Focus
Slow your breathing and become aware of the taking in and letting out of your breath. Focus on putting things aside so you will be open to what God is saying to you today.
Read
Matthew 18:15-35
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
15 “If your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If you are listened to, you have regained that one. 16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If that person refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
21 Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.
Reflect
After Jesus’ teaching about sin and discipline, Peter seems to have learned something. The rabbinic tradition of the first century had settled on forgiving people three times, but on the fourth strike, they were out. So, Peter probably thinks he is being extra generous when he asked the Lord, “if my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” I can imagine Peter’s shock when Jesus says, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.” Many of us can, on principle, say we forgive people but aren’t real good when it comes to the practice. C.S. Lewis has a great quote inspired by this passage. He says, “We forgive, we mortify our resentment, a week later some chain of thought carries us back to the original offense and we discover the old resentment blazing away as if nothing had been done about it at all. We need to forgive our brother seventy times seven not only for 490 offenses but for one offense.” (Lewis, C. S. (1985). Reflections on the psalms. Walker.)
Forgiveness is an absolute necessity for a Christian. In the Lord’s prayer, we say, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. It is the reason we have faith at all. God has forgiven all our sins, and as Psalm 103:12 says, “as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.” We have been forgiven, and therefore we forgive.
Pray
Forgive us our debts, O Lord, as we forgive our debtors. Amen
Go with God.
