Oct 15 2008
relational bailouts
Here is a link to today’s reading:
When a major company is in trouble with overwhelming debt they usually ask for a bailout. Our relationships need the same thing. Forgiveness is the art of offering a bailout those who have wronged us. Some wrongs can never be set right. Unkind words can never be unsaid. The only way to repair the damage to you and the person who wronged you is to forgive the debt. This is what God has done for us and what God calls us to do for others.
Today’s Challenge:
What relational debts are you owed? How would you experience freedom if you released those debts? What relational debts do you owe? Are you ready to ask for forgiveness? If you had One Month to Live who would you seek out for reconciliation? Why wait?
Textual Reflection:
There is in the reading of this text the potential for one simple and common error. I’ll start by correcting that error and then we will get to the point of the parable.
The error comes from the difficulty of reading parables. It may be worth returning to a post from last week for more comments on the skills involved in reading parables. In this case our difficulty has less to do with reading them as allegory and more to do with forgetting what it means that these are narratives. Jesus tells stories that are squarely set in the common world of his day. This means that we should not read particular meaning into the narrative details that are naturally part of the setting of the story. Equally when a details shows up that is out of place in the narrative world we need to recognize this as significant. (An example of this occurs in the story of the prodigal son. In that story the young man finds himself ultimately stuck feeding pigs. Jews considered pigs unclean, so that narrative details has special power.) Additionally we should not assume that the details of the narrative world are applicable outside of the narrative world of the story.
I will offer an example because even I am confused by that last paragraph. Imagine that I told my son the story of the boy who cried wolf and then concluded that story with something like, “That is why it is important to always tell the truth.” If he responded, “You mean if I lie, then I will be eaten by a wolf.” his reply would be understandable but it would also reveal that he doesn’t know how a fable works. Fables teach us a truth even though they are fiction. The stories they tell are perhaps exemplars but the are not examples of real life interactions. The actions that happen make sense in the narrative world of the fable but may not be what happens in real life. So I would reply and say, “No you won’t be eaten by a wolf, but if you lie a lot, people will stop believing in you just like they did the little boy in the story.”
So in this story there are few things that were part of the common world of Jesus day and therefore are part of the narrative world of this parable. In particular there is the final punishment for unforgiving servant. He is thrown in prison until he can repay the debt. Because this is not how we treat debtors, it is easy to see this as an exaggerated detail that is entered to make a point. Perhaps we wonder, “Does this mean that if I don’t forgive other people I will go to hell.” This response is reasonable but it makes the same mistake imagined in the story above. It forgets what kind of literature this is and it forgets what elements are simply a natural part or the narrative world (which in this case is simply the common world of Jesus’ day.) Jesus has not concocted some extreme consequence to end this story with a dramatic flourish. This was the law of the day (you will notice that this was the original plan for the guy before he received mercy).
So we shouldn’t be distracted by the details of the story that are a natural part of the social setting. What we should do is what we do with all parables, we look for the core truth and see how it is used by Jesus and we avoid getting distracted by the natural details of relevant story-telling.
So in this case, Peter comes to Jesus feeling rather proud of his gracious attitude. He suggests that he might forgive seven times. This is already more than was expected by the Jewish law. Jesus response is just outlandish. Who could keep track of that many opportunities for forgiveness? And in this context Jesus tells a remarkable story. The story is simple. An man who is greatly forgiven refuses to forgive. When that is heard by the one who forgave him, the man is disappointed to find that he will be treated as he had deserved and not according to the grace he was depending on.
Jesus concludes that this is how God will treat those who do not forgive. This is a startling teaching because it simultaneously explain the source of our ability to forgive others and it connects our willingness to forgive with our ability to receive forgiveness. This second point is not an isolated teaching. Jesus frequently comments that our ability to recieve forgivness is linked to our willingness to forgive others. This is also not a fringe teaching. Jesus brings up this point during the teaching of the Lord’s Prayer. This is important stuff.
However in this text we see a new side to the equation. In this story we see that it is precisely God’s forgiveness to us that allows us to forgive others. It is hard to overlook how similar this situation is to our current banking crisis. The man in the middle is caught by the debt that he owes and the debt that is owed to him. He cannot pay the debt that he owes because he has not been paid the debt that is owed to him. This is like a bank that borrowed a lot of money to issue mortgages. When people cannot repay the mortgages, the bank defaults on their loans. Suddenly the whole system is broken. Unless the one at the top of the whole system decides to forgive the middle man who now can release those indebted to him.
Of course in our relationship there is so much sin and consequently so much debt. We are all in to debt to God for the sin we have committed and we are in debt to each other. And debts like this don’t cancel each other out, they simply build upon each other. And none of these debts can be repaid. If I lie to a friend and then they hit me in retaliation. Those debts don’t pay for one another, on the contrary they simply both leave us a little poorer and a little deeper in debt. There is only one solution. WE need a bailout from God and we need to offer one another a bailout.
It is as if God says to you. “Do to the crushing burden of debt that has been caused by a whole lot of sin, I am going to set up a new set of debt forgiveness rules that is governed by mercy instead of justice. Anyone who wants to can come live by these rules. If you do, your debts are cancelled but of course since you are living under these new rules you can hold a debt against anyone else either. If you want to hold people debts against them you can do that, the old set of rules are still available, but trust me, that is a bad idea.”
Peter asks, “How much must I forgive?”, and Jesus basically replies, “As much as you have been forgiven.”
on the walk
-Ethan
Ps. Sorry this one came out so late. My original post was swallowed by the computer.
