Today we embark on a journey to deal with the foundation of our faith and the most difficult part of our faith to practice.

  

“My desire to do the good has very little to do with the other emotions that stir within me.”

  

The expectation and admiration of Black People’s Forgiveness is about protecting whiteness. It enables white denial about the harms that racist violence creates. Our constant forgiveness perpetuates the cycle of attacks and abuse. Quick forgiveness translates into the inability to hold perpetrators of injustice accountable for their behavior.

-Stacey Patton

If you get angry, it is contagious, and you end up acting as bad as the perpetrators. The current angry approach could lead to short term gains but in the end will only divide the country rather than unify it.

-Barbara Reynolds

We continue to believe that forgiveness makes a person superior and if they can’t manage something so simple, the fault lies with them.

-Sabine Birdsong

We condemn persons who won’t forgive, saying they are poisoning themselves which is tantamount to another Abrahamic culturally ingrained guilt trip. In short, it is victim blaming. This serves only to help abusers who can act with impunity because no matter the grave depths of their actions, they can rest in smug assurance that they will be forgiven. We need to rewrite the outdated narratives of forgiveness which idealizes the pseudo-spiritual fairy tale of redemption and forgiveness over the inherit right for people not to be abused.

-Sabine Birdsong

  

Regardless, the human need for forgiveness is a strong present reality no matter how much we philosophize about it.

These are deep and meaningful questions:

• Do I forgive someone who does not seek my forgiveness?
• Do I forgive someone who keeps reoffending me?
• Do I forgive someone who thinks they have done no wrong?
• Do I forgive someone who does not repent?
• How does Forgiveness harmonize with Justice?
• Does forgiveness prohibit me from seeking Justice?
• What about when I want to forgive but I just can’t do it?

All of these question cannot possibly be answered until we understand the foundational--fundamental truth of what it is to be a Christian. And how forgiveness, love, mercy, and justice are related.

Then Peter came and said to Him, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’

-Matthew 18:21-22

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 6:14-15

For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made.

-Matthew 18:23-25

1 talent = vast sum of money and the average salary for one year of work.

So, the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, 'Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.'

-Matthew 18:26

‘And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.’

-Matthew 18:27

When the servant asks for patience:

He uses the word: makrothumeo: slow to boil or melt.

Old English Translation: Long-suffering.

Patience is the ability to bear suffering rather than giving into it. This word hints at the cost of forgiveness.

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.

-Matthew 18:28-30

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: 31-34

  

We owe God supreme love, gratitude, dependence and obedience. But that is not what we give Him.

  

  

What does all of this mean?

  

One: Forgiveness is difficult for us to receive.

  

Two: Forgiveness is not merely difficult for us, it’s difficult for God.

  

Three: Forgiveness is also difficult for us to grant.

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.

-Matthew 18:29-30

  

“False understandings of repentance and forgiveness are spiritually and socially fatal.”

  

God (The King) did four things:

  

First: vs 24: The King had the man brought to him and named the debt.

  

Second: vs 27: The King took pity on him.

  

Third: vs 27: The King Canceled the debt.

  

Fourth: vs 27: The King let him go.

Here is what forgiveness is:

• Name the trespass.
• Identity with the perpetrator.
• Forgive the debt. It will cost you something.
• Reconcile.

Patience: makrothumeo: Let me boil this frog slowly!

  

Jesus says: “You owe. I’ll pay!”

  

“Most people who profess to have asked for God’s forgiveness have not been transformed by it.”

If you believe the gospel—that you are saved by sheer grace and the free forgiveness of God—and you still hold a grudge—at the very least it shows that you are blocking the actual effect of the gospel in your life, or you’re kidding yourself and perhaps you don’t believe the gospel at all.

-Tim Keller

  

Your relationship to God influences your relationship to everyone and everything else.

  

  

Growing the wings of forgiveness is a byproduct of communion with God.

  

  

  

  

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