I want to ask you a very important and penetrating question this morning to set the stage for our sermon today. Please answer it in the quietness of your own heart but with utter honesty. Do you have a forgiving spirit? Do you have a forgiving spirit?
You could probably answer this question with both a yes and no. When it comes to the difficult subject of forgiveness, there are always limitations, conditions, circumstances, and varying qualifications to the answer we give.
However, as we gather this morning, we know that forgiveness is central to the living out of the Christian faith. We pray every week in our Lord's Prayer the following petition: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." We further recite week after week in the Apostles' Creed, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins."
Yes, forgiveness is something so powerful that it can frustrate us, frighten us, and freeze us into an assortment of human behaviors that can paralyze us in many detrimental ways. It can also "free" us to love more deeply.
From our Gospel lesson today found in St. Matthew 18:21-35 it so frustrates Peter that he asks our Lord Jesus Christ, how many times shall I forgive my brother? It was as though Peter was saying, "Preacher, make it plain," so I can understand. We further know by this time in Matthew's account that Peter had been traveling with our Lord Jesus Christ from towns to villages to cities. Peter had probably heard our Lord Jesus share great teaching stories and parables with the various groups of people as he taught about the necessity of forgiveness and the grace of God. Perhaps his mind had already been stirred by the fabulous parable of the Prodigal Son. Perhaps he had witnessed with his very own eyes the attempted stoning of the woman caught in adultery recorded in John 8:1-11. Peter by now was beginning to see that this thing called forgiveness was an integral part of this new kingdom and new life that Jesus was ushering in. It was not just theological jargon but a lifestyle of obedience to the work of our Lord. Peter knew that forgiveness was both difficult and demanding to the human spirit. He wanted to know just what he was getting himself in for. Peter, never being bashful to open his mouth, asked straightforwardly, "How many times shall I forgive my brother?"
I believe here in this text we see Peter asking for help about the subject called forgiveness. I'm glad, aren't you, that Peter asked for help, because I also need help with this thing called forgiveness. May I ask again, do you have a forgiving spirit?
I want to share today three exhortations for your consideration about this word called forgiveness.
FORGIVENESS IS VERY DIFFICULT UNLESS WE FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST.
A couple of days after President Kennedy was tragically gunned down in Dallas, Texas, a Presbyterian church from the state of Michigan wrote to the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald. They had heard that she wished to stay in America and learn the English language. They took it upon themselves to write to her and invite her to come to their community with the promise of finding her a home that she might get a fresh start on a productive life. Unfortunately, many persons both in the local community and from around the nation got wind of this plan and began writing many critical letters about their offer to this widow. One person probably described the situation most correctly when she said, "I never heard of a church doing anything like this before." She knew that forgiveness is not often found even in a group of believers who could probably best be called and known as "sinners anonymous." Forgiveness is so hard.
The minister began the painstaking job of answering each letter that came across his desk that was both unkind and critical of the church's response. With great sensitivity he wrote each person a letter sharing that he understood their feelings and emotions about their efforts on behalf of Mrs. Oswald. However, he ended each letter by sharing, "The only thing you have not shown us is that what we have done would not have been done by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
Yes, forgiveness is never easy, but it is the will of God. Forgiveness is not something based on popularity as determined by the most recent Gallop Polls but is a biblical mandate that is reflected in God's salvation act at Calvary.
Fred Snodgrass was a successful baseball player for the Giants, but he was remembered for one of his failures. In the 1912 World Series, he dropped a pop fly. His error set up the winning run, for the next batter hit a single. Consequently, the Giants lost the game and the Series. When he died in 1974, the New York Times printed this headline: "Fred Snodgrass, 86, Dead; Ballplayer Muffed Fly in 1912." Sixty-two years later, and yet they could not forget his mistake. Never mind the fact that Fred later became mayor of the city of Oxnard, California, and was a successful banker and rancher and raised a fine family. He dropped a pop up in the 1912 series, and they couldn't forget his mistake. How different from Christ who not only forgets our mistakes but forgives them. (1)
FORGIVENESS IS NEVER EASY BUT IT IS ALWAYS THE WILL OF GOD.
Many years ago there was a movie titled, "Stars in My Crown." It told of an elderly black man who owned a little farm outside a southern town. Some very precious metal was discovered in that area, and suddenly there was pressure on him from many people to sell his land. But he would not sell. He wanted to stay exactly where he was. However, the people in the area would not take "no" for an answer. They did everything they could to make him move. They burned down his barn, shot through his house one night, and eventually threatened to hang him by sundown the next day if he did not agree to sell.
The local Methodist minister heard about the trouble and went to visit the old man. At sundown of the next day, all the leading citizens of the community came to the farm dressed in their white hoods. They were ready to hang the black gentleman if he refused to sell. The farmer came out on the porch to meet them wearing his best clothes. He said that he was ready to die and that he had asked the minister to draw up for him his Last Will and Testament, which he wanted to have read at that time.
The minister read the will, and those present realized quickly the old man was giving everything to them. He willed the farm to the banker who seemed so hellbent on having it. He gave his rifle to another of the men there who had first learned to hunt with it. He gave his fishing pole to another. In fact, that old man gave everything he had to the people who were prepared to kill him. He killed them first with love and affection.
The impact was incredible. Seeing goodness given in the face of such animosity was more than any of them could tolerate. One by one, in shame, they turned away, and the entire lynching mob disappeared. The minister's grandson had watched everything from a distance, and as everyone departed, he ran up to his grandfather and asked, "What kind of will was that, Granddaddy?
The old minister answered, "That, my son, was the will of God."
Doesn't that make you think about the cross? And thinking about the cross makes us think about God and God's forgiving, self-giving love. This is the way we sing about it:
And when I think that God his Son not sparing Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died, to take away my sin. (2)
This man was able to forgive because he had been forgiven by his Father in Heaven and he in turn could then pass on and share the gift of forgiveness in any circumstance of life. This man was able to forgive because he was close to the heart and mind of God.
The story is told about a young man who applied for a job with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (better known to us as PennDOT). His application was accepted and he was given the job of painting the white lines on a nearby roadway by hand because all the machines were temporarily out of order.
The first day he painted eight miles. The second day he painted four miles. The third day he painted two miles. The fourth day he only painted one mile.
His supervisor, who at first was very pleased with his performance, became curious why his production level continued to decrease. The young man replied, "I am getting slower and slower because the paint can is getting further and further away."
If you find that your ability to forgive is getting more difficult and further away from the will of God, perhaps it is because you are not as close as you should be to the heart and mind of the Lord Jesus Christ.
GOD'S FORGIVENESS OF US IS CONTINGENT ON OUR FORGIVENESS OF OTHERS.
The Bible is very clear here. If we do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will our Heavenly Father forgive us. We must forgive in order to be forgiven. There is a good reason for this. The love of God cannot enter an unforgiving heart, and if we don't allow God's forgiveness to first enter us, we can't pass on what we haven't yet received. However, once we genuinely experience it, we can do nothing else but forgive. Being unforgiving has the effect of locking the door of the heart from the inside; since our God never forces His way in or kicks down the door, we must first open it from the inside.
A captive was once brought before King James II of England. The King chided the prisoner: "You know that it is in my power to pardon you?" The scared, shaking prisoner replied, "Yes, I know it is in your power to pardon me, but it is not in your nature." The prisoner had keen insight to know that unless a person had a spiritual rebirth that we have no nature to forgive.
The good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is that it is both in the power and the nature of Jesus to forgive and to pardon. Yes, Jesus doesn't forgive the sin as much as he forgives us.
Frederick Buechner, who is a most creative Christian writer, shares that of the seven deadly sins, anger is probably the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel, both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. This skeleton at the feast is you.
I close with the story told about a woman who heard the imminent return of Christ was at hand, and he was going to knock on her door at 3:00 p.m. that day for a short visit. She prepared herself and her house for such a royal visit. At 3:00 p.m. the bell rang. She ran enthusiastically to the door, and she was disappointed because there stood an angry bitter, cold, frowning, grotesque looking person. She shouted out, "Who are you?" and Jesus said, "Didn't you expect me to be here?" She shouted out, "You are not the real Christ." He said, "You are absolutely right, I am not. I'm the Christ everyone sees in you."
Unless we forgive 70 times 7 the real Christ will never live inside of us. It is a lifestyle ” not a luxury.
The Christian way is a way of love and forgiveness. Real love can only be born because you have experienced God's forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
Remember his forgiveness is both real and liberating. It will set you "free" to forgive others and ” the hardest task of all ” to forgive yourself.
WHERE ARE YOU IN THIS STORY TODAY?
How are you responding to Christ's offer today?
I hope and pray that we can all stand at the foot of the cross. Each time we stand at the foot of the cross two truths emerge for us:
At the Cross we are reminded of our need of forgiveness.
At the Cross we are reminded we are already forgiven.
Do you have a forgiving spirit?
Thanks to Maxie Dunnam, PERCEPTIONS, Bristol books.
BOOK OF HYMNS, No. 17, The United Methodist Church, Nashville, TN, 1964.