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FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US.
In the name + of Jesus.
Of all the commands our Lord has given,
perhaps the hardest one to observe is this one: “Be kind and compassionate
to one another, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven us”
(Ephesians 4:32). It is hard to
forgive those who have sinned against us.
We have our reasons. One is that
forgiveness is not justice. Justice says
that anyone who commits a crime or a sin should pay a price. When someone sins against you, it is
personal. Your sense of justice boils
over to vengeance. Our pride demands
retribution. Some call it getting
even. It is not. It is upping the ante and giving it back
worse than you got it.
St. Paul tells us what the Lord expects of
us and why: “(Forgive) one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven us”
(Ephesians 4:32). God the Father
forgives us freely. That’s because Jesus
Christ willingly paid the price for our sins.
If we are Christians, then we are to act like Christ, forgiving people
freely and eagerly. But we do not.
Why not?
We have our reasons. Maybe you’ve
argued, “They don’t deserve it.” And
actually, that is true. No one deserves
forgiveness. God’s command is, “Love
your neighbor as yourself.” When people
sin against you, they do not give you the love they owe you. If someone does not give you what they owe
you, they are indebted to you. You know
it, and you want to make sure that he who sinned against you knows it, too. If you just cancel the debt, you gain
nothing. If you refuse to forgive, you
get to hold his sin over his head, claim moral superiority, and have control
over that person. That sounds much more
appealing.
We pray: “Forgive us our trespasses as
we forgive those who trespass against us.”
If you think you have good reasons to not forgive those who trespass
against you, don’t you think that the Father has more and better reasons to not
forgive you? God pours out his love upon
you daily. He provides all you need for
body and life. He gave you skills and
abilities and opportunities to enjoy your interests. He fills the world with beauty and creature
comforts. All this he does because he is
your good and merciful Father in heaven, and not because you have earned or
deserved it. For all this, you ought to
thank and praise, serve and obey him.
This is most certainly true.
But that’s now how it works out, is
it? God shows us how we can serve and
obey him in his Commandments. But we are
convinced that we know better than our Father in heaven. We ignore what God has to say, either in
sinful weakness or in outright defiance.
This is especially true when our Lord calls us to forgive those who
trespass against us. We won’t. We have our pride. We’d rather bear a grudge.
How should the Lord respond when we do not
give him the obedience we owe him? We
might think that God should just forgive us.
We have our reasons. We assume
that our sins are not so serious for God to be upset by them. We believe that God would tell us that our
anger is justified and that we are right to withhold forgiveness. Maybe we think that God really won’t carry
out the punishment he threatens and that our sins will suffer no real consequences. We might want to think that, but God does
not.
If the Lord does nothing about our sins,
then we don’t need to take God or his word seriously. If there is no price to pay, who cares what
we do? But this is what the Lord says, “We
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may
receive what is due for what he did while in the body, whether good or bad” (2
Corinthians 5:10). This is why we
pray for our Lord to forgive us our trespasses.
For, there is a price to be paid by any who do not give God the love and
obedience he is owed. If he does not
forgive, then we have no hope for heaven.
None.
Can the Lord be just and still be merciful? He is both through his Son, Jesus. Jesus came because the Father does take his
Commandments seriously. He does not set
aside his judgment against the guilty.
Rather, he sent Jesus to become the guilty one for us. This is why Jesus went to the cross. There, God the Father carried out his
justice. All your guilt was taken by
Jesus. He was made THE guilty one. Jesus was sentenced, condemned, and put to
death—for, that is the wages of sin. Jesus
paid the price for you. All of God’s punishment
was absorbed in him. You, on the other
hand, have received full pardon. The
Lord does not treat you as your sins deserve because Jesus was treated as your
sins deserve. This allows God to be both
just and merciful. As St. Paul wrote to
the Romans: “He did this to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so
that he would be both just and the one who justifies the person who has faith
in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). Having been
shown such mercy, our Lord calls on us to be merciful to others and to forgive
those who have trespassed against us.
To illustrate this, Jesus told a parable
(Matthew 18:21-35). He said that the
kingdom of heaven is like a king whose servant owed him millions of
dollars. The servant begged for mercy,
promising to pay back everything. This
servant never stood a chance to repay the debt.
So, out of mercy, the king cancelled the debt. The servant was free. That servant went and found a fellow servant
who owed him 100 days’ wages. He
demanded to be repaid what he was owed. Just
as the first servant did, the fellow servant pleaded for mercy and promised to
repay everything. The first servant
refused. He demanded what he was owed. He had his fellow servant and his family
hauled off to debtor’s prison. When word
got back to the king, he said, “‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt when you begged
me to. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had
mercy on you?’ His master was angry and
handed him over to the jailers until he could pay back everything he owed.”
(Matthew 18:32-34). Jesus, then,
gives us this warning: “This is what my heavenly Father will also do to you
unless each one of you forgives his brother from his heart’” (Matthew 18:35).
Every sin we commit is against our
Lord. Every lustful thought is about
using our neighbor for our own gratification.
This is an abuse of the neighbor God has given you. Every complaint despises God’s provisions and
promises. Every selfish act exalts our
own will over God’s will. Every spirit
of revenge usurps God’s role as judge.
Every sin we commit is against our Lord, but not every sin is against
you. Not every act of violence is
against you. Not every snide remark is
against you. But some sins are. Sin is love that is owed you but denied
you. It is like the debt of 100 days’
wages which was owed by a fellow servant.
It is substantial, and we don’t need to pretend it’s not. But it is minimal compared to what we owe God
and have denied him. Our debt to God is not
only substantial, it is insurmountable.
And yet, the Lord Jesus Christ was pleased
to pay that debt for you. He paid a debt
he did not owe because you had a debt you could not pay. And he continues to do this. The blood which was shed for your sin is
delivered to you here again and again to cleanse you of your sin. The body which bore your guilt at the cross
is delivered to you here and continues to pardon you of every offense. The Lord does not grow weary of forgiving the
penitent. His grace is greater than your
sins.
If we bear the name of Christ, then we are
called to be Christ-like in how we treat other people. We pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we
forgive those who trespass against us.”
Is this forgiveness deserved? No. Grace, mercy, and forgiveness are never
deserved. Grace, mercy, and forgiveness
come from the giver. They are given
freely because the giver desires to be compassionate, longs for reconciliation,
and peace—just as God, in Christ, treats you, loves you, and forgives you.
We pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as
we forgive those who trespass against us.”
In some cases, you will find it hard to do that. Some sins against you are especially
painful. They have damaged reputations
and relationships. They cannot be
undone. How can you forgive someone who
has inflicted such harm? First of all,
you do not have to pretend that sins are not painful or evil. When Joseph addressed his brothers about
their sin, he stated, “You meant evil against me” (Genesis 50:20). He did not tell them, “Oh, it’s okay,”
because it wasn’t. It was evil. There is nothing wrong about acknowledging
that.
Secondly, you do not need to follow the
adage, “Forgive and forget.” Can you
really forget the pain that was done to you?
Do you think the first Christians ever forgot the harm that St. Paul had
done to them? Do you think Bethsheba
ever forgot David’s arranged murder of her husband? Joseph surely did not forget his brothers
selling him into slavery. So, you may
never forget. Forgiveness is not
forgetting. Forgiveness is pardoning the
offense. It is relinquishing your right
to avenge yourself. It is choosing to not
hold it over another and to remind him what he did over and over again—which
tells him that you have not really forgiven anything. Psalm 103 declares, “(The Lord) does not
treat us as our sins deserve. He does
not repay us according to our guilty deeds” (Psalm 103:10). Forgiveness means that we treat people
likewise—again, not because it is deserved, but because it is needed.
Thirdly, it should be noted that there is
an immense chasm between refusing to forgive and struggling to forgive. If you refuse to forgive, that means you are
insisting upon justice and vengeance. If
you insist on that, the Lord will concur with your desire, and he will carry
out justice and vengeance upon you.
Jesus warned, “With the measure you use it will be measured back to
you” (Luke 6:38).
If, however, you are struggling to forgive
those who trespass against you, that shows you know it is right to forgive from
the heart. You are doing battle with
your sinful nature which would rather bear the grudge. These battles are usually hard. The only way to overcome is not to focus on
the wounds you have received, but to focus on the wounds which Jesus has
received for you. Only Jesus’ mercy can
stir up mercy within you. Only Jesus’
compassion can make you compassionate.
Jesus loves you with a love that is undeserved, but it is also
undeniable and unending. When he pours
that into you, it will spill over onto others, even upon those who have
trespassed against you.
“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Rejoice that God does not base his forgiveness upon ours. Rather, we base our forgiveness upon God’s. We get to be merciful, because he is merciful. And his mercy endures forever.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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