LENT: FORGIVENESS MUST BE RECIPROCAL

Lent is a good time to think about forgiving other people.  In the closing of the “Lord’s Prayer,” Jesus turns the issue of forgiveness back on us.

“….  And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors….  For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matt. 6:12, 14 – 15, NIV; see, too Matt 18:21 – 35)

Jesus’ words should, must, compel obedience from those who call themselves “Christian.”  The principle is clear: a person who has been brought from death to Life by the merciful grace of God is obligated as a reconciled participant in God’s Life to forgive others.

Why?  It is not possible to receive God’s grace and not be enwrapped in divine transformation.  One cannot sincerely say, “Your Kingdom come; your will be done,” and not be seeking to entrust one’s life to God.  One cannot be a recipient of God’s mercy merely through some ritual of going to the altar, or saying the “sinner’s prayer,” or being baptized, etc.  The reception of God’s grace of mercy and forgiveness means that one is entrusting one’s life to God, is now reconciled to Life, and is being transformed.  [Note: This is why theologies that separate so-called “justifying grace” from “sanctifying grace” misrepresent life with God.]  One cannot sincerely say, “Your Kingdom come; your will be done,” and not be trying to forgive others.

But.  I still find it hard.  As I have shared before,* although there are many biblical metaphors related to forgiveness (e.g. covering our transgression, casting them into the sea) one of the main biblical expressions presents the image that God “lifts/bears” (Hebrew nasa’) our sins.  [Note: Jesus, who as his divine prerogative declared sins forgiven during his earthy ministry, is portrayed by Peter – although combining images of the work of Christ -- as the same God who lifts/bears (Greek equivalent, anaphero) our sins on the cross. (1Pet 2:24)]  This image of lifting captures my difficulty.  Although I vehemently disagree with theologies that reduce forgiveness to a criminal justice procedure, the concept of “justice” is innate to people and helps to explain my feelings.  When someone has sinned against me, it does not feel right or just to discount it as nothing.  For me to forgive, it is like lifting something off the other person and bearing it myself.

I have a mental picture of what my “natural” self does.  I am like a dog owner who holds a treat up in the air and coaxes the dog to jump for it, while holding it just out of reach.  That is to say, my first response is to require the offending person to come to me and “jump.”  On the contrary, I am to see that person as carrying a load; I am to lift it off, bear it, and free the other person.  That is what God in Jesus has done for me.

Lord, may it be so in me.  Amen.

* On Jan. 24, 2024, I wrote a reflection on Psalm 32 on “Sin, Confession, and Forgiveness.”  It is a rich psalm theologically, teaching about the nature of sin, the cost of unconfessed sin, and healing of (public) confession as God “lifts/bears” our sin.