Medical condition
This week I found out I have a medical condition. Sometimes medical related news can be bad news, but this is actually good news! This condition means: decreased likelihood of cardiovascular issues, lower blood pressure, improved social interaction, decreased chance of depression & anxiety, lower cholesterol, and improved sleep!
This condition is called “forgiveness.” Yes, medical science has detected forgiveness and shown it has a positive impact on your mind and body.[1] Forgiveness is not some abstract idea. Forgiveness is real, even medical science can detect it.
What is forgiveness?
Medical science has limits and can only discover so much. Scripture reveals much more, as it was written by the Creator of the universe himself. To help us understand, Scripture uses dozens of different word pictures, metaphors, and parables to describe forgiveness so we can grasp it. Some include: dirty/clean, guilty/acquitted, sick/healed, old/new, dead/alive, slave/free. One of the word pictures that Jesus uses is debt.
Parable of the forgiving master (Matthew 18:23–35)
Jesus says in Matthew chapter 18, 23 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his workers. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him.” The text actually says ten thousand talents. A “talent” was the largest unit of measurement in ancient Israel, about 20 years of work. So 10,000 talents is roughly 5,000 lifetimes (assuming 40 years of work per life). If Jesus were telling the parable today, he might use the word “billion” or perhaps even “zillion.”
Let’s think about this: this worker must have made some bad decisions in his life. There is probably regret and bitterness. He’s chained to his past. He’s accumulated an unfathomable debt. There is no way to pay it back. Even if he worked the rest of his life, he’d hardly make a dent. The weight of the past is pressing down on him. He’s bound in chains. Suffocating. Have you ever made a bad decision? Can you relate to this worker?
Our decisions — good or bad — have consequences. Jesus continues, 25 “Since [the worker] was not able to pay, the master ordered that he … and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26 At this the worker fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.”
Wow! The debt is gone. The bonds chaining him to the past are severed with bolt-cutters. The weight is lifted. This is forgiveness! The worker is free from the past and has a new future. Instead of worrying about his debt, his life has just opened up before him.
Forgiveness is total and absolute
Forgiveness is more total and absolute than we tend to think. The king doesn’t put the worker on a payment plan: “each week you do this, this, and this to pay back what you owe.” No! The debt is totally wiped out. Forgiveness doesn’t mean a lick of paint on something old, but making something new. Forgiveness is not a band-aid on a sick person, but the person is totally healed. It’s not a payment plan, but the debt is totally wiped out!
Jesus is the source of forgiveness
Jesus is the source of this forgiveness that God offers. Like Moses who pleaded with God to forgive the grumbling Israelites in the desert (Numbers 14), Jesus took on human form and hung on the cross pleading with God for you. “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34), he pleads. God looks down and sees his Son with whom he is well-pleased, and says “I have forgiven them, as you asked” (Numbers 14:20). God does this because he is ‘slow to anger, abounding in love’ (Numbers 14:18).
Forgiveness is an action. Not an abstract theory, not something in your head, but action. Jesus hanging on the cross and walking free from the tomb is action. God saying “Your sins are forgiven” is action (called a “speech action”). When the pastor says “I declare that your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” that is an action. Nowhere else on all the earth will you experience this action, will you hear someone say “Your sins are forgiven. I unreservedly accept you. I am abounding in steadfast love and mercy, and I’ve shown you by my actions. You are forgiven and free.” This is the reason I come to church, it’s the reason I’m a pastor!
Forgiveness is contagious
This total unconditional forgiveness affects who we are. It transforms us. This medical condition “forgiveness” that we have is contagious. When the debt is wiped out, when the chains to our past are cut free, a new future opens up. A future where we share the forgiveness we’ve received with others. Forgiveness is contagious. It can easily go “viral,” like a video on social media, and dangerously spread to friends and family.
Forgiveness is received
But if we continue with the parable we hear something strange. The worker seems unchanged by the act of forgiveness!
28 “The worker … found one of his fellow workers who owed him a hundred silver coins [100 days work]. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. 29 His fellow worker fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ 30 But he refused. Instead, he … had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.” The master hears of this, so throws the unforgiving worker in jail to be tortured.
What’s going on here? Is Jesus guilting us into forgiveness? “If you don’t forgive people, then the big bad God is going to come get you and torture you. So you better forgive.” No! Jesus is showing us what happens when we refuse to receive the forgiveness God offers. The worker was not changed by the act of forgiveness; he didn’t receive it into his heart. He remained dirty, guilty, sick, old, dead, a slave to his past. So he tries to collect his old debts. He is unforgiving with others. His life is not changed.
“Forgive us our debts”
When we pray “Forgive us our debts” you fall to your knees and ask God (again) to wipe out your zillion dollar debt. He doesn’t put you on a payment plan, but looks at his Son Jesus on the cross and says “Yes, the debt is cancelled, you are free.” The bolt-cutters have severed the chains to your past and your entire future is opened up to you.
How will you respond? Are you ready to pray this prayer and receive God’s forgiveness, perhaps for the first time or perhaps for the five hundredth time?
“As we forgive our debtors”
But be warned! Forgiveness is contagious. Once you catch it, it’ll go viral in your life. Once you receive your master’s forgiveness, and become a new person, you’ll infect others with forgiveness too. The prayer “Forgive us our debts” will immediately lead to “as we forgive our debtors.” Is there someone in your life you need to forgive? Or maybe someone, who you need to confess your sin and ask for forgiveness? But remember that forgiveness is an action — you just can’t think it in your head, but need to physically take your body to the person to say it and do it.
Conclusion
You owed 5,000 life times of debt. A zillion dollars. You were sick. You were dead. You were a slave. But now, because of what Jesus has done, the debt has been totally and absolutely wiped out. You are healed. You are alive. You are free from the past, and your future is open. Let’s spread this dangerous contamination with others! Let’s share the forgiveness of Jesus! Let us pray “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Yes, this is most certainly true. Amen.”
[1] https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/healthy_aging/healthy_connections/forgiveness-your-health-depends-on-it
