Before I begin I would like you to get comfortable and take a moment to ask yourself a couple of questions. I’m not asking you to say anything out loud so you can be honest with yourself and not worry what anyone else may think. I’d like you to think back, perhaps years, or perhaps only days. First, is there anyone who did something for which you have never forgiven them? Second, is there anything for which you would like to be forgiven?
One day, recently, I was feeling a bit down thinking of all the conflict in the world, our country and some closer to home. I began to think of the woman who washed Jesus’ feet while he dined with the Pharisee. It is Luke 7:36-8:3 and has long been a favourite story. Jesus had been speaking to a group of people who had been baptised by John. The Pharisees had refused baptism, and one of them invited Jesus to eat with him. The Pharisee was obviously very skeptical of Jesus and had little respect for him since he failed to provide the means for him to wash his feet.
In that culture it would be similar to having someone come in your house and not offering to take their coat or not offering a seat.
The way houses were constructed in those times it would have been easy for someone to see who was inside. And guests didn’t sit but rather reclined with their heads toward the table and their feet outward. This is the way the woman would have found him. It is likely that she was one of those who heard him speak. She is described as a sinner but with no specifics although some commentators believe she was a prostitute. In any case she is not someone who was welcome in the Pharisee’s home. She washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and anointed them with a costly ointment. She let her hair down to dry them. This alone would have horrified the very conservative Pharisee since it was considered indecent for a woman to let her hair down in public.
Jesus demonstrated, with the story of the creditor and the two debtors, that her great love and actions show that her many sins have been forgiven. Simon, the Pharisee, by his actions, shows little love. Jesus goes on to emphasize that faith is central to forgiveness.
He said, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” This is not the only time Jesus spoke of faith as the vehicle through which forgiveness is gained.
In Luke 17:19 he speaks to a leper he has healed, “Stand up and go. Your faith healed you.”
There are many, many places in the bible that speak of God’s forgiveness of sin. But it is interesting that Jesus often included a condition when he spoke of God’s forgiveness. In Matthew 6:14-15, he says, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others your father will not forgive your sins”.
In Mark 11:25, he says, “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your father in heaven may forgive you your sins”.
So what does this mean for us? I think it is pretty plain. Unless we can find a way to forgive anyone who has wronged us in any way we cannot hope for God’s forgiveness of our own sins. And I believe it goes further. We need to be willing to seek and accept forgiveness from those who we may have wronged.
Sometimes forgiving can be very, very hard. How often have you heard someone say, “That’s unforgivable”. Or, “I will never forgive him for that”.
I`ve been reading an interesting book lately. It is called “The Book of Forgiving“ by Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter Mpho, also an Anglican priest. If anyone can be called an expert on forgiveness it must be Desmond Tutu.
He was an advocate for human rights in the apartheid period and afterward became the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa.
Under apartheid, South Africa was a country that institutionalized racism, inequality and oppression. That spawned decades of protest and violence.
When apartheid ended with the election of 1994, there was fear that the transition to democracy would become a bloodbath of revenge and retaliation. Tutu maintains that that was avoided because, by and large, people on both sides chose forgiveness over retaliation.
(Forgiveness will be explored further in the Deacon’s Bench in the next issue.)
