verticallife

“This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ 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, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:9-15)

If you remember last week I wrote about how Paul called himself the “worst of sinners.” I can think of more “serious” sins than not forgiving someone. The next story in our series was sparked by a question from Peter. Peter asked Jesus how many times he ought to forgive someone who sins against him. He thought it was pretty darn good if he forgave someone seven times. Nope.

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.” Hmm. I can do the math. That makes 490. Wow. I have to forgive someone almost 500 times? The point Jesus was making is you cannot keep score. You cannot and you should not.

Then in Jesus fashion he told a story.

The kingdom of heaven is like “a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

“The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.”

His servant did the same and begged him to be patient with him. Instead he threw the man into prison. When others witnessed this turn of events, “they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.”

The master wanted a word with his servant. “You wicked servant. I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.”

Then Jesus drove His point home. “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18:21-35)

We pray it, but do we live it? We pray, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Do we just say it or do we really put it to practice? Has the Lord’s Prayer become something you simply say from rote memory or do you really want the strength to “forgive your brother from your heart?”

If there is something that needs to be forgiven, it means someone has done something to hurt us – sometimes deeply. It seems harsh, but Jesus is saying you will not be forgiven so long as you harbor anger in your heart.

The servant was thrown into prison. We create our own prisons when we don’t forgive someone for what they did. We think we are imprisoning them when really it places us behind bars.

The servant was tortured for his lack of forgiveness. Harboring hatred and bitterness has a way of torturing us. We think we’re “sticking it to ‘em” when we give someone a cold shoulder, a frigid stare, or a sharp word. When in fact, we’re simply sticking it to ourselves.

We want to torture them for the pain they caused and we realize we’re only torturing ourselves.

We want to hurt them for the hurt they put us through and we realize we’re only hurting ourselves.

The only way we can truly be free is through forgiveness. Forgiveness fuels freedom. Forgiveness is pardoning an offense. It’s canceling a debt. It’s ceasing resentment. I know you may feel you have an excuse for how you feel, but you are only doing yourself harm… and maybe even those around you. That man’s imprisonment also impacted his family.

Don’t let someone’s past actions (or maybe even your own) kill what happens in the present and taint what happens in the future.