WHY FORGIVE ?

Forgiving paves the way to 'begin anew'
"I've been wronged.... It's not up to me to initiate forgiveness. How can I forgive when he is not even sorry!"

The Unforgiving suffers the Predicament of Irreversibility. The Cycle of Resentment develops Animosity. It builts up. The wound never heals.

Look at the squabble between Adam and Eve. Eve said, "You ate the apple"
And Adam replied, "You gave the apple to me...."
 
Squabbles seldom end. The issue is not who is right; but what needs to be rightfully done.
 
Forgiving avoids the right's issue. The prime purpose of forgiving is to allow the parties involved to Begin Anew. We are not animals. Our faculty to forgive makes us different.

"I cannot forget."

Don't try to. It's the Remembering that paves the way to Forgiving.
Dr. Gary Collins, a psychologist with a PhD in Clinical Psychology and author of the Book CHRISTIAN COUNSELLING, cautions that it may "not be wise to forget.'  We risk repeating the wrongs .. when we 'ignore' past wrongs.

Remembering the wrong(s) done us helps us to resolve to right that wrong...
And because we do remember - makes it possible to remember NOT to forget
BUT to forgive.
 
Simon Peter remembered he had denied knowing Jesus - 3 times.
Jesus remembered those denials also...

Peter's denials had 'hurt' Jesus; but it also 'hurt' Peter himself. And knowing Peter's person....he must have despised himself. Come - Good Friday - the Third Day... And Jesus Came Back.

At Tiberias by the Sea of Galilee Mount Tabor - Jesus met Peter and the rest.
Jesus did not forget. He gave Peter a Second Chance.

Peter was forgiven. And Jesus followed through - pushing Peter to
* found the Faith of Christ and to
* feed His Sheep of His Church.

Jesus not only forgave Simon Peter; Jesus gave Simon Peter a 2nd Chance.

Join me in this Prayer:
I came to my Jesus with a quivering lip - my task undone
"Master, give me another sheet. I have soiled this one."
In place of the Old Sheet - stained and blotted, He gave me a new one.
And into my glad face, He smiled: "Do better next time, my child. Do better next time, my child."

What would it be like - if Peter never fell?
Such a Peter(however worthy and admirable) would never be as close to us - as the Peter
* who denied Christ... at the high priest's court and
* whom Jesus restored ... at the Sea of Galilee.

Everyday opens the Door for a 2nd Chance.
By the Grace of God - even a broken heart with a blemished past beckons us on...

* Begin Once More. Do Better next time, my child.
Never Confuse a mere bend as the end.

Forgiving brings Healing. Though morality and religion play their parts, the Very Act of Forgiving brings about Healing...
* Healing benefits the person who forgives....
For Biblical Joseph who bore a well deserved grudge against his brothers who sold him off as a slave...
* Forgiveness resulted in a Flood of Tears - and Relief......

God's Forgiveness of us comes with a Contingent. The Lord's Prayer makes it explicitly clear ".... forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone..."(cf Lk 6:37; Mt 6:12,14,15)

* Only as we forgive could we be forgiven.
Psychologically, this is Unerring Insight. We are asking God to forgive us for we have forgiven others.

But this 'contingent' raises some difficulties:
It appears to make God's forgiveness - not as a free gift of grace
but as a reward for a virtue on our part.
 
Insight on the other hand clarifies.
The words "for we ourselves forgive everyone..." are to be understood
* not as the ground on which God bestows forgiveness
* but the ground on which we can receive it.
Forgiveness and Repentance are Inseparable; they are 2 sides of a Coin. Interpreters' Bible pin points this as an Indispensble Moral Fact.
We cannot talk of Forgiveness without Repentance. Heaven rejoices over the wrongdoer who repents - just as the Poor Woman rejoices
in finding her ... One Lost Coin.
 

Forgiving Opens Doors of Opportunity for the wrongdoer
John 8 depicts the Scene of a woman caught in the act of adultery. It disturbs - rattles. The woman was the more 'open' - she admitted her guilt whilst her oppressors 'repressed' theirs. The disturbing point lies with those who repressed....suppressed their guilts. Adultery takes 2 to commit. Only she alone was put on trial...!?

Only she was the 'more open' And here is the Catch to Grace.. that act/behaviour of hers - is Repentance. We come to the Lord's Table/Holy Communion - with Open Hands. I ask my communicants as they kneel at the altar rail to have their hands opened....
 
And I would tenderly and devoutly place the elements of bread ...followed by the wine into their Opened Hands.

* Only Opened Hands Can Receive... Closed .. Clenched Hands NEVER can receive...

Jesus' Refusal to condemn her does not mean the excuse for her sinning....
Jesus would not pass sentence/endorse the harsh sentence of the salacious Pharisees - who paraded the woman's shame in public.

What Jesus wrote .... on the ground attracts many interpretations...

Albeit - Jesus bids her give up forever her wrongful/sinful life...

And Jesus .. gives her a 2nd Chance.

Only Luke gives us the Parable of the Good Samaritan - and the Parable of the Prodigal Son. And only Matthew gives us the Parable of the Unforgiving Slave.
Simply put and in Sharp Truth, the Plea for Compassion is Unsurpassed
* If God can forgive us... why can't we do likewise. Be a good example - not to man but to GOD.(Matt 18:35)

Alexandre Dumas "The Count of Monte Christo" tells the story of a wronged man - obsessed with vengeance to right the wrong done him by 4 men.
This story appeals to our sense of justice. But Victor Hugo's "Les Miserable" awakens in us the Sense of Grace. And Grace transforms.

A galley slave of Jean Valjean ... became the mayor of a town. A resurrected Jesus led Peter into Forgiveness .. so that Peter need not go through life with a guilt on his conscience. And on that faith, Christ builds His Church. 

Forgiveness breaks the Cycle of Blame. Forgiveness loosens the Stranglehold of Guilt.

What about addressing the wrong?

Jean Valjean admitted no wrong. Yet the old, kind bishop forgave him - beyond law beyond justice. The magnanimous forgiveness on the part of the old bishop offered Jean Valjean - a 2nd Chance. He became a changed person.

God's 3 Humiliations Man feels it is demeaning - to forgive and insulting to his wounded pride.

Yet God chose to be humiliated... 

1) God became Man - the Incarnation - in Jesus. God chooses to be humiliated. He took on the confines of the physical body - so that He knows what it is like to be tired - to be tempted(Heb. 4:15; 2 Cor 5:19) He is one with us...

2) God shockingly chose the Way of the Cross - suffering the Ignominy, Disgraced death by Crucifixion - reserved for Criminals.

3) God ironically founded the Church; the Church has brought Him shame Who can be proud of the sordid images of the Crusades - Pogroms of the Jews - Slavery -Ku Klux Klan - the Holocaust....etc.

The Earth God Creates sadly seldom sees Him. They know God - often by how they judge us....And like it or not, the Church is God's Humiliation. And like it or not, the Church also is God's Pride... Examine the stories of Noah - Daniel - Abrahasm - Sarah - Joseph ... etc project Pride.

God is not ashamed to be called their God

Take the Bigger Step Beyond  Hitting Back. Getting Even places us below our enemy.  Why stoop to their level.?

Forgiveness sets us above him.



Pastor Edwin Khoo