Debts

Can all sins be forgiven?

Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. ‘For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow-slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, “Pay what you owe.” Then his fellow-slave fell down and pleaded with him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.” But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow-slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he should pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’ - Matthew 18:21-35

We know God forgives us when we repent and turn to Him, but what about one another? How do we ask for and gain forgiveness from each other?

Jesus talks about forgiveness of debt, because it is easier to understand for us than forgiveness of sin.  In The Lord's Prayer, we use the words "Debts" and "Trespasses" interchangeably, hoping one or the other would resonate.  But a trespass is something we do, and a debt could be inherited.

Inherited debts are the ones we didn't plan on having to deal with, like a mortgage of a parent or a timeshare maintenance agreement that goes on forever.

If we don't want our children to have to deal with these things, we have to pay them or have them forgiven.  That could be a tough thing to do.

Debt can be passed down through generations, until the potential recipients and payers are so numerous, paying the debt seems impossible.

The reason it becomes impossible is that the effect of not having had the debt paid back decades before has multiplied its impact on those living without that money.  So, the value to all involved become insurmountable.

This is the situation with reparations in this country.  The payment, no matter how large, would never be enough to compensate for the damage done by not having paid the debt earlier.

The longer we wait, the bigger the gap and the more frustrated we all become.

This is why Jesus tells us to forgive early and often.  The pain of loss is felt once and then there is hope of healing.

But when we fail to forgive one another, we let the emotions fester, until we are at odds.  And ironically, the situation we are trying to resolve becomes more manifest.

There will always be people who harbor ill-will and even hatred toward others for whatever reason, and even no reason.  We will never be able to prevent or erase that from society.  But we can reach out and hold onto one another as brothers and sisters and set a new example, one we didn't inherit from the past.

Then maybe our children won't be fighting the same battles.

More to come...