Forgive Us Our Trespasses
ONE
To whom do you harbor anger, resentment, or hatred?
On the surface…no one.
Look deeper.
Who has wronged you, hurt you, altered your life in some negative way? Of whom do you feel if this person were never in my life or if they would change, then my life would be good?
Forgive them!
You don’t see it yet, but your anger, hatred, and unforgiveness imprisons you.
Forgive them now! Your freedom, peace, and happiness depend upon it. Your eternal salvation may even depend upon it.
In the Our Father we set the standard for how we will be forgiven when we pray…Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Our petition will not be heard unless we have first met the strict requirement of forgiving others…Now – and this is daunting – this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us.
(CCC 2838 and 2840)
TWO
Darryl Burton was falsely convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
He was sent to the Missouri State Penitentiary – known as the bloodiest 48 acres in America - A very hate filled place where Darryl became a very hate filled person.
Someone gave him a Bible and challenged him to read the words of Jesus. He found in the Bible where Jesus said, “Love your enemy, pray for them and forgive them.”
But Darryl hated the people that imprisoned him unjustly and took his life away.
Jesus said love your enemies and pray for them. Well, Darryl prayed for them alright…he prayed for a building to fall on them…
And the third thing Jesus said was forgive them. But for Darryl that was over the top. He said; “I can’t forgive these people for what they have done to me. No one can do that.”
But Darryl kept reading and Jesus was falsely convicted.
He too was sentenced to death, he was grievously tortured by his scourging at the pillar and had a crown of thorns forced into his brain through his skull and nailed to a cross.
But one verse in the Bible, Luke 23:34 stopped Darryl in his hatred, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.”
That verse pierced his heart because to him, that was divine, not human. Only God could do that, so Jesus had to be divine.
To forgive is divine – it can’t come from us.
As Alexander Pope said; “To err is human, to forgive is divine.”
THREE
So Darryl began to try to do what Jesus did and pray for the people he hated.
Through clenched teeth he prayed…
“Oh Jesus, I pray for them, but you know what they did to me. Make them turn around and do the right thing.”
But he was so angry. Filled with rage and hate. And he gave up.
Jesus I can’t do this!
Then Jesus whispered to him
No Darryl, you can’t forgive them, but I can forgive them - through you - if only you would let me.
And that is how forgiveness works. That is the mystery of Forgiveness. It has to come from God through us if we let God use us.
With this realization Darryl began to pray for those people from his heart and it gave him a peace beyond all understanding. And 10 years before they found the real killer and Darryl was released he was already free! Free of hatred, free of fear.
But if we live in fear and hate and cannot forgive then we are already imprisoned. Locked inside a cell, holding the key ourselves…
FOUR
Jesus concludes his teaching on the Our Father with this:
If you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.
If we refuse to forgive others then we block the forgiveness of God from getting into our hearts. Why is this? Because we have put up a barricade made from our pride, our misguided judgment and condemnation of others, our anger, our resentment. In order to forgive others we must first remove the barricade to our heart – the pride, anger, condemnation and resentment – and this opens up the way for God to pour in His forgiveness and healing mercy.
So – if we want to be forgiven – then we must clear a path by forgiving others first.
FIVE
We have the greatest reason to forgive!
God works all things for good for those who love Him.
No matter what other people do to us, Our Father is so good and powerful that He always works it in our favor – He makes it the best.
We may not see it clearly now. Oh, but we will see it in Heaven. Still, the reality now is the same.
The only way you can screw it up so that God can’t work it for your greatest advantage – is if you won’t forgive.
So forgive and be forgiven!