Christ Church  

Morningside

Forgiveness

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother/sister when they sin against me?  Up to seven times?”  Matthew 18:21

I want to tell you a joke – it’s old and corny - but I was trying to remember a joke that had to do with forgiveness (not an easy task), and this is the best I could do:

One Sunday morning the minister’s sermon was on the theme of ‘forgive your enemies’.  At the beginning of his sermon he said to the congregation, “Will everyone who has forgiven their enemies please raise their hands.”  About half of the people put up their hands.

The minister said, “I think we can do a bit better than that.  Let’s try a little harder.”  So, after a moment of prayer he said, “I will now repeat my question.  Will everyone who has forgiven their enemies please raise their hands.”  This time about 80% of the congregation put up their hands.

“Hmm”, said the minister, “Can we do better still?”  After a slightly longer moment of prayer he said, “Will everyone who has now forgiven their enemies please raise their hands.”  And this time everyone put up their hands.  Everyone, that is, except one elderly lady sitting in the side aisle.

Looking down from the pulpit, the minister said in a somewhat surprised voice, “Mrs. Jones, are you not willing to forgive your enemies as our Lord instructed?”

“I don’t have any enemies.”  Came the reply.

“Mrs. Jones, that is very unusual indeed.’  Said the minister.  “May I inquire as to your age?” 

To which Mrs. Jones replied, “I am ninety-three.”

“Mrs. Jones,” said the minister, “That is astounding!  Would you like to come up to the pulpit and tell the congregation how a person of your advanced years hasn’t a single enemy to forgive.”

“Oh, that simple,” said the canny nonagenarian as she walked up the aisle, “I outlived them all!”

Forgive your enemies.

Forgiveness.. .

I think it was Sir Francis Bacon who once said, “We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends.”

Sentiments echoed by William Blake who once wrote, “It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”

Something to think about…

Forgiveness…

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother/sister when they sin against me?  Up to seven times?”

The Rabbis and religious teachers of Jesus’ day taught that it was important to forgive, and to forgive even one’s enemies.  In fact they went so far as to put a number of the amount of times one should forgive - three times – but after that, well…  So Peter was trying to go the extra mile, so-to-speak, to be extra generous when he asked if he should forgive up to seven times.  Seven is not only a lot more than three, but is also the perfect, divine number.  The number of heavenly bodies visible with the naked eye; the division of the lunar month of 29.5 days into quarters; the seventh is the Sabbath day and so on, but all of this is another story.  (taken from The Bible’s Hidden Cosmology, Gordon Strachan)

The point is that by offering to forgive even his enemies seven times, rather than the prescribes three, Peter was saying that he was prepared to go the extra mile, to make a special effort.  So he must have been not only surprised, but perhaps offended even by the reply he got.  “Jesus said, “I tell you not seven times, but seventy times seven.”  Or 490 to be precise, or in reality more time than you could count or keep track of.  What Jesus was saying was that not only shouldn’t you keep count, but that there was no, and should be no limit to one’s forgiveness.

Forgiveness...  70 times 7.

Is this possible?  Is this reasonable?  Is this fair?

Is it possible?

Billy Graham, perhaps the most famous evangelist of our time, once told a rather startled congregation the following observation:

“There is something that I can do that God can’t.”  He said.  Of course his audience couldn’t make out what he was talking about.  What could Billy Graham do, or claim to do, that God couldn’t (this was surely sailing a little too close to the theological edge!).

“There is something I can do that God can’t.”  He said, “Do you know what it is?  I can remember my sins.”

It’s no accident that the word forgiveness shares the same root as the word forget.  Forgive; forget.  Forgive and forget, as the old proverb goes.

Is it possible to forgive seventy times seven?

        In as far as we share the Divine life of God, yes it is.

                In as much as we are on the journey towards the Kingdom of God , yes it is.

                        In as much as we are open to the work of the Holy Spirit (God’s presence) in our lives, yes it is.

                                How many times have we been forgiven?

Is it reasonable?

The short answer to that is no.

        No, it is not reasonable to forgive your enemies.

                No it is no reasonable to keep on forgiving your enemies.

                        No, it is not reasonable to ‘turn the other cheek’.

              But it is the only way to survive.

Any psychologist, counsellor, psychoanalyst or cleric will tell you that the only way to healing is along the path of forgiveness.  In other words, one can only begin to come to terms with loss, grief, anger, insult or the consequences of personal attack or injury when one begins the process of forgiveness.

And forgiveness is both a process – an on-going event – as well as an act of will.  Something one decides to do.  Forgiveness rarely comes naturally.  Forgiveness is a process one has to cultivate, to work on, to decide to do.

Forgiveness…

Is it possible?  Is it reasonable?  Is it fair?

Is it fair?

No more fair or unfair than what has been done for us.

Hilary Clinton was once quoted as saying:

“In the Bible it says that they asked Jesus how many times you should forgive, and he said, 70 times 7.  Well, I want you all to know that I’m keeping a chart.”

Contrary to what some might think, I am glad to say that God is not keeping a chart – which is good – for me.

I was reading about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission a few weeks ago.  You might remember that after the African National Congress Party came to power in South Africa - after decades, one might say centuries, of discrimination against the black majority population by a white British and Dutch colonialists – instead of putting the men (and women) who were responsible for all the suffering under the Apartheid system up for trial - the black government formed what was called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  This had the purpose of:

“PROMOTION OF NATIONAL UNITY AND RECONCILIATION ACT, 1995.

It is hereby notified that the President has assented to the following Act, which is hereby published for general information:-

ACT:
To provide for the investigation and the establishment of as complete a picture as possible of the nature, causes and extent of gross violations of human rights committed during the period from 1 March 1960 to the cut-off date contemplated in the Constitution, within or outside the Republic, emanating from the conflicts of the past, and the fate or whereabouts of the victims of such violations; the granting of amnesty to persons who make full disclosure of all the relevant facts relating to acts associated with a political objective committed in the course of the conflicts of the past during the said period; affording victims an opportunity to relate the violations they suffered; the taking of measures aimed at the granting of reparation to, and the rehabilitation and the restoration of the human and civil dignity of, victims of violations of human rights;”

  As Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu (the chair of the Commission) said many times over, it would have been easy to have a bloodbath in South Africa following the establishment of majority rule, but what purpose would that have served?  The only way to truly move on as individuals, as peoples and as a nation was:

• to recall the events as accurately as possible
• to allow victims and perpetrators to tell their stories
• and to then begin the long process of forgiveness.

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother/sister when they sin against me?  Up to seven times?” 

Forgiveness...

Is it possible?  Is it reasonable?  Is it fair?

Is there any other way?

Simon Justice                                                                     .
11th September 2005                                                                          .