Matthew 18:21-35 - Book of Forgiveness (9-14-08)

This past week I read the One Minute Apology by Ken Blanchard. In it I found some very useful tools to understanding the need to apologize and some steps in dealing with broken mistrust. It was a very good book to listen to and only two discs. Apologizing is about you going and declaring that you were in the wrong. It was a good book about apologizing regardless of the NATO – Not About The Outcome! This book is about the Outcome of apologizing, which is forgiveness. This book relates to many different topics but forgiveness runs throughout.
God created us to live in relational harmony with God and others. Sin breaks that relationship and it causes separation, alienation, and estrangement. Barriers arise. Oneness is lost. The good news is that we are first to receive forgiveness from God through Christ and then we are called to forgive others. Forgiveness removes the barriers between persons caused by wrongdoing, real or imagined. The main word for forgiveness means to let go, send away and pardon. In forgiveness, barriers are removed as sins are sent away and persons are drawn together in relationships.
Joseph’s brothers didn’t deserve to be forgiven. Do I sit in the place of God? Revenge is not ours. Then Joseph said, “What you intended for evil God has turned for good. Good comes out of forgiveness. Healing and mutual peace is found in this act. Perhaps we are more comfortable with Christ in print than in practice. Forgiveness is the heart of this book while unforgiveness is a book we have all written that has many pages full of stuff that we haven’t surrendered.
Peter asked Jesus another question: “If another member of the community sins against me” – sounds like this is going to happen. Jesus already said earlier in Matthew how to deal with someone who needs to be forgiven. This isn’t about allowing someone to abuse you or not confronting with love those who refuse to apologize. We have received a page of the book while God holds the entire book of life. We have words written down that we ask God today to wipe the slate clean.
WHY FORGIVE? The words jumped off the face of Time magazine, January 9, 1984, even as the cover picture shocked the world. With his left arm in fatherly fashion around Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who had attempted to take the Pontiff’s life, Pope John Paul II tenderly embraced the right hand that had aimed and fired a near deadly round into his person on May 13, 1981. Whispering words of pardon, the Pope forgave his would-be assassin.