This last
Sunday, Jesus presented believers with a parable about forgiveness. Peter had asked Jesus, “How often should I
forgive? As many as seven times?” To which Jesus responds, “Not seven times,
but, I tell you, seventy-seven (or seventy times seven) times.”
The Family
Circus cartoon had a famous strip where the kids mistake “trespasses” in the
Lord’s Prayer for “trash-passers.” So
let’s imagine that Peter’s neighbor has been “trash-passing”—or at least
dumping garbage on his front lawn. So Peter
asks, “How many times should I forgive my neighbor? Seven times?”
He may really be
asking, “How many times to I have to endure this before I call the police or
take him to court, or seek some other intervening action?”
But I take
Jesus’ response to indicate something like this in response to Peter’s query:
“You have to forgive your neighbor so many times it’s simply not worth keeping
count.” For some—for many, and perhaps
for all of us—it’s simply too much.
Indefinite forgiveness? Forgiving
so many times? That doesn't sound
fair.
But I take
Jesus’ point also to mean this. Let’s
say you are really aiming to forgive someone seventy-seven (or seventy times
seven) times. How long down the list of
required forgivenesses before Jesus’ call to “forgiveness” begins to change
your life? And more importantly, how
long before that call of “forgiveness” changes other people’s lives—especially
those who are being forgiven?
In Jesus’
parable that was a part of last Sunday’s gospel lesson, forgiveness applies to
monetary debt. Someone is unable to
repay a debt and the rules say simply that the indebted person can be
imprisoned until he or she can repay the full amount. It will mean being separated from family and
in fact, make it nearly impossible for the debt to be repaid. Debt causes much suffering.
Jesus’ teaching
is that “forgiveness” is the rule of life—not indebtedness. He shows this by the mercy that is conferred
on the indebted man; a gift that is not shared.
The one forgiven refuses to forgive.
It’s supposed to be a transformative message for those of us who have
been forgiven in Christ.
To put that to
the test, let’s consider that once again, highly paid athletes are in the news
for behaving badly—in fact, it’s beyond bad behavior, it’s violent
reprehensible behavior against women and children. At this time Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens
and Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings are in any number of hot seats,
from criminal charges to suspensions and outright firings—and justifiably
so. And while there’s been outrage over
the NFL players, there are similar circumstances surrounding U.S. Women’s
soccer star Hope Solo—but without the same kind of punishment.
Forgiveness? I’m not exactly feeling it.
Jesus, one time
seems unbearably difficult—let alone seven times. And seventy-seven (or seventy times seven)
times? Forget-a-bout-it!
But. THIS. IS. NOT. OUR. CALLING.
“Forgiveness” is
not saying—“everything’s OK.”
Forgiveness is a two-way street; it means accountability; it requires
the desire to be forgiven as well as the desire to forgive; it means owning up
to what was wrong; it means a high desire to change; it suggests that
reparations must be considered; it is not simple; it is hard, hard work. And to say we’re not exactly up for it is
surely to put ourselves at great peril.
While we may think we do or will sleep better at night holding out for
extreme punishment and reparations, Jesus promises us that forgiveness is the
path that leads to life.
People argue all
the time that it’s being “tough on crime” that helps criminals know that “crime doesn't pay.” But Jesus argues that it’s
by way of forgiveness that we find true life.
It’s the road of forgiveness that demonstrates time and again that we are
not lost forever, but that we can be found.
We are not abandoned and left out, we can be restored. It’s a powerful witness that demonstrates
that “crime doesn't pay.” It’s the
ultimate witness that God claims us even when we have made mistakes. It’s the reminder that mistakes aren't the
last word about us. Instead the last
words can be that love, hope, and joy prevail—and the greatest of these is love
(to paraphrase the Apostle Paul).
And what better
words for us. Not because some more
highly paid athletes are in trouble or appear to in some ways get off the hook
of true accountability or that women and children are still victims. The word on the street is that it’s
forgiveness that prevails, that forgiveness leads to life, and we’re involved in
it and LOVE is winning.
But only if
we’re truly involved in it.
Forgiveness. Seventy seven times
(or is that seventy times seven times).
In the case of
the current NFL scandals, I can’t say as I know exactly what “forgiveness”
looks like. But I’m certain that we
should be endeavoring to seek it out.
Forgiveness doesn't exonerate the perpetrators; forgiveness doesn't mean
it’s OK. But forgiveness is one of the
signs that the Kingdom of God is truly loosed in the world. And that: IS. OUR. CALLING!
So it means we
have to be practiced—not at fear and retribution, but forgiveness and
love. And Jesus is just seeing to it—by
rule. Forgive seventy-seven (or seventy
times seven) times and we’ll be on the pathway of life.
© Rev. David Stipp-Bethune; Teaching Elder and
Pastor, The Presbyterian Church of Llanerch, Havertown, Pennsylvania
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