Forgiveness

Matthew 5:23-24

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

It doesn’t matter here how the whole thing started. We must go even if we didn’t start it, even if we may not be guilty, and even if we don’t feel like it.

One time, a colleague, and my pastor at that time, counseled me to go and make peace with a brother that, according to him [that brother], I offended. My colleague said that by me going, I was going to be able to provide a space for reconciliation between me and my brother, and that I would give myself a great opportunity to exercise humility. The good part of this advice was that my pastor saw in me some type of humility… that obviously needed to be exercised and worked towards improvement!

Every day I am given an opportunity to exercise humility as I come to realize that all my excuses are futile. I actually need to drop all my excuses for not making peace or for not working toward reconciliation. It doesn’t matter if I started the fight or the disagreement or not.

God didn’t start this whole business of sin and brokenness. We did. He did not push us into sin, he did not persuade us to disobey, and yet he made the first move to reconcile ourselves with him. Not only that, he didn’t only talk about reconciliation and forgiveness, he actually did the most costly thing somebody can do for reconciliation. Jesus went to the cross to accomplish and to announce to us God’s forgiveness.

How do we work on reconciliation? How do we announce forgiveness? No need for us to go to the cross, although it might require some sacrifice on our side. To work on reconciliation we stop everything we are doing, and before we go to church next Sunday and before we go to the altar to feast at the table of the sacrificed Lamb, we practice humility and go and make peace with our brother. The Holy Spirit will assist us to do so. There is nothing more important than to be at peace with God and with those around us.

By Rev. Hector Hoppe