Matthew 6:14-15; 18:34-35 (ESV)
“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
“…And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
The subject of forgiveness is not easy nor one that can be handled lightly. This is because some have undergone untold pains and suffering in the hands of others, and especially those close to them. Yet, despite knowing how difficult this is, Jesus asserted that there is a correlation between our forgiving of others and us receiving forgiveness. That if we fail to forgive other people of the ills that they have committed against us, then our heavenly Father will also not forgive us the sins we have committed against Him. This is a most difficult truth for it seems, on the face of it, that one has to suffer twice if they don’t forgive.
In the parable that Jesus gives in Matthew 18:21-35, the reason why we should forgive is laid bare. There is a servant who owes the king 10,000 talents and begs to be given time to pay. The only problem is that it would take him thousands of generations to fully repay the debt. For context, one talent is worth twenty years’ worth of wages and therefore 10,000 talents would be equivalent to 200,000 years’ worth of wages. Suffice it to say, he cannot repay his debt and the king graciously forgives him his debt. Unfortunately, as he is coming from the presence of the king, he meets a fellow servant who owes him 100 denarii and he harasses him to repay the debt. Much pleading from the servant to be allowed time falls on deaf ears and he throws him to jail. One denarius is worth a day’s wage and therefore 100 denarii are worth slightly over three months wages. He had immediately forgotten how much debt he was forgiven and demanded to be repaid a way insignificant debt compared to what he owed. The king, on hearing this, rescinds on his forgiveness and instructs that the servant is tortured and imprisoned until he pays his debt in full. And drawing from this, Jesus says that the same will happen to us if we fail to forgive our brothers and sisters from the heart.
God calls us to forgive not because it is easy but rather because it is necessary. Our failure to forgive others is an indicator that we do not understand just how much debt we were forgiven. The most atrocious things that men will ever do to us do not compare to what we did to God. That for Him to forgive us, He had to die in the person of Christ on the cross – the most gruesome, painful, and shameful death invented by the Romans then. That’s the price Jesus paid for our forgiveness, and He calls to consider it when we are tempted to hold it against a brother or a sister. It is definitely not easy (as revealed in Jesus’ travailing at Gethsemane) but God avails the grace if we are willing.
Reflections
1. Are there people that hurt you deeply that you have struggled to forgive?
2. What, in your opinion, makes forgiveness difficult?
3. What do you need to do in view of today’s devotion?
