5 March 2024 Matthew 18:21-35
It would be easy to forgive if those who have hurt or offended us recognized their wrongdoing, and were changed by our mercy, made better by it. Of course, if forgiveness were that easy, everyone would do it.
The reality is that most of those who have hurt or offended us seldom recognize their wrongdoing, and don’t care about our mercy. They may even mock it, or scorn it as weakness. Our mercy often makes them worse. Yet Jesus says we are still to forgive them “from our hearts.” No faking it, or just going through the motions. From the heart – no kidding.
Of course, this comes from the same Jesus who didn’t trust crowds, who thought them self-consumed, and uninterested in His agenda, only interested in their own: “But Jesus would not trust Himself to them because He knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He Himself understood it well” (John 2:24-25). Presumably Jesus forgave the crowds from His heart, but that didn’t mean he trusted them, or allowed them close enough to tamper with His intentions. Forgiving someone “from the heart,” is not the same thing as trusting. We can forgive in the sense that we actively desire the good of our offenders, that we truly wish no evil upon them, that we do not resent any of their worthy honors, successes or pleasures. But we don’t have to trust them. We don’t have to allow them close enough to tamper again with our peace.
This teaching on forgiveness comes from the same Jesus who prayed for those who were killing him, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:24). He knew for a fact that His forgiveness would not change a thing about his persecutors. In the same way, forgiveness does not suggest or require that our mercy have any noticeable effect on those who hurt us. Forgiveness isn’t to change them, but to change us into people whose lives cannot be set on fire by our own hate or the hate of others, people whose peace is beyond the reach of the careless, tactless, mindless or heartless. We can forgive from the heart even if no one notices or cares.
This teaching on forgiveness comes from the same Jesus who also told us to “shake the dust off our feet” as testimony against those who will not hear our testimony about Him (Luke 9:5). It comes from the same Jesus who said, “Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine” (Matthew 7:6). We can, it seems, forgive people from the heart, and still be perfectly candid about what sort of people they actually are. Perfect candor, faithful candor, is in fact a form of mercy, a truth-telling that makes people free.
This teaching on forgiveness comes from the same Jesus who said a great many things that exist in tension with each other, that we are obliged to hold together, none of which we may reject or deny on pain of “the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13). Forgiveness from the heart, in other words, is a work of the spiritually mature, the biblically literate, and the intellectually disciplined. To be careless in our forgiving is as grave a sin as being careless in the company we keep, the amusements we enjoy, or the money we spend. Forgiveness is the currency of heaven – it is a medium of exchange by which people gain the vision of God. And as with the other kind of currency that Jesus talked about (cf. the Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14-30) we must invest wisely so that the vision grows. Investing forgiveness foolishly, or not at all, is the path to hell.
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