Mercy & Forgiveness that Extend
Most of us know and operate our lives on a day-to-day basis with a certain level of tolerance for one another; showing grace toward one another in the little things. There is a certain element of overlooking someone's mistakes that helps us move on.
A forgotten stamp on an envelope, a forgotten birthday wish, a missed lunch, a dent on the car for a ride and so on. We do, most often times, overlook and move on to keep going along in our relationships and our lives. Without this sense of overlooking, we probably cannot get through a day, lest we just pile up a huge list of wrong-doings.
All of us know what it means to forgive in some sense. There is a cost if you forgive. If you overlook an offense you take the hit. It is up to you what to do with it: rectify and move on or hang on for the opportune moment.
What if the offense is deep, one that changes the course of a week, day, month or even a year? What if the effect of the hurt changes everything you have ever planned to do in life? What if the hurt has dramatically affected the way we perceive ourselves and the world around us? What if it was a near-death experience involving a great deal of emotional and physical pain? How do we approach difficult issues such as these?
It seems that Peter is raising a similar question to Jesus Christ (Matt 18:21-25) by asking how many times one can forgive? He wants to find a reasonable limit, so we could say "that's all, on the next one I'm going to return the favor". This leads us into one of the greatest parables on the lifestyle of citizens of the kingdom: forgiveness.
We see that the servant owes an insurmountable amount of debt (v.24). Leaving aside the currency and the calculations, it was so high that the servant, his wife and children had to be put on sale! (v.25). The affected party is the King himself. The servant pleads for mercy. A mere pleading did not help the servant, but the King's compassion drove him to act mercifully (v.27). The King takes the hit to his treasury and lets the servant go. He forgives him.
Later, the same servant does exactly the opposite; it almost seems like he forgot what he had been given. He could not forgive a small portion of a debt somebody owed him (v.28), rather he was unmerciful, even though he had been a recipient of great mercy. He was a liberated citizen of the kingdom with all charges dropped and was granted freedom, yet he seemed to have lost track of the mercy he was shown. What a tragedy!
To live in the kingdom of God is to live a liberated life, full of freedom.
In the kingdom of Jesus Christ, He takes us as his own, He forgives us (Luke 23:34), He makes us new creatures (2 Cor 5:17), clears all of our debts and the penalty due (Rom 8:1), makes peace with God (Rom 5:1) and grants us eternal life (Rom 6:23b). All of the effects of the offenses against us are cancelled off with each gift Jesus gives us in the kingdom.
He cancels the sin, the guilt, the shame and the hurt that these offenses bring to us and clothes us with his righteousness, restoring our dignity (2 Cor 5:21).
He forgives and heals all the wounds (Ps. 103:3, 147:3, Isaiah 42:3).
This too-good-to-be-true truth of the Gospel is true for all who believe in Jesus Christ. And those who live in the kingdom, can they forget His benefits? (Ps.103:2-5) Those whom He has granted mercy, can they be unmerciful? No, this parable serves as a great warning, a wake up call to those of us who haven't realized the worth of the pearl of forgiveness dropped into our lives. Those of us who have a compartmentalized view of God's forgiveness as some private area of life which doesn't influence our dealings with other people must take a serious look at what has been given to us. To those who have tasted his mercy, he calls, or even expects, them to be the extenders of his mercy to others (v.35).
Those of us whom God has forgiven, are called to live a life of forgiveness to the fullest degree, and experience what it means to be truly free; truly free to forgive. And thereby showing the world that we have been truly forgiven (Col 3:13), showing the world that we trust in the God of justice who will settle all accounts in complete fairness (Rom 12:17-21).
Today, I write this as a man deeply wounded by the sin of others and at the same time as the one who has sinned greatly against God. Yet I stand as a forgiven-sinner who has received the pardon at the cross, a mercy that I never deserved. Yes, the hurt, the pain and the devastating effects are real but the good news of the Gospel is that we are free of everything an unforgiving heart brings. God declares to us that, in Christ, grace abounds all the more (Rom 5:20), reversing all the damage sin brought into our lives, healing us, liberating us to forgive.
If in Christ we are new creatures, free of ourselves, how can we keep clinging on to the things that keep us in bondage?
To receive Christ is the greatest gift of all; this precious gift is nothing but sheer mercy. How can we not live out this mercy? How could we ever keep it to ourselves?
Tony Kolluri is a sinner saved by grace, attends Wilcrest Baptist Church in Houston (Texas) where he strives to be a follower of Christ while making disciples in a multi-ethnic church for the glory of God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
