Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

During Jehoiakim’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. But then he turned against Nebuchadnezzar and rebelled. The Lord sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite and Ammonite raiders against him to destroy Judah, in accordance with the word of the Lord proclaimed by his servants the prophets. Surely these things happened to Judah according to the Lord’s command, in order to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done, including the shedding of innocent blood. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive.

• 2 Kings 24:1-4

But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

• Matthew 6:15

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

• Matthew 18:21-22

So watch yourselves.
“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”

• Luke 17:3-4

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.  Oh, excuse me, angels have no gender, but the angel indwelled a doll named Bountiful Babs.  After seeing the angel in that form for over a year, I cannot see her in my mind in any other form.

This Week’s Question

In the last episode, Babs learned about repentance.

But with repentance, can forgiveness be far away?  And what of forgiveness when there is no repentance?

When I entered the room, Babs was sitting in the corner in the comfy chair.  She had the desk chair next to her comfy chair and my Bible on the little table, ready for a Bible Study.  I wanted to celebrate.  This was my fourth ten-million-dollar sale of the year, just as she had said, but she had other ideas.

I asked, “Babs, did you have a bad day?”

She smiled, “I had a blessed day today, just like every day, Harold.  You know that.  I know you want to celebrate your big sale.  I see it on your face, but someone in the breakfast area this morning was not having a good day.  He talked about how God was a vengeful God in the Old Testament and Jesus was a pushover in the New Testament.  He felt he had been wronged and he sought vengeance instead of showing mercy.  He was so angry, the entire breakfast area felt angry.  I grabbed some bagels, cream cheese, and peanut butter.  I’ve been in the room ever since.”

I was still puzzled that someone who was ‘other living’ even needed anything to eat in that she was plastic, latex, and air, for the most part.  But she was getting more lifelike every day.  I kept telling myself that was my imagination.

Babs continued, “Is it true that forgiveness is a New Testament thing?”

I shook my head and sat down. “No, Babs, there are about as many references to the word ‘forgive’ in the Old Testament as there are in the New Testament.  One out of six of those references in the Old Testament is in the book of Leviticus.  Only the synoptic gospels, Matthew (12), Mark (10), and Luke (18) mention forgive as often or more.  So, saying that it is a New Testament thing is in error.  It is weaved into Levitical Law.  God showed how He could punish in the Old Testament with Noah’s flood and then the exile of the Chosen People.  2 Kings 24 pretty much concludes God’s showing of mercy in that the Jews were not seeking forgiveness; they enjoyed their sinful life too much.  But God sees us sin our way to the end of the rope and God errs toward giving us more rope in the hope we will decide to turn around.”

Babs made a sad face and nodded.  “Yes, we have talked about the human condition a lot.  God gave humans the ability to choose, and they chose their own desires and ignored God and His desires for the human race.  Being ‘other living’, I do not understand the sin nature.  With the bad side effects, I do not wish to know anything about that.  But this guy was so angry, what could make him so full of hate?”

I took her hand in mine.  “Babs, Jesus tells us to forgive.  If we do not forgive, then the love of God is not in us and we will not be forgiven.  We get that straight from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6.  So, when someone holds onto old grudges, that anger feeds upon itself.  Did the man say what caused him to be so angry?”

Babs shrugged, “He just said that his brother had done him wrong.”

I shrugged in return, “That could be anything from stealing his girlfriend in high school to tricking his parents into writing him out of the will.  The longer the resentment is held within, the more it eats away at your soul until you have no idea what the root cause of the hatred was.”

Babs asked, “how can you live like that?”

I mused, “Have you heard people talk about the ‘new normal’?”  She nodded eagerly. “Well, they are talking about how life has changed after the COVID pandemic.  One little virus changed the way business was done around the world.  It affected every aspect of our society.  While some things went back to normal, most things were forever changed.  I hope that someday we will get back to trusting and loving one another, but that may never really happen again.  But my reason for bringing it up is that we experience new normal all the time.  There is a new normal each time a family adds a child.  There is a new normal each time a grandparent passes away, or even moves to a warmer climate and is only seen during the holidays.  Your acquaintance this morning is experiencing a new normal that might be decades in the making, before and after when his brother wronged him.  To survive in this world, the man might be very good at compartmentalizing.  You put the wrong out of your mind and function semi-normal.  But then something brings up the wrong, and it is like it happened yesterday.”

Babs asked, “So, how do you get past it?”

I answered, “You do not use revenge.  That hurts you in that you now are the one doing the wrong, and it hurts the other person.  It also hurts the relationship between the two parties, in this case the two brothers.  But the sooner you forgive, the better off you will be.”

Babs said, “But Matthew 18 and Luke 17 talk about forgiving seven times and even more times than that, even in the same day.  You taught me about repentance, but seven times wronging you in one day does not sound like repentance.”

I shook my head, “Jesus does not say anything about forgiving only if they repent.  In fact, the seventy times seven gives you the idea they may never repent.  But you forgive.  If you do not forgive, God cannot work on your heart, and you cannot show love for that brother.  But you might have to move to another town just to keep from becoming a punching bag, just do not take your anger toward that person who does you wrong with you when you leave.”

Babs scrunched her nose, “That seems drastic to move, but isn’t that a form of not forgiving?”

I shook my head.  “The point is the heart.  If you have love for the other person…  If you treat them lovingly when you happen to meet… Living in a different town to prevent victimization allows the wounds to heal.  Even the person wronging you will either grow up or find other victims, and that allows you to even try to repair the relationship later on.  But you must be careful that you do not set yourself up for new abuse.  The key is to release the anger, the hurt, and the feeling of being wronged.  Those feelings are like cancer that rot your soul.  And to be perfectly honest, without God in my heart, I may not have the interest in forgiveness, and I would not have the power to truly forgive without Jesus being right here.”  I pointed to my heart.

Babs giggled, “Okay, Harold, before you get angry with me for keeping you from a joyous celebration, let’s go out and have a special meal, and we’ll even have dessert. I hear there is a restaurant that makes bananas foster at your table, flambé and all.”

And I suggested, “Do they have a dance floor?”

Babs giggled even more, “You are starting to anticipate my moves, Harold.  I am going to have to mix up my methods.”

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

I had already chosen this theme for the Babs and Harold discussion, but one thing after another caused me to delay writing it.  Then I watched my favorite television show with the four pastors discussing things, and they discussed a lack of forgiveness.  I was already thinking of taking the route that I took, but the four pastors helped with the wording a bit.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.