March 19 Reading Plan

March 19

Matthew 18-19

 

I just want to revisit this parable of the unforgiving debtor for just a second. Jesus told this parable about a man who was forgiven his debt, but then went and refused to forgive someone else’s debt. 

 

In fact, the man was forgiven a large debt, but then wouldn’t forgive the debt of one of his servants who owed a small amount of money. 

 

I know we can look at this story and think it is so mean that the man would do that. How could he forget that he was forgiven a huge debt and then turn around and be so mean? But remember, Jesus was telling this parable to everyone who would hear it because he knew that they all could relate to this story. 

 

Right now you are thinking, How? I can’t relate with this. 

 

But I want to ask you a question. Why is it so hard to forgive other people? Whenever I ask someone this, they usually respond with - but pastor Michael, you don’t know what they did to me. Or, But you didn’t walk through this. You could never understand. 

 

Ok. That’s valid. None could ever truly understand why you feel the way you do. Even if their experience was exactly the same, they can’t bring your past, your chemical make up, your thought process, and your way of dealing with things into the exact same situation the way you can.. 

 

But here is the thing. 

 

There is a reason that back in Matthew 5:23 - if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God. 

 

God knows whether you can admit it to yourself or not - that when you aren’t in right relationship with someone for any reason at all, it strongly affects your relationship with God and others. 

 

Think about it this way. If someone has offended you and said something mean about you, any time anyone says something that even remotely feels the same, you burst out at them. Why? Because you’ve associated the entire problem on them. When someone doesn’t put you first, and does something selfish, you take it out on everyone in your life that doesn’t start the conversation with “how are you today.” The list goes on. 

 

Whether you are ready to admit it or not, unforgiveness affects the way you view the world!

 

So in Jesus’s parable, the man was forgiven a huge debt, but the moment someone else didn’t pay him back, he took it out on them. Think about this, if the man was about to be thrown in prison and lose it all, he probably thought through to everyone in his own life that owed him money. He probably blamed them or thought about how generous he had been even through he didn’t really have the money. So his unforgiveness blinded him to the fact that he was just forgiven so much. 

 

The main point of Jesus saying this was to remind you how much you have been forgiven. That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. In other words, Before we accepted the fact that we were forgiven - because we didn’t even know or care that we needed it, Christ paid the price so we could be forgiven. If he can do that for us, we should be able to forgive anything someone else does to us. 

 

The truth is, forgiveness isn’t easy! It takes work! 

 

But for your sake, and the sake of others in your life, find forgiveness wherever you can! Let go of the hurt, move past the pain, and release the hold someone else has over your life!