Do we see the wood for the trees?

Have you looked at some visual illusions? How they allow our mind to see something different to what is actually there. If we only stopped and looked carefully, we say… When reading a passage of the Bible, I wonder whether we get fixated with those particular verses, and not see the wider picture? Is it really all about others or me?

In the lectionary reading for next Sunday, Proper 19A, is Matthew 18:21-35. In previous blogs we have looked at the preceding passages where Peter finds coins in a fishes mouth – really? – and Jesus adds to his comments on discipline, asking them to bring at least 3 members to listen and decide upon what to do. It is about relationships, keeping the community as one.

Here, Peter asks that question:

How often should I forgive?

Matthew 18:21

Jesus responds in allegory stating that he should forgive 490 times. Really?

Where we are told to keep “no record of wrongs” in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 13) here we are possibly told to keep forgiving at least 490 times!

Driving errors

I have recently found a Facebook page devoted to Car dash cams. These are those cameras fitted to the front (and rear) of cars to get visual evidence of any car accident. They tempt you to make comment on the actions of other drivers. You see cars cross junctions at speed, or brake hard to show their concern …anger…to other drivers. On one occasion one driver slowed to a walking pace still on the M74, heading north from Carlisle to cross the English/Scottish border, so they could get a good photo. But is it really all about others or me?

I’m taken from my own driving experience and I now can focus upon the plight, the errors of others. It’s a cathartic experience it would seem. Or is it a denial of reality? That I forget my own failings – and I am certainly not the best driver by far – and concentrate the failings of others.

Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

This parable is a perfect example of people believing they are more deserving than others. No, it is really all about me.

The king seeks to balance his accounts. One slave owes such a lot of money, equivalent to 150,000 years of wages of a labourer of the day. Really? Yes, but 10,000 ‘Talents’, where each Talent “was worth more than 15 years’ wages” [1] was huge.

Ten Thousand was the largest Greek number used. The M symbol for the word myriad was the largest acrophobic value, signified ‘very large’.

Was it really that colossal…or just part of the story adding emphasis?

The first servant is threatened with eternal damnation – albeit not permissible under Jewish law; however, he is forgiven. What would the readers of this letter have thought… 10,000 talents and you’ve forgiven him. Are you mad?

The opposite is true for the slave as he departs. For he bumps into a fellow slave who owes him just 100 days wages. This is a more believable amount, but still colossal for a slave. However, there’s no restoration, no reconciliation here.

Grace, or Release

It isn’t about the numbers but the underlying message. God does forgive. Don’t compare other people with ourselves – that’s not our job. Let God decide if that’s your concern. Our concern is to live our lives as best we can for God. It’s what focus do we want?

As with the last passage we looked at, this message is about relationships and reconciliation.

Forgiveness

Hey, what about those 490 times to forgive?

Forgiveness can and should bring release from the hold that it may have over our lives. It is our decision to forgive. This isn’t about what the other has done. It is about how we deal with that trauma, whether we wish to hang on it so we can say to ourselves or possibly others what this person is like.

Forgiveness can be considered cheap if we do not deal with it personally and carefully. Just like the ‘Cheap Grace’ in the parable above, we do not seek to offer ‘cheap forgiveness’.

I’ll leave you with this quote upon which to ponder.

“To forgive is to make a conscious choice to release the person who has wounded us from the sentence of our judgment, however justified that judgment may be. It represents a choice to leave behind our resentment and desire for retribution, however fair such punishment may seem…. Forgiveness involves excusing persons from the punitive consequences they deserve because of their behavior. The behavior remains condemned, but the offender is released from its effects as far as the forgiver is concerned. Forgiveness means the power of the original wound’s power to hold us trapped is broken.”

Thompson, Marjorie J., “Moving toward Forgiveness,” Weavings, March-April 1992, p. 19

What are your thoughts from this?

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Swirling Circles image sourced from Optical-Rotating Circles
[1] Michael D. Coogan, ed., The New Oxford Annotated Bible : New Revised Standard Version With The Apocrypha, (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 1773