness. Then each of us may confess our sins freely without fear of condemnation. In that kind of atmosphere, every evil can be exposed, brought out into the light, seen for the evil that it is and squashed out of our lives by being held accountable to one another in loving sanctification. This does not mean that we can now sin freely with no fear of consequences. Not at all. There’s a new song that has this beautiful line to help me express what I mean, “I don't wanna abuse Your grace. God, I need it every day. It's the only thing that ever really makes me wanna change.”
So, what it really means is that we can now help each other stop sinning. Because there is now therefore no condemnation of us as persons, we are now free to identify and condemn sinful behaviors in ourselves and give them up. It is not that I will point a finger at you and push you away from fellowship with me. It is more like, “Wow, that is a problem. How can I help?”
This is so important to the health of our community that this is the only phrase, of the Christian's prayer, that Jesus comments on further, to His disciples. "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." (Matthew 6:14-15) Remember, for Jesus, forgiveness is a serious business. His whole reason for coming to this earth was to prepare a way for us to be forgiven of our major offense toward Him and our heavenly Father, through our sin.
How far are you willing to go to forgive? Forgiveness can be one of the most difficult things we will be asked to do as a Christian. Jesus understands. It wasn't easy for Him either, yet He did it, setting the example for us to follow. And then, he also made us able to do it when He gave believers the gift of the Holy Spirit because God knows we don’t have the power within ourselves to offer forgiveness apart from His otherish love at work in our hearts. But as we cling to God’s grace and appeal to Him for help and guidance, you could experience something dramatic.
Corey Ten Boom, author of, "The Hiding Place," tells of a meeting that she had with a former guard of one of the concentration camps that she and her sister Betsy stayed at while they were imprisoned during WWII. This guard had been memorably cruel. But after the war, he had become a Christian and had come to hear Corey speak. He approached Corey after she was done and asked her to forgive him for his cruelty. For a moment, Corey hesitated. She remembered too well how she and Betsy had suffered at his hand. Then, she prayed for God's help and, as she reports it she decided in her mind to obey God’s command to forgive as hard as it was, but then as she lifted her arm in obedience, immediately a sense of love and forgiveness flooded through her and so that when she extended her hand her genuine forgiveness was also offered to this man.
When we are willing, God can do amazing things through us for His glory. There is a cost to us when we forgive. Jesus knows that well. He knows that He isn't asking us to do something easy. Forgive us Lord and enable us to extend that forgiveness to others. It isn’t about us being gracious. We will become a gracious people as we cling to the Gracious God who forgives us whenever we ask.
Our greatest need is the forgiveness of sins. This happens once we come to Jesus Christ in true faith. When we turn from our sin to trust Him as our Savior, God forgives us! This is the glory of the gospel. We continue to walk in this forgiveness by daily confessing our sin and asking for God’s pardon. By confessing our sin, we are reassured of the Father’s forgiveness in our lives through Jesus Christ. When we trust in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we experience the peace and joy of knowing that God has forgiven us and accepted us as His children.
When Jesus teaches us to pray, “Forgive us,” He is actually revealing that God is ready and willing to forgive. Our Father is rich in mercy. It is the mercy of God to give us our daily bread; it is the rich mercy of God to forgive us daily! The fact that Jesus teaches us this ought to show us that God is ready and willing to forgive us when we come to confess and repent of our sin. The phrase “forgive us” points us to the character of our Father. He longs for us to know that He is ready to forgive, willing to pardon, and delights in showing mercy. Moreover, God forgives us not because we are worthy, but because He is gracious and ready to pardon. This is why every person must turn to Jesus Christ in true faith with genuine repentance. God will forgive those who call on him. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Listen Link: www.lcepc.org then look for “sermons” tab
Well, is it sins, debtors or trespasses? I hope you’ll forgive me if this comes across as controversial, but this may be the most argued about line in the prayer. This is because in our own experience we hear at least two different versions of the prayer depending upon which church we go to, even in the same town! Have you ever attended a wedding or funeral at a different church, and the pastor leading the service starts reciting the Lord’s prayer and everybody joins in? Have you been distracted while your reciting the part you know, by wondering which word the pastor was going to use? Some churches pray this prayer saying “debts,” some say “trespasses,” and some say “sins.” How do we explain this difference?
The Greek words used for "debts" in Matthew and Luke are different from each other. Matthew uses a term that means to owe someone or to be indebted or obliged to another, so that’s translated debtors. While Luke clearly uses a word that means to miss the mark God has set for us or cross the line. That’s what leads to using the English word “trespasses.” And both are ways of describing sins. The Reformed tradition, including Presbyterians, follow the lead of Matthew, and in the footsteps of Swiss theologian, Ulrich Zwingli, primarily have used debts and debtors. Most other churches, including Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics, have caught Luke’s emphasis and preferred "trespasses."
That wasn’t much of a problem in the old days, when each town usually only had one church, the official church legal for that country. For example, Spain was all Catholic. England was all Anglican. Germany was all Lutheran. In those countries everybody grew up saying the same version of the prayer and nobody ever heard any different.
But here in America of course, every branch of every church has a congregation in every town. So, if you attend a funeral or wedding at a different church than you normally attend you may very well hear a different version of the prayer than you are used to. And when you try to pray it out loud with everyone else at the service, you might be the one who feels like you stick out like a sore thumb if you say debts and everyone else says trespasses, or vice versa. What makes it worse is that one version takes longer to say than the other and so you also get out of sync with everyone else who said it differently. I am talking practical realities here.
And of course, everybody feels that the version they grew up with must be the “right” version. But now go back to the fact that we have two versions right in the Bible and you have to accept the fact that there is no “right” version, no particular exact wording required, so that all Christians ought to pray the prayer using the same words. God, as he himself inspired the writing of this book, made sure that this line would serve to “prove” that the prayer is not a rote prayer to be taken as dictation and to be prayed word for word.
I find it really interesting that this is the line that does that, almost as if God knew ahead of time that we would all have to learn to put up with each other’s differences and preferences and forgive each other for actually being different and actually having preferences. But then, God would know, wouldn’t he? So, I get to repeat my general teaching about the Christian’s Prayer, that it is a pattern, flexible and adaptable to whatever language is being used, not locked into these particular words, but inviting us to reflect upon how all the prayers we may pray fit into one place or another along the outline given by Jesus.
So, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” is just as good as debts or trespasses because all three mean sins. But not only is it just as good. In today’s English I believe that is the best word choice for us because it is the plainest meaning of what we are praying about. If we say “trespasses” some new baby Christians just learning this prayer might think that’s easy. They never do go on anyone else’s property so they don’t even need to be forgiven for trespassing. That’s as easy as keep off the grass. If we use the word debts, some new baby Christians just learning this prayer might wonder why being in debt is a sin at all. They would think about modern finances. Everybody has debts. And sure, I’d like to be forgiven of my debts, so I never have to pay them back. But that’s not quite what Jesus was really teaching us to pray about here is it?
Oh, and I just want to say that if you really already know what is really already meant by trespasses or debtors and you really strongly prefer to keep using the word you grew up with, that’s ok. If we ever do pray the Christian’s Prayer together you go ahead and use whatever word you like best. But as your worship leader and disciple maker I have a responsibility to make disciples and as new believers are welcomed into our fellowship and faith, I will be teaching them the version of the prayer that I believe will best instruct them into a healthy prayer life. I did a little research in the Lord’s prayer in the EPC and I found a Confirmation class curriculum for an EPC church in Texas and they are using the word “sins.”
But now let’s dig into the real meat of the meaning of this line in the prayer. The Parable of the unmerciful servant should teach us the true meaning of this line in the prayer. As you heard in this morning’s reading, Jesus gave this parable because his disciple Peter wanted to know, “How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?” The question arose because Jesus had just given a teaching about how to deal with a brother who sins against you.
He had outlined a plan of action. First go and talk to him yourself. Show him his fault. If he listens, good. If not, get two other trusted brothers or sisters in on it. The first thing that tells me is better have a strong case and you need to be open to correction. The next two witnesses might not agree with your view. They might advise you to drop it if they see that you’re the one being offensive in the matter. That helps with the log and speck issue too. You know, first get the log out of your own eye, to be sure that the speck you see in your brother’s eye is really something that does need to be dealt with.
Then if the two witnesses agree with you that this needs to be dealt with, you all go and talk to the sinner. If the offender still refuses to deal with it, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, don’t let him off the hook. Don’t give up the fight. Pray for the man and administer a wise and just discipline of consequences. That’s what Jesus means by “treat him as a pagan or tax collector.” It doesn’t mean despise him and stop loving him. It really means start over with evangelism and compassionate concern because you have a real unbeliever on your hands.
But after Jesus outlined that process for dealing with conflict in the church, Peter noticed that Jesus had left out an important detail. So, he asks, “Lord, what if he says he’s sorry, repents of his sin and I forgive him, but then he goes and does it again? How many times do we have to put up with this? Up to seven times?”
Peter was being pretty generous right? I mean seven is the perfect number and all. But think about this. How many marriages would last very long if each spouse counted the number of times the same offense was repeated and then quit the relationship once they got to seven?
I remember a story about a rather extreme version of that kind of marriage. This was in the horse and buggy days. The lovely couple got into their carriage right after the wedding and headed off for their honeymoon. After a little while, their horse was a bit distracted and stopped along the way to munch some lovely grass. When the groom realized what was happening, he pulled up the reigns and gently whipped the horse to get him back on track. And then he said, “That’s one.”
A little later, another horse and buggy came along down the road towards them. It must have been a mare because when the other buggy turned at an intersection, the groom’s horse wanted to go that way too. The groom yanked his horse back to the right road and said, quietly, “That’s two.”
Yet again, down the road apiece, this time a car came along and its noisy engine frightened the poor horse. He reared up and whinnied his fright. And he bolted, dragging the carriage at a high rate of speed. When the groom got things back under control, he stopped the buggy, got down in front of the horse and shot him dead!
His new bride saw that they were now in a situation! She finally had to say something! “What in the world do you think you’re doing? That was a perfectly good horse! He was strong and healthy! Now we have no horse and no way to get to the hotel. And furthermore, none of this is the horse’s fault! You’re the trainer! You must not be very good at it!”
Well, when she was done with her anger, the groom looked her square in the eye and quietly said, “That’s one.”
The practical reality is relationships won’t last if we stop at three, or seven either. Jesus knew that and gave a much higher number, something hard to keep track of, with the point being that you won’t keep track because you can’t, but instead you will just keep forgiving, as long as your both growing together. But I have to add a note that forgiveness still comes after also following the conflict resolution plan Jesus had just given to hold sinners accountable for their sins and help them face the appropriate consequences so that they truly change. Forgiveness doesn’t mean letting people off scot free if they are not genuinely repentant. Forgiveness seeks to preserve and protect a healthy relationship.
So, Jesus answered Peter’s question about how many times to forgive by giving an illustration of two servants. The first servant we meet owes the King a hefty debt of millions of dollars that he cannot possibly repay. Now the King did not just write it off without caring how the servant felt about it. He was going to punish the guilty servant. But the servant humbly fell to his knees and begged for mercy. He promised to do his best to pay the king back if he could just get some more time. That’s when the king was moved with pity and decided to show mercy. It looks like the conflict resolution process is working. And though he didn’t have to, the King graciously forgave that great debt because the servant looked and sounded as if he was sorry about it.
But of course, you know what happened next. That sorry servant found someone who owed him a few dollars and grabbed him by the neck, showing no mercy! His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged, just as the first servant had begged before the king. It is a great mystery to me why the performance of the second servant didn’t strike a chord in the heart of the first servant, unless the first servant’s own plea for mercy had been an act, worth a try for a man in a desperate situation. And, he got a satisfactory result. But he wasn’t about to let anyone pull that stunt on himself!
Then we read a most interesting bit. When the other servants saw what happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told the King all about it. Wait a minute. What business is it of theirs? They were snitching on a guy who had a right to demand payment from a debtor! Why didn’t they mind their own business? They did mind their own business. We must keep in mind that Jesus was creating a new body, a knit together community of people who really care about each other and love one another. Remember how we pray the Christian’s Prayer? Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Those plural pronouns are very important to our understanding.
I know we are so humble that every time we pray this prayer, even though the words say forgive us our sins, each of us chiefly thinks of his or her own sins as if the prayer were given in this form, “Forgive me my sins as I forgive others theirs.” or “Forgive me my sins because I forgive those who sin against me.” And each of us sits in fear of what others will say if they find out about my sins.
We must see this clearly. We are a family of brothers and sisters, the children of God. We love each other and do not condemn each other. We want to see all of us serve God well. We are also fellowship of saints who struggle against sin. You have sinned. I know you have. I must forgive you as Christ has forgiven me. Therefore, if you were to confess your sin to me, I would have no right to condemn you the way the unmerciful servant condemned his fellow servant. Instead, I must show mercy and grace to you just as God himself has shown me. This is another aspect of Jesus saying, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Jesus loves us by forgiving us. We can do no less for our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
If we could live up to that we could all remove the masks we tend to hide behind to protect us from being shamed by each other’s disapproval of our sin, or sitting in judgment upon us. This is a difficult thing for humans to do without the power of the Holy Spirit helping us because our normal state of being is to look down on others as much as we can in order to elevate our own esteem. We often may pray more as the Pharisee did, “Well, Lord, at least I am not that bad.” And we look for examples of how bad others are. In such an atmosphere, the others around you dare not let you know how bad they are, since you could capitalize on that for your own selfish gain or advantage.
But in the atmosphere of love created by the unity of the Holy Spirit we can understand the other servants are not just condemning and telling on the first servant. They are praying to God the King about this situation. They were asking the Lord their master, is this right for one to treat another like this? Their concern is not just to get the bad guy punished. Their true concern is that everyone in the community should reflect the same grace and character as the King, the Lord, the master who forgives the sins of those who come to Him in repentance. They were basically following the conflict resolution process Jesus gave just before the parable.
And what the Lord said about it is clear, “I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” This line of the Christians prayer really comes down to this. Forgive us our sins as we have been forgiven” means, “Lord because we have been forgiven so much, we have the power in your Spirit to forgive others too. In fact, it is our duty to forgive as we have been forgiven. Since we cannot pay you back for your great grace, we must pay it forward.”
In that way we can breathe the grace of God and create an atmosphere of mutual acceptance and forgiveness. Then each of us may confess our sins freely without fear of condemnation. In that kind of atmosphere, every evil can be exposed, brought out into the light, seen for the evil that it is and squashed out of our lives by being held accountable to one another in loving sanctification. This does not mean that we can now sin freely with no fear of consequences. Not at all. There’s a new song that has this beautiful line to help me express what I mean, “I don't wanna abuse Your grace. God, I need it every day. It's the only thing that ever really makes me wanna change.”
So, what it really means is that we can now help each other stop sinning. Because there is now therefore no condemnation of us as persons, we are now free to identify and condemn sinful behaviors in ourselves and give them up. It is not that I will point a finger at you and push you away from fellowship with me. It is more like, “Wow, that is a problem. How can I help?”
This is so important to the health of our community that this is the only phrase, of the Christian's prayer, that Jesus comments on further, to His disciples. "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." (Matthew 6:14-15) Remember, for Jesus, forgiveness is a serious business. His whole reason for coming to this earth was to prepare a way for us to be forgiven of our major offense toward Him and our heavenly Father, through our sin.
How far are you willing to go to forgive? Forgiveness can be one of the most difficult things we will be asked to do as a Christian. Jesus understands. It wasn't easy for Him either, yet He did it, setting the example for us to follow. And then, he also made us able to do it when He gave believers the gift of the Holy Spirit because God knows we don’t have the power within ourselves to offer forgiveness apart from His otherish love at work in our hearts. But as we cling to God’s grace and appeal to Him for help and guidance, you could experience something dramatic.
Corey Ten Boom, author of, "The Hiding Place," tells of a meeting that she had with a former guard of one of the concentration camps that she and her sister Betsy stayed at while they were imprisoned during WWII. This guard had been memorably cruel. But after the war, he had become a Christian and had come to hear Corey speak. He approached Corey after she was done and asked her to forgive him for his cruelty. For a moment, Corey hesitated. She remembered too well how she and Betsy had suffered at his hand. Then, she prayed for God's help and, as she reports it she decided in her mind to obey God’s command to forgive as hard as it was, but then as she lifted her arm in obedience, immediately a sense of love and forgiveness flooded through her and so that when she extended her hand her genuine forgiveness was also offered to this man.
When we are willing, God can do amazing things through us for His glory. There is a cost to us when we forgive. Jesus knows that well. He knows that He isn't asking us to do something easy. Forgive us Lord and enable us to extend that forgiveness to others. It isn’t about us being gracious. We will become a gracious people as we cling to the Gracious God who forgives us whenever we ask.
Our greatest need is the forgiveness of sins. This happens once we come to Jesus Christ in true faith. When we turn from our sin to trust Him as our Savior, God forgives us! This is the glory of the gospel. We continue to walk in this forgiveness by daily confessing our sin and asking for God’s pardon. By confessing our sin, we are reassured of the Father’s forgiveness in our lives through Jesus Christ. When we trust in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we experience the peace and joy of knowing that God has forgiven us and accepted us as His children.
When Jesus teaches us to pray, “Forgive us,” He is actually revealing that God is ready and willing to forgive. Our Father is rich in mercy. It is the mercy of God to give us our daily bread; it is the rich mercy of God to forgive us daily! The fact that Jesus teaches us this ought to show us that God is ready and willing to forgive us when we come to confess and repent of our sin. The phrase “forgive us” points us to the character of our Father. He longs for us to know that He is ready to forgive, willing to pardon, and delights in showing mercy. Moreover, God forgives us not because we are worthy, but because He is gracious and ready to pardon. This is why every person must turn to Jesus Christ in true faith with genuine repentance. God will forgive those who call on him. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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