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FORGIVENESS. 1. JOSEPH’S PROBLEM.
Joseph’s half brothers sold him into slavery.
Twenty years later their positions are altered, Joseph has risen to a position of fame, fortune and power. The half brothers, having no idea who he is, come to ask for help. There is a famine in the land and they are desperate for food.
What will Joseph do? The wrong they did to him was terrible. Yet only by forgiving them can he be reunited with his old father or his young whole-blood brother Benjamin who had no part in their crime.
At first he cannot face the difficult decision; so he keeps them in ignorance of his identity. He treats them roughly, but then appears to relent and gives them the needed grain. But he keeps one hostage and demands that next time they come they must bring Benjamin with them.
Clearly he wants to forgive but cannot bring himself to the point.
Forgiveness for a great and deliberate wrong, is never cheap. If it seems too easy it may prove shallow and unreal.
When they return Joseph is glad to meet his younger brother, but still cannot bring himself to completely forgive the others. This means he cannot tell any of them, even Benjamin, who he is; nor can he hope to see his father again.
He tricks them, and accuses Benjamin of theft. With that excuse he says he will keep Benjamin as a slave.
Judah had been a weak character with many serious faults and sins, but now shows another side. He had promised his father to bring the youngest son home safely. He offers to be a slave in his place.
That breaks the deadlock. Joseph finds he really can forgive, not just Judah but all of them. The story ends happily and is found in the Bible, Genesis chapters 37 to 45.
FORGIVENESS. 2. HEAVEN’S PROBLEM.
Heaven has a problem, if it is to exist at all. It has the same problem which faced Joseph. Some people have wronged others - not trivial or unintended wrongs, not slips of the tongue or moments of carelessness, not just human failings but deliberate and grievous wrongs.
Nothing that defiles it shall enter in, we read in Revelation 21:27 and indeed it would not be Heaven if anything could. Bitterness and vindictiveness would defile it. So would the wrongs which they are directed against. It looks as if no one who either needs forgiveness or needs to forgive can ever hope to be in Heaven.
The answer can not be shallow forgiveness. Only something very drastic indeed can enable an inhabitant of Heaven to share his life for ever and ever with a man who raped his daughter, murdered his brother, betrayed his country or stole his wife.
These are the extreme wrongs, mentioned to demonstrate the point, but in everyday life there are also lesser wrongs which build up to the point when they can make life unbearable.
Somehow the forgiveness issue must be resolved. Is there anyone who like Judah will break the deadlock by saying, “Keep me as your slave. Let me bear the blame. Punish me and let my brothers go free.”?
It will need someone bigger than Judah. We are talking about millions, billions of people who have wronged each other and been wronged. It will need someone better than Judah, not a weak character who had just one moment of glory; one whose character is crystal clear right through to the centre.
Such a one must not only solve the problem for the inhabitants of Heaven. God Himself has the same problem and has to be satisfied.
FORGIVENESS. 3. GOD’S PROBLEM.
Forgiveness is not fair! People must pay for what they have done wrong! God has no right to let them get away with it! He had better scrap the idea of a Heaven - there will be no one in it - unless He scraps the idea of justice.
Or perhaps He could devise a Heaven suitable only for a few specially good people. But it would not be very heavenly - in fact it would be a hotbed of smug self-righteousness - and lonely.
God’s dilemma is that He must either give up on justice or give up on mercy and either way He must give up on Heaven.
FORGIVENESS. 4. GOD’S OTHER PROBLEM.
Not only is God faced with unforgiving Justice. He is faced with unforgiving people. Hurts and wrongs and resentments are things people cling on to. Some of the hurts are caused by real wrongs done; others are for imaginary or trivial or unintended wrongs. Some for wrongs which were real at the time but have passed into history.
Those who hold on to unforgiven wrongs will soon find themselves gathering a larger and larger collection. Cling to a hurt and it will cling to you. Before long it will attract others. Let them rest on the surface and they will quickly send down their tendrils, burrowing through the skin and taking root deep inside you. Bitterness is a parasite which destroys its host.
Unforgiveness cuts people off even from loved ones who never wronged them - just as Joseph, if he had not forgiven his half brothers, would have lost his innocent brother and his old father.
If God was to find a solution to the problem of forgiveness, it had to be one which dealt with both problems. First His own ability to forgive without compromising Justice. Secondly the need to break the deadlock so that people can forgive each other before their bitterness kills them.
FORGIVENESS. 5. GOD’S ANSWER.
Peter was a witness of Christ’s sufferings (1 Peter 5:1). He had stood at a distance watching as his best friend was nailed to a wooden cross and left to die slowly in agony. Years later he wrote, “Christ once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust; so that He might bring us to God.”
(1 Peter 3:18).
Centuries earlier the prophet Isaiah had foretold
For our offences he was wounded,
For our crookedness, crushed.
To bring us peace, He was whipped.
For our healing He was beaten.
We all strayed like sheep
And God loaded our faults onto Him. (Isaiah 53)
Paul explained it - “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself - not counting people’s sins against them.”
(2 Corinthians 5:19).
And the poetic author of Hebrews expressed it - “Now Christ has appeared publicly on the scene. He rolled up all the ages into one and sacrificed Himself once and for all to make sin null and void.” (Hebrews 9:26)
Here is God’s answer. The One He valued most in all the universe took upon Himself the sins of the entire human race, past present and future. He willingly bore the suffering we deserved. The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified for our sins.
That is drastic enough to break any deadlock.
6. GOD’S ANSWER SOLVES BOTH GOD’S PROBLEMS
In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he explains that God can forgive without compromising Justice.
“No one can become right with God by keeping the rules. The most the rules can ever do is show us where we are wrong. But now a new rightness has been demonstrated. It comes from God and has nothing to do with keeping the rules (although the Law and the Prophets point to it). This rightness comes from God to all who will trust Jesus Christ for it.
There is no distinction. All have sinned and come short of God’s glory; but justification is gratis - by God’s free ungrudging open-hearted open-handed goodwill - and the liberating ransom of Christ Jesus.
God has put Him forward publicly as the one who, by shedding His own blood, became the meeting place between God and those who trust Him.
This shows how God could be right to pass over sins in years gone by and, without compromising justice, can still be right to justify those who trust Jesus.
The result of all this is to rule out completely, any grounds for smug self-satisfaction. We are right with God, not because we have achieved that rightness by doing good, but just by trusting Him for it.”
(Paul’s letter to the Romans ch. 3 vs 20-31 - Grow & Go paraphrase.)
7. FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES -
AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US.
Jesus gave us these words with the intention that we pray them every day. This prayer is at the heart of His teaching, a constant reminder that when we receive forgiveness for ourselves we also receive it for others.
The two forgivenesses are one and the same. We are forgiven because Christ died for us. We forgive others because Christ died for them. If we do not forgive we are in effect saying to God, “I want Jesus Christ to have died for me but not for that other person.” We are asking for a deal which is not on offer.
Not quick, cheap or easy.
Jesus never suggested that forgiveness is easy. It is a mountain to be climbed not a mound to be stepped over. But the only path ahead leads over that mountain; so it has to be climbed. Refuse to go that way and we remain where we are throughout life, eaten away by bitterness.
Action not feelings.
After Jesus had said, “Love your enemies” He went on to add three easier commands. “Do good to those who hate you,” “Bless those who curse you,” and “Pray for those who abuse you.”
Those three are actions. We are not commanded to feel forgiving. If we obey the instruction to do good, bless and pray, we shall eventually find the power to move on to full forgiveness. It is action that counts, not feelings.
Do good, bless and pray are the signposts which point the way up the mountain we must climb. Full forgiveness and love for our enemies will be found at the summit. There is no other way forward.
8. THE SUPREME OVERPAYMENT.
By His death on the cross, The Lord Jesus Christ has purchased the right to forgive the sins of the world. But the price was high. He is worth more than all the rest of us together - a billion times more. God has paid too much! The infinite one sacrificed Himself for us and only the infinite one can suffer infinite pain. If the universe lasts another million years and populates the stars with sinners more wicked than the world has yet seen, the sacrifice will still be fully sufficient to provide forgiveness to each and every one who receives it.
Again the overpayment works two ways. It covers the wrongs I have done and the wrongs done to me. It pays for the forgiveness I need for myself and the forgiveness I need for others. No matter what evil has been done to us, the Cross of Christ is the place where we can join with Him as he prayed for His killers, “Forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.”
9. THE HURTS OF HISTORY.
The infinite value of Christ and His suffering is sufficient for the hurts of history as well as the hurts of individual lives.
Down the ages nations, tribes and ethnic groups have wronged each other. Many of us are brought up to know, from early childhood, the harms done to our own people by others. We may not be taught the harms our own people have done.
What then can I as an Englishman say to Irish people who still feel the pain of grievous wrong done to their ancestors by mine? Rich English landowners claimed that Irish corn was theirs and took it away under armed guard even when, because other crops had failed, Irish people were starving. It was the worst crime in English history. Yet I cannot encourage my Irish brothers to remain bitter - bitterness can only destroy the people who live with it.
Please forgive us by the blood Christ shed - for us and for you.
And whoever is reading this, forgive any tribe or nation or ethnic group which has hurt yours. Forgive them by the blood Christ shed for you and for them.
10. FORGIVENESS REFUSED.
People can refuse God’s forgiveness. People do - and choose to remain unforgiven even though a full a complete and infinitely expensive pardon has been freely offered to them.
What then if we resolve to forgive another person, only to find they do not want forgiveness or will admit no fault; or perhaps take the whole issue so lightly that it amounts to a refusal?
Let us understand that only accepted forgiveness can restore fully a broken relationship - as it did for Joseph and his half brothers. When forgiveness is accepted we call it “reconciliation.”
But even if forgiveness is not accepted, it is still needed to free the forgiver from the bondage of bitterness. So carry on with the “Do good, bless and pray” regime regardless of how it is received. It may lead to full reconciliation eventually. If not, it still enables us to pray, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive these who trespass against us.”
11. IMAGINED WRONGS.
Finally, let us all remember that we are not always the best judges of whether we have been really wronged or not. Often we feel a deep hurt for what was, at worst, a careless word or moment of forgetfulness. So if we feel that our offer of forgiveness has not been taken seriously, maybe we should discuss our feelings with someone who has the wisdom and experience to advise. They may tell us, “You are exaggerating the harm, forget it.”