Everyone knows the Gospel is the Good News about Jesus
Christ, but not everyone who hears the Gospel hears the news as Good News. On
the surface the Gospel may even seem like a dual-personality story. There is
forgiveness and there is judgment. There is feeding and there is hunger. There
is good and there is evil. And many times both exist in the same story. So why
is the Gospel called the Good News if there is so much bad sandwiched between
the good?
Take today’s Gospel lesson for example. We see a man who
owes a huge amount to the king. He owes so much money that he could never
possibly even dream about paying his debt to the king, and the king threatens
to throw him in debtors’ prison until the debt is paid. In reality this was a
life sentence since he owed more than his life would ever pay, so the man begs
for a little more time to pay off the debt. Instead the king forgives every
cent he owes and lets the man go free. That same man, just seconds later as he
was leaving the king as a free man, bumped into one of his fellows who owed him
a small amount. The fellow begged for a little more time to pay off the debt,
but the man wouldn’t budge. He threw his fellow in debtor’s prison along with
his family until the debt could be paid, about three months. The story
concludes with the man being called back by the king who had heard about the
situation. The king threw him in prison for the rest of his life.
This Gospel story is about forgiveness. Jesus warns us about
not being willing to forgive. He says, “So My heavenly Father also will do to
you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
(Matthew 18.35 NKJV) The story doesn’t sound so much like Good News when you
come to end and find the man sitting in prison being tortured. The story is a glimpse
of heaven and hell. For the moment the man experienced forgiveness he was in
heaven. For the moment he refused to forgive his fellow he was in hell. Same man,
same story, same Good News, even if sounds bad.
The point of the Gospel is that God is waiting to forgive
us. It doesn’t matter how much we owe him. Even if we can’t pay him back, He is
willing to forgive us when we ask. And THAT is Good News. It will always be
Good News. But if we don’t return the favor and refuse to forgive ANYONE else,
the Good News starts to sound bad. If we cannot see the beauty of God’s
forgiveness, then we cannot see the reason to forgive others. Keep in mind, the
ONLY reason is sounds bad is because WE are not willing to forgive. The News is
STILL Good. Let’s look at it another way.
What if the same man was called by the king and told, “You
owe me so much money that even if I put you in prison, you will never be able
to pay it off. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I understand there is a
fellow of yours who owes you a small amount. If you forgive his small debt to
you, then I will forgive you large debt.” I suppose the man would have said, “Absolutely!
I’ll go tell him right now!” It starts to sound like Good News again doesn’t
it? It is just a matter of perspective. So long as the man knew in advance that
he could be forgiven his huge debt if he forgave his fellow’s small debt, he would
be more willing to forgive.
The truth is, we HAVE been given the Good News in advance.
Jesus HAS told us, “Go ahead and forgive your fellow and I will forgive you.”
There is no reason to hear the Gospel story as bad news. It is always Good
News. We just have to change the way we hear it.
No comments:
Post a Comment