What He Said About Forgiveness Series

Title: What He Said About Forgiveness

Text: Matthew 18:21-35

Thesis: Forgiven people forgive.

Introduction

In his book, Lee: The Last Years, Charles Bracelen Flood reports that after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a Kentucky lady who took him to the remains of a grand old tree in front of her house. There she bitterly cried that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Federal Artillery fire. She looked to Lee for a word condemning the North or at least sympathizing with her loss. After a brief silence, Lee said, "Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it." It is better to forgive the injustices of the past than to allow them to remain, let bitterness take root and poison the rest of our life.

It would be nice if forgiveness was as easy as cutting down an old tree in the front yard wouldn’t it… if you have lived at all you have experienced injustices that defy your best efforts at mercy and forgiveness.

We aren’t exactly wired for forgiveness. I read about a guy who works as an umpire in a summer recreational league in Boulder, Colorado. He was pulled over by a police officer for going too fast in the snow. He tried to talk to the police officer and reason his way out of a ticket. The police officer said if he didn't like the ticket, he could just go to court.

The next summer in the first game of the summer league, he was umping and the first batter up was the policeman. The officer and Dave recognized each other as the officer stepped into the batter's box. The officer asked Dave, "So, how'd the thing with the ticket go?" The ump looked at the officer and said, "You'd better swing at everything." We aren’t exactly wired for forgiveness.

In Genesis 4 we read a brief account of a descendant of Cain (remember Cain from Genesis 4, who murdered his brother Abel?) named Lamech who killed a man for wounding him and then said that he would seek revenge 77 times over against anyone who hurts him. That became known as the Law of Lamech. It's the idea that if anyone inflicts pain on me I will make them pay again and again and again.

Revenge takes many forms… some form of payback or vengeance or spite or redress or satisfaction or tit for tat or tooth for tooth or retribution or retaliation. According to Lamech’s Law, if you hurt him he will hurt you 77 times over so as to teach you a good lesson. We see it playing out every day in the news. In the Luke 17 reading Jesus said, “Even if a person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive.” Luke 17:4

If you think that is pretty demanding, in Matthew 18 Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how many often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” Jesus replied, “No, not seven times, but seventy times seven!” Matthew 18:21-22

Lamech vowed to avenge a wrong 77 times… Jesus taught we should forgive a wrong 490 times. My guess is that Peter was likely pretty stunned and like me, went off somewhere with a piece of scratch paper and a pencil to do the math, “let’s see, 70 X 7,” just to make sure he heard Jesus right.

So we have a question, what is forgiveness? Forgiveness is a decision, an act of the will. This is how it works… to forgive, you begin to let go of the desire for vengeance.

But in a more serious vein, some hurts are far more serious and painful, so we desire revenge. Forgiveness means giving that up because God is judge; we're not. It means we don't try to get even because that never works.

Illustration: This week we’ve witnessed forgiveness at work in the trial and conviction of Amber Guyger of the murder of Botham Jean when she mistakenly entered his apartment thinking it was her own and shot him while he ate a bowl of ice cream on his living room couch. A jury convicted her of murder and she was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

At the conclusion of the trial Botham Jean’s younger brother, Brandt, asked the judge if he could hug Amber Guyger… he told her, “I forgive you. I love you as a person. I do not wish you anything but what is best for you.”

In order to offer another person the gift of grace and forgiveness you have to see them as you see yourself… fellow human beings who are flawed and fallen people who desperately need the mercy and grace of God and their fellowmen.

But we are not always up to the task… and while we are all pretty much wide open and receptive to mercy and grace being extended to us we are sometimes reluctant to extending mercy and grace to others. And it is that reluctance that Jesus speaks to in the parable of the Unforgiving Debtor in Matthew 18:21-35.