1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,720
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight,

2
00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:18,440
O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

3
00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:19,680
Amen.

4
00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:31,040
I once heard a politician say, in the Bible, it says they asked Jesus how many times you should forgive,

5
00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:33,800
and he said 77 times.

6
00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:37,400
Well, I want all of you to know that I'm keeping a chart.

7
00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:40,920
Sometimes I feel the same way.

8
00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:43,000
Forgiveness is hard.

9
00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:49,120
Forgiveness doesn't seem natural, especially when every single bone in your body is telling you

10
00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:51,520
to seek revenge.

11
00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:59,000
When Jesus says to Peter, you are to forgive not seven times, but 77 times, he's actually

12
00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:05,200
reversing the effects of a story told in Genesis about revenge.

13
00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:10,760
The story from Genesis says that a family who sins against another family should be

14
00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:14,840
avenged for 77 generations.

15
00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:21,320
Before we commit the heresy of Marcianism, the heresy that says that the God of the Old

16
00:01:21,320 --> 00:01:25,480
Testament is different than the God of the New Testament, that the God of the Old Testament

17
00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:30,600
is the vengeful God, and the God of the New Testament is a merciful God, it should be

18
00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:38,840
noted that this 77-year cycle or generation cycle of vengeance is actually made by a

19
00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:46,520
Lamoc, not God. Anyway, Jesus is obviously pushing against a worldview that believes

20
00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:50,240
vengeance is how justice is to be served.

21
00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:56,880
Like Lamoc's world, we too live in a world that believes that justice can be achieved

22
00:01:56,880 --> 00:01:58,920
through vengeance.

23
00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:06,160
We live in a world whose understanding of justice is punitive, in that we believe when

24
00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:13,400
the offender is punished fairly, then justice is accomplished. Once they pay for their sins,

25
00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:15,920
justice is then accomplished.

26
00:02:15,920 --> 00:02:24,680
The problem with punitive justice is that it's woefully incomplete. It can't heal wounds,

27
00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:29,680
nor neither the wound of the one who was hurt, nor the wounds of those who did the

28
00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:36,600
hurting. As Gandhi once said, an eye for an eye will leave the entire world blind.

29
00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:41,640
Jesus therefore wants to see a different kind of justice. Jesus is interested in a justice

30
00:02:41,640 --> 00:02:47,400
that we might call restorative justice, a kind of justice that seeks healing and hopes for

31
00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:54,960
reconciliation. Restorative justice not only restores the offender, but also the one who

32
00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:58,240
is the victim, the one who is sinned against.

33
00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:03,400
Rabbi Kushner tells the story of a single mother recently divorced who struggles to

34
00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:09,120
raise her three children on a meager salary. The mother resents her ex-husband who's now

35
00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:15,320
off in another state with his new wife. Meanwhile, she's left without child support and struggling

36
00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:20,120
to make ends meet. She can't even take her kids to the movies because she can't afford

37
00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:23,920
it. Then the rabbi tells her she must forgive him.

38
00:03:23,920 --> 00:03:31,200
The single mother, not surprisingly, says, how can you tell me to forgive him? The rabbi

39
00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:37,960
answers, I'm not asking you to forgive him because what he did was acceptable. It wasn't.

40
00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:43,920
It was mean. It was selfish. I'm asking you to forgive because he doesn't deserve the

41
00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:50,280
power to live in your head and turn you into a bitter angry woman. You keep on holding

42
00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:56,400
on to him. You're not hurting him by holding on to that resentment, but you're hurting

43
00:03:56,400 --> 00:04:03,320
yourself. In this post-enlightened age, it might be helpful to note that science backs

44
00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:09,200
up the truth that forgiveness is good for the victim spiritually, emotionally, physically.

45
00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:14,520
When we hold on to anger, when we hold on to resentment, we store that up in our bodies

46
00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:23,800
and our souls. When we don't forgive, we are letting the offender continue to hurt us.

47
00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:30,040
Now, I'm well aware that forgiveness is hard, that it's easier said than done. There are

48
00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:36,000
crimes committed every day that by human standards should be unforgivable. Forgiveness isn't

49
00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:40,920
something that happens overnight. It isn't really something that we can even do when

50
00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:47,800
we try harder. Actually, forgiveness is only something that can happen through a relationship

51
00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:51,200
with a God whose property is always to have mercy.

52
00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:57,720
But also, remember, forgiveness doesn't mean that the offender shouldn't experience consequences.

53
00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:05,560
It doesn't mean that the offender shouldn't be removed from whatever situation they're

54
00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:11,520
in. Forgiveness doesn't mean going back to the way things were. Rather, forgiveness

55
00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:18,240
is simply meant to free you from the sinful act, free you from letting the sinful act

56
00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:25,040
continue to hurt you. Forgiveness also doesn't mean forgetting. The scar will always be there.

57
00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:30,040
The scar will be a reminder of how you've been hurt, but it's also a reminder of how

58
00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:36,160
you've lived beyond the scar. Remember, when Jesus emerges from the tomb, his resurrected

59
00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:42,440
body still has the wounds on his hand and his feet. We too can live beyond those wounds

60
00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:48,400
with God's help. That's the hope of the gospel. However, if we hold on to that sinful act,

61
00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:53,960
we are essentially picking at the wound again and again, which makes healing impossible.

62
00:05:53,960 --> 00:06:00,400
If you need help letting go of your own sin or the sin that has happened against you,

63
00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:06,120
please let Emily or me know. If we can't help, we can find someone who can.

64
00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:10,000
After Jesus does this teaching on how often we should forgive, he tells us this parable

65
00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:16,080
of the unforgiving servant. In this parable, the slave of the servant is forgiven an astronomical

66
00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:20,200
amount, an amount that not even the number one person on the four or five hundred less

67
00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:25,840
could pay back. The same slave or servant is then asked to forgive the psalm equivalent

68
00:06:25,840 --> 00:06:31,200
to three months' pay, significantly less. The slave or servant apparently has a short

69
00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:37,320
memory and refuses to forgive. When the king who forgave this astronomical debt hears about

70
00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:42,440
this, he is infuriated and he throws his slave into debtor's prison until he can pay it back,

71
00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:47,200
which doesn't make any sense because he will never be able to make money to pay him back.

72
00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:53,480
The biblical commentators suggest that the amount initially forgiven by the king represents

73
00:06:53,480 --> 00:07:00,680
the wealth of Israel during that time, the entire GDP of the nation. One might conclude

74
00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:08,560
then that the entire debt of a country is forgiven through this one slave or servant.

75
00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:15,200
Perhaps this foreshadows the story of the cross. When through one man, the debt of all

76
00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:20,120
is forgiven. As I mentioned earlier, just because there is forgiveness doesn't mean

77
00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:26,160
that there aren't consequences. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Someone must

78
00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:32,600
bear the cost. And the cross is where the sin of the whole world is born by Jesus of

79
00:07:32,600 --> 00:07:38,960
Nazareth. And do you remember what Jesus says in Luke when he looks upon the crowd? He doesn't

80
00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:44,400
condemn them for putting them there. He doesn't curse them for the next seventy-seven generations.

81
00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:51,200
He essentially aims to stop the cycle of vengeance and violence when he says, Father, forgive

82
00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:58,000
them. They do not know what they do. They do not know what they do. This is awful generous

83
00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:03,160
of Jesus to say, to say that we don't know what we do. But now as we look at the other

84
00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:08,600
side of the cross, as we look Jesus there, hanging there, how can we not know what we've

85
00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:14,760
done? In some form or fashion we've destroyed the image of God and our brothers and sisters.

86
00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:20,680
We've failed to respect the dignity of every human being. We have forgotten that everyone

87
00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:26,560
we meet in their face is the child and image of God. So who are we then, like Paul says,

88
00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:32,960
to withhold forgiveness? God knows it is impossible to forgive the person who hurts you like

89
00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:39,240
that all on your own. God knows it's impossible to forgive yourself after you did something

90
00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:45,280
like that. But with God all things are possible. If you can't forgive for the sake of the other,

91
00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:50,640
if you can't forgive for the sake of yourself, forgive because of what God did for you and

92
00:08:50,640 --> 00:08:56,960
the whole world on the cross. God in Christ makes it possible to forgive ourselves, to

93
00:08:56,960 --> 00:09:03,520
forgive others. There is no sinful act so heinous that puts someone outside of God's

94
00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:10,440
saving embrace. When Jesus emerges from the tomb three days later, he does so carrying

95
00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:17,560
the scars that the wounds of the cross left behind. He also emerges into a new world,

96
00:09:17,560 --> 00:09:23,760
a new being, a new creation. Jesus is different. At first his disciples don't even recognize

97
00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:30,400
them. Only after seeing his scars do they believe when we forgive others, there is no

98
00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:36,960
doubt that a part of ourselves will die. A part of us will die. But if we are to move

99
00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:42,600
on, that part of us must die. Otherwise we are going to stay there right beneath the

100
00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:49,480
cross, picking that wound again and again. As Jesus three days stay in the tomb suggests,

101
00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:55,240
God does give us time to grieve that part of us that dies with forgiveness. That's

102
00:09:55,240 --> 00:10:01,320
a part of the healing process. In time though, if we let it, God's own forgiveness will

103
00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:07,680
pull us out of the tomb into the new world, a new life. On the other side of the tomb,

104
00:10:07,680 --> 00:10:12,840
we will be the same person, but our life will tell a new story. We will carry ourselves

105
00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:18,840
differently, stronger and more confident in the person God made us to be as wise as the

106
00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:24,520
serpent and as gentle as a dove. Our open wounds will have transformed into scars that

107
00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:31,120
tell a story of perseverance and hope to those who remain stuck at the foot of the cross.

108
00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:36,920
So no wonder God doesn't want to keep a chart. No wonder God is in a good home plate umpire.

109
00:10:36,920 --> 00:10:43,200
God will not rest until the power of forgiveness and the hope of resurrection transforms this

110
00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:50,640
world into the world that embraces a kind of justice that demands healing and wholeness

111
00:10:50,640 --> 00:11:16,960
for all. Amen. And now we...