Matthew 5:7

“God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

Jesus told many stories that make us sit up. One of the most powerful was the story of the king who was owed an enormous amount of money by one of his servants (Matthew 18:21–35). The man couldn’t possibly pay his debt. The servant fell on his knees and begged the king to be patient. The king took pity on him and cancelled the debt. The relief must have been incredible. The servant then went out and met a friend who owed him a trivial amount - but the servant demanded that he be paid back in full and threw the friend into prison until he recovered all his money. When the king heard this, he was incensed and ordered that the servant who had been let off the most enormous debt be thrown into prison and tortured until he paid back every last penny. Ouch. Jesus concluded by saying that that was exactly how his heavenly Father would treat anyone who failed to show forgiveness to others.

God wants to show us his mercy and forgiveness, but we are then under an obligation to pass it on. It isn’t a choice, and it isn’t easy. Forgiveness is a gift and there is no way in which we could ever deserve to be forgiven by God. Justice would demand that our sins are judged severely. The debt is well beyond anything we could ever repay. But God in his mercy and love has chosen to let us go free, and to give us complete forgiveness. We need to remind ourselves constantly of how incredible it is that God should ever have forgiven us. And then we must never forget that we are commissioned to pass on forgiveness to those who deliberately wrong us, to those who are unkind to us and to those who make our lives a misery. They don’t deserve forgiveness any more than we did, but we are charged with passing on the forgiveness that God has generously given to us.

Question

What have you learned from the times when you have forgiven other people?

Prayer

Lord God, thank you for your gift of forgiveness. Help me always to be ready to pass on that gift to others. Amen