SIN AND FORGIVENESS
Matthew 18
“If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.” (Matthew 18:8-9)
It is a balance that is difficult to achieve. On the one hand is the terrible scourge that is sin, a scourge that leads us to the fire of hell. Think of an epidemic that leads to certain death and you can understand the determination of the community to get rid of it, even resorting to taking drastic measures.
Since the final step of dealing with sin in the Christian community is excommunication, the passage we considered cannot be about a matter that is merely personal. Christ calls on us to take sin seriously, even to the extent of removing a person’s salvation from him when he refuses to repent. There are no specific details about what matters demand such drastic actions and we must conclude that it is left to the wisdom of the community.
But immediately after that passage, Matthew posed the question, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus’ response is that there should be no limit to our willingness to forgive and added a parable that highlights the reason why: because God has forgiven us for infinitely more.
There are practical matters to consider when we speak of specific situations. I do think that we should not take this to be a blanket injunction. In the context it basically supplies the basis for why we are expected to be generous and forgiving towards our fellow brother and sister.
The conclusion that Jesus drew from his parable, however, is worth thinking over:“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
I think Jesus meant that when we are unforgiving, it reveals that we have actually not experienced forgiveness, because that forgiveness given to us has not been taken to heart. The heart was unmoved.
I recall Jesus’ words to Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7 implying that if your heart has not been drawn to love, the likelihood is that you have not been truly forgiven.
“Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” (Luke 7)