The Scandal of Forgiveness
I love Jesus so much these days and spend much more time thinking about Him. Watching Him through the lens of the gospels one thing is very clear, He was scandalous. To the religious culture of the day He was as radical as anyone could ever be. And what I love so much is the intentionality of His words and deeds to drive the religious crazy. Healing on the sabbath to poke at the Pharisees time and time again. Hanging out with the exact people the religious looked down upon. Going out of His way to find samaritans to speak with, lepers to hug and heal, both groups lumped in the same category by the religious. But maybe the most scandalous thing He ever did and certainly contributed to His ending up on the cross was the statement that we are to forgive people seventy times seven!
The context is Matthew 18 and Peter asks Jesus how many times must I forgive one who sins against me? Peter offers up the equation of as many as seven, and Jesus tells him not as many as seven but seventy times seven. Now is Jesus saying that on the four hundred and ninety first time there is no need to forgive? Of course not. Jesus is using that number to say there is no limit to forgiveness! We are to always seek to forgive as an imperfect broken people who desperately need it as well.
But the greater scandal here is that Jesus is teaching that we can forgive this way because this is how we are forgiven in Christ! Nothing held back nothing held against us, completely totally forgiven and cleansed in and through Jesus. This drives the religious crazy as they want their pound of flesh. They want to see the law carried out on people who deserve to be punished. And though their assessment of the problem is true, we are definitively deserving of great punishment, their presumptive prescription is wrong. As Jesus became sin for us and we are forgiven forever through all eternity, seventy times seven.
To be honest and open I have, to my embarrassment, that Pharisee in me at times that wants to see others punished who “deserve it”; We all have that Pharisee in us, but maybe more damaging is the ever present struggle to believe that I need to be punished. I was talking to someone recently who was speaking of the fear that their actions may mean they won’t be welcomed home to glory one day. This person has a sweet love for Jesus and in speaking with them it occurred to me that this is the greatest struggle we have. The scandal of the seventy times seven can be hardest to believe for me because I know me! This sweet person knows truly who they are and like the rest of us at times finds it hard to believe it’s all forgiven. But praise God it is! We are the glad recipients of the seventy times seven, and we are to be the willing givers of that same equation to a lost and broken world full of people who desperately need to hear of the grace and love of our Jesus. So today let’s rest and enjoy being the people of the seventy times seven!
#amazinggrace
Tom Crouse
