How to forgive

‘So he called the servant in. “You worthless slave!” he said. “I forgave you the whole amount you owed me, just because you asked me to. You should have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you.” The king was very angry, and he sent the servant to jail to be punished until he paid back the whole amount.’

 And Jesus concluded, ‘That is how my Father in heaven will treat every one of you unless you forgive other people from your heart’.
(verses 32-35)

Read Matthew 18:21-35

When I look over my life, I see many things God could and should hold against me. There are the times I have not trusted him as I should, times I have gone my own way and then complained that he doesn’t seem to care. There are times I have badly hurt people around me as I have treated them with little respect or just plain thoughtlessly. Or times when my words have taken away people’s dignity and made them feel worthless or inferior.

And yet, in baptism God forgave me and made me his child. All those things are wiped out, erased from God’s memory. Amazing grace indeed!

Yet I often find it hard to forgive. When people hurt me I often want to hurt them back. I find it easy to hold grudges, to keep score. I join the long queue of people who say, ‘I’ll forgive, but I’ll never forget’.

This passage stops me with a jolt. God tells me my attitudes are not good enough. He forgives me, for Jesus’ sake, but I hear Jesus say to me quite clearly, ‘I do not condemn you . . . Go, but do not sin again ‘ (John 8:11).

Father, please help me to forgive others as you forgive me, totally and unconditionally. Amen.

by Bob Turnbull, in ‘New Strength for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1998)

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