Debt Forgiveness

"Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors."  Matthew 6:12

We've been thinking a bit about the Lord's Prayer this week.  Today is what I think may be the most sobering part of the Lord's Prayer.  This is not simply the part of the prayer that sounds like a jumbled mess at services when local churches get together.  You know what I mean, the debts and trespasses mixed together until we finally align on the next part.  No, this section of the prayer sobers us because of what we pray.

"Forgive us our debts,
AS we also have forgiven our debtors."  (emphasis added)

"As" is such a frightening two letter word.  What if I don't forgive?  Is God's forgiveness for me contingent upon my forgiving others?

"For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, you Father will not forgive your sins."  Matthew 6:14-15

Who else wants to pray a different prayer instead of this one that Jesus teaches?  Who else want to pray "forgive us our debts or trespasses" and leave out what follows the comma?  Well, you might not have your hand raised, but I have it waving like Horshack to Mr. Kotter.

In Matthew 18:23-35 Jesus tells a story to further teach His point about forgiveness.

In the story the king was settling debts with people and a man owed him 10,000 talents which is equivalent to millions of dollars if the story was told in the U.S. today.  It was a debt that the man could never pay so the man was going to be sold as a slave in order to get something for the king.  But the man begged for the debt to be forgiven and the king forgave the debt.  However, that same man found a guy who owed him a hundred denari which is a small amount of money.  That same man chocked the man and demanded the money and threw that other debtor into debtors prison.  Word got back to the king and the king in anger sent the original man in the story to prison to be tormented until he could pay back what he owed, which obviously could never be repaid in a prison.

Jesus ends the story with this line,

"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."  Matthew 18:35

Forgiveness is a HUGE deal to Jesus and therefore to us.  Forgiveness isn't optional for the believer.  Now, this is not to say that our salvation is earned, because it isn't.  Jesus initiates His love, His sacrifice and His forgiveness to us while we are still sinners.  But this means that those who are Christians must be forgiving.

Forgiveness is fundamental to the Gospel.  Those who are forgiven much must forgive much.  The key to forgiveness is to remember that we've been forgiven.  The Lord's Prayer stings us when it comes to the subject of forgiveness and we must let God's Word sting where it stings.  Let the sharp, double-edged sword of the Word strike you.  Let it change you like a surgeons scalpel, but never forget the cross because the key to being forgiving is being forgiven.

Who do you need to forgive?  The Lord taught us to pray in a way that calls to mind the issue of forgiveness.  He taught us a prayer that won't let us ignore forgiveness.  So, who do you need to forgive?

If you don't forgive you aren't simply carrying the weight of unforgiveness, which you are.  If you don't forgive it isn't simply bad for your mental and physical health, which it is.  If you don't forgive you aren't simply denying them forgiveness for their sake, which you are.  When you don't forgive you are saying to Christ that His death on the cross didn't mean that much to you.  We can't read the parable of the unforgiving debtor in Matthew 18 and see it any other way.  When we don't forgive we slap our Savior in the face.  We announce that our debt wasn't that large; that what He paid wasn't that significant.

But when we do forgive we get the sweet reminder of His grace.  When we forgive we participate in Christ's reconciliation campaign on this earth.  When we forgive we announce that we love what Jesus did on the cross.

Who do you need to forgive?  Whether their debt is rather large or small it does not compare with the debt the King of kings forgave you of.

"Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors" today.