UNDONE: Forgiveness undoing what we have become.(#2)

UNDONE: Forgiveness undoing what we have become.(#2)

Reinbeck 1/30/11

Doug Adams - Author of “The hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe” tells this story.

He got to the train station early, having remembered his departure time wrong.  He went to the stand to buy a newspaper, a coffee, and a bag of cookies to pass the time until his train arrived.  He sat down at a table with his newspaper, his coffee, and his bag of cookies.

There was a guy sitting opposite him.  He was perfectly ordinary-looking guy wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase.

It didn't look like he was going to do anything weird.  What he did was this: he suddenly leaned across, picked up the packet of cookies, tore it open, took one out, and ate it.  Doug is British and he writes, “The British are very bad at dealing with (things like this).  There's nothing in our background, upbringing, or education that teaches you how to deal with someone who in broad daylight has just stolen your cookies.”  Therefore, he did the only thing he could do.  He ignored it, and reached out to lay claim to the cookies by taking one himself.

He thought that would settle the matter, but it didn’t in a moment the man did it again.  Brazenly stole one of Doug’s cookies in broad daylight.

They went through the whole package like this.  Well there were only about eight cookies, but it felt like a lifetime.  The businessman took one, Doug took one, the man took one, and Doug took one.  Finally, when the cookies were gone, the man stood up and walked away.

Breathing a sigh of relief, it wasn’t long before Doug’s train would come; so he tossed back the rest of his coffee, stood up, picked up the newspaper, and there underneath the newspaper was the bag of cookies he had purchased.

Through the whole exchange, he thought the businessman was stealing his cookies- he was thinking how he was being wronged- trying to figure out how he could straighten out this cookie thief.  Now Doug discovered-- he who was the cookie thief.

As we spend these weeks learning about forgiveness - before we get any deeper into how we forgive others, we need to reckon with a very basic issue.  Often we have to admit that we are the ones who are stealing the cookies.  We are the ones in need of forgiveness.

There are two things we need to know about being forgiven.

·                        One is we have to own up to our human wrong.

·                        Two, Jesus has already paid the divine price.

First, we have to own up to our own sin.  Matthew 5:23-24 says, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”

Notice, it says leave the church and deal make amends.  This happens before we come before God.  Before we seek God’s forgiveness.  Maybe we should have a sign on the door that says, “Cookie thieves welcome- if you have replaced cookies.”  “Sinners welcome, if you have made amends.”

Now… are the people we hurt always going to forgive us?  No.  Are those hurt from our sin always open to reconciliation?  No.  Nevertheless, we make the effort.

We swallow our pride, and our self-righteousness, and our egos and the last bite the other guy’s cookies; wipe the crumbs off our face; and we go offer our heartfelt apology while handing him the package of cookies that we bought for ourselves.

That’s what we have to do . . .  seek to be reconciled with our brother or sister before we can come before God.  Regardless of their response- their openness or bitterness- that is between them and God.  We know what we have to do.

Lest you think that once we have made up with our neighbor we are done, let me be clear.  When we wrong another person, we might be able to deal with the consequences of that wrong between them and us.  Nevertheless, we still have to deal with our sin before God.  The passage says to come back and make your offering to God.

To bring that right down to earth-

·         We can give the man our package of cookies, but God still has to deal with the ego that always assumes the other person is in the wrong.

·         We can make up with our spouse, but we still have to deal with God about the selfishness that caused us to stray.

·         Even when we have faced the music with our mother or father, we still have not gotten to the root of the rebellious spirit and must do that with God.

·         We can stop cussing people out when we are driving, but we still have not dealt with the deep-seated anger that caused us to boil over in the first place. 

·         We can go back and tell the truth when we have lied.  But we need God’s help with fear that caused us to lie in the first place.  

Do you see what I mean?  Even when we have dealt with the behavior, the sin in our heart is still a problem.  We might not see it, we might not understand it, and we might not know what to do with it.  But God does.

In today’s scripture, Jesus is being crucified.  Led up the path to that place with the ugly name: “Golgotha.”  Led up to the even uglier means of torture and execution: “Crucifixion.”  Led up to death.  He knows it; and all who watch know it. 

When they arrive, Mathew doesn’t go into a lot of details.  The details of crucifixion would have been all too well known to his audience.  He says simply, “They crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right, and one on his left.”  Then Jesus Speaks.  “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” 

This is the sentence I want to explore today.  Jesus has been beaten, flogged, spit on, kicked, pushed, mocked; he has had nails driven through his body he is hanging bloody and dying.  Yet, he says, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” 

Let’s look at two words…

First…Who is “them?”  For whom is Jesus praying?

·         Is he saying Father forgive the soldiers . . .  they are the most obvious choice.  They are the ones carrying out the execution.

·         But, could it be the whole Roman government with Pontius Pilate as its representative?  Pilate could have changed the outcome.  He could have followed his own instincts.  He didn't have to cave in to the pressure of the crowd and the lure of his own ambition.

·         Or is Jesus praying for the religious leaders, who badgered Jesus about his claims of authority and his ways of doing things?  They were the ones who conspired to betray him into the hands of the Romans.

·         Alternatively, could Jesus be praying for his own followers, the disciples who betrayed him, denied him, and abandoned him in the hour of his greatest need?  They could not have changed the course of events.  However, they could have stood by him, stayed with him, been loyal to him, and showed him they cared.  But, they were afraid.  They hid themselves away.  They closed themselves in.  They cowered behind locked doors.

·                     I say yes- yes -yes we was talking about them and more...  And the more includes you and me.  It includes all of us, who are a part of the brokenness of the world and the sinfulness of all humankind. St. Paul writes, "For our sake, God made him to be sin, who knew no sin.”  God made him to be sin, so that sin could be hung on the cross and defeated once and for all.

Whether we know not, or admit not, or believe not, or confess not, our sin is the reason for Jesus death.  Not that we caused it, but he died in order to take away the power of sin in our lives.  We are the them in Jesus Prayer- “Father forgive them- “He forgave our actions, forgave our motivations, forgave our hurtful feelings, and forgave our evil thoughts.  Forgave us, even though we don’t even understand how destructive their behavior is. 

Which brings us to the second word I want to examine.  WHAT.

Father forgive them for they don’t know WHAT they are doing.” maybe he was really saying:

·         “Father forgive them because they need forgiveness more than they know.”

·         “Father forgive them because they are in desperate need of forgiveness and they don’t even know it.”

·          “Father, they’re absolutely crazy!  They don’t have a clue about true love!  They’re totally messed up!  We need to help them!  We need to save them!” we need to forgive them.

So Jesus in one of his final breaths, sums up the whole purpose of his coming, living and dying.  He explains the entire reason for his resurrection.  FATHER, FORGIVE THEM.

Hard to believe isn’t it.  And that is our problem.  We have a hard time believing that God can forgive.

    One night a father and his son were walking down the street of a major city.  When they came near an alley they saw a young man in his 20’s sitting by the curb, weeping.  They asked him what was wrong, and he said:  “My mother and I are homeless and starving.  She’s so weak she can’t even walk.  She’s sitting on the ground back in the alley.  I came out here to cry because I can’t stand to watch her suffer.”

     The father and his son looked at each other, and without speaking a word, they both knew what they would do.  The father said, “My son and I will help you!  Take us to your mother, and we will help you both. 

 The homeless youth smiled, and then led the father and his son back into the dark alley.  After they walked about 50 feet they were assaulted by five armed young men jumped out of the darkness   

 The youth who had led them into this trap, said to the father, “Give us your wallet now!”  Then they held the father back, grabbed the son stabbed and beat him.

     Before he died, the son looked up at his father with blood dripping down his face and pain in his eyes, and the son said, “Father, please give them all of the life insurance money you’ll get after my death, so they will know that you love them and forgive them.”  The father answered, “Yes, my son, I will do as you ask.”  After the father spoke those words, his son died.

Does that story sound true to you?  Could you show such love to wicked people like that?  Could I forgive men after watching them beat and kill my son who only wanted to help them?  I don’t think I have that much love in my heart.  I don’t think you have that much love in your hearts, that is why we have such a hard time believing that God does.

I don’t know if the story is true, but contains truth.  It is a parable about how much God loves us and what happened for us on the cross of Christ. 

God so loved the world, even us sinners, God so loved the world that he gave his only son, and through him the treasure of forgiveness to all who call upon him.

Hey all you cookie thieves.  Make your amends with people, and trust that God has already taken care of the rest.