Pentecost 13 year A

Pentecost 13 (Matthew 18:21-35) “I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

Forgiveness heals suffering.

Most people in Jesus’ time, and perhaps even our time, think of forgiveness in terms of the offending party. This was certainly Peter’s perspective when he asked Jesus how many times he should forgive a brother who sinned against him.

Notice that Peter did not ask about forgiving an enemy or even a stranger. He asked about a brother, a relative or close friend. His approach is grounded in the categories of self will, legal obligation, and self justification.

The conventional wisdom of the day was based in the principle of three strikes and you are out. You are only obligated to forgive a person three times. Since Peter was bound up by the cultural norms of his day he thought in terms of self justification. He could be righteous under the law by forgiving the prescribed three times. He was looking to Jesus for supererogatory merit, some extraordinary approval. So he doubled the expectation and added one more for good measure hoping for approval and praise.

Peter missed the point of forgiveness. He was still lost in the technicalities of legalism. He saw forgiveness as a finely balanced scale that would show how righteous he was. From a legalistic perspective, forgiveness is all about me. It is about how I will allow someone who offended me to get away with the offense up to three times; and, if I am feeling really righteous up to seven times.

From a legalistic perspective there is a definite limit to how much forgiveness I will submit to before I say enough is enough. My self esteem can only bear so much insult before I have to retaliate against or withdraw from the offender. Forgiveness is all about keeping the scales of justice balanced in my favor.

Jesus has a very different understanding of forgiveness. Jesus starts from the place of God’s unmerited favor and God’s unconditional love. Within this context, forgiveness has two functions: reconciliation and transformation.

People sin. People get on each other’s nerves. We inadvertently and sometimes deliberately hurt each other. The legalist wants to keep score. Is it three times or seven times that I must forgive before I can strike back in aggression or withdrawal.
When Jesus says to forgive up to seventy time seven he is saying true forgiveness does not keep score. How could you be certain you reached the 490 limit of forgiveness for any one individual? That is the point. You can’t.

You also cannot practice forgiveness from the place of legalism or self will. For Jesus, forgiveness is based in grace not law. Forgiveness proceeds from divine will not self will. The purpose of forgiveness is to restore a broken relationship not to keep score.

Keeping score recycles pain into suffering. Jesus asks us to forgive from grace in love to experience freedom from pain.

It is only as we yield self will to divine will in union with the eternal love of God in Jesus Christ that we truly forgive another person. To forgive is to release the person who hurt us into the grace of God. To forgive is to release our own attachment to the pain of the transgression into the unconditional love of God.
Forgiveness does not say to the offender: that’s OK. It clearly isn’t OK. What forgiveness does is to offer the offender to God, our own pain to God and to seek to transform that pain into a blessing.

If we do not forgive we bind our minds and hearts and wills to recycle the original offense. The legal forgiveness Peter discusses is only an outward formality. It leaves the soul in pride that it is more righteous than the offender. Sadly, that pride eventually corrodes into despair.

When we forgive an offense we just don’t let it go. We let it go into divine grace and divine love. We forgive to become free of resentment and suffering. We also forgive to give God the Holy Spirit the opportunity to heal the broken relationship.
WE can’t forgive if we want to keep score. We can’t forgive if we can’t release the pain of the offense into the hands of God. We can’t forgive if we indulge ourselves in the negative pleasure of being the victim or the martyr.

When it comes to forgiveness Peter wants to keep score. He wants to know the limits. He wants to hold on to the pain and use it as a weapon against the offender. By doing that, he knows he can assert his own will to power in his relationships. He misses the terrible consequence of his attitude and action. He misses the terrible reality that unforgiven sin recycles the pain of sin into suffering. That is the price the legalist pays for keeping the scales in balance to his own favor.

We can only find release from suffering as we release our attachment to both the offense and the offender. It may take awhile. It may take many prayers of seeking God’s grace and God’s love in order to release an offender and the offense so that suffering ends and pain heals.

Lack of forgiveness keeps us focused on ourselves. Lack of forgiveness enslaves us into an obsession with the offender. Forgiveness shifts our focus to God. Forgiveness sets us free from the effects of sin and the perpetrator of sin.
It is never OK that someone has hurt you emotionally, psychologically, spiritually or physically. It serves no purpose to offer a formal kind of forgiveness that still holds on to the memory of the offense in order to recycle the pain of the offense.
Let it go.

Let it go into the open arms of Jesus Christ on the cross. Let it go into the sacred heart of Jesus to be healed and transformed. Bring the pain to the altar of sacrifice and leave it there. Exchange your outrage and demand for the scales of your personal sense of justice to be balanced for the blessed sacrament of infinite love and eternal life. Jesus himself balanced the scales of justice on the cross.
Life is not just too short to hold onto an offense. Life is too long. Jesus has won for all people everywhere the gift of immortality. We can choose to spend eternity immersed in his limitless love. Or, we can choose to spend eternity holding a grudge or defining ourselves by an impossible demand.

Above all, be honest with yourself. Most of us most of the time want to charge a price for our forgiveness. Most of us most of the time want revenge. The Law restrains that desire but it cannot remove it. Only Jesus can do that. And, he does it by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

The purpose of forgiveness is to immerse our broken lives into the limitless healing fountain of grace. The purpose of forgiveness is to release our attachment to the offense and the offender so we can manifest the blessing of God more fully in our lives.

There is some momentary pain in that release. It always hurts to release self will into divine will. Only as we make a real choice to accept that momentary pain can we discover the infinite blessing of free will. It is a will set free from the recycled pain of suffering. It is a soul set free from self obsession.

Who do you need to forgive? What offense do you need to release into the infinite fountain of divine blessing? Where do you need to yield the demand to keep score into the true freedom of unrestricted compassion?

Jesus says: when it comes to forgiveness stop keeping score. Focus on the unmerited favor of God and the unconditional love of God. Forgiveness is not about keeping score. Jesus says to those who want to keep score: I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”