Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness
- Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God. We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway. We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway. As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others. In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
The story that ends this chapter is one of my favorite – and one
of the most challenging. It is one of my
favorite because the action is so clear cut.
Here is a man who is forgiven so much and then cannot find it within
himself to forgive something so small.
Clearly he is wrong! Clearly he
is violating God’s ways. In such a
straightforward story, it is hard to go wrong.
However, it is one of the most challenging stories because when it
comes to forgiveness I find that it is so easy to be like this man. When we are in the wrong, it is very easy to
beg for forgiveness and want to be on the receiving end of mercy. Yet when I am the one who is violated, it can
occasionally be so hard to forgive. When
someone offends me, or crosses a certain line, or attacks someone I love, it
can be easy to want to see them get what they deserve!
Am I really any different than the man in this parable? No, not really. And that’s Jesus’ point. We all want to be forgiven. But we need to be willing to forgive as
well. If it wasn’t so hard and if it
wasn’t so commonly human, Jesus’ wouldn’t have needed to give us a parable for
us to learn.
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