8/7/13:

TFTD: “Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” Matthew 18:21-22

Are you sinful? When was the last time you tried to take a sabbatical from sinning and succeeded? Never? I know, me either. Sin has been around since Adam and Eve and will be around until Jesus comes again. It is something that we can help. We are born sinful and have no way to prevent it. There are no medications or 12 step programs that will cure it or help you deal with the cravings, and generally when we sin we feel pretty good right afterwards. It is this never ending cycle that we are stuck in. We sin, enjoy it, and sin some more. Sometimes it even leads to bigger sins. All I can think about is a prank war. Somebody pranks someone else, and all that happens is revenge and it escalates from there until someone gets hurt. It’s vicious. How do you come back from that? You apologize right? But what if they keep hurting you or you keep hurting them? Apologies seem kind of null and void then don’t they?

            That’s not what this parable is about in the bible. Peter, quite possibly my favorite disciple, comes to Jesus and asks how often we have to forgive those who sin against us and hurt us. I think he asks this because he doesn’t like getting hurt and continually forgiving others. He wants Jesus to give him a limit so then he would know when to exact his revenge on other people. But of course Jesus has another idea. He says forgive until you can’t forgive any more, and then some. That is what we are called to do as children of God. Forgive because He first forgave us, and continues to forgive us more than we can ask or imagine. So next time you just can’t or don’t want to forgive remember that you can do it because He did first.

“The more we experience His forgiveness, the more we’ll forgive those who inflame our passion for revenge.”- Zig Ziglar