“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

This phrase more than any other in this prayer challenges me. It challenges me on a daily basis. And I believe that was the intent of Jesus when he taught us to pray this way. This seems to be one of the crucial elements of this prayer. I say that, because immediately following this teaching, in the very next verse in fact, Jesus expounds on this thought.

For if you forgive others their trespasses,

So let’s go back and look at this petition a bit more carefully. What exactly are we asking God to do in this petition? The first half of this phrase is a pretty straightforward ask for forgiveness - nothing difficult there. It is the way the second half of this petition is connected to the first half that makes this request challenging.

Consider “as we also have forgiven our debtors”. In framing this request in this way the thing we are really asking God for is something pretty shocking. This statement could be rephrased as, “Oh Father, forgive us in the same way that we have forgiven others.” We are asking God to treat us the way we treat others. This is a very powerful thought.

Contingent Forgiveness??

To make our forgiveness contingent on our forgiveness of others just feels wrong. I react negatively to that almost by instinct, all the teaching I have received regarding the infinite and unconditional love of God explodes in my head. Is Jesus making my forgiveness conditional on my actions?

Before we go on it is important that we just don’t answer nah…

It is extremely dangerous to deal with difficult verses by denial.

Jesus said what he said, we don’t get to just dismiss it because it doesn’t sit well with our understanding of grace or some such thing. We need to look at what Jesus is saying here and elsewhere and see if we can find a consistent thread in it all. We have to do the hard work of Bible interpretation.

How are we forgiven?

To begin, we have numerous examples in the New Testament of Jesus forgiving the sins of people on the spot, just as he found them. They did nothing to be forgiven, sometimes they did not even ask for forgiveness, as in the story of the paralytic that was lowered down by his friends for Jesus to heal. So it seems clear that our forgiveness comes as a gift from God, paid for by Jesus who was himself the channel of God’s grace to humanity. With this in mind, how can forgiveness be withheld by the Father? To understand this we need to consider another story from Matthew:

Then Peter came up and said to him,

This story neatly describes the concept that Jesus put into just a few words in the Lord’s prayer. Freely and generously we have been forgiven, so we must also forgive others - freely and generously. If not, we are in danger of forfeiting our own forgiveness.

Another point that is made in this story is the magnitude of our forgiveness. Peter asks, “should I forgive my brother 7 times?". Seven was not just a number but was thought of symbolically as completeness or perfect fullness. Jesus takes Peter’s 7 multiplies it by 10 and then by 7 again. In other words fullness times 10 times fullness again Peter. Or to put it another way our forgiveness is to have no limits. Then he tells this story to make it even more clear.

This servant owed 10,000 talents. It is estimated that it would take a day laborer about 225,000 to 275,000 years to earn that much. In other words he owed a debt he could not pay in a thousand lifetimes. By comparison, the servant that owed him money only owed him about 3 months pay.

This is the real story here. Jesus wanted Peter and everyone else that would hear to understand the relative value of God’s forgiveness of my sin compared to the trivial debts that others might owe to me. Without this perspective it would be easy for us to fall into the sin of this ungrateful and selfish servant who was thinking only of the cost to himself.

So yes, it seems that there is a consequence for failing to respond properly to the completely unmerited grace of God that has been freely given to us. The proper response to a gift of this magnitude is generosity. The outrageous mercy we have been given from God, we are to give to others. We did not deserve this generosity any more than that pitifully indebted servant did. So we can in turn give this grace to anyone and everyone that sins against us no matter how unworthy we feel they are.

Walking this out today

So how do we forgive those that have truly hurt us, today? To be clear forgiveness does not require forgetting. I seriously doubt that Jesus has forgotten the cross. Forgiveness is marking a debt paid in full. It is releasing someone from what they “owe” us. We no longer hold this offense over their head. We no longer imagine hurt for them. We bless instead of curse. We can and must love and forgive even our enemies as Jesus commands.

This is obviously easier to say than to do, but if we commit to forgiveness we are not on our own. We have the grace of God flowing through us to others. The strength to do this is not ours but it is the strength of Jesus working through us. It is his ability to forgive that we need to trust in, if we are to find the strength to forgive others. We have been given that grace in Jesus - now it is only right that we share that grace with others.

And one last thing, as we release others we set ourselves free from this hurt in the process. Join me in letting the blessing of Jesus flow through us to others this week. We are the body of Christ.

Have a great week!