Forgive Us Our Debts As We Have Forgiven Our Debtors ~ Matthew 6:5-13

March 29, 2015 - Palm Sunday ~ New City Church of Calgary ~ Pastor John Ferguson
Intro: We live in a world of hurt.
Reactions:
Truth be told, that is an understatement. Some of us could tell endless stories of the ways in which we
suffered paindeep painat the hands of others. Neitzche: To live is to suffer.
Ive gotten by relatively unscathed. Some of us have seen what others have gone through, and were
thankful that we havent experienced similar sufferings. If thats you, (1) congrats; (2) buckle up.
Question: When youve been hurt, how do you deal with it?
The Story of Jennifer Thompson & Ronald Cotton
1984, she was raped. As best she could, she studied his face, scars, and tattoos. Later recounting the
event, she wrote, When and if I survived the attack, I was going to make sure that he was put in prison
and he was going to rot. She was able to identify her rapist from police photos and pick him out of a
lineup. Bravely, she went to the trial, gave testimony that Ronald Cotton was the man who raped her. And
he was sentenced to life in prison. Two years later, he was granted a retrial. She went through the ordeal
again. The defence brought in another suspect, Bobby Poole. She said shed never seen him, and
maintained her certainty that Cotton was the perp. 11 years later, a police detective & DA knocked on her
door. DNA testing had proved that Cotton was innocent. Now she dealt with the guilt of having sent an
innocent person to prison. Cotton, relieved, still had 11 years of his life lost. He had wanted to kill the
rapist for what he did to Jennifer and what he did to him. Cottons father pleaded with him not to do it or
hed be just like Bobby Poole. Instead, his father pleaded for his son to turn to Jesus Christ. And he did.
Our Study for Lent: The Lords Prayer // Today, were going to talk about forgiveness, both in terms of our
relationship with God and our relationship with others.
We all live in a world of hurt. We will be hurt, and hurt deeply. And you need to know that the life of Jesus
has much to say to you about this.
Maybe you are wrestling with a hurt that you just cant seem to let go. In fact, to let go of it seems to be
even more painful than the original hurt. The words of Jesus are for you.
If youlike so manyhave found the cultural platitudes about forgiveness to be shallow and vapid, then
you need to look again at the resources that Jesus gives to us that enable us to really, truly deal with the
issues of pain and forgiveness in our own lives.
1. The Context: Jesus brings us into a new relationship with his God & Father.
(1) By heeding the message of Jesus to do a 180 with our lives (repentance), and to believe his message
(the gospel) so that his God & Father now becomes our God & Father.
John 17:7, This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only God, and Jesus Christ whom you
have sent.
(2) Jesus meets us where we are, not where we should be, and brings us into a relationship with his
heavenly Father, so that we can now address the Creator of the universe as, Our Father.

Page 1 of 3

2. The Issue: What about this language of debt / debtors?

(1) The moral fabric of the universe: Love of God & love of neighbour.
Mt. 22: The greatest commandment? Love God & love others.
(2) The language of debt is used to highlight our failure to give to others their due.
Romans 13:8-10, Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another
has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder,
You shall not steal, You shall not covet, and any other commandment, are summed up in this word:
You shall love your neighbour as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the
fulfilling of the law.
Dealing with debt: (1) Make them pay; (2) Forgive, i.e., refusing to make them pay.
Keller: Forgiveness means bearing the cost instead of making the wrongdoer do it, so you can
reach out in love and seek your enemys renewal and change. Forgiveness means absorbing the
debt of sin yourself (RFG, 192).

(3) Jesus took our debt & dealt with it on the cross.
Col. 2:13-14, When you were dead in your sins, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us
all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and
condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

Horatio Spaord, My sinO the bliss of this glorious thoughtmy sin, not the part but the whole,
is nailed to the Cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul.

3. Jesus says, I have come to heal this world of hurt, and it all begins with forgiveness.
(1) Jesus revolution is a revolution of love/ forgiveness in a world of hurt.
Keller, Forgiveness means absorbing the debt of sin yourself. Everyone who forgives great evils
goes through a death into resurrection, and experiences nails, blood, sweat, and tears.

So when we pray, Fatherforgive us of our debts as we have forgiven our debtors, don't read this
as somehow meriting Gods forgiveness, as if we are saying, Look God, you have to forgive me
because I have forgiven others. Instead, we are simply saying that we bear the family likeness, we
reflect the Fathers own heart of forgiveness.

(2) The gospel is where the true resources are found to forgive hurtreal, deep, paralyzing hurt. And this
is so much better than the powerless platitudes of our culture.

Gandhi, The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong.

Rather, Forgiveness is an attribute of the forgiven. The forgiven forgive.

(3) Lyle Lovett, Who says hell forgive you, and says that hell miss you, and dream of your sweet
memory? God does, but I dont. God will, but I wont. And thats the difference between God and me.
4. What happens if we dont forgive? We we imprison people in our hate, we slowly deteriorate.
(1) When we say, Ill never forgive you,

I want you to join me in my misery. Smidgen of satisfaction? Maybe, but youre no better.

Page 2 of 3

 I want you to pay / suer / hurt / grieve

I want you to experience the pain I experienced, endure the suering I endured.

I want you to languish, deteriorate, writhe, agonize.

I dont desire to see the world of hurt healed or repaired or rescued or repaired.

(2) Ironically, you find yourself outside the kingdom that Jesus wants to bring. And ironically, we find
ourselves to be part of the problem instead of the solution.

(3) And you become a hypocrite, because in asking your heavenly Father for forgiveness, you are saying
you want to make a new beginning, but you are refusing to extend that opportunity to another.

Main Idea: Because God the Father freely forgives, his forgiven children freely forgive.
Imagine: Imagine a city in which everyone had not only the desire to forgive, but also the power to forgive.

What if you were so in touch with the forgiveness that the Father has given to you that it naturally
overflows into the lives of others around you?

What if you so experienced the love and forgiveness of the Father that your MO is just to oer
forgiveness to those who have hurt you.

What if you responded to the question, Release the debt? with the answer, You bet.

The Rest of the Story of Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton.

For the two years following Cottons release, Jennifer felt intense shame. Finally, she found it within
herself to go and ask Cotton for forgiveness. Im sorry, she said. If I spent every day for the rest of my
life telling you how sorry I am, it wouldnt come close to what I feel.

Cotton sat calmly. Finally he spoke, Im not mad at you. Ive never been mad at you. I just want you to
have a good life. And the talked for hours about the power of faith, the miracle of DNA. And they talked
about Bobby Poole. As dusk fell and the time for partings arrived, Jennifer and Ronald embraced.

Conclusion: Homework Assignment

Take the next step. What do you need to do?

Perhaps you need to take the first step in really asking God to forgive you.

For some, you need to get unstuck. You are stuck in bitterness and unforgiveness andlike a parasite
its sucking the life out of you.

Maybe you need to talk to someone to help you figure out the next steps in forgiveness.

Maybe for some, its time to oer forgiveness.

Perhaps you need to ask forgiveness.

NCC, may you be a people who really live because of the God who gives and gives and gives, and
because of that, may you truly forgive.

Colossians 3:13, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.

Page 3 of 3