Tuesday Reflection October 05, 2021

What Does Forgiveness Look Like?
To an Israel in captivity, God makes a promise through the prophet Jeremiah. It is a promise of better days to come, days when they will no longer be captives in a strange land. They or their children would be released and restored to the Promised Land and having accomplished this, God would once again make them into a great nation. The Messiah would come and that would signal a change in everything. Indeed God would forgive their sins and restore them to their privileged position as His special people. The watchword for today is from Jeremiah 31: 34 – I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.

When someone offends us, what do we do? Do we remain angry at them forever? Do we forgive and if we do, how do we move forward? Forgiveness by worldly standards, does not forget, does not condone, does not excuse and does not appease anger. Neither does the one being forgiven need to admit to the offense, ask for forgiveness, or decide to change. With us as Christians it is different. Our forgiveness is born out of repentance, being sorry for the wrong we have done, and making a commitment not to repeat this action. When we are sorry for our sins and approach God with contrite hearts, God responds with forgiveness through Christ. It’s not that our actions no longer deserve God’s anger, but that God in mercy choses to forgive us. We are encouraged to practice forgiveness in this way. Forgiveness lifts burdens from us and frees our hearts minds and souls to welcome new relationships in and through Christ. It renews and restores our faith in humanity through our faith in God. Psalm 86: 5 reminds us “You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you.” Forgiveness is not selective nor evasive.

Note that the text does not stop at forgiveness but continue to pledge God’s deliberate action of forgetting whatever we have been forgiven for. This is the forgiveness promised in Micah 7: 19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Maybe the reminder from Psalm 103: 12 will resonate more with you: as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. When God forgives he restores us to where we were before we sinned and he repairs the relationship. When we forgive, we are challenged to be Christlike as we seek to restore broken relationships and renew our relationship with God. This frees us from carrying burdens of pain, anger, hurt and frustration that comes from unforgiveness. God through Christ is able to remove our burdens of unforgiveness and restore us to himself. This is what forgiveness looks like. May God lead us to pour out our situations of unforgiveness to him even as we seek God’s forgiveness in our lives. Amen.