Sermon Part 4--Forgiving Others

For many of us, the hardest part of the Lord’s Prayer is the little clause, “as we forgive our debtors”. We wonder why God had to put that in this model prayer that he gave us.
It is hard enough to admit we are powerless, pitiful, and hopeless. That takes humility. But now God asks me to forgive as part of my forgiveness. Why?
You know, I do know people who refuse to pray this prayer. They change the words, they tweak them just a little bit, so that they don’t have to say it the way it is written, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”
There is a lot I do not understand about what God is doing here, but I do know a little bit.
One thing I do know is that God’s forgiving comes first in the prayer. Jesus could have had us pray, “Lord, I am forgiving others, so please forgive my sins” He didn’t.
We are not capable on our own of forgiving and experiencing forgiveness without the grace of God. It is God that must break down our walls to offer us forgiveness so that we may be forgive. God’s forgiveness comes first, and then our ability to forgive grows from that.
Yet there is a sense somehow that if we really have experienced God’s forgiveness and new life, that our willingness to forgive will come out of that. Because we will understand God’s goal in the word. To set us right. To set relationships right. To bring about reconciliation. Wholeness. Not just new life for us individually. But a new community, a new eternal community. Something that we are supposed to pray for and participate in. And if God’s primary reason for coming to earth was to forgive us, then it makes sense if we are truly committed to following him, we will commit to being forgiving people as well.
That may take time. That may take work. It may be a process. But it is a commitment you make when you receive God’s forgiveness. That you will not just try and posses the forgiveness you have received, but that it will spur you to forgiving acts all around you. And that you will at least make an effort to be forgiving, however imperfectly you may do it. Why? Because that in addition to that wall you have erected between you and God, you have placed these walls between you and others. And God’s must have full reign to knock down those walls as well.


I say all this, but this seriousness of God’s call to forgive..it haunts me. Because there are a lot of times I don’t want to forgive. I don’t want to love. I don’t want to be reconciled. I just want to be right. It haunts me as well, because I know how imperfectly I forgive. And sometimes I doubt whether my forgiving will just leave me more exposed and vulnerable to being hurt again. And I don’t want to do it.
And I know deep down in my soul I must go to the cross. I must see Jesus hanging there, blood dripping from his brow. I must hear him suffocating and barely able to gasp another breathe. I must see his bruises. I must hear his groaning. I must stand there, and I must not run from it. And I must know that it is my sins that put him there. It is the evil I have done that placed the perfect son of God on that cross. Suffering and dying. And at that moment I must cry out for forgiveness, because I put him there. Jesus is paying my debt.
And while I am there, while he cries out “Father forgive them, they know not what they do” I must bring all of my sins to his cross. Including my selfish grudges and my lack of forgiveness. And with his blood dripping down I must lay that unforgiveness at his feet. Because if I don’t, I don’t recognize what he has done for me. If I don’t forgive, I make a mockery of his suffering. If I don’t forgive, I am saying I am more righteous and more holy than Jesus, who is begging God to forgive them at this very moment. Forgive us Jesus says. Forgive them Jesus says. And as I hear Jesus say that, I realize that it is not just about me. Though it was my sins that put him there, it is the whole world he has come to forgive. And my unwillingness to forgive is standing in the way Jesus’ having that other person experience Christ’s forgiveness through me. So I must bring that person to this cross too, even if only through my imperfect attempt to offer forgiveness like my Master.
Help us Lord Jesus. Amen.