Luke 7:36-47
If We Forgive Little, We Love Little
36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
Matthew 6:5-15
The LORD's Prayer
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Luke 11:1-13
The LORD's Prayer
1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:
“‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”
5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Matthew 18:21-22
Forgive Others Over and Over Again
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Forgiving is so much related to LOVE...Perfect LOVE can forgive completely...And being able to Totally Forgive and Completely Forgive is a great part of LOVE...This is how God is, in His forgiveness of us...So there is a divine message in this story of forgiveness...Jesus has this power to Completely Forgive...And when One's heart is able to completely forgive unconditional, we learn much about LOVE...And we can believe this divine message of forgiveness that Jesus told Simon, because we do believe that God can and does forgive our sins...And we can believe that God can completely forgive the unforgivable...
Forgiveness of our personal sins from God, seems maybe to be dependent on us forgiving others...This statement seems odd to me...Why do I have to forgive others, before God would forgive me?...God knows how to forgive all people, and He knows how to Completely Forgive...But it makes sense, if the world had the innate and immediate ability to completely forgive, each and ever time one of us made a mistake, the world would be a better place...But we do not...Can we forgive everyone each and every time someone trespasses against us or does offense against us?...Forgiving others, each and every time and being able to completely forgive each offense against us, is very, very difficult...We have to be reminded or remind ourselves to forgive everyone, because we are normally angry and hurt by someone or some group that has caused us our hurt...And forgiveness does not take place in an automatic way...Yet, in the LORD's Prayer, it seems that we should try to forgive innately, immediately and automatically...Jesus reminds us over and over in the gospels about forgiving others...The One who has the ability to Completely Forgive, tells us in His Prayer that if we want to be personally forgiven, then we must learn to forgive others...So we need to forgive others, so we can be forgiven...He says it in Luke's Gospel this way, "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us."...So it does seem that Jesus teaches us that we need to learn to forgive others, before we are forgiven...And the statement is His Prayer is presumptuous...Jesus seems to presume we are going to forgive others, when He teaches in His Prayer, "for we also forgive everyone who sins against us."...It is like He is assuming we have forgiven others, already...Then He bluntly says in Matthew's gospel that if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you...But if you do not forgive others of their sins, your Father will not forgive your of your sins...Jesus is constantly connecting how we treat our neighbors to our faith with God...By saying we are going to forgive everyone who sins against us, means just that...Jesus assumes we can and will forgive our neighbor of those sins he has made against us...And we are to do this act of forgiveness over and over and over again for our neighbor...
I think the ability to Completely Forgive everyone each and every time involves faith and is also connected to our faith...How does one forgive the boss who is over and over inconsistently unfair to us, or the person who is always bullying us, or the ones who treat us unjustly, or the ones who are unrighteous toward us?...Are we to just wisk away any feelings and try to forgive them?...What about our own feelings of deep hurt, resentment, and anger?...I believe the answer to these questions is yes...And we know that forgetting is not the same as forgiveness...And we most likely will not forget the painful situation that we have forgiven...We most likely will never forget that things that happened...We might not ever be the same after our forgiveness...The act we are forgiving may have changed our lives...The act we are forgiving, may have changed us...We need God and faith for being able to forgive in certain situations and things...And forgiveness does allows us to let go of resentment, anger and our hurt and live again without the resentment, bitterness of anger and the hurtfulness...Forgiveness can give give us a new hope in our heart and a new beginning...We can better move forward and on, if we have truly forgiven...
God connects and reconnects us to our neighbors by the amount we forgive...And not only is forgiving connected to love...Forgiving is connected to our faith...And in some ways forgiving is connected to our hopes...G. K. Chesterton said, “To love means loving the unlovable...To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable...Faith means believing the unbelievable...Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.”...God has the ability to LOVE the unlovable....He has the ability to forgive the unpardonable...He has the ability to forgive and love each and everyone of us...He gives us hope, when there is no hope -and in forgiveness can be a renewal and a hope for the heart...