Forgiveness as Understanding: Releasing Negative Emotions

You know, have you ever noticed that when we approach this, you know, these kind of difficult sayings of Jesus, right, we always put ourselves in the driver's seat. Right? So we go, forgiving someone 73,000,000 times, how could that be good news? And we never assume that maybe Jesus might be extending this good news, this good news to people who need forgiveness and healing and transformation, like Zacchaeus, and like, as it turns out, Peter, as a matter of fact. If forgiving someone 73,000,000 times sounds difficult, getting forgiven 73,000,000 times. Well, that's something else, isn't it? To think that the love would never run out, to think that that there would be this waterfall, this cataract is one of my favorite King James terms, just pouring down, pouring it on. [00:53:22] (69 seconds)  #EndlessGrace

Let's have lunch. And I don't know what went on at that lunch. I mean, we can think about it, the bible doesn't tell us though, does it? We don't get that from the story. Let's have lunch. And some very interesting things can happen sitting at a table. We're gonna be at a table today too. And I think every one of those table opportunities can be an opportunity for communion, for understanding, and perhaps, perhaps transformation. We know that when Zacchaeus emerged from his house with Jesus, something had changed. Something extraordinary happened. This man who had spent a lifetime just pulling money, just scrabbling because he couldn't have enough and there was never enough, then suddenly just began profligately, prodigally giving the money away. [00:52:07] (58 seconds)  #TableTransforms

I don't know about you, but a few questions come to my mind. Question number one, how is that good news? Right? This is supposed to be the gospel, which means good news. How in the world is is this weight upon my shoulders that I've gotta go around forgiving people an infinite number of times? That's not just one person. That's not just the good people. That's everybody infinite numbers of times. 73,000,000, it might as well be infinite. I'm not gonna get there. How's that good news? And here's the second question. How's it possible? [00:45:40] (37 seconds)  #ForgivenessQuestions

To find out that the woman at the well, is the story I'm referring to, had been repeatedly, divorced is a story about rejection, which is why she was at the well at noon because everybody went not in the heat of the day, but in the morning or in the evening. Jesus would have known this. And so sometimes the stories he tells and the question he asks like, go find your husband. Go call your husband. Another question. Is a way of of getting past all the fluff to a deep understanding. Just like me and the sound crew, I see you. That's what Jesus is saying all the time. I see you. I get you. [00:48:47] (43 seconds)  #SeenAndKnown

No. That's not the spirit of the law. In fact, Jesus goes on to tell a story. Now you heard about that textual variant where it's supposed to be 70 times seven. Okay. That's 490. So four ninety one, baby. And that's it. I'm cutting you off. No more forgiveness for you. Right? Sounds like an impossible task. No. This is what sounds like an impossible task. I was trying to do some math. Do you remember that story we read last week about the [00:43:53] (27 seconds)  #MissingTheMark

sin, hamartia, in Greek means missing the mark. It's like I was aiming for the bull's eye, I was aiming for a good experience between the two of us, but what I got was something quite different, or somebody else was doing that with me. That's sort of the root, really, of what we're talking about sin. I'm gonna be playing, by the way, with definitions today, and I'm gonna put this coffee down. And I'm gonna put it on the altar because that's a holy place and that's holy water. Right there, I'm telling you. [00:42:39] (31 seconds)  #WhyWereHere

I know we have. I know I have. That's why we're here. One of the reasons why we're here. Right? Among other things. And then it raises a third question, and this was an interesting question. I told you in the sermon snippet there or the sermon, what are we calling them, sneak peeks or something, and I've now figured out how to spell peak correctly. I went back and corrected the others in case you caught it. [00:46:21] (22 seconds)