Sermon Title: The hardest part of the Lord’s Prayer
Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35
It’s not enough to just legally/transactionally release someone from their debt but still harbor anger and acrimony in your heart towards them.
Definition of Forgiveness: My personal act to release the one who sinned against me from my personal right to collect on the moral debt; to pay them back for their offense. Instead of giving them back the pain they gave me, I absorb the pain into myself with God’s help. Dr. Gerry Breshears - “The Process of Forgiveness”
4 dimensions to forgiveness
- Forgive others for hurting us
- Forgive ourselves for making a bad decision
- Forgiving life for being unfair
- Forgive God for not saving us the way we think he should have
(Ronald Rolheiser - “Sacred Fire”)
“Any pain or tension that we do not transform we will transmit. In the face of jealousy, anger, bitterness, and hatred we must be like water purifiers, holding the poisons and toxins inside of us and giving back just the pure water, rather than being like electrical cords that simply pass on the energy that flows through them.” Ronald Rolheiser - “Sacred Fire”
As we age, we can begin to trim down our spiritual vocabulary to just three words: forgive, forgive, forgive. The major task, psychological and spiritual for this second half of our lives is to forgive. We need to forgive those who have hurt us, forgive ourselves for our own failings, forgive life for not being fully fair and forgive God for being so seemingly indifferent to our wounds. We need to do that before we die because ultimately there’s only one moral imperative which is to not die with an angry bitter old person but to die with a warm heart.” Ronald Rolheiser - “Sacred Fire”
Additional Notes
Matthew 18:21-35
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him.
25 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.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”