Love yourself first Then your neighbour. Then your God!

Matthew 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. 35 One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: 36 "Teacher, which command in God's Law is the most important?" 37 Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' 38 This is the most important, the first on any list. 39 But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' 40 These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."

Food for Thought!

We may well say that here Jesus laid down the complete definition of religion.

(i) Religion consists in loving God the way we are. It means that give to God what He gave you; love him the way God made you. That is why the greatest and first command is also the fairest. It teaches us: we can and should only love God according to what he has given us and made us. The emphasis here is on the word YOUR: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. God made us different and would not be fair if He expected me to love him as you do, or vice versa. I can only love God with all MY heart, all MY soul, all MY mind. The same to you: you can only love God with all YOUR heart, with all YOUR soul, and with all YOUR mind.

In practice we are saying, that not everybody prays with the same devotion. For instance, in general, women are more religious and devoted than men. And God would be unfair if He expected men to love him with a woman’s heart, soul and mind. Or vice versa. Nobody gives what they don’t have! And everybody should give according to what they are and have. God will judge each one of us according to what He made us and gave us. Thus, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.

(ii) Religion consists in loving our neighbor. It means that our love for God must issue in love for men. But it is to be noted in which order the commandments come; it is love of God first, and love of man second. Why? Well, because it is only when we love God that man becomes lovable. There are some people out there that are unlovable; there are people we love only for God's sake. Without God, some people are simply not worth our love. 

Another thing to note and do is that the first man to love is YOU. Sometimes we forget this basic truth. Let's look again at Jesus' answer:

Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.'"

Do you notice that the verb "love" appears three times? There is love of God, love of others, and love of yourself. For Jesus, true love must express itself in three dimensions. These three dimensions are (a) love of God, (b) love of neighbour, and (c) love of oneself. The first two are positively commanded; the last one is not commanded but presumed to be the basis of all loving. The commandment to love your neighbour as yourself presumes that you love yourself.

No one gives what they don't have! You can't give love to others if you hate yourself; you can't be nice to others when you have a bad day. Do you realize that when you have bad day, you are nasty to people? You can't smile at people when you're sad. But, the day you're happy, you'll treat everybody nicely. We don't shout at people when we are happy. In other words, you treat others in as much as you treat yourself; you love others in as much as you love yourself. Jesus is saying, Be happy and everybody around you will be happy; and when everybody is happy, God is happy too. For the glory of God is man fully alive.

So, in theory, love of God comes first, then neighbour, then self. But in practice, love of self is first, then of neighbour, then of God. When we love ourselves we will love our neighbour, and when we love our neighbour we love God.

1 John 4:20

If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see?  

Saved by grace alone!

Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus responded by telling still more stories. 2 "God's kingdom," he said, "is like a king who threw a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent out servants to call in all the invited guests. And they wouldn't come! 4" He sent out another round of servants, instructing them to tell the guests, 'Look, everything is on the table, the prime rib is ready for carving. Come to the feast!' 5 "They only shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop. 6 The rest, with nothing better to do, beat up on the messengers and then killed them. 7 The king was outraged and sent his soldiers to destroy those thugs and level their city. 8" Then he told his servants, 'We have a wedding banquet all prepared but no guests. The ones I invited weren't up to it. 9 Go out into the busiest intersections in town and invite anyone you find to the banquet.' 10 The servants went out on the streets and rounded up everyone they laid eyes on, good and bad, regardless. And so the banquet was on-- every place filled. 11 "When the king entered and looked over the scene, he spotted a man who wasn't properly dressed. 12 He said to him, 'Friend, how dare you come in here looking like that!' The man was speechless. 13 Then the king told his servants, 'Get him out of here-- fast. Tie him up and ship him to hell. And make sure he doesn't get back in.' 14" That's what I mean when I say, 'Many get invited; only a few make it.' "

Food for thought!

This parable has much to tell us.

(a) It reminds us that the invitation of God is to a feast as joyous as a wedding feast. His invitation is to joy. To think of Christianity as a gloomy giving up of everything which brings laughter and joy and happiness is un Christian. It is to joy that the Christian is invited; and it is joy he misses, if he refuses the invitation.

(b) It reminds us that the things which make us deaf to the invitation of Christ are not necessarily bad in themselves. One man went to his estate; the other to his business. They did not go off to an immoral adventure. They went off to what is in itself excellent task of efficiently administering their business life. It is very easy for us to be so busy with our daily business that we forget the things of eternity.

The tragedy of life is that it is so often the second bests which shut out the first bests, that it is things which are good in themselves which shut out the things that are supreme. We can be so busy making a living that we fail to make a life; we can be so busy with the administration and the organization of life that we forget life itself.

(c) It reminds us that the appeal of Christ is not so much to consider how we will be punished as it is to see what we will miss, if we do not take his way of things. Those who would not come were punished, but their real tragedy was that they lost the joy of the wedding feast. If we refuse the invitation of Christ, someday our greatest pain will lie, not in the things we suffer, but in the realization of the precious things we have missed.

(d) It reminds us that in the last analysis God's invitation is the invitation of grace. Those who were gathered in from the highways and the byways had no claim on the king at all; they could never by any stretch of imagination have expected an invitation to the wedding feast, still less could they ever have deserved it. It came to them from nothing other than the wide-armed, open-hearted, generous hospitality of the king. It is by grace that we are saved.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it.

Just and Living Wage!

Matthew 20:1-16

"God's kingdom is like an estate manager who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 They agreed on a wage of a dollar a day, and went to work. 3" Later, about nine o'clock, the manager saw some other men hanging around the town square unemployed. 4 He told them to go to work in his vineyard and he would pay them a fair wage. 5 They went. "He did the same thing at noon, and again at three o'clock. 6 At five o'clock he went back and found still others standing around. He said, 'Why are you standing around all day doing nothing? 7' "They said, 'Because no one hired us.' "He told them to go to work in his vineyard. 8" When the day's work was over, the owner of the vineyard instructed his foreman, 'Call the workers in and pay them their wages. Start with the last hired and go on to the first.' 9 "Those hired at five o'clock came up and were each given a dollar. 10 When those who were hired first saw that, they assumed they would get far more. But they got the same, each of them one dollar. 11 Taking the dollar, they groused angrily to the manager, 12 'These last workers put in only one easy hour, and you just made them equal to us, who slaved all day under a scorching sun.' 13" He replied to the one speaking for the rest, 'Friend, I haven't been unfair. We agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn't we? 14 So take it and go. I decided to give to the one who came last the same as you. 15 Can't I do what I want with my own money? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?' 16 "Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first."

Food for thought

This week the Lord is in the market place, talking business. Monday and yesterday, it was the rich young entrepreneur, who forgot all about social responsibility in his business dealings. Today, the Lord, like a real estate manager, goes out to hire labourers. What is the Lord teaching us? What is the lesson? Let's look at the gospel reading of today.

First, in it there is the comfort of God. It means that IT IS NEVER TOO LATE; no matter when we come to the Lord, late or soon, young, in the strength of the midday, or when the shadows are lengthening, we are equally dear to God. The Lord has need of all of us, regardless of what we are.

May we not go even further with this thought of comfort? Sometimes a man dies full of years and full of honour, with his day's work ended and his task completed. Sometimes a young person dies almost before the door of life and achievement have opened at all. From God they will both receive the same welcome, for both Jesus Christ is waiting, and for neither, in the divine sense, has life ended too soon or too late. JESUS DIED AT 33 YEARS OF AGE, and he died saying, All is accomplished.

Second, in the parable there is the infinite compassion of God. There is an element of human tenderness in this parable. There is nothing more tragic in this world than a person who is unemployed, a man or woman whose talents are rusting in idleness because there is nothing for him to do. In that market-place men stood waiting because no one had hired them; in his compassion the master gave them work to do. He could not bear to see them idle.

Further, in strict justice the fewer hours a man worked, the less pay he should have received. But the master well knew that one dollar a day was no great wage; he well knew that, if a workman went home with less, there would be a worried wife and hungry children; and therefore he went BEYOND JUSTICE and ECONOMICS and gave them more than was their due.

As it has been put, this parable states implicitly two great truths which are the very charter of the working man--the right of every man to work and the right of every man to a living wage for his work. Unfortunately, many of us pay our workers at home and away from home JUST WAGES and not LIVING WAGES.

Thirdly, there is in it the generosity of God. These men did not all do the same work; but they did receive the same pay. There are two great lessons here. The first is, as it has been said, "All service ranks the same with God." A priest will not get more than a faithful married couple or a single man or woman. They'll all get heaven. It is not the amount or kind of service given, but the love in which it is given which matters. God does not look on the amount of our service. So long as it is all we have to give, all service ranks the same with God.

The second lesson is even greater, all God gives is of grace. We cannot earn what God gives us; we cannot deserve it; what God gives us is given out of the goodness of his heart; what God gives is not pay, but a gift; not a reward, but a grace.

This brings us to the supreme lesson of the parable, the whole point of work is the spirit in which it is done. The servants are clearly divided into two classes. The first came to an agreement with the master; they had a contract; they said, "We work, if you give us so much pay." As their conduct showed, all they were concerned with was to get as much as possible out of their work. But in the case of those who were engaged later, there is no word of contract; all they wanted was the chance to work and they willingly left the reward to the master.

Yesterday, Peter asked the Lord, "What do we get out of it?" The answer involved everything but money! Why? Because the Christian works for the joy of serving God and his fellow-men, not just for money. Money is additional, not principal. That is why the first will be last and the last will be first. Many people in this world, who have earned great rewards, great money will have a very low place in the Kingdom because rewards were their sole thought. Don't work just for money, that's too little; see your work, your profession, your job as a service to ease some need in society; that is what God created you for. If and when you do it passionately well, you will additionally get money. Lots of money

What will we have?

Matthew 19:23-30

Jesus then said to his disciples, “I assure you: it will be very hard for rich people to enter the Kingdom of heaven. I repeat: it is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”

When the disciples heard this, they were completely amazed. “Who, then, can be saved?” they asked.

Jesus looked straight at them and answered, “This is impossible for human beings, but for God everything is possible.”

Then Peter spoke up. “Look,” he said, “we have left everything and followed you. What will we have?”

Jesus said to them, “You can be sure that when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne in the New Age, then you twelve followers of mine will also sit on thrones, to rule the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake, will receive a hundred times more and will be given eternal life. But many who now are first will be last, and many who now are last will be first.

Food for thought!

Today's gospel reading begins where yesterday's stopped (Matthew 19:16-22). Peter and his disciples must have looked at yesterday's young man go away until he disappeared in the distance. And as he went, Peter's mind must have been working hard, and, characteristically, his tongue could not stay still. He had just seen a man deliberately refuse Jesus' «Follow me!» He had just heard Jesus say in effect that that man by his action had shut himself out from the Kingdom of God.

Peter could not help drawing the contrast between that man and himself and his friends. Just as the man had refused Jesus' «Follow me!» he and his friends had accepted it, and Peter with that almost crude honesty of his wanted to know what he and his friends were to get out of it. Peter's concern is our concern: we sometimes do wonder, if there is any recognition for us for having accepted Jesus as our saviour, for having followed him on a daily basis, for having gone to church every Sunday or every day for some, for taking time to pray, for avoiding evil and doing good, etc. What is our reward? What’s in this for us?”

Jesus says that no man or woman ever followed him for nothing. Jesus is saying that those who follow him have a definite advantage both here and in the hereafter. Here, they have the advantage of a counsellor; after they have the advantage of a Saviour. Jesus reminds us all that God is not indifferent to our efforts; he is saying that God sees; that God notices; that God records and rewards every sacrifice that is made for him and because of him. Jesus reminds us that what we have walked away from might seem like a lot, but God has far more in our future than we left behind in our past. Jesus is saying that we cannot beat God with generosity, we cannot outperform God in giving.

When Jesus speaks of «100 times», he simply means that it is more than you can imagine. He is not saying that if you give a dollar, he will give you one hundred in return. He might, but that is not the point! He is simply telling us that He has far more for us than anything we could ever give up to follow Him.

A caveat!

Jesus adds one warning epigram: «But many who now are first will be last, and many who now are last will be first.» This was in reality a warning to Peter. It may well be that by this time Peter was estimating his own worth and his own reward and assessing them high. What Jesus is saying is, «The final standard of judgment is with God. Many a man may stand well in the judgment of the world, but the judgment of God may upset the world's judgment. Still more many a man may stand well in his own judgment, and find that God's evaluation of him is very different.» It is a warning against all pride. It is a warning that the ultimate judgments belong to God who alone knows the motives of men's hearts. It is a warning that the judgments of heaven may well upset the reputations of earth.

What good have you done to others?

Matthew 19:16-22

Another day, a man stopped Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" 17 Jesus said, "Why do you question me about what's good? God is the One who is good. If you want to enter the life of God, just do what he tells you." 18 The man asked, "What in particular?" Jesus said, "Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, 19 honour your father and mother, and love your neighbour as you do yourself." 20 The young man said, "I've done all that. What's left?" 21 "If you want to give it all you've got," Jesus replied, "go sell your possessions; give everything to the poor. All your wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me." 22 That was the last thing the young man expected to hear. And so, crestfallen, he walked away. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and he couldn't bear to let go.

Food for thought

This story teaches one of the deepest of all lessons about religion, about right and wrong, about being religious and not being religious. The man who came to Jesus was seeking for what he called eternal life. He was seeking for happiness, for satisfaction, for peace with God. He wanted to know the one thing that we humans can do to get it all. But his very way of phrasing his question betrays him. He asks, "What must I do?" He is thinking in terms of actions, of works, of doing. He is thinking of piling up a credit balance-sheet with God by doing a series of things. He clearly knows nothing of a religion of grace. So Jesus tries to lead him on to a correct view.

Jesus answers him in his own terms. He tells him to keep the commandments, do what God tells you. This answer of Jesus is too general. So the man wants to know the details. "What in particular?" he says. Thereupon Jesus cites five of the ten commandments. Now there are two important things about the commandments which Jesus cited.

First, they are all commandments which deal, not with our duty to God, but with our duty to men. They are the commandments which govern our personal relationships, and our attitude to our fellow-men. Second, Jesus cites one commandment, as it were, out of order. He cites the command to honour parents last, when in point of fact it ought to come first.

It is clear that Jesus wishes to lay special stress on that commandment. Why? May it not be that this young man had grown rich and successful in his career, and had then forgotten his parents, who may have been very poor? He may well have risen in the world, and had been half-ashamed of the folks in the home where he grew up.

Second, do you notice that all the commandments that Jesus cited, except the last one, are in the negative? "Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie." And do you notice the man's response, "I've done all that. What's left?" In other words, all the man had done was NOT TO murder, commit adultery, steal, lie. Just as many of us do. We think that because we don't kill, commit adultery or steal, we are ok. Morality is not only not doing evil; it is also doing good. And this is what was still missing in this man's morality, just as it does in much of ours.

"If you want to be perfect," Jesus replied, "go sell your possessions; give everything to the poor." GO and GIVE. For the first time, this man is told TO DO GOOD. He is told that it is not sufficient to avoid hurting others, it is as well important to love them.

The question Jesus is putting to this man and to you and me is, with all the riches you have justly accumulated, with all the talents you have, with all the money you have and with all the goods you have, what good have you done to others in life? Have you made any body rich from your riches? What difference have you made in the life of others?

No matter what!

Matthew 15:21-28

21 From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. 22 They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, "Lord, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit." 23 Jesus ignored her. The disciples came and complained, "Now she's bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She's driving us crazy." 24 Jesus refused, telling them, "I've got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel." 25 Then the woman came back to Jesus, went to her knees, and begged. "Lord, help me." 26 He said, "It's not right to take bread out of children's mouths and throw it to dogs." 27 She was quick: "You're right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master's table." 28 Jesus gave in. "Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!" Right then her daughter became well.

Food for thought

Cherie Hills writes: There are three simple words you should know that will take you places in your faith that you never thought possible. They aren’t complicated and don’t require any “in depth” interpretation. Although frequently manipulated by the circumstances surrounding them, they are precise, pertinent, and powerful when it comes to growing your faith. Are you ready? Here they are: “No matter what.”

The woman in the gospel was a "No matter what" kind of woman. Given her position as a foreigner and as a woman, it took phenomenal courage on her part to take on the all-Jewish and all-male company of Jesus and his disciples. She must have known the three words: No matter what. Even when Jesus ignored her, the woman did not give up. Even when Jesus spoke of her: "I've got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel," she did not lose her cool but kept herself faithful to the three words. 

Most people at this point would give up and accept defeat. But not our Canaanite sister. Rather she intensifies her efforts and embarks on a one-woman demonstration to the point that the disciples had to ask Jesus to do something about it: "Now she's bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She's driving us crazy." Her courage and her refusal to take no for an answer finally paid off. 

Now, hear the truth, “Faith doesn’t make things easy . . . but it makes all things possible.” And this is where our three simple words will take our faith farther than we ever imagined. It’s when we make the decision to trust God, regardless of the overwhelming evidence within our circumstances that tell us "He’s abandoned you," that we’ll find ourselves winning. 

If you’re not exactly sure how those three simple words can transform your faith, let me spell it out for you: When you’re facing financial stress that brings you face to face with foreclosure and the loss of all your hopes and dreams . . . trust God—“No matter what.” When your spouse is an addict, won’t get help, and continues to allow the devil to unleash chaos, pain and suffering in your home . . . trust God—“No matter what.” When your child is battling a terminal illness and the end is eminent . . . trust God—“No matter what.” When you get financially broke and can't make the ends meet, trust the providence of God, "No matter what." 

Finally, it was Jesus who gave in: "Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!" and the woman got what she wanted. The message of this single woman outsider to every one of us today is: Be not afraid. Be not afraid to challenge prejudice and falsity even in high places, even in religious high places. The least among us can be a vehicle that God can use to bring justice and healing to all of God’s disadvantaged daughters and sons all over the world.

Too often, in our walk of faith, we are asked to simply “endure.” To endure means “to carry through no matter what; to suffer patiently no matter what.” It means “holding on,” no matter what. Jesus assured us, “But he who, no matter what, endures to the end will be saved ” (Matthew 24: 13). 

Lovely to and Loved by children?

Matthew 19:13-15

13 Then little children were brought to Jesus, that He might put His hands on them and pray; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. 14 But He said, Leave the children alone! Allow the little ones to come to Me, and do not forbid or restrain or hinder them, for of such [as these] is the kingdom of heaven composed. 15 And He put His hands upon them, and then went on His way.

Food for thought!

It may well be said that here we have the loveliest incident in the gospel story. The characters all stand out clear and plain, although it only takes two verses to tell it.

(i) There are those who brought the children. No doubt these would be their mothers. No wonder they wished Jesus to lay his hands on their children and make a prayer. These mothers had seen what the hands of Jesus could do; they had seen these hands touch away disease and pain; they had seen them bring sight to the blind eyes, and peace to the distracted mind; and they wanted hands like that to touch their children. They knew that there is loveliness in Jesus. There is loveliness in Jesus Christ that anyone can see. Yes, Jesus is lovely.

(ii) There are the disciples. The disciples sound as if they were rough and stern; but, if they were, it was love that made them so. Their one desire was to protect Jesus. They saw how tired he was; they saw what healing cost him. He was talking to them so often about a cross, and they must have seen on his face the tension of his heart and soul. All that they wanted was to see that Jesus was not bothered. They could only think that at such a time as this the children were a nuisance to the Master. We must not think of them as hard; we must not condemn them; they wished only to save Jesus from another of those insistent demands which were always laying their claims upon his strength.

(iii) There is Jesus himself. This story tells us much about him. He was the kind of person children loved. Jesus was certainly no grim ascetic, otherwise children would had run away from him. The best test of loveliness in you and me is the children. Do children come to you easily and spontaneously? Do you come to children easily and spontaneously? Do children from your neighbourhood come and play in your yard? Or are they afraid of you? Are you lovely? Even to your own children, when you come back from work, do they come running to embrace you, or they go running to hide from you?

To Jesus no one is unimportant. Some might say, "It's only a child; don't let him bother you." Jesus would never say that. No one was ever a nuisance to Jesus. He was never too tired, never too busy to give all of himself to anyone who needed him. There is a strange difference between Jesus and many political and religious leaders. It is often impossible to get into the presence of one of these famous ones. They have a kind of retinue and bodyguards which keep the public away lest the great man be wearied and bothered. Jesus was the opposite of that. The way to his presence was open to the humblest person and to the youngest child.

(iv) There are the children. Jesus said of them that they were nearer God than anyone else. The child's simplicity is, indeed, closer to God than anything else. It is life's tragedy that, as we grow older, we so often grow further from God rather than nearer to him.

The Gospel of Jesus and Mary!

Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10       1 Corinthians 15:20-26   Luke 1 :39-56

Today we honor Mary, the mother of Jesus, in a Feast called the Assumption. As you know, the full story of our salvation cannot be told without mentioning Mary. It is like the story of fall, which cannot be told without mentioning both Adam and Eve.  Yes, the gospel is about Christ in the same way that the story of the Fall is about Adam. "For as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:22). That is why we call Christ the new Adam. 

But as soon as we say that, we become aware of a missing link. The story of the Fall is not only the story of Adam but the story of Adam and Eve. If Jesus is the new Adam, who then is the new Eve? Mary is the new Eve. Just as the full story of our Fall cannot be told without Eve, so also the full story of our Redemption cannot be told without Mary. There are many revealing parallels between the old Adam and Eve on the one hand and the new Adam and Eve, Jesus and Mary, on the other. Here are some of them.

In the old order, the woman (Eve) came from the body of the man (Adam), but in the new order the man (Jesus) comes from the body of the woman (Mary).

In the old order, the woman (Eve) first disobeyed God and led the man (Adam) to do the same, in the new order the woman (Mary) first said "Yes" to God (Luke 1:38) and raised her son Jesus to do likewise.

Adam and Eve had a good time together disobeying God, Jesus and Mary suffered together doing God's will. The sword of sorrow pierced their hearts equally (John 19:34; Luke 2:35b).

In the old order Adam and Eve shared immediately in the resulting consequences and punishments of the Fall. In the new order, similarly, both Jesus and Mary share immediately in the resulting consequences and blessings of the Redemption, the fullness of life with God; Jesus through the Ascension and Mary through the Assumption.

All this means that there was a collaboration of man and woman in the work of our salvation all the way from the Fall to the Redemption to sharing in the fruit of Redemption in heaven. Without the Assumption to balance the Ascension, the man Jesus alone without the woman Mary would be enjoying the fullness of salvation with God and we would be telling only a part of the story. 

The Assumption of Mary is the ultimate proof of the equality of man and woman before God. It also shows the sacredness and eternal destiny of the human body, including the woman's body. The Assumption enables us to tell the full story, the full gospel that salvation is for all Men, male and female, and for the whole Man, body and soul.

Forgive to be forgiven!

Matthew 18:21-35

At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?” Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.

“The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn’t pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market. “The poor wretch threw himself at the king’s feet and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.

“The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, ‘Pay up. Now!’

“The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ But he wouldn’t do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.

“The king summoned the man and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn’t you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?’ The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that’s exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn’t forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.”

Food for thought!

The lesson is obvious; the lesson is clear: 

that's exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn't forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy." 

Not forgiving others is calling for disaster; it is not worth the risk. Let's see what happened. We owe a very great deal to the fact that Peter had a quick tongue. Again and again he rushed into speech in such a way that his impetuosity drew from Jesus teaching which is immortal. On this occasion Peter thought that he was being very generous. He asked Jesus how often he ought to forgive his brother, and then answered his own question by suggesting that he should forgive seven times. You know what, sometimes we think we have done enough or been much or we have said it. The truth is that until we see ourselves or what we have done or been or said through the eyes of Jesus, we should never take a credit. 

Peter thought that he was going very far, that it was enough to forgive seven times. Peter expected to be warmly commended and praised and thanked; but Jesus's answer was that the Christian must forgive seventy times seven. In other words there is no reckonable limit to forgiveness.

Jesus then told the story. This story teaches certain lessons which Jesus never tired of teaching.

(i) It teaches that lesson which runs through all the New Testament, we must forgive in order to be forgiven. He who will not forgive his fellow-men cannot hope that God will forgive him. "Blessed are the merciful," said Jesus, "for they shall obtain mercy" (Matt. 5:7). As James had it, "For judgement is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy" (James.2:13). Divine and human forgiveness go hand in hand.

(ii) Why should that be so? One of the great points in this parable is the contrast between the two debts.

The first servant owed his master $ 100,000.00 whereas the debt which a fellow-servant owed him was a trifling thing; it was just the equivalent of $ 10.00

The point is that nothing men can do to us can in any way compare with what we have done to God; and if God has forgiven us the debt we owe to him, we must forgive our fellow-men the debts they owe to us. Nothing that we have to forgive can even faintly or remotely compare with what we have been forgiven. We have been forgiven a debt which is beyond all paying, for the sin of man brought about the death of God's own Son and, if that is so, we must forgive others as God has forgiven us, or we can hope to find no mercy.

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. (Mt 6:14-15)

Troubleshooting our troublesome people!

“If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.

“Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”

Food for thought!

In many ways this is one of the most difficult passages in the Bible to grasp and to apply in real life. By and large, Jesus is saying, "If anyone sins against you, spare no effort to make that man admit his fault, and to get things right again between you and him." Basically it means that we must never tolerate any situation in which there is a breach of personal relationships between us and another member of the Christian community.

Suppose something does go wrong, what are we to do to put it right? This passage presents us with a whole scheme of action for the mending of broken relationships; how to trouble shoot our troublesome people.

(i) If we feel that someone has wronged us, we should immediately put our complaint into words. The worst thing that we can do about a wrong is to brood about it. That is fatal. It can poison the whole mind and life, until we can think of nothing else but our injury. Any such feeling should be brought out into the open, faced, and stated, and often the very stating of it will show how unimportant and trivial the whole thing is.

If we feel that someone has wronged us, we should go to see him personally. More trouble has been caused by the writing of SMS, WhatsApp, etc. than by almost anything else. Marriages have gone sour and sometimes ended because of text messages. The reason is that a text message may be misread or misunderstood; it may quite unconsciously convey a tone it was never meant to convey. And as you know from your experience, many times we send our text messages to the wrong people and at wrong times.

Jesus is saying that if and when we have a difference with someone, there is only one way to settle it, and that is face to face. The spoken word can often settle a difference which the text message would only have worsened.

(ii) If a private and personal meeting fails of its purpose, we should take some wise person or persons with us. Deut.19:15 has it: "A single witness shall not prevail against a man for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offence that he has committed; only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses, shall a charge be sustained." That is the saying which Jesus has in mind.

But in this case the taking of the witnesses is meant to help the process of reconciliation. A man often hates those whom he has hurt or who has hurt him; and it may well be that nothing we can say can win him back. But to talk matters over with some wise and kindly and gracious people present is to create a new atmosphere in which there is at least a chance that we should see ourselves "as others see us."

(iii) If that still fails, we must take our personal troubles to the Christian fellowship. Why? Because personal quarrels are never settled by going to courts. Courts merely produces further trouble. It is in an atmosphere of Christian spirit that personal relationships should be righted. 

(iv) It is now we come to the difficult part. JESUS says that, if even that does not succeed, “start over from scratch, [start all over again and again and again...] confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.” Seen this way, what Jesus says is never to abandon anyone but to keep trying and trying until we win them back. 

(v) Finally, there is the saying about losing and binding. What it means is that the relationships which we establish with our fellow-men and women last not only through time but into eternity; therefore we must get our relationships right NOW; our earthly relationships last beyond death to eternity.

“A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal.”