Trespasses

“And so my heavenly Father will do to you if you do not each one of you forgive from the heart your brother’s trespasses.”  Matthew 18:35

Trespasses – Jesus was dangerous, especially when it came to forgiveness.  Just how dangerous Jesus was can be seen in the choice of the word for “trespass”.  Matthew could have used parabasis, a word that means, “to break a rule, to commit a willful and deliberate sin.”  But that isn’t the word here.  The word in this verse is paraptoma, a word that means, “to fall by the wayside” and implies a transgression that is a mistake or a lapse in judgment or a fault.  Oh, it’s still wrong.  But it isn’t necessarily intentional or heinous sin.  It’s the “I made a mistake” kind of sin.

Now why does this word make Jesus so dangerous?  Jesus’ comment comes at the end of the parable about the king who forgives a huge debt to a servant but the servant refuses to forgive a small debt from his compatriot.  When the king hears this, what does he do?  He takes that ungrateful servant and throws him in prison, subjecting him to the torturers until he pays back all of the huge debt (which will be never, of course).  What’s dangerous here?  Jesus implies that God will commit anyone who does not forgive the smallest of errors to eternal punishment because of an ungrateful attitude.  If you tread on the mercy of God, even over the smallest mistakes of others, God remembers.  You have sealed your own punishment.

That is frightening – and very dangerous.  How many times have I held a tiny grudge over some stupid thing?  How many times have I let a mistake or a case of poor judgment become a festering resentment for another?  Where was the reflection of the incredible mercy God showed me?  Oh, I am quite willing to forgive the BIG things.  After all, magnanimous gestures make me look oh-so-good.  But Jesus focuses on the scruples.  He points to my ungrateful actions in the tiny details.  That resentment I hold on to because I wasn’t invited to your party.  That little affront I felt when you forgot to say “Thank you”.  Life affecting antagonisms in the little things.

Jesus says, “Forgive dangerously.  Let it all go.  God forgave you every indiscretion, every insult, every time you ignored His Spirit.  You must do the same.”

What tiny scruple do you need to address today?