Matthew 6:11-15
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
July 28, 2024
Today we engage in our twelfth reflection on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In it He invites His followers to pursue perfection in righteousness: a never-ending quest that deprives them of ever enjoying complacency or self-satisfaction, but rewards them with a closer connection with God and a closer approximation of God’s goodness.
Right living comes from right praying. So Jesus gives us here a template for right praying: what we call the Lord’s Prayer. Its first half has a vertical, or divine orientation; while its second, a horizontal, or human one. Each half leads us to make three requests of God. Today, as we reflect on the Prayer’s second half, let us reflect on that half’s initial request and last request – and then reflect on its middle one. For that request about forgiveness is the only one of the six in the Lord’s Prayer on which Jesus elaborates.
The request for our “daily bread” tells us that our bodies matter to God and that God, while wary of our having many physical luxuries, wants us to have all our physical necessities. God loves our bodies and wants to take good care of them. But, since the request is for our daily bread, it reminds us that God cares about our hungry neighbors too. Thus, while my empty stomach is a physical matter for me, my neighbor’s empty stomach is a spiritual/ethical matter for me, and of equal importance.
The last request in the Prayer, the one for rescue from evil, reminds us how God sees our spiritual/ethical weakness and is eager to help us keep growing up into righteousness. It leads us to pray that God “not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one” – that is, to seek God’s support in resisting the allurements that incline us to selfishness and in evading situations that prompt us to give in to sin. We are, however, to add to this dependence on God, our determination to do our part to avoid what “triggers” unrighteousness in us. For most of us, our letting ourselves get too hungry, too angry, too lonely or too tired triggers our backsliding. Thus, our going to bed on time may sanctify us as much as a “spiritual” activity!
The middle request of the three here leads us to ask God to “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” The word “as” there is the scariest word in the Bible. For it says we receive forgiveness only to the extent we give it. Jesus makes the implication of that truth explicit in verse 15, saying: “If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” In other words, the grace of forgiveness is a package deal. We cannot enjoy it ourselves and withhold it from others. Thus, indulging a bitter desire to pay someone back for the wrong they did us removes us from the possibility of being forgiven.
How can that be so?
It helps to get clear about what forgiveness is; and to get clear about that, it helps to get clear about what forgiveness is not. To forgive is not to excuse. It’s not to pretend that someone’s bad behavior is not all that bad or to put up with it because of the wongdoer’s own problems. Sometimes love means caring enough to confront a person and tell them a hard truth.
To forgive is also not to forget. Some sins I can’t forget because of the trauma they caused; and some of my own I shouldn’t forget because they remind me of what I’m capable of and of what I need to watch out for.
When the Bible says God remembers our sin no more, it doesn’t mean that there are historical facts the all-knowing God can’t recall. It means our sins yesterday don’t restrict His goodness to us today.
Finally, to forgive is not to trust a wrongdoer automatically. Often there is good reason to doubt a profession of contrition. Though we should refuse to define anyone by their past and should believe God can turn anyone around, we should be careful about making ourselves vulnerable again to the misconduct of someone with a proven track record of it. Wanting God’s best for such a person is not incompatible with waiting and seeing whether they truly did repent. It is righteous to be polite, respectful and helpful even with enemies; but it’s also righteous to be cautious around them.
Our love for someone who’s wronged us should be unconditional, but any close relationship is always very conditional. It takes two to tango. We can’t have a close relationship with someone who’s wronged us unless they’ve sincerely repented, made a good faith effort to make amends, and shown they’re worthy of trust.
So, if not these things, what is it to forgive? It is to repudiate payback, to relinquish the right to retaliate.
When we’ve been deeply wronged, it is often a long, difficult process to be able to do that. But it’s worth working on it because there are great blessings in forgiving: release from the resentment that steals our peace, freedom from suffering further harm from the repercussions of past abuse, and a lightness of spirit that uplifts our heart.
But why does choosing not to forgive, when we could forgive, make us unforgivable? Is it because vengeful bitterness is so that bad God can’t bring Himself to forgive it? No! No such sin exists! It’s because blocking off any forgiveness crossing over from us to a wrongdoer blocks up the bridge God must cross to forgive us: the bridge of grace.
Consider how God forgives us: When I sin, I incur a debt that must be paid to balance the scales of justice and to make things right again. But if I don’t have the wherewithal to pay that debt, my only hope is that someone else will for me. To have someone else pay my debt is to experience grace. Grace is an undeserved blessing offered unconditionally, that becomes mine if I just admit my need of a gift I don’t merit, believe in its being offered to me anyway, and accept that I can get it, no thanks to me in any part, but entirely thanks to the Person who offers it.
Now, if the grace of forgiveness is offered to me unconditionally, it must also be offered to everyone universally. So if I withhold the offer of forgiveness from anyone, I deny the reality of the universal grace I must depend on to be forgiven myself. I am saying No to God’s indiscriminate, unconditional generosity, which is the only basis by which I might hope for forgiveness.
If I don’t let grace go to someone else, I don’t let it come to me!
Grace dependency cannot exist apart from grace generosity.
There’s no hope for me unless I make my hope a hope for all.
In the fifth beatitude Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” The dark side of that bright truth is that cursed are the unmerciful, for they will not receive mercy. Yet, in His parallel Sermon on the Plain, Jesus says, “Give, and it will give given to you…what you give will be what you get back” – mercy for mercy, generosity for generosity, grace for grace.
Jesus says in verse 14, “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”
So let us embrace God’s indiscriminant grace and offer it indiscriminately to everyone. Then we can luxuriate in the unlimited, lavish love of God, and bring hope and healing to all!
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