Scripture Scribbles: September 17, 2023

the Gospel

Matthew 18:21-35

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
"Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive?
As many as seven times?"
Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.'
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
'Pay back what you owe.'
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
But he refused.
Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?'
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart."

the devotion

I never realized how clear these words are from Jesus! So clear! So serious! I’ve heard them for years, yet not until I had this privilege of sharing my thoughts have I ever taken a moment to really unpack the meaning behind these words.

Forgiveness.

Forgiveness sounds easy in someone else's story, but what about in our own lives? I don’t think we want to be angry, hateful, mad, hold onto grudges….do we?

Reading Matthew 18 I can almost picture myself falling on my knees before God begging for His forgiveness, and feeling a wave of relief when my “debts” have been forgiven. Rejoicing in gratitude. What if He then asks, “have you forgiven all who have hurt you?” What will my answer be? It’s so clear today reading this, we will ONLY be forgiven if we have forgiven others. Yikes! I mean come on, we have some pretty legit reasons for our unforgiveness here on earth, right? I mean some of our anger or unforgiveness is SO justified, isn’t it?

Let’s say someone hurts us badly?......Forgive!

What if they stole what was rightfully ours?....Forgive!

Ruined our reputation and turned others against us?....Forgive!

Lied, cheated, harmed our family???....Forgive?

How??

Also aren't we proud to hold onto our grudge? Don’t we even help those we love hold onto theirs? You can’t point to any family or friend who hasn't been touched by this. We bond over our hurts. We say things like “You have every right to hate them, I’ve got your back, I’m on your team! Hey, I’ll hate them too.”

So how can we forgive? We can’t. Without God. We can’t, but He can! That person that you or I hate so much… God loves them. God loves them, and, just like us, wants them in Heaven with Him too.

So if you have ever been wronged, cheated, gossipped about, lied to, I know you want to hold onto that, it's so human, so expected, so accepted, but not by God. God wants us to forgive, so we can be forgiven.

Now I know, our humanness gets in the way, let's face it, some people are pretty unlovable! Some are awful! Love them? How? Why? Because God loves them. God loves us all. God forgives us all. God wants us all to spend Eternity in Heaven with Him.

Today’s devotion is written by Beth Brennan