CD - The Fifth Petition - 1 John 4:19-21, Matthew 6:14-15

Saying, “I am sorry” and forgiving someone are two of the hardest things for us sinful human beings to do. Because of our sin of pride, we do not want to admit our wrong. We feel that our admission of guilt lowers us below the person we have wronged. Even the idea of the fact that we have done something not right is hard for us to handle. We have been raised with the idea that only the right prevails. We are only good, of value, if we are right. To be wrong is to be of no value. Yet, we can feel it in our stomach, in our conscience when we have done something wrong or have harmed someone. We try to ignore that feeling because we do not want to think less of ourselves: if we ignore it, it will go away, we think.

To forgive, then, is the next hardest task for us. Our first reaction is the normal, “Oh, that’s okay” but it really is not okay. It is not okay for someone to go around hurting you and others. No, it is not okay, but it is forgiven. There is a difference. “That’s okay,” implies that nothing wrong was done. “You are forgiven,” grants forgiveness and erases the wrong.

Our Bible verses for today relate God’s forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of one another. When God forgives us, it is erased from the book. He erases the wrong and remembers it no more. He asks us also to remember the wrong done to us no more. When we are forgiven we too forget the wrong. However, to not believe in God’s forgiveness does nullify our forgiveness. To forgive is also to forget. When God forgives, He remembers no more. When we do not forget our sins, but continually remember, even after we have confessed, we show our unbelief in God’s power to forgive and our unbelief becomes our sin.

I guess I should add a word here about forgetting. Our human minds have a way of reminding us of past sins. But there is a difference between remembering what you have done in the past, as a way of remembering so you will not do it again, and of remembering because you do not believe God has or can forgive you for that sin. In the same way there is a remembering of one another’s sins because our nature is not to forget, but that is different from our remembering in order to seek revenge.

In our dealings with our fellow humans, when we forgive, we forget. Remembering is unforgiving. Our Bible readings remind us that, as God forgives us, so we are to forgive one another. If we do not forgive our brother, why should we expect God to forgive us? Think about this petition, “forgive us as,” in the same way, “we forgive others.” If we do not forgive our brother in the same way, we are praying for God not to forgive us. We might as well say, “Do not forgive us as I have not forgiven others.” Before we pray this petition of the Lord’s Prayer, maybe it would be best if we thought about anyone whom we have not forgiven and go out and forgive them or not pray this petition.

Of course, asking for forgiveness without giving forgiveness is not right either. How can we say we love God whom we do not see and say we do not love our brother whom we can see? In the same way, how can we believe we are forgiven by an unseen God if we do not forgive our visible brother?

May God forgive us as we forgive one another, and may God help us to forgive one another as God has forgiven us.

Merciful Father, forgive me as I forgive others. Help me in my forgiving to also be forgetting. In the same way that You have cast our sins away, as far as the east is from the west, so help me to cast the memory of my sins and the sins of others away. Grant this for Jesus’ sake. Amen.