Harbinger of Forgiveness
“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15 ESV)
In my heart, this is one of the scariest verses in scripture. Because I know how difficult it is to forgive. I know what it is to be deeply wounded by someone, who has no remorse or guilt of what they did, and to hold that person in a deep and dark place of unforgiveness in my heart. I know what it is to hold this person in unforgiveness for years, and in those years to feel the coldness in my alone time with the Father. The staleness of my prayers, the emptiness in my worship. This may be difficult to hear, or something that might provoke you to challenge me theologically; but I personally believe that one of the most satanic things you and I will engage with in our hearts is unforgiveness, because it is in absolute direct opposition to what Christ did on the cross for you and I. The most demonic thing the enemy will deceive you and I into is to turn away from forgiveness - listen to this; to become numb to forgiveness. To become the judge of who deserves to be forgiven and who does not deserve to be forgiven. That is a scary place to be in your heart. But yet we slip into it so easily. Thankfully for you and I, we serve the High Priest of the House of The Lord, who teaches and shows us how to forgive others as we are forgiven. Let’s explore that freedom together.
After the death and resurrection of Christ, He appears to His disciples and appoints them, you and I, all who follow Him, to the great commission: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV) Now to you and I, we hear this and think our job is to go and evangelize, to go to seminary school and get that theology degree so we can get hired at our local church as a pastor or elder, or we don’t do anything with that and just go on with our lives thinking people will just see my bio and be changed. Nevertheless, our responsibility is assumed very differently in our culture then it is in the first century. When the disciples were given this responsibility it brought forth a challenge. Here Jesus says to make disciples of “all nations;” that is everyone needs to hear The Word. And we know from Paul that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17 ESV) Education was not a common practice in the first century. Education was reserved for the elites, special people groups - it was a privilege to be educated. So the challenge that the disciples faced when Jesus says “all nations” is that now everyone has to be educated. Not just the Jews or just the gentiles, as Paul outlines in Galatians (directly to Peter), not just the elites or those who understand literature, but everyone who has a soul. All these people now must be educated. This reminds me that it is neither the one who plants or the one who waters, but God who does the growing. So that is our responsibility, to educate those around us of what The Word says. Rather if it is someone that knows nothing, you are the one planting seeds; you are educating. Or if it is someone who has been around Christianity, they’ve heard the gospel, so you are watering something that someone else planted; you are educating. It is only the work of Christ that produces salvation. The Lord Jesus has commissioned you and I to be a harbinger of forgiveness.
A harbinger is a person that announces the approach of another, a forerunner of someone or something. These were commonly positions of ones who would announce that the King was coming or a government official was approaching, someone of status was making their way into a town or place. I think this is a very appropriate title for you and I to hold. To announce to others that forgiveness is coming. That Christ is returning, the one who heals, redeems, and saves. But to announce forgiveness you must first receive forgiveness. This is the difficult part you and I will wrestle with in our walks as disciples of Christ. Because we are going to walk through this life and be deeply wounded by people around us. For many of us we will be deeply wounded by the people we love the most. By others who are in the church. By family members or friends who feel like family. A business partner gone bad. A husband or wife. A father or mother, a son or daughter. We become torn by holding this deep sorrow and bitterness over what they’ve done, and wanting to just move past it and continue your life with that person. Anyone is susceptible to becoming a captive of this place in your heart of unforgiveness. How do we become free from unforgiveness? If you have been in the church long enough you are familiar with the dialogue between the Lord Jesus and Peter about forgiveness; “Then Peter came up and said to him, ‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.’” (Matthew 18:21-22 ESV) Here Peter, in an attempt to be more righteous then others and going past forgiving someone three times which would be a cultural custom, asks if seven times is enough. Jesus understanding the fault in Peter’s heart says no but seventy-seven times, that is, I want you to keep forgiving and not keep count. Then the Lord Jesus goes on to explain the significance of this through a parable, I am going to cut to the last part but I would encourage you to go read the ancient scripture for yourself in Matthew 18:23-35. Beginning in verse 33 the Lord says “‘And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18:33-35 ESV) Here we see how serious the Lord Jesus is about holding people in unforgiveness. Jesus attributes unforgiveness to provoking the Master to anger. I want to draw your attention to what Jesus says here; that we should forgive from our heart. It is not enough to confess it with our mouths to a person, but to believe it in our hearts that we have forgiven that person. I believe why Jesus takes tis so seriously, and why this parable is so weighty, is because He understands in His deity our inclination to hold people in unforgiveness. Our temptation to keep people captive in our hearts. To take that deeper, He understands that no is deserving forgiveness from the Father and no has the ability but Himself to pay the debt for mercy from the Father. To take that even deeper, He understands that if you do not understand what it is to forgive others you will never understand the receiving of forgiveness. If the enemy can make you blind to forgiveness of others, eventually you will become blind to the forgiveness that you have received. You will begin to feel unworthy of it, habitually self-condemning, eventually holding yourself in total unforgiveness. How does the Lord Jesus model forgiveness for us?
“He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’” (John 13:6-11 ESV)
After resurrecting Lazarus and then Christ being anointed by Mary, we see in John 13 Christ model something for you and I. Jesus says “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me…the one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean,” so the Lord is showing us that when we do not receive a cleansing from Him then we are not cloaked in righteousness. He also goes on to say that once you have bathed, that is once you have received salvation, you do not need to wash, just your feet. The Lord Jesus takes your feet - the dirtiest part of oneself in the first century which would have been callused, cut up and filthy from the dirt, intense odor from the accumulation of sweat - and correlates it to your heart. The Lord is showing us here in the washing of the disciples feet the deep necessity to daily wash our hearts. To get in the presence of the Lord and repent, to seek forgiveness or a washing from the Lord. I love that if you continue reading Jesus says I, the Master, have modeled for you what you shall do with one another. Not only are we to wash one another’s feet, that is forgive one another, but we should help one another with unforgiveness. When a brother or sister is walking in unrepentance Jesus is calling us to go to them and tell them I see that you are struggling with pride, let me help you wash your feet. Let me pray over you, let me counsel you for this moment and show you the pride that I see hiding in you. For the unbeliever, the one who is not clean, for Jesus this was Judas that he was alluring to, the Lord still models to you and I what we should do. Oh, the humility of the Lord to wash the feet of Judas who was soon to betray Him that week. Jesus is calling you and I to be a harbinger for those people too. To wash the feet of those who are far away from God in their hearts. This is the painful side of forgiveness. Forgiving people who you know have a wicked heart, who you are convinced are not going to change or feel remorse after you have forgiven them. There is so much grace if you are stuck in this season of unforgiveness in your heart, but I want to encourage you that forgiveness is not for the sake of that person, but it is for the sake of you and your relationship with the Father. The Lord cares so much about your heart and having a deep intimate relationship with you, that He calls us to let those people go who wound us deeply. To forgive them from our hearts. John challenges us in 1 John saying “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20 ESV) In the same token if you cannot forgive a person whom you have seen how can you receive forgiveness from God whom you have not seen. If Jesus has commissioned you and I to be harbingers of forgiveness, to go out and tell others that forgiveness is coming, but we can not be models of that forgiveness to others then what conviction do we come in. When you forgive someone who has deeply wounded you, it is not that person who is going to reap the fruit of your forgiveness. It is going to be the people in your community that will reap the fruit of that forgiveness. If you can forgive someone that killed your brother, how much more forgiveness will you give your Mother who has never wounded you to that extent. How much more will you love the people in your community, care for them, cover them in prayer with an honest heart. That is a powerful place to be. But the enemy would want nothing more but to keep you in a place of being numb to forgiveness.
A short story of my God’s redemption in my life.
Today I prayed for Jasen. It’s been two years of this ache. A quiet tension stretched thin. As the words rose from my mouth I started to cry deep tears. The kind when something sacred breaks open.
As I sat with the silence, I felt the wickedness of my own heart. The hatred and anger that had rooted itself became louder. I saw the standard of righteousness, and where I fall short.
For two years, the more I hated him, the more I hated myself. The angrier I became towards him, the more the anger turned inward. I saw the mirror in my callow heart. I was not so different from him.
Some months ago I watched Passion of the Christ over and over. One scene kept arresting me: Barabbas. A guilty man set free. Christ, silent and beaten, meeting his gaze not with hatred, but with compassion. No justice demanded. Just love. I would weep every time; feeling the distance of that mercy, and my own heart towards a guilty man set free.
Today I wrung out my own heart like a cloth, and I pleaded. Begging the Lord to be slow to anger towards him. To meet him not with wrath but with grace. To love him.
The more I wanted this for him, I realized the more I wanted this for myself.
I felt what the Lord was modeling in that moment with Barabbas. In Barabbas, I saw myself. And in Christ, I saw the freedom I could not earn. The love and compassion I did not deserve.
The more I laid myself down, the more I came alive.
