Nothing Better Than Forgiveness
Matthew 18:32-35—“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
A few days ago I taught some children this lesson. I began by asking, “What is the worst thing you can do to someone?” You wouldn’t believe some of the responses I got! Of course I heard, “kill them.” But then things got pretty morbid. “Cut their head off.” “Punch them.” “Torture them.” I told them all those things were really bad and we should never do them, but that they still hadn’t told me what he worst thing was. Then, one child said, “Take Jesus away.” And he was exactly right. That’s really the point Jesus gets at in the parable before us today because the worst thing you can do to someone is to not forgive them! And when you do this, you’re taking Jesus away from them.
Jesus tells us this is the worst thing for two reasons. It is the worst for the person who sinned against you and it is the worst for you too.
When someone sins against you, but then sees what they did was wrong and says, “I’m sorry,” that’s not just being polite. They are doing what a Christian does. When you sin, when you do bad things, you say you are sorry. You ask for forgiveness.
When someone asks for your forgiveness, you forgive them. It doesn’t matter what they did or how much they hurt you, because forgiving is what Christians do. We forgive because Jesus has forgiven us and all people.
Jesus’ tells us about the terrible danger and harm we do when we don’t forgive. When you don’t forgive someone when they ask for your forgiveness, you hurt their heart. You may end up hurting their heart so much that they won’t believe Jesus has forgiven them. You hurt their heart so much that you help to push them away from Jesus! You would take Jesus away from them!
But you know what? When you don’t forgive, you hurt your own heart too. When you don’t forgive, you’re showing you don’t really understand what it means that Jesus has forgiven all your sins. Jesus tells us that if we don’t forgive, then we don’t know him or believe in him. Jesus tells us that unbelievers are the ones who don’t forgive.
So, you see, the worst thing you can do to yourself and to someone who has a sinned against you is to not forgive.
But Jesus died for that sin too! Jesus forgives all your sins! Even your sins of not wanting to forgive people who have sinned against you! Remember that Jesus has forgiven the sins of all the world. That means Jesus has forgiven all your sins. That also means that Jesus has forgiven the sins of everyone else. This is why you can forgive someone who sins against you and says they’re sorry and asks for your forgiveness. We forgive because Jesus forgives us. The best thing you can do for someone, to say, “I forgive you!” That’s why there’s Nothing Better Than Forgiveness.