The Pardon of Pryaer

Introduction/Welcome

Good evening everyone, it’s so great to be here with you tonight. My name is Faustino Munoz, and I am on staff here at Faith - Oakville as the Director of Student Ministry. This is the 5th week of this Lenten series on The Lord’s Prayer. That means that in the last few weeks of Left we have covered and heard Petitions 1 through 4. Tonight though, our focus is on verse 12 of Matthew6, the fifth petition, or the Pardon of the Lord’s Prayer.

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Tension

This petition is an interesting one. Augustine, an early church father, looked at this portion of the Lord’s Prayer and he called it “the terrible petition.” But what makes it so bad? Why did Augustine think it was so terrible? We’ll get to that tonight.

Let me tell you that for me, it is this very phrase of The Lord’s Prayer that can be a cause of contention at a church, especially if you don’t regularly worship there. I know this from experience, because I have worshipped at many different churches, and when it comes time for us to say the Lord’s Prayer, it becomes a gamble. It’s a gamble because different churches use different translations.

Multiple times have I been the one to say “and forgive us our debts” while the rest of the congregation uses the word trespasses. Or I have prayed “Forgive us our trespasses” while the rest of the congregation said “debts!”

Because of this experience, the first few times of worshipping at a different church, whether it was with friends or family, there was always a sense of tension that welled up inside of me as we approached this prayer. It was particularly tense when it wasn’t printed anywhere for me to read off of. Then it truly was a gamble.

Nowadays though, I feel tension with this petition for a different reason. I want to read this verse again for you, and I want you to really listen closely.

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Did you feel it? Can you feel the tension in this petition? I promise it’s there. If you really think about it, and not just let the words roll in one ear and out the other. As you read this, it is easy to wonder if Jesus is telling us here that the Father forgives us only on the basis of, and in proportion to, the way that we forgive others. If that is true, then what we are doing here in this prayer is asking God to treat us exactly like we treat other people. If you’re anything like me, which I suspect that you are…then that’s a real problem.

The problem is that to believe that goes against everything else that the Bible teaches us about how God works. How He forgives us of our sins by Grace through Faith, for Jesus’ sake alone, regardless of our prayers or our actions.

You see, I also think that It makes us tense for another reason. And not because it doesn’t say what we want it to say. In fact, it says more than we want it to! If we could rewrite this petition and had our way, I suspect that it would go something like this: “Forgive us our sins.” It would go no further. We would stop it right there because we don’t want to be held accountable! We don’t want to be held accountable for our actions because to be held accountable means that we have to pay; and the sad thing is that our accounts are empty, and we can’t pay!

Spiritually Bankrupt

You see, in the original Greek Language

You see, in the original Greek Language, Jesus had selected debt as the picture of sin. And we are all in debt because we have all sinned. There are no if’s and’s or but’s about it. Scripture doesn’t say “if you have sinned...” but rather says “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...” (). When we sin, we are breaking God’s law, and we have to pay.

We see this even today in our justice system. If you break the law, you have to pay for your crimes. Those crimes can be paid through time in prison or through community service. Many crimes require the offender to pay restitution to compensate for their victim’s loss. To make up for their crimes.

All of us have an obligation to God to pay off that debt that we have accumulated by our sinfulness. The thing is that you and I must admit before God that we can’t pay the debt. We all are spiritually bankrupt. says “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sin, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.”

We are debtors, we cannot pay. And not paying is not an option. Now, when it comes to debt, some would say the answer is easy. Some would say “well, if you’re in credit card debt, then you need to stop spending.” That sounds all good and well but it’s just not practical.

It’s not practical because you are daily accumulating this debt against God. We are sinful to our very core. Those that think that they can simply stop sinning do nothing but deceive themselves. Not only can we not stop sinning, but the tragedy is that we are good at it! We are so good at racking up this debt!

We are so good at adding debt to our pile. I have to say that when I picture debt, my mind jumps to food. If you know me well, then you know that for me to think of food at a time like this is not even a little bit of a surprise. I get myself into trouble sometimes when it comes to food, especially when I go out to restaurants.

See, I’ll open up the menu sometimes and I don’t look at the prices! I order with my stomach, not my wallet. And sometimes I want an appetizer, and a soda or drink (that of course is never free refills), and then it would be a shame to go all the way out to a restaurant and not even look at the dessert menu! I order and order and order. I order without thinking of the check that is coming at the end of the menu. In fact, I would rather not think of what the check is going to ask me to pay at the end. So, I choose to ignore it. At least for as long as I can.

I imagine that you life your life much the same. If not at the restaurant, then at least with regard to sin. We sin without regard for what it will cost to pay it all off in the end!

And as the pile of ever-growing sin-debt continues to grow and grow, we must realize that trying to stop sinning is futile. And even if we could stop, what about the existing debt? We can never repay the debt that we already owe to God. So, we pray for Him to forgive us our debts...

The Pardon

That’s important as we are talking about the Pardon of Sin. Pardon is defined as “the action of forgiving or being forgiven for an error or offense.”

In order to be pardoned, we must first recognize that there is something to be pardoned for! We have to wholeheartedly acknowledge that we have committed that error or offense and that we need to have that debt pardoned. Pardons are not just handed out as if they are a giveaway on the Oprah Winfrey Show. No, there has to be something to be pardoned for.

But then the tough part comes in “…as we have forgiven those who sin against us.”

As We Forgive

C.S. Lewis wrote, “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.” Forgiveness is not an easy thing. When someone wrongs us, it’s so easy to want to exact revenge on those that wronged us. We often want to make them squirm and earn their forgiveness. We want to take our pound of flesh from them. We want them to come crawling to us and really earn our forgiveness.

That’s not how God calls us to be. Knowing that God h as promised to forgive us of our sins, we must also freely forgive others. We have been shown such abounding Grace through the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus’ death on the cross that to hold that for ourselves would be selfish. Paul writes “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” ()

Just after Jesus concludes the Lord’s Prayer, he elaborates on this petition, saying “For if you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” () God has not just called you to be a forgiven people, but to also be a forgiving people.

You see, when we choose to not forgive others, we only hurt ourselves. There is a certain joy and peace that comes not only from being forgiven but from forgiving others. When we refuse to forgive others as we have been forgiven, we prevent ourselves from receiving that very peace and joy.

When we choose to not forgive people, we think that we are in control. We think that we hold others prisoner by the debt that they owe to us. “Our hearts are all prison walls when we hold people captive with chains of unforgiveness.”

We find ourselves captive when we don’t forgive, as bitterness, hate, and resentment all creep into our hearts, making us prisoners of our own making. American author Anne Lamott wrote “not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”

When it comes to forgiveness you have nothing to lose, but you have everything to gain. It costs you nothing to forgive others. When there is a debt, someone needs to pay. And you can be sure that that bill is coming.

This One’s On Me

Now, we said it earlier, but I want to emphasize that forgiveness is hard. It is not an easy thing to forgive someone. I would ask you to think of someone in your life that you are withholding forgiveness from. Who do you hold in contempt in your life?

Do they deserve your forgiveness? Have they atoned for the wrong that they have committed against you? We are so eager to say,

“He or she doesn’t deserve it!”

“You don’t know what they did to me or (fill in the blank)”

“I can’t do it”

“You don’t understand”

And once we begin to grasp the truth that we have people in our lives that haven’t earned our forgiveness, let me ask, “have we earned God’s?” Have we paid the price for all of the sins, the wrongs, the mistakes that we have made in our lives? No matter how old, young, wise, smart, or talented you may be, I can guarantee that you haven’t.

You have not lived a life that is worthy of the price that God the father has paid for you. He sent his very own Son to be beaten, shamed, and punished like a criminal…for you. To pay for your debts, knowing full well that you could never.

And it is because of that act of divine magnitude that we can rejoice because when we arrive at the gates of heaven, and that bill is due, it will not be our mangled, disgusting, sin-stained card that pays our bill. Rather, a bloodied, nail-pierced hand that reaches out and says, “this one. This one’s on me.”

Our debt has been paid by the blood shed on the cross. Our debt has been paid forward, we are under that weight no more. So why do we hold others under that very same weight that has been lifted from our backs?

Would you please stand as we close? I want everyone in here to take a deep breath, hold it in for a few seconds, and then let it out. As you do this, I want you to know that through this prayer, Jesus is calling you to be reminded of and experience the incredible fresh, clean, crisp air of forgiveness that has been given to you and that fills every part of our being.

We breathe in this air of forgiveness so that it fills our lungs and rushes through our bodies, and then if you’ve ever taken a breath (which I hope you have!), then you know that eventually you have to breathe it back out. And that forgiveness that first flowed from God into your life begins to flow from you to your debtors. Let’s pray, boldly praising our glorious savior who has paid all our debts.