the unmerciful servant

   Last night while I was working things were a bit slow.  Times like these mean my mind could drift anywhere, and in that instance I though about a podcast I listened to of a sermon our pastor gave a few weeks ago.  It's entitled "I Don't Want to Forgive," and really challenged our sinful human nature.  The reference passage was Matthew 18:21-35, which is the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant.  A servant has an insurmountable debt, one that his many generations to follow would be enslaved for in an effort to pay it back.  The king does the unimaginable and forgives the slave of all debts and sends him on his way.  The servant, however, refuses to forgive the debt that is owed to him by his own slave.  Finding out what had happened, "the Master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed." 
   This so perfectly demonstrates our lives in relation to the sacrifice Christ has made.  Never will we be able to fathom the grace, mercy, and forgiveness that has been given to us, nor will we ever be able to repay it. And while we are so grateful that we can live freely in Christ, knowing that our sins are forgiven and we will spend eternity with him....we struggle to forgive others for the trespasses we feel have been committed against us.  There are certain people that have wounded us so badly, and others that we feel have reached their "forgivable limit," and have just done too much.
   In the beginning of the parable though, Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive someone that sins against him? Seven times?  Jesus tells him no, not seven, but seventy-seven times.  In other words--as much as it takes. 

   This is hard to swallow sometimes, because forgiveness is hard and often painful, because it means we have to face a situation head-on....no denial and no running away.  At times we feel that when we hold back forgiveness, we're in control of the situation, and that once we start the process of forgiving that person...we'll lose all control and will end up being hurt all over again.  But in reality, it holds us captive, and robs us of any possibility of a healthy relationship.  And even if reconciliation isn't a possibility (because forgiving doesn't mean reconciling), it sets us free within other relationships that had been effected as well.  Because holding that bitterness and unforgivenss in, doesn't just affect those two people....it affects everyone connected in any way.  Satan isn't going to use our selfish human nature to just destroy one relationship, he's going to use it to get as many around us as he can.

   At the end we were challenged to think of who we needed to forgive.  Everyone has at least one person that they're still holding things against that they just can't let go of.  Things maybe they've repressed, things maybe they're trying to get revenge for, or things that maybe have caused bitterness and resentment to build up.  We need to seek God and His wisdom and help, because we can't handle it on our own.  I know that I've failed in this area because I tried to do it without Him, and it doesn't work.  And I think it's important that once we've reached a point of forgiveness, where we've truly let God take it from us and we are freed from the burden, that we talk to whoever it is that we've forgiven and let them know, regardless of whether there is reconciliation or not, but especially if that is a possibility.  There is so much power in forgiveness, and while it may not be instantaneous and the other person may not be on board at that point in time, it's headed in the right direction at least and you've started on the path of healing. 

♥....C