Forgive Our Sins, As We Forgive…

It’s particularly noticeable when talking to primary school-aged children about almost anything and to those who go fishing unsuccessfully.

The child’s eyes will grow wide as they describe the dog/monster/car/distance they ran coupled with words like “gazillions” or they spread their arms as wide as their imagination. For those who fish, the absent catch will be described in terms of leviathan and the curse of the wrong rod/line/boat. It was that big…!

Jesus offers a story [Matt. 18.21-25] of a gazillion dollars being owed and the debt being forgiven – an impossible amount of money and an even more unimaginable result. We shake our heads and the story takes a U-turn, as the “forgivee” becomes the “unforgiver”. Everyone but him can see the end coming like a train in a tunnel. He failed to understand the new opportunity offered him by his master.

Forgiveness is not about the past,
it’s about the future.

The man is offered a new life and chooses the old one, of punishment and revenge. So much of being unable to forgive reflects a decision to spend our lives in the past – in the hurts we have suffered, in wrongs experienced.

There are some things which are almost impossible to forgive and on these occasions all we can do is turn to God’s grace for healing.

In the majority of our experiences, this is not the case. And yet many of us hold on the hurt caused us, the injustice done, and so we keep our eyes on, or our heart in, the past. Our inability (refusal?) to forgive burdens us and leaves us unable to step into the future God offers us each time we are forgiven by God’s love.

When someone challenges us, we can passionately argue for our past hurt; we can show our scars and articulate our pain. The facts of the story may well have become occluded by time, but we hold fast to our hurt, wounding no one but ourselves and those we love.

When Peter asks about the maths of forgiveness and Jesus tells him that forgiving 490 times is a good start, we think it sounds impossible. Have we ever tried?

How possible is it to remain angry and unforgiving – for years or more? Many people manage it in some capacity … and impair their lives. At this point, forgiveness sounds like a good option.

Immediately we can imagine a new future. When Jesus forgives, a paralysed man walks, a trapped woman walks free and a crucified man walks into paradise.

We are no longer bound by our past and when we offer forgiveness in turn, we participate in setting others free.

When national politics is about polarisation and revenge, when the international headlines are about the old hatreds of bygone empires or unresolved injustices, we can tell a different story here. When we see a new hatred arising in the Middle East, can we imagine what forgiveness might look like in the face of such appalling actions?

The core of our story as Jesus’ disciples is an impossible act of forgiveness in the face of an empire’s power. Our faith is defined by a God whose forgiveness gives life and restores hope. The parable reminds us that forgiveness is not an optional extra, but an inherent trait of following Jesus.

We are called to forgiveness as expansive as God’s love and imagination.