Forgiving Challenge: Absolution

Introduction

We are currently working our way through the forgiving challenge. And today, we’ve come to the heart of the entire journey. This is the meaning of life right here. The meaning of life cannot be found in anything I’m doing, either doing for myself or doing for God. The meaning of life cannot be wrapped up in what we do because as a human race, we are flawed. We are sinners. Our meaning must come from someplace outside of ourselves. Our meaning must be given to us. And that meaning comes from Jesus himself. But that meaning isn’t simply an idea or a notion or a concept. It is a reality. And that meaning is totally tied to the cross and Jesus’ forgiveness of our sin.

We are using the acrostic SCARS.

· Sin

· Confession

· Absolution

· Restoration

· Sanctification

Absolution is our key word today. It is another word for forgiveness. When we forgive someone, we say we absolve them. They are absolved from the sin. They are absolved from the guilt. They are absolved from any accounting of that sin. There is something cathartic about using the word “absolve”. There’s something so final. So definitive. The word “forgiveness” can, at times, seem to suffer much from abuse, overuse, and misuse. Forgiveness, these days seems to always come with some string attached. It has to be earned. There has to be some sort of formula in order to get it. A checklist. Absolution, for whatever reason, doesn’t allow us to do any of that. There’s no checklist. There are no strings. There’s no formula.

The only pattern or formula you ever, ever need to know… you sin, you confess, you’re forgiven. That’s a promise from Jesus.

That promise couldn’t be more clear.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

That promise is absolute. That promise you can take home to the bank. That promise you can throw your life at. That promise holds true in the middle of the night. That promise is for you when you can’t think straight. That promise is for you when you thinki you’ve failed at your worst. In reading up this week on this topic, I was absolutely heartbroken in a lot of the stuff I read out there on the internet. It’s not just social media. It’s pastors. It’s theologians. It’s the church at large. We’re not going to be long today, I promise you. And it’s because I want us to know how much we have all been duped when it comes to forgiveness. Forgiveness has been abused and misused and used as a weapon for as long as there has been a church. And it goes along the lines of something like this:

Forgiveness is for those who are sincere in their confession and repentance.

I shudder putting that up there on the screen, because there’s always the danger that this might stick with somebody. But please hear me when I say: there’s nothing in the Bible that says that. Any place. Ever. Don’t you believe it. I believed it for years. I taught that for years. I was wrong. Absolutely wrong. There is absolutely no hope in that statement. There is no Jesus in that statement. There’s no gospel in that statement. You understand that Jesus does not base his forgiveness on the level of our sincerity. Churches teach this as a means of controlling people. Because who gets to determine the level of sincerity? Yeah. Somebody does. You do. A group of people do. Who gets to determine how much repentance and sincerity is necessary? That question runs to the heart of why the idea of sincerity is enslaving and anti-gospel. I see it over and over… confess your sin, and if you’re sincere Jesus will forgive you. That’s not here in John. That’s not Paul in the book of Romans. That’s not Jesus on the cross as he forgave those who were killing him in one of the most inhumane ways ever designed. You run, and run far far away if someone tells you they don’t think your confession was sincere. That your repentance was not sincere. That’s not biblical. They don’t get to make that call.

If we confess, Jesus forgives.

End of story. End of the guilt. End of the accounting. End of the slavery. That phrase is freedom. Jesus is not there listening to your confession trying to figure out how sincere it is. He’s not there in judgment mode ready to withhold forgiveness if your repentance doesn’t measure up to his standards. If we confess, Jesus forgives.

The reality is that if sincerity is the barometer by which forgiveness is given, then we are all in a world of hurt. We soon realize, if we are honest, that any standard of sincerity becomes man-made and arbitrary. It’s a vicious, never-ending cycle, chasing a moving target because none of us can never confess or repent with “all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind”. That’s the standard. That’s God’s law… love God with everything you have. And the reality is there’s only one person who has ever done this. Ever. Our attempts at doing it can be very good at times, but it’s never total, and it’s never enough. Never enough. We chase “enough” till it kills us.

You know what forgiveness is dependent on? Is it our sincerity? No. We are only ever given forgiveness because of Christ’s grace. Forgiveness is unconditional. Forgiveness is completely dependent on the perfect sincerity of Jesus for us in his promise to forgive. You want to talk about sincerity? How about a sincerity that willing allows cruel people to drive nails into hands and feet? A sincerity that dies for sins that are not his own? Forgiveness is not dependent on the receiver. Forgiveness is dependent on the giver. And Jesus says…

If or when we confess our sins… he forgives.

That promise.

At the beginning of our story today, we read this:

John 21:9 “When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread.”

This may be one of the most understated verses in all of the Bible. They catch a boatload of fish. Two boatloads of fish. They get to shore. They haven’t even started counting the haul and there’s Jesus with fish on the fire. Oh, and by the way… bread. Anybody remember the loaves and fishes story? That’s also in John. That story, beginning to end, is all about bread, all about fish, and all about a lake miracle where Jesus walked on the water. And in that story, Jesus makes sure everyone knows that He is the bread who has come from heaven. The loaves and fishes are pointing to the One who is the only one who can provide, the only one who can save, the only one who can give eternal life, the only one who can forgive.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus is seemingly always eating. He eats with the down and outs. He eats with sinners. And when he eats, it seems he is almost always in the context of forgiveness. If you’re Peter and this is the scene, there’s no way there’s not a lump in your throat. There are so many fires in the Bible…but there are only two places where the word charcoal fire shows up. Both of them in the Gospel of John. You want to know where the only other place a “charcoal fire” is mentioned in the Bible?

John 18:17-18 “Then the servant girl who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” “I am not,” he said. Now the servants and the officials had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold. They were standing there warming themselves, and Peter was standing with them, warming himself.”

Yeah. Not an accident. The other charcoal fire in the Bible is the charcoal fire where Peter massively fails Jesus. He denies he knows Jesus to the point of swearing. And now here he is. On the shore. He sees a charcoal fire. Oh the feeling in the pit of the stomach. Jesus is recreating the scene. But the most amazing thing about this is… nowhere anywhere in this story, nowhere on this seashore, around the charcoal fire, does Jesus bring up Peter’s sin. He’s not there to make Peter feel guilty. He’s not there to drag a confession out of Peter. He’s not there to find out if Peter is sincere.

No, you see… it’s not just a charcoal fire. There’s bread and fish on that fire. It’s the loaves and fishes charcoal fire. Loaves and fishes that preach life and forgiveness. This is for Peter’s forgiveness. Peter hasn’t said anything. The fire is already burning, the fish and the bread are already prepared. At a charcoal fire, in the sight and smell and the smoke of the worst night of Peter’s life, Jesus is providing forgiveness. Unconditional, unbelievable forgiveness. With a fire. In a meal.

Peter and Jesus go on to have a conversation, but make no mistake, that sight of the charcoal fire and the bread and the fish will never be forgotten by any of the disciples. They all know. They all know about Peter’s failure. None of this is lost on them either. And there’s one sitting by the charcoal fire that day who later will write to a congregation much like this one and he will tell us that Jesus forgives.

If we confess our sins, Jesus forgives.

He promised. He does it before it even comes out of our mouth. Before we even begin to speak the words of confession, Jesus is there with a meal that preaches and proclaims and screams, YOU ARE FORGIVEN.

Peter must have wondered if Jesus would really forgive 70 times 7 like he had said, and before his feet even touch the shoreline the charcoal fire, the bread and the fish, and Jesus are all there telling Peter he is forgiven.

True forgiveness is two things: don’t forget this...

1) to cancel a debt

2) to stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake

We’re going to talk in two weeks about how this is true about our forgiveness for others, but the first place we see this is in the way Jesus dealt with Peter and how he deals with us. He cancels our debt. Sin creates debt. We owe God. We owe him obedience. And when we sin, we owe him because we didn’t obey. It’s a very real debt. And in forgiveness, that debt is canceled.

The other thing that happens in forgiveness is that God’s anger has been satisfied with Jesus on the cross. God’s anger with our sin. That’s erased. He’s no longer angry with us. We’re forgiven.

When it comes to forgiveness, God doesn’t want you to hang onto your sin, stuff away your sin, or suppress your sin. He doesn’t want or need you to try to overcome your sin by yourself. So we give our sin to Jesus. That’s what we do in confession. Confession involves faith. Confession isn’t simply recounting our sin. We do acknowledge and admit our sin in confession. But confession is also having faith in Jesus’ promise to forgive us. When we confess our sins here or to one another, we have faith that Jesus will do with our sins exactly what He promised to do: forgive them.

It’s good to confess out loud. There’s something about confessing with the mouth, as Paul talks about in the Bible. But it’s not as if the words are magic. We confess out loud to hear the entire process of what happens to sin when we confess. There is forgiveness. Forgiveness and the declaration of absolution brings peace and rest.

You want more rest in your life? You want more peace? You suffer from anxiety and disappointment? You struggle with your identity and who you are? Confess your sin and hear your forgiveness from Jesus.

Jesus forgives. That’s our message. That’s our hope. That’s what we need. That’s what your neighbor needs. We must never, ever tire of telling each other and telling others that Jesus forgives sins. In a world that knows nothing of forgiveness, doesn’t like forgiveness, thinks forgiveness is for weak people, thinks forgiveness is letting people off the hook, we say “Jesus forgives”. Jesus lets us off the hook. Forgiveness is completely missing from today’s narrative. People are thirsty to hear a word of forgiveness and we have it right here at the Table every week.

Let’s Pray.

This meal is a meal of forgiveness. Jesus said that this meal is for the forgiveness of sins. And so we come here, week in and week out, to again receive from Jesus his forgiveness and life and grace. Just like Peter did. That charcoal fire with the loaves and fishes was a precursor of this meal. It’s a picture of what Jesus does for us every time we come here to receive his body and blood in faith.