Luke 23:26-34
Forgive Them Father, for They Do Not Know What They Are Doing
26 As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28 Jesus turned and said to them,“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then
“‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”
and to the hills, “Cover us!”’
31 For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
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.”
1 Peter 4:8
Love Covers a Multitude of Sins
8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
Colossians 3:12-14
Forgive and the Forgives Each of Us
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Matthew 18:21-22
We Are to Forgive Regularly and Often
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.
Sinning over and over is not a good thing to do...This results in our sins being many...Is there hope for those of us, who sin over and over again?...There is this strange paradox, it seems, that one who sins a lot can still love a lot and be forgiven many times over...Faith and love and forgiveness are a most powerful combination...Love by itself, according to St. Peter can cover a multitude of sins...And faith binds to love...And forgiveness releases us from the hold another or revenge may have on us...
When I first read Jesus teaching about forgiveness, I really did not know how close and how much forgiveness was related to love...Jesus when He was about to be crucified, ask His Father in Heaven to forgive us for the flogging He had just taken, and to forgive us for what we were about to (do) and put Him on a cross to die...We are the ones that put Him on the cross, or our sins were what sent Him to the cross...And in His heart He says He forgives us for we do not know what we do...And in another story Jesus teaches us about a woman who had sinned many times and needed forgiveness...And despite her many sins she had great love and faith in her heart...She believed and somehow knew a Man in the house of Simon, could forgive her many sins...Where else could the woman in Simon's house turn?...She turned to One who is the One who can forgive...And in His forgiving He shows great love...
In St. Paul's epistle to the Colossians, he writes about how we should show compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience to all....And then he teaches us to bear and live with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone...Forgive as the Lord forgave you...And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity...Forgiveness is wrapped around compassion and love...Forgiveness, compassion, and love are wrapped together in these verses...
Jesus told the Pharisee that the more one can learn to forgive the more they learn about love, and can love more...Many sins may need more than one time of forgiving...And in the irony of this, is -if we sin a lot and learn from being forgiven several times, when can love more...So we can learn from being forgiven, and love more...Maybe we learn even more when we are forgiven more for our many sins, because we are forgiven many times by our Master...The more we sin, the more we owe Jesus for our sin debt...Maybe the more we see what we do wrong to others, and they forgive us, we learn about love in that way...When we are truly down and out, on our last leg, and are completely brokenhearted this Light maybe easier to see...With a large sin debt on our backs, where can we turn...Those owing the most sin debt, probably have the least feelings of self-righteousness...When we express our sorrow for all of our sins truly and humbly, He listens...And if we listen we can learn from our past sins being forgiven and our acts that need forgiving...Many sins can be forgiven by the Only One who can forgive sins...And great love for Jesus and others covers a multitude of our sins...Jesus says that whoever has been forgiven only a little only knows how to love a little...Less times forgiven may lead to less love...And one might add we can only love little, when we know only how to forgive little...