Daily Lesson for June 20, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson from Matthew 18 verses 23 through 28:

23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.  He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

One of the most consistent things Jesus taught over and over was about our need to forgive as we have been forgiven.   

But perhaps it is the second part - the deep acknowledgement that we have been forgiven - that really is the hard part.  It is difficult to forgive others' their debts; but it is even more difficult to accept forgiveness of our own debts.  We don't like the idea that we are indebted so deeply - to God, to our parents, to our neighbors, to our enemies - that there really is nothing we can do to ever pay everything back.

The man in today's lesson still wants to pay everything back.  Jesus says he owes his master a kagillion dollars.  "I will pay it back," he says.  "You're off the hook," the master says (how much is this master worth?).  But the man doesn't hear that.  He's still working trying to strike a deal; he doesn't know what it means to cut his losses - that's how he got himself into a situation of owing a kagillion dollars.  What he hears is that he's actually bought himself some time.  He's just in a slump.  He just needs a little slack to work it all out.  Just a little more rope.  "I'm good for it," he says.

And just to prove how deluded he really is, immediately after being forgiven his kagillion dollar debt by his master he goes out and demands somebody else pay him back what is by comparison chump change.  I think he thought he could use that to turn everything around.  He could use it to hit a lick.  But when the other man didn't have it to pay back he ordered him to be punished.  He had the justice meted out on the other man that subconsciously he felt he still deserved.  This is called scapegoating. 

Let me tell you, none of us are good for it.  Until we come to terms with that we'll keep asking for more and more rope until finally we end up hanging ourselves.  Here's the truth - we gambled and we lost. We bet on the come.  We at the chicken fry before the chickens were hatched.  We're in debt so deeply that there's now way we'll ever pay it back.  

We have to see that and come to terms with it before we'll be ready to either accept our own forgiveness or give it to others.  We are sinners forgiven by the grace of God.  When we receive this grace then we find we have what we need to forgive others.