Matthew 18:21 - Then Peter came up and said to Jesus, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?"
Over the weekend, my two teens, along with my daughter's college roommate, asked to grab a bite at Jason's Deli before the girls went back to school. The kids were ordering at the cash register when, for just a second, I turned to look elsewhere. The next thing I know, I sense a woman stepping in front of me to order, in essence, adding to our order because I was the one paying for my kids.
I said, "Excuse me, ma'am." She turned and looked at me as if I'd just said, "Lady, your hair looks stupid and your clothes need some help and please work on your breath." But I'm sure that all I said was, "Excuse me, ma'am."
After a moment, still glaring, she started to step back saying, "Well, he [the cash register guy] told me to step up." So I looked at the cash register guy and he was thinking about Jupiter or Mars or something else altogether because he was looking straight through all of us.
So I simply stepped up to pay for my three because I wasn't eating, and even if I had been earlier, at this point, I'd lost my appetite. After I paid, my three and I stepped down the line, along with the Holy Spirit. I know the Holy Spirit was there because 1) He always is and 2) He told me to apologize. As we're getting our waters to drink, the lady makes her way down the line, and I stepped towards her and said, "Ma'am, please forgive me; I'm really sorry." Have you ever heard the saying, "If looks could kill?" And she didn't say a word or even slow down.
I was feeling really bad now because I'm wearing pastor clothes, and I'd just served a funeral and I had a baptism at a home for a very sick little child. In other words, I was very mindful that I was looking like a pastor and supposed to be drawing people to Jesus and forgiveness and salvation. I wasn't supposed to be pushing people away. So I tried two more times to engage the lady, literally bowing down and asking forgiveness. I don't know, maybe the problem was that I kept thinking, "All I said was, 'Excuse me, ma'am.'"
The point in all this is that it's Monday. My hunch is, if your Mondays and lives are anything like mine, that there will be lots of opportunities for seeking forgiveness and offering forgiveness. There will be lots of times when you'll keep thinking, "All I said was, '____________.'" But may God help us all to humble ourselves and trust that Jesus alone, as always, is right when His answer to Peter in today's verse basically is, "Unless you want a totally conflicted life, be eager always to forgive and be forgiven."
Dear God, thank you for your forgiveness. Please help us pass it on. In Jesus's name, Amen.
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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