A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 36

Chapter 36 – As We Forgive

 

…as we also have forgiven our debtors… For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:12, 14-15)

 

Forgiveness is one of the hardest things we will ever have to do. When someone has wronged us, when someone has hurt us, the last thing in the world we likely want to do is forgive them. Because to forgive means we must forget, right? To forgive means we accept what that person has done to us as insignificant, right? Not exactly.

 

Forgiveness “does not wipe out the consequence of sin.” (p. 228) Even if forgiveness is given, it doesn’t cancel out what was done, and there should still be consequences. A child breaks a dish. They might still have a punishment – cleaning it up, maybe some time in their room – but it is unlikely that the parent will not forgive the child for breaking the dish.

 

“Forgiveness is the re-establishment of right relationship.” (p. 228) To give forgiveness means that you want to repair the relationship that has been damaged by the sin. It’s not forgetting what happened but acknowledging the harm the event has caused and deciding to move past it in order to work on the relationship. Now, if forgiveness is given but no change in behaviour occurs, then perhaps right relationship will not be restorable. Only the parties affected can make that decision.

 

What happens if there is no opportunity to forgive the person directly? If the harm occurred many years in the past and the two people are no longer in contact, can forgiveness be given? Doesn’t it even matter at that point? That would depend on the person looking to give forgiveness, but it certainly can still have an effect on that person. By forgiving the sinner, even from afar and with no current relationship, it can still relieve the burden that is being carried. Forgiving someone longer parted from your life can be a way of letting go of the shadow that might be hanging over your head because of the event in question. Even if you can’t right the relationship, or don’t want to for whatever reason, relieving yourself of the burden can be very liberating. In that case, you’d be re-establishing right relationship with yourself, your own heart, and your own soul.