| It is Good to Talk |
|
Our Father in heaven,
May your holy name be honoured; May your kingdom come, May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give us today the food we need; Forgive us the wrong we have done, As we forgive the wrong that others have done to us; Do not bring us to hard testing, but deliver us from the Evil One.
(Matthew 6:9-13) The turning of the screwOur last talk introduced a theme which was probably too much for most of us. It involved asking the Father to ‘forgive the wrong we have done.’ Pride, resentment, and possibly downright anger lay behind our reaction. This month’s theme is tougher still – and may even convince us that this prayer is simply too demanding and expects more than we can give!Willingness to forgivePointing out that aspects of our behaviour are sinful in God’s sight and must be confessed is bad enough, but now we are urged to ‘forgive the wrong that others have done to us.’ Surely that’s the last straw!ForgivingOK, perhaps it is possible to forgive a mate who borrows your car without asking, and puts a dent in the front bumper, or the girlfriend who borrows a favourite pair of shoes for a girls’ night out, and returns them with a heel missing. But what about forgiving the adult responsible for abusing you as a child? Or the yob who broke into your home while you were on holiday and ransacked your personal belongings? Or the gang members who cloned your cash card and withdrew serious amounts of money from your account? The list of possibilities is endless.Forgiving without limit?When we are wronged we naturally feel a sense of injustice. We expect the culprits to be caught and punished. But what is the Lord’s Prayer actually asking us to do? Set aside personal retribution and freely forgive the person responsible for the harm done to us.Whatever happened to justice?God freely forgives every guilty person who calls on him. That is true – but the God who is love is also just, and forgives guilty sinners only on the basis of their guilt having been punished. The Christian gospel offers free forgiveness to all who repent – but only on the basis that Jesus paid the debt on our sins in full when he died on the cross.Forgiveness in practiceThe Lord’s Prayer is followed by a statement usually overlooked: ‘If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will not forgive your sins’ Matthew 6:14-15. As we have seen, we are forgiven on the grounds that Jesus suffered the punishment for our sin in his death on the cross. God’s great love made that possible. Having been freely forgiven ourselves, it is right that we should freely forgive those who have wronged us in any way.And justice?You may have heard of the father who was so disgusted by his son’s vicious beating of another teenager that he personally took him to the local police station and ‘shopped’ him! Did the father hate, disown or reject his son? No, he did it because he loved his son, and because he recognised the need for justice to be done! God is ready to forgive the very worst of offenders on the same basis as he forgives you and me. So we too must forgive. The law must play its part now, and justice on the last day when we shall all come before the judgement seat of Christ. It’s really time to talk! Michael Toogood |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
world of magic and music where she is wondrously happy. When she meets the courageous and charming Prince Edward everything is complete. All that is needed is a wedding and everyone will live happily ever after.