The wondrous truth of sins forgiven!
This week’s Old Testament reading is about Joseph revealing himself to his brothers who had come to Egypt to get food during the famine and did not realize that the one in charge was actually their brother whom they had sold into slavery approximately 22 years earlier. If you were Joseph, how would you feel about your brothers? It depends on where your heart is.
This week’s Gospel reading from Luke 6 gives us challenging words from Jesus concerning how we are to love and forgive. It sounds great in theory, but what about when we’ve really been hurt by someone – someone who isn’t even interested in admitting and confessing his or her sin and asking for forgiveness?
What we cannot do, God the Holy Spirit can. And what the Holy Spirit does is His work of sanctification – making us more and more like Jesus. Jesus did not dismiss the guilt of sin and encourage His followers to let other people do whatever they wanted to do. But He did model mercy and grace which does not harbor and cultivate a grudge against someone who has harmed us but wants the person to know the life-changing power of God that brings a person who is walking away from God into a loving, living personal relationship with Him.
A great example of that is how Jesus dealt with Saul the Pharisee who became Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles. Saul the Pharisee was very anti-Christ Jesus and His followers, approving of Stephen’s death and trying to wipe out Christianity. But as we read in Acts 9, Jesus came to him to completely change him so he could now share the wondrous good news of God’s amazing grace in Christ Jesus.
Perhaps you’ve been on the receiving end of someone holding a grudge. It doesn’t feel good, does it? Imagine if Almighty God held a grudge against us for all our sins and there was no forgiveness. Thanks be to God that He does not do that, but in love calls us to repentance that we might hear again the wondrous truth of sins forgiven – a wondrous truth that those who live in love like Joseph with his brothers delight in freely giving rather than holding onto the desire for revenge.