We are now in that time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, fast approaching a new year. The last is daunting for me, as I have much that will be left undone this year. So many things I thought I could accomplish will be unfinished, incomplete, un-started, or just maybe if I am optimistic postponed. I entered this year with a number of resolutions or goals, many of which I failed to accomplish. I worked out but not at my best, I didn’t read as much as the year before, I didn’t apply myself in some areas as much as I had planned. Lots of goals went unfinished, others were not attempted.
Of all my resolutions one was stated publicly, boldly proclaiming on this blog I wanted “… to continue my education all areas of my life and apply 52 new things, one each week, and document that. At the end of 2013 I want to have collected 52 gems of wisdom from various experiences, and reduce these to 52 sentences, proverbs, and more importantly to have made each a part of my life, to enact changes in my behavior.” That goal was a little naïve to say the least.
I started off well, but just like my few months of college, life filled my days with tasks that seemed more important, more pleasurable, or just easier. That’s the simple short answer. The truth is so much more complicated. You see, some lessons take much longer than a week to learn, some lessons can’t be summarized in a childish proverb. Some truths are larger than mountains and require months of preparation, others are more vast than oceans requiring pages of information, skill sets developed over a life time, and months of patience to cross. Some truths are not weekly observations but lifetime quests. More difficult than learning something new each week was trying to reduce a complicated truth into one brief sentence.
This year has provided me the same lesson over and over. Like a child learning to walk, unsuccessful at first, and then unsteady, unsure, succeeding only occasionally. The same thought has been studied, and then meditated on, tried various times, only to see me fail in changing my behavior. Each failure required me to return to my study and practice. However I did learn what I believe is a pivotal truth, central to my faith. My lesson came from an eclectic collection of sermons, scripture reading, recent music choices, and a series of life’s events.
I start with Christ’s answer to the question from Peter “…how many times should I forgive my brother who sins against me, seven times?” Christ’s answer was 70 times larger than Peter thought necessary. If taken in the literal Peter was to forgive 490 times. One observation that came to me in reading this scripture, Peter didn’t preface his question by saying if my brother asks for forgiveness or apologizes how many times, just simply how many times? That was the thing I turned over in my mind first not the number but at what point, when do I forgive? Is it after time passes, after my anger cools or after an apology? The second thought is related to the number and contained in the fact that Christ was not asking Peter to do more than he would do also. Scripture says elsewhere the servant is not greater than the master, so I have to believe that whatever requirement Christ gave to Peter, Christ would do more.
That led to the next question, when we sin against Christ how many times will Christ forgive us? We lie, we steal, we cheat, we show anger rather than compassion, we mistreat our families, we are alcoholics, we have addictions, we murder, we wage war… What does Christ do? Forgive, at least 490 times, but more importantly it is individually. I think we forget that simple truth, Christ forgives each of us over and over and over again.
The next piece of this truth that grew in my mind was found at the scene of the cross. Christ had been whipped, and nailed to a cross. Luke says Christ prayed “father forgive them they know not what they do”. My first question, for whom was Jesus praying? The most likely answer were those that put him there, those that yelled “crucify him”, those that scourged him, those that held him, those that drove nails into his hands and feet. I could also argue that our sins today put him on that cross, so I could likely be included in that group for which Jesus prayed. The second question and most serious from this scene, did God honor that request?… Now we could have a whole discussion about the trinity.
We know that Christ had the power to forgive as he had on a previous occasions done while healing others stating “your sins be forgiven”. I think most Christians would have to confess that at least the sins committed against the physical body of Christ were forgiven. Even that provides me with a curious observation, there is no plea from the crowd for forgiveness, no apology, no confession, no evidence of faith, no sudden understanding of the sins they had committed, yet if Christ’s prayer was answered positively they were forgiven.
Add to my studies
“if you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?”(Psalm 130:3 NIV)
“… while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him”(Romans 5:10 NIV)
“God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save…”(John 3:17 NIV)
“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children”(Ephesians 5:1 NIV)
God forgave me before I knew I needed forgiveness. Before my birth, before my first breath, before my first sin, he forgave me. And as for the number of times do you think it’s limited to 490? What would Christ’s answer have been if Peter had asked “is 490 times enough?” Christ forgave without receipt of an apology, without payment, or acknowledgement of a debt, without demanding a change in behavior prior to obtaining forgiveness, and when you look at Psalms 130:3 without counting.
A Christian’s job is not that of condemning the actions of others but that of reminding others of God’s forgiveness granted already. Christ is calling for a specific attitude among believers, an attitude of forgiveness, compassion, and grace.
What learning did I have this year? I am to forgive those that have no understanding as to how they hurt me and those that are oblivious to the fact they did. In order to imitate Christ I must offer forgiveness to my enemy, while he is still my enemy, without waiting for him to change. What do I say to the thief that took what was mine, what do I say to the one that slanders me, or to the one that mistreats me? What do I say to those that wrong me? To fully imitate Christ, which I claim I should do, I am to forgive before the very offence is even committed. This is a very tough lesson to learn and a harder proverb to write. I believe it is a skill that will take a lifetime to master and one that cannot be explained in brief form.
I think Christ was saying “Peter, 490 is a good start.”
David
