LENT 2017 THE LORD S PRAYER Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Layne Lebo March 26, 2017

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1 LENT 2017 THE LORD S PRAYER Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Layne Lebo March 26, 2017 The Lord s Prayer begins with 3 statements that are all God-focused Hallowed be your name, Your kingdom come and Your will be done. And then Jesus turns his attention to our needs. Last week you looked at the request, Give us today our daily bread, and today our focus is on the words, Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. I d like to share a story with you as we begin Johnny had just been given a slingshot for his birthday and he couldn t wait to try it out at his grandparents farm where he and his older sister, Sally, were spending a week of summer vacation. Now if you ve ever used a slingshot, you know that they re hard to shoot accurately and Johnny was no exception. He shot at birds sitting in trees and on telephone wires and he missed every one of them. He set cans on fence posts and he missed them time and time again. He had fun shooting his slingshot, but it was kind of frustrating to never be able to hit anything. Early that evening his grandma called him to dinner. As Johnny was walking in from the barnyard he pointed the slingshot toward his grandma s duck; he pulled back the slingshot; released the round projectile; and, bam, the duck fell over. It had been hit in the head and it died immediately. Johnny quickly looked around and breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that no one had seen him. He ran to the duck; picked it up; quickly threw into a patch of tall weeds behind the barn; and, then went to wash up for dinner. After dinner grandma asked Sally to wash the dishes. Sally responded, Johnny will wash the dishes. And when Johnny looked at her with a puzzled expression, Sally whispered, Remember the duck. Apparently, Sally had seen Johnny kill the duck. The next morning grandma asked Sally if she would sweep the porch and Sally quickly said, Johnny would like to sweep the porch. And she winked at Johnny as she mouthed the words, Remember the duck. This went on for several days Johnny being blackmailed into doing all of Sally s chores and Sally constantly haunting him with the words, Remember the duck. Finally, Johnny couldn t take it anymore. He was tired of doing all of Sally s chores and the guilt was nagging him. So, we went to grandma and told her what had happened. Grandma listened attentively and then she said, Johnny, I saw you kill the duck. I was standing at the kitchen window when you shot it. I could tell it was an accident by the look on your face. I was waiting to see how long you would allow Sally to keep tormenting you, before you came and confessed to me. I forgive you. That story accurately describes the torment our enemy Satan unleashed in our lives when we re walking under the weight of the guilt and shame of our sin. But the good news for each of us is that God s forgiveness is available to us and his forgiveness frees us. In his book, Living The Lord s Prayer, David Timms writes, When the wheels get completely loose or fall off our life s wagon, we may admit fault or responsibility and plead for a fresh start. But relatively few believers live with a profound sense of their indebtedness to God. 1

2 Unforgiveness eats at us from two directions: our own guilt before God weighs on us heavily and the unforgiveness and bitterness we hold toward others can be a crushing weight. Unforgiveness is a cancer and the grace we receive from God and which He gives us to extend to others is the only cure. Jesus words Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, draw a clear line between the forgiveness we extend to others and the forgiveness we receive from God. But Jesus words raise a troubling question. Is he really saying we re only forgiven by God to the degree that we forgive others? That thought scares me, because I need forgiveness from God that goes way beyond my ability to forgive others. So, where does that leave me? I d like us to look at Matthew chapter 18 verses this is the most extensive teaching on forgiveness that we have in the Bible. Jesus tells a story that we know as The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, in response to a question his disciple Peter asked. I encourage you to find Matthew chapter 18 verses in your Bibles. 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? Matthew 18:21 As we read the New Testament we see that Peter was almost always the first of Jesus disciples to speak and he often stuck his foot in his mouth because he frequently spoke without thinking. It was Peter who in the boat called out to Jesus and said, Lord, if it s you, tell me to come to you. Jesus said, Come. Peter walked on the water for a bit, but then he was overcome by his fear and began to sink. Peter was the one who when Jesus told the disciples He was going to be crucified said, Never Lord. This will never happen to you. It was also Peter who boldly said, I ll never fall away. I ll stand with you to the end, when Jesus told his disciples that they would all leave Him. And it was Peter who quickly drew his sword and hacked off one of the soldiers ears who was arresting Jesus. In this instance Peter is trying to figure out just how far he is expected to take this forgiveness thing, so he asks Jesus, How many times should I be expected to forgive someone who wrongs me? When Peter proposed forgiving someone 7x he wasn t being stingy. The Jewish Law called for Jews to extend forgiveness to someone 3x, so Peter was more than doubling the requirement of the Law surely Jesus would commend him for that. But Jesus 2

3 responded with these words, I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times (verse 22). The N.I.V. translates Jesus as saying 77 times, but there is footnote which says Jesus words could be interpreted as 70 x 7 times or 490 times. Whether it s 77 or 490 doesn t really matter. Jesus point was that we re not supposed to keep track of how often we forgive someone. And then beginning in verse 23, Jesus tells this parable. Therefore, 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 bags of gold 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. At this 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 silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. Pay back what you owe me! he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, Be patient with me, and I will pay it back. But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. (Matt. 18:23-30) One of the dangers in Jesus parables is that we can get so hung up on the details that we miss the big picture and that s true for this one. How much is ten thousand bags of gold worth in today s economy? I ve heard figures that reach into the tens of millions, but the point Jesus was making was that the debt the servant owed was one that he could never repay. His plea for the king to have patience so that he would have more time to repay his debt was a ridiculous attempt to stall. We re not told he accumulated such a debt, but this was a debt he would never be able to repay. In his goodness, the king extended grace and forgave the debt. The grace the king gave wasn t just for more time, so that eventually he d get his money from the servant. The grace he extended cancelled the debt and set the servant and his family free. But the servant didn t seem to grasp the implications of the grace that had been extended to him. The king said, Your debt is cancelled, but the servant heard, I ll give you more time. And so the servant left the king s presence and went to work raising the money to repay his debt. He found a servant who owed him a hundred silver coins. Again, how much that was isn t important. The point is that it was a very small amount of money that the servant could have repaid if given time. So, this servant also begged for patience, but his request was denied. Instead he was thrown into prison until his debt could be repaid. Not surprisingly, the other servants who saw this were upset who knows they also may have owed this servant money. Here s the end of the parable. I ll pick up reading at verse 31 3

4 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. You wicked servant, he said, 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 handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart. Matthew 18:31-35 There s that frightening concept again: This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart (Matthew 18:35). Again that statement scares me because I m not nearly as good at forgiving as God is. So what s going on here? In his book, Living The Lord s Prayer, author David Timms makes the case that in The Lord s Prayer and in The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, Jesus is challenging his followers to embrace a culture of grace and forgiveness. Think about it, grace and forgiveness breeds more grace and more forgiveness and unforgiveness and bitterness leads bitterness and unforgiveness to multiply. During Lent, as we look toward Easter, our attention is drawn toward the cross. Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus first words on the cross were, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. It s fitting that Jesus first words from the cross focused on forgiveness, because forgiveness is the essence of the cross God forgiving us for our sins and opening the door for us to be in relationship with Him, and us receiving the power in Christ to forgive others for their sins against us. In Colossians 2:13-15 the Apostle Paul speaks to relationship between the cross and forgiveness. He writes, When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2:13-15 As we think about this concept of a culture of grace, where forgiveness is received from God and extended to others, I d like to call our attention to three realities connected with forgiveness that have profound implications for each of us. First, in Christ, we can be forgiven no matter what we ve done for the sin that stands in the way of us being in 4

5 relationship with God. God is holy and sinless and sin can t enter his presence. As human beings every one of us has sinned. It s part of our nature. Our sin keeps us from God. It creates a gap that we have no ability to cross, but Jesus death on the cross bridged that gap and positions each of us to receive forgiveness from God. As 1 John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. I John 1:9 Through Jesus death on the cross, forgiveness is available to every one of us, no matter what we ve done. The 2 nd reality about the forgiveness Jesus provides for us through the cross is that we now have the power to receive forgiveness from others no matter what we ve done to them. Every one of us can think of people we ve hurt during our lives through our actions. Often that knowledge of wrongdoing to others is accompanied by shame, guilt and feelings of condemnation. And our enemy, Satan, loves to bring those wrongs to mind because he knows he can debilitate us with guilt and shame and doubt remember how Johnny was tormented by his sister s knowledge of his sin in the story. The forgiveness that s available to us through Jesus at the cross frees us from bondage. It gives an opportunity for those whom we ve wronged to extend forgiveness to us and allows our relationships with others to be restored. And even in cases where those we ve wronged in the past are unable or unwilling to forgive us, we can find freedom in Christ as we confess our sin and receive his forgiveness. And the 3 rd aspect of the forgiveness that is available to us through the cross is the power to forgive others who have wronged us no matter what they ve done to us. Unforgiveness is a chain that that holds us captive. Someone has said that harboring unforgiveness against someone is like swallowing poison and waiting for the person we re not willing to forgive to fall over dead. It s true. Unforgiveness will eat us alive. Grace that results in forgiveness is the only cure. When we hold onto unforgiveness toward those who have wronged us, we re in bondage. We re captive to the hurt and pain that was inflicted on us. In a very real way, we continue to re-experience the hurt as those thoughts and feelings of what was done to us rise up inside of us. When we hold onto bitterness over wrongs that have been done to us, we feel like we re holding it over the other person and somehow harming them, but the reality is that we re hurting ourselves. Sometimes the person we re not forgiving isn t even 5

6 aware that they did anything to us, or they ve forgotten it. We re only hurting ourselves. Because of the blood that Jesus shed on the cross, and the death He died, you and I have the power to forgive those who have wronged us and have our relationship with that person potentially restored. Through Jesus sacrifice on the cross, you and I can be forgiven by God and walk in relationship with Him. We can be forgiven for wrongs that we ve done to others. And we have the power to forgive those who have sinned against us. The forgiveness Jesus provides is comprehensive and as we receive forgiveness and in turn extend it to others we can create a culture of grace. As we focus on this theme of forgiveness, I invite you to reflect on these questions: Have you received Jesus forgiveness for your sins? Is there anything you ve done to someone, which you need to let go of by giving it to Jesus at the cross? Is there anyone you need to extend forgiveness to who has hurt or wounded you? Do you harbor unforgiveness toward yourself that you need to release to Jesus on the cross? 6