MARY'S PRAYER CONNECTION

70 x 7 times….Was Jesus kidding when He said this?

We are just human men and women with our weaknesses and  frailties, so how could Jesus possibly mean we must forgive those who offend us at least 70 x 7 times? Isn’t this really, unrealistic? Was this statement just a suggestion?

Much of what Jesus said was in parables and stories for emphasis? Perhaps this was something the over zealous Apostles wrote thus exaggerating the words of Jesus. Maybe this was their way of making an impression on the people to whom they were preaching. Nobody can forgive all people all of the time especially 70 x 7 times. Don’t you agree?

In Matthew 18:21-27 it is clear Jesus is talking about each of us. We sin and plead for forgiveness and in His love and mercy God forgives our sin.

In the same chapter verses 28-31 we read about one who is forgiven goes forth and refuses to forgive someone else. Then others who noticed this refusal to forgive began to complain. We do this sometimes. We become aware of someone refusing to forgive another and take the side of the one who is un-forgiven. We even talk with God about this by complaining about those who refuse to forgive.

The chapter continues in verses 32-35 where we read about the master dealing with the man who refused forgiveness. This is what God will do if we refuse to forgive. By our refusal to forgive another we are condemning our self.

One of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Prairie is "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall have mercy" and of course the opposite is also true. Condemned are the merciless for they shall be denied mercy.

In Matthew 5:21-26 we learn more about dealing with anger. In these verses we come to realize murder is not only actual physical murder but the wounding of another in any manner. Inflicting any kind of pain upon another is a form of murder. Killing the spirit of another is a sin against the commandment you shall not kill.  And the prison for us when we refuse to forgive is lack of peace of heart and mind. Inner peace cannot live in the heart of one consumed by anger.

In Matthew 6: 5-14 we find the Our Father which consists of seven distinct petitions.  The first three petitions refer to our love for God: Hallowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on earth and in heaven. Then we state our expectations and we seek God’s mercy saying, Give us our daily bread; Forgive us our trespasses; Lead us not into temptation and Deliver us from evil. Then we pray the doxology saying, For the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory are yours now and forever. Amen (So be it)

The Our Father is a prayer in which we tell God what we want and what we expect to receive. We in effect say, let me have what I have asked of you, Lord. Let it be! We ask God to forgive us as we forgive others and sure enough, God will forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us. Do we really want to risk saying these words

when we refuse to forgive another?

One of the sad things about our refusal to forgive is too often, there really was no offense against us. We perceived an offense, we misunderstood a word; an action or a turned head we assume someone snubbed us or said something negative about us. We allow this assumption to lead us into a false belief and hold on to our anger. We sometimes even become bitter and speak cruel or insensitive words to or about another.

Example: My father had an older half brother who owned a grocery store and tavern. For a brief time a relative worked for him as a bartender. One year at Christmas time, this uncle came to our house for a visit and sitting on the kitchen cabinet was a bottle of whiskey in a Christmas box. Seeing it my uncle immediately assumed this relative had stolen it from his bar and given it to my father. My dad tried to tell him a salesman had given it to him the previous day as a Christmas gift.

My uncle called my dad a liar and returned to his bar where he fired the relative. From that day until the day my uncle died, he refused to speak to my dad or the person he fired. My dad tried many times over a period of several years to resolve this conflict to no avail. In his final hours before his death my dad took his hand, he immediately pulled it away. Dad again tried to reconcile with another plea for forgiveness. My uncle refused to speak and died during the night. He died having never forgiven what he perceived to be a theft which never happened.

 Was Jesus kidding when He said we must forgive 70 x 7 times? I do not think so. I believe we are to love others as we love our self, which requires us to forgive others as we want God to forgive us. We must be men and women of the towel and water. We must be willing to wash away our anger dry our tears and let go of those offenses committed by another toward us. We may remember an offense but we must let go of the memory of the pain, hurt and anger.

Vengeance is mine said the Lord and refusal to forgive is a vengeful act of the will. Lack of forgiveness of others is our inordinate desire to cause someone pain, to cause someone to suffer as we suffer, to cause someone to regret what was done or what we perceive to have been done. We cannot control someone else but we can control our self. Refusal to forgive self or others is a refusal to believe, to hope and to love a God who forgives us again and again.

We are called to holiness, we are called to strive toward perfection…Scripture tells us we are to be perfect AS the Father is perfect…Be merciful AS the Father is merciful and Love one another AS Christ loved us. So, Jesus was not kidding when He told us to forgive 70 x 7 times. Because we are Christians the word AS makes a big difference in our relationship with others. Jesus used AS in the phrase above and He also used AS in the Our Father the prayer which He taught us.

If we pray the Our Father without being a forgiving person we are asking God not to forgive us. This is one risk I do not want to take and I believe we can and we must forgive others Seventy Times Seventy Times. A number without limits. Otherwise we will never possess peace of heart and mind. We cannot pray the Our Father unless we skip the words, "Forgive us as we forgive others" unless we forgive others.