forgiveness

There are 20 posts tagged forgiveness (this is page 4 of 7).

“Forgiveness x490” – Matthew 18:21-35

22. October 2012
Sunday of the Unmerciful Servant
Matthew 18:21-35

We have a forgiveness problem. We don’t know what it is nor why we practice it. We say “it’s okay” and look the other way. We turn the other cheek while secretly holding the grudge. We hold our neighbor’s debts against us over his head. We overlook our sins and the sins of others when they should be confessed and forgiven. This whole messy situation is supposed to be cleaned up with Christ’s own blood but we’d rather wallow in it.

We’re just like St. Peter. Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. No doubt. Forgiveness is tough. They are hard works to say. When someone hurts you repeatedly with what they say and do, do you keep forgiving them? Maybe you forget about it once or twice… perhaps even three times. But seven times? We’d rather tell our neighbor to buzz off than keep suffering their repeat offenses. Forgiveness? That only goes so far.

Not with Jesus. Seven times? No, seventy times seven. That’s 490 for all you math wizards. What’s Jesus saying. Christians suffer. They suffer others sins. They keep suffering when their neighbor and even brother keeps sinning against them. 490 times? That’s a lifetime of sin to suffer. Jesus is saying we suffer with our spouses’s sins against us until the death parts us. We suffer our children’s offenses until Christ comes again. We suffer our neighbor’s curses and threats forever. 490 times is an eternity of sin to suffer.

Ah, but notice one thing is still missing. Jesus isn’t just telling us to suffer. He’s telling us to do the harder thing: forgive them. Not just in your heart but verbally—out loud. Forgiveness is humiliating. It requires you to move from the position of power to weakness. It requires us to repent and become like a child. Our righteous outrage at our neighbor’s sin has to be set aside and instead forgive them. Say it: “I forgive you.” Let’s practice. Say it after me: “I forgive you.” Sounds different than “it’s okay,” right? It doesn’t just sound different but it feels different. It requires the hatred, resentment, and despising of your neighbor to be crucified and die.

It is sin that keeps us from saying those hard words. Sin is our fleshly condition and inescapable. We are sinner, watch us sin. There’s no human way to overcome our disease. We can only treat the symptoms and then pretty ineffectively. We need is a cure that’s permanent and lasting not little bandaids for all our little problems. Jesus told Nicodemus we must be born again of water and the Spirit. This is God’s solution to our problem. He’s not content simply putting patches on trespasses or debts. He wants to cure us, once and for all. He has in Holy Baptism. He drowned your old Adam to death and gave to you new life in Jesus’s blood.

That’s what forgiveness is all about. Being washed clean in Christ. Your sins no longer cling to you. They are forgiven! Even death is destroyed and there is new life for you in Jesus! A washing of rebirth and regeneration began this work in you. Christ’s own body and blood nourishes you as He keeps you in this truth. The words “I forgive you your sins” keep you clean by the same Word that made you.

The life of the Baptized is in Christ and Christ in him. Therefore, if you brother sins against you do not hold this sin against them. Go and tell them their fault. If they will not listen, take another brother. If he still will not listen, bring the church. If he will not hear of his fault then this sin is bound to him until he repents.

Ever tried to do this? Its hard stuff for the old Adam. No one wants to reveal another’s sin. It usually exposes our own faults, abuses, and wickedness. Plus, we think nothing good will come of it. It’d be much better to look the other way, to all just get along, to pat them on the back and say “it’s okay.” It’s far easier to let them remain in their sin than to tell them about it. That’s the same thing we’d want. Sinners love their sin and why should it be any different for them?

No, not for those in Christ Jesus! The Christian has come to hate their sin and their sinful disease. They hate it because they have come to love their savior. Jesus gave them new life in His life and are made holy and righteous by His blood. They now hate sin and love forgiveness in Jesus.

Therefore you do not only tell their brother their sin (the Law) but they all the more tell them of Christ’s forgiveness (Gospel). Without speaking the Word of forgiveness, the sinner cannot leave his sinful ways. There is now power in exposing your brother’s faults unless you also bring them into the glorious light of Christ’s forgiveness.

Remember, we’re just like St. Peter. Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

Why should we forgive our neighbor to the 490th degree? By the Word of forgiveness in Jesus they are given the only remedy to their sin. When you forgive your brother, they are getting Jesus. And where there is Jesus forgiving, there is life and there is eternal salvation.

Saying those words: “I forgive you” to your children, your spouse, your parents, your pastor, your co-worker, your boss, your legislator, indeed all your neighbors is the most evangelical thing you can do. It’s the kind of thing only a Christian can do. It’s the best way to confess who you are in Jesus and what He has done for you. It’s one sinner administering the cure to another sinner just as Christ forgave them.

We are the servants of our Lord and God in the kingdom of heaven. By our sin, we owe our heavenly Father a great debt beyond what we could ever pay, Jesus describes laughably as something like 10,000 x 20 years wages. Yet, in his loving mercy for the sake of His Son Jesus, all this debt is paid. He placed our debts upon Jesus. Christ suffered and died in place of us, as our substitute. This is God the Father’s great compassion! And by this mercy we are released, freed, and forgiven of it all. We are forgiven to live with Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

The servant in Jesus’ comparison is wicked. He received mercy beyond comparison yet cannot forgive his fellow servant a small debt. This forgiven servant comes to his fellow servant who owes him a mere three months labor not 10,000 times 20 years. Having received great mercy, what does he show to his fellow servant? He throttles him and demands repayment. The fellow servant pleads for mercy with the exact same words as before. But the forgiven servant refuses to forgive. He takes the blessings he received from his king and hordes them for himself.

What he received as a blessing becomes a curse. His debt was forgiven but having refused to forgiven, it is once again imputed to him. So also for us. The forgiveness so freely given to us in Jesus is turned to a curse if we refuse to forgive others.

Thus, we pray each day “…forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We forgive our brothers because we have been forgiven our every sin. We forgive them to give them Jesus. In the forgiveness given by each of you, your fellow servant and neighbor learns of Christ’s forgiveness. O Lord, how great is your compassion! Give to us hearts that so forgive others. Let us have compassion on each other, showing mercy, and saying “I forgive you” until the end.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

The Sunday of the Unjust Steward (Luke 16:1-9)

3. August 2012
The Sunday of the Unjust Steward
Luke 16:1-13

A common problem for Christians is understanding the less-than-obvious sayings and actions of Jesus. No one balks at “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Its the Golden Rule, after all. Yet, even for Christians, words like “No one comes to the Father but by me” pose a real challenge. Jesus is saying only Christians go to heaven. There is no other in heaven or on earth by which we can be saved. No faith Jesus Christ crucified? Damned. Guilty as charged.

There are two courts in the church: the court of public opinion and the court of the last judgment. The first is a sham and the second unavoidable. The first is full of second chances, loopholes, plastic justice, and not-nearly-divine Judy’s. The second is all-or-nothing, no escape, hardcore justice, and the divine verdict of Jesus. Ah, that we would no consider what others think of us! Who cares with the public think? They can go to hell with their repeat offenses and love of badness. What does Jesus say? That’s the only question that matters.

For Jesus, the Pharisees sat as judge in the court of public opinion. They were disgusted with his eating, conversing, touching, and just plain loving tax collectors and sinners. He had private chats with prostitutes. He partied at leper colonies. He visited the emasculated eunuch on the road. He went to Levi and Zaccheus’ homes despite both having cheated his own friends out of their hard earned cash. For all this and more, the Pharisees were justly repulsed.

Just in our eyes, true, but according to heavenly justice? Not at all. Jesus is no respecter of persons. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Lost in drugs, alcohol, and worse. Lost in the despair of their own ego. Lost in petty theft and highway robbery. Lost in their perverted use of sex. Lost in love of stuff. Lost after being swallowed by the cushions of the armchair of life. Forgotten, sat upon, vacuumed, and lost forever.

Jesus loves dead people. He loves people who have been condemned by public opinion so many times that they think there’s nothing left. He loves people who know and believe they haven’t been good enough, strong enough, or lovely enough. He loves the ugly, the shamed, the desecrated, the mutilated. He loves the one lost sheep, the one disappearing coin, or even the one son squandered everything and lost every shred of humanity in the pigsty. He loves them not because they’ve tried hard, jumped through the right hoops, or even kept themselves alive.

He loves them despite their wastefulness and being an utter waste. How then are we to understand today’s parable? Doesn’t it teach the opposite? Jesus also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.”

Caught. Guilty. Thief. This manager is a crook and a waste. He is about to get called onto the carpet. He knows the hammer is about to crush him but he is also on the ball. And the manager said to himself, “What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.” Sharp-witted and clever. Faced with pending just deserts, he figures to get when favors by cheating. He’s going to use his master’s property to gain benefit for future posterity.

A hundred measures of oil is cut to fifty. A hundred measures of wheat cut to eighty. He’s already squandered the master’s possessions on wine, women, and song. Now, he’s even cutting the master’s holdings but debt reduction all for an advantage with his fellow scumbag friends. And what does the rich master say to this thieving, self-interested freeloader? Its the only question that matters: The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.

In the court of Pharisaical public opinion, this manager is a jerk, a crook, and pretty much deserves whatever the righteous judge has in mind. But the master is an unrighteous judge. He doesn’t care about his stuff. He doesn’t miss the cash, or the oil, or the wheat. All he cares about is his reputation and its been boosted by the shrewd manager and his accomplices. There’s no one in this parable who does the right, good, or true thing. They’re all villainy.

And yet, Jesus gives them to us as a noble example. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal dwellings.

Jesus is not readily understood on this point. What is He talking about? Certainly, it seems He is telling us stop craving wealth and use it to make friends, some who may also be welcomed with you into heaven. Good. Go waste some money making friends. Stop being a Pharisee, and loving your money. All true.

Jesus said to them in the subsequent verses: You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. (Luke 16:16-17)

The one who cares about public opinion is a miser who only loves fellow good, right, and lovely people. That’s what the court of public opinion demands, that is, justifying yourselves before men. All are full of this highly esteemed behavior. But none of it is God’s behavior and instead an abomination in his sight. Now, that’s Law and prophets business and lasted until John. Now in Jesus the kingdom of God has been preached, revealed, and has erupted onto the scene. Everyone is pressing into it. Why?

Time is short. Life is ending. The earth is dying. Tick tock, tick tock goes the clock—for you and all your outrageous kind. No more need to keep up appearances. No more need to worry about tomorrow. Be shrewd and waste the master’s stuff. See a beggar? Give him from the master’s hand. Someone owes you a great debt? Forgive it and let the master take care of it. Worried about your reputation? Never mind that, its all over anyway.

The Christian life is one of reckless abandon—loving the unlovable, forgiving the unforgivable, giving to the least and the last. You know you’re a rotten manager. So what? You never were going to be a good one anyway. The rich master entrusted everything to the worst bums ever to sit in his pews. He didn’t expect them to give a perfect accounting when he finally comes back to judge. He’s not a bit surprised by our waste, our disgusting luxury, or even by our piss poor attempts at caring for the sick and needy.

Its only in the court of public opinion that these things matter. Santa Claus cares whether you make the cut not the master. Your friends might consider your donations to the church a waste of time, effort, or money. What recklessness! You should be investing in yourself not your friends and neighbors. You keep sending money to that corrupt overseas mission? Don’t you care that half the money ends up in the wrong hands? Nope, you shouldn’t. Pharisees see your poor management and corruption and don’t want to have anything to do with you, certainly not eating, drinking, touching, or loving.

Jesus doesn’t care about the sham human court of opinion. His justice is not our justice, nor his righteousness our righteousness. He sees red-handed thieves, dirty whores, lovers of stuff, and haters of God and has compassion on them. He takes what is His and gives it to them freely, abundantly, and even wastefully. Why bother saving this unrighteous? Why bother but because they are His. He came to seek and save the lost, the worthless, and the dead.

He takes what His eternal Father has made Him a steward. He takes his own life and gives it to us criminals, stone cold in our trespasses. He gives like the wasteful manager, knowing that the only thing that matters is the Father’s reputation. He gives to lead us to love His Father, that we may be his own and live under him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

Jesus has forgiven you a great debt by taking what He was entrusted and wasting it on you. But you are no waste but are the beloved of God. Jesus’ life is given to you that He may receive you into the eternal dwellings. He declared “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” His blood was freely poured upon your head to call you one of the Father’s own. His own flesh is given to you to eat and to drink, purifying you of wickedness and deceit. The Father commended Jesus for forgiving us our trespasses, raising Him from the dead on the third day.

The stewards of this world are cunning but only operate in the court of public opinion. Jesus is the judge who acquits you by the Father’s own riches, that is, His own life shrewdly given,to all, unrighteous sinners though they be.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

Festival of St. Mary Magdalene 2012 – Luke 7:36-50

22. July 2012
Festival of St. Mary Magdalene
Luke 7:36-50

The appointed lectionary and calendar of festivals and commemorations of our Lutheran Service Book offered us a unique opportunity this weekend, that is, to celebrate the festival of St. Mary Magdalene. Why bother? First, St. Mary Magdalene is not well known. Increasingly, Christians lack basic Bible knowledge nor do they crack open the Scriptures during the week for prayer and meditation. Despite Mary being one of the chief female disciples of Jesus, she is relatively unknown.

Second, much of what passes for knowledge of St. Mary Magdalene is really idle speculation and often contrary to the faith. Consider The DaVinci Code continued the millennia old speculation Mary was somehow Jesus’ wife. Author Dan Brown drew on sources hundreds of years after the Apostolic era and drudged up this long disproved theory to make a buck. Of course, people are gullible and easily fall into error when they stop reading the Scriptures and have no answer for such fictional nonsense.

Knowledge of the story and characters of Scripture is essential because it is your story and they are your family. An article in the Smithsonian Magazine in 2005 sought to disprove that St. Mary Magdalene is the model for Christian devotion, defined as a life of confession and absolution. True! Yet, certainly, the understanding and tradition surrounding her is often sketchy. This ought not stop us from trying best to know her from the evidence of the Scriptures alone. Why?

Every disciple of Jesus is an embodiment of the Christian discipleship and thus your life with Him. Even in Judas, we see how our sinful nature clings to our bones and given a willing heart can overcome the gift of faith. To ignore or confuse St. Mary Magdalene, is to ignore and confuse a model example of faith. Any distortion of Jesus’ own disciples is a confusion of Jesus, just as author Dan Brown, his friends in the scholarly world, and the gnostics of old have done. They get Mary wrong and thus get Jesus wrong.

What do we know of St. Mary Magdalene? First, there are many named Mary in the Scriptures: Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus, Mary, mother of James and Joseph, and Mary, wife of Clopas. Plus, there are three women identified as sexual sinners who come to Jesus. There are many other women who follow in the train of disciples of Jesus, whom Luke says were cured of evil spirits and ailments. (Luke 8:1-3) Here, the Evangelist lists Mary, called Magdalene, from who seven demons had gone out.

This comes immediately following our Gospel reading for today, of which, St. Augustine, Gregory the Great , and others agree is about St. Mary. But because the account of Magdalene’s exorcism is not recorded, nor is she given a name in our Gospel, many have come to assume that today’s Gospel is not an account of Magdalene washing Jesus’ feet with her tears but rather some generic woman sinner. Yet, we know that Jesus had already exorcised her seven demons. We also know from all four Evangelists that St. Mary Magdalene was at the cross with the other Marys for the crucifixion and also went to the tomb early on the first day. While the accounts are slightly different, all agree she saw the resurrected Lord. Thereafter, she went and told the disciples.

Even if our Gospel for today is not a literal account of St. Mary Magdalene, it does demonstrate precisely what a disciple of Christ is like, both male and female. It also shows exactly how Christ our Lord deals with us with His Word. We know St. Mary fits the mold of Luke chapter seven, as she is one of the few, all women, who persist to be with our Lord to the bloody end and even thereafter, caring for his body. This is the duty of Christians, especially those who serve in roles of mercy and service. They care for Christ’s own body, the church, with their tears, their crowning glory, their wealth, and their kisses of friendship.

One of the Pharisees asked [Jesus] to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

Mary is a virtuous example for every Christian of discipleship. This woman of Magdala followed after Jesus whom she knows is her savior. She shuns all social norms and taboos and serves her savior. This woman of ill repute does not belong at table with Jesus, nor in the house of the noble Pharisee. She

“Ah, what of that!” she says. “I am a sinner and I must meet my savior. My sins have brought me to the point of despair. I have violated God’s holy law and deserve punishment. I will go to Jesus with tears of sorrow and pleas for mercy. For surely, He will be gracious and forgive me, underserving as I am.”

And so she does, wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair wet with tears, and kissing them with affection, and anointed them at great cost. So it ought to be for the Christian. We come before Jesus humbly, acknowledging our sin, confessing we deserve death, but trusting in the promise of mercy, the forgiveness of sins, and thus serving his body with tenderness and compassion. This is self-sacrificial love, love as our savior Jesus has shown to us.

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” Simon the Pharisee is far from the kingdom. Jesus did come to save the righteous, especially the self-righteous, but the sinner. He does not desire to see the sinner dead but that they repent and believe in Him. Such holier-than-thou attitudes are unbecoming of the Christian. Why?

The Pharisee wants all grace and no correction. He wants the benefits of God’s abiding presence in Jesus without either the knowledge or correction of the holy Law. He wants his preacher to turn his church into a social club of like-minded and righteous good people. He doesn’t want the adulterer, the idolater, the prostitute, the hypocrite, the gloomy and depressed, the alcoholic, the crack-head, or anyone not like him to come and sit at table with him.

He wants a church without acknowledgment of sin, without godly correction, and most especially without forgiveness of sins. He doesn’t want his church to turn him off by telling him he’s a miserable sinner. He doesn’t want anyone to disturb his perfect little dinner, especially anyone who makes him uncomfortable, be it woman, black, hispanic, child, or whatever.

And Jesus answering him, said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 

While Magdalene has already been brought low by the holy law, this Pharisee has yet to acknowledge and confess his sin. He cannot possibly understand why St. Mary who give of her tears, her hair, and even expensive ointment to serve her savior. He cannot comprehend what has moved her with such great love for this man. Yet, Jesus, out of compassion, tells the man a story to help him know. The woman has had a great debt forgiven in Jesus. And even he likewise has had his debts, though fewer, forgiven. All are debtors. All need the lender to forgive.

The turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

We do well to follow our savior and heed His every word. When He speaks a crushing Word of Law that humiliates, disgusts, or is shameful, we dare not hide this sin away like Pharisee. Nor should we act as if its nothing of consequence. Quite the opposite, we heed this sinful woman’s example and bring everything that burdens our conscience to the feet of our savior, even to the foot of the cross. We weep and mourn our sin, true, but our Jesus would never leave us in despair.

Jesus has granted his church the authority to bind and loose sins. (John 20) This does not mean we turn away the sinful woman from the door of this house, where a feast is celebrated and Jesus is the host, butler, and meal. Quite the contrary, we recognize her despair and grant unto her the forgiveness of sins just as Christ has forgiven us. She may come with “baggage,” whoring and six other unnamed demons. She might make us uncomfortable. So what? She who has been forgiven much loves much. She may be 100 denarii worth of sinner but listen to Jesus. You’re 50 denarii worth or worse.

For those who only want to feast with Jesus like this Pharisee but don’t want anything to do with sinners, they need to hear the holy Law. Those holy Ten Commands, good and right, are proclaimed, calling even the 50 denarii “righteous” sinner to repentance. All righteousness is obliterated first, and then all come to the feast with tears of sorrow and gifts of humility.

Luther says: “Neither of these can be neglected. The call to repentance and the rebuke are both necessary to bring people face to face with their sins and humble them. The proclamation of grace and forgiveness are necessary too, lest the people lose all hope. Therefore, the office of preaching must walk the middle way between presumption and despair, to preach so that the people become neither proud nor despairing.”

Therefore, it might be said that your story is the story of St. Mary Magdalene. But it is also the story of this Pharisee. The Christian, while he may not be an adulterer, murder, or thief, yet has sins that wage war against his soul (1 Peter 2:11), that is, against faith and a good conscience. Everyone according to the flesh remains a sinner in the eyes of God, hearts full of it, not delighting in God or His word, nor loving neighbor as himself. Its a sort of demon-possession, like St. Mary Magdalene, of which only Jesus can free us. Indeed, it sticks to us until the day we die and only then will be finally free of the horrible burden.

But as much as we are like the Pharisee, we are also like St. Mary Magdalene, who trusting in the promise of God fled to Jesus for refuge. While we know and feel the sinful nature, we do not let it rule over us or rage against the hope we have in Jesus. Nor do we let it drive us to despair nor drive us back to the Pharisaical pride, presumption, or arrogance against God. This is a life of struggle, waging each day in our prayers and meditation upon the Word and each week in the confession of sins and forgiveness of the Gospel.

Our hope is not in a righteous life. There is no one righteous, no not one. There is no hope for those who refuse to confess their sins, but on the contrary, defends them and refuses correction. Our hope is like St. Mary Magdalene’s: even while feeling our sins, we confess, submit to the discipline of the Word, and resists all our foes, confident in her sins are forgiven.

Thus, our Lord still ministers to us. He rebukes all sins and forgives them, and will do until the Last Day. We will never achieve in this life absolute purity and sinless perfection. We will be like St. Mary Magdalene, a sinner in need of forgiveness, and also the Pharisee, a sinner in need of rebuke, until the day we die. May God grant us His grace, that we may not fall into such error as to reject Him or His name, but rather let God be just and his words right, so that he may justify us.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

(Adapted from Luther’s House Postils, volume 4.2 p. 365ff)