Sunday, April 20, 2014

True Forgivness

So this is how the conversation went on my ride home on Monday six days before Easter. 

Me: so what are we going to talk about today?
Jesus: forgiveness specifically forgiving (Blank)
Me: your not going to talk to me about anything else until we deal with this are you? 
Jesus: nope 
Me: what am I supposed to do?
Jesus: forgive them. 
Me: fine, I forgive them. 
Jesus: now how about restoring that relationship?
Me: I didn't break the relationship why should I have to be the one to go out of my way to fix it? 
Jesus: well that's what I did. 

The story I have been mulling over all week leading up to Easter is from Matthew 18. 

The story goes as follows. 
A servant owes the king 10,000 talents which works out to be 150,000 years of wages. 
He can't pay it so he begs the king for mercy and time. 
The king decides to forgive the whole debt all $3,750,000,000 in today's economy. 
The forgiven servant goes out and spots a fellow servant who owes him about $7,000 in today's rate, rather then forgiving this other servant the forgiven servant sends him to prison. 
The king finds out and returns the debt to the first man who he had forgiven. 

Jesus sums the story up by saying that God will treat us the way the king treated the first man if we treat others with unforgiveness. 

The thing about forgiveness that I didn't realize when I started my conversation with Jesus on Monday is that I was forgiven before I was repentant. 
In Romans chapter 5 Paul lays out that while we were still enemies of God, Jesus sought restoration not because we were sorry but because he desires restoration and he wants it enough to die for it. 

This Easter ask yourself this: In light of all I have been forgiven is there is anyone who I need to forgive.