God Started It

Evidently, there's a lot riding on forgiveness.

For if you forgive men their trespasses,
your heavenly Father also will forgive you;
but if you do not forgive men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
-Mt. 6:14-15

Not only that, but forgiveness seems to be connected to some other relational "attitudes" as well...

Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.
-Lk. 6:37-38

Does the order of things seem strange to you? It did to me at first. That is, first I have to forgive, then I'm forgiven. First, I have to avoid being judgmental, then I won't be judged. First, I have to stop myself from condemning others, then I won't be condemned, etc. The reason this "order" of things bugged me is because for as long as I can remember, I've been taught as a Christian that I can only love because God first loved me. I think the Apostle John said that somewhere. So what gives? Why does Jesus seem to contradict John? Well, I took Fr. Thomas Hopko's advice when he says, "It helps to read the whole passage" and went back and did that. And it did help.

First, we are indebted to God. He brought us into existence because He loves us, but we do not reciprocate. Every time we grumble about our "circumstances" we are refusing to love God. Every time we act out of self-interest, we are refusing to love our neighbor. All of us have done both from our earliest years, and so our debts (failures to love) have piled up. When we eventually break down, for whatever reason, and cry out to God, "Forgive me!" - He does. Ritually, this is called baptism, and if you want to know the depths of this "transaction", you'll need to experience baptism. But after baptism, we still have constant failures of love, along with everyone else around us. So one of the main ways we practically express love to each other is through forgiveness.

It is in this context...that is, a post-"baptism" context...that Jesus tells the parable (Mt. 18) and gives his so-called "Sermon on the Mount" (Lk. 6). He does not teach these things to "the masses," but rather to His disciples and Peter in particular in the Mt. 18 passage. So, these disciples have already had their "accounts" settled (cf. the difference between "bathing" and "feet washing" in Jn. 13.) As in the parable of the unmerciful servant, the disciples had all gone to the king begging forgiveness and the king granted it. That is, Jesus had already forgiven them which is evidenced by their discipleship.

Jesus appears to be explaining how thing are in "the kingdom of God"; forgive...and be forgiven; condemn not...and be not condemned, etc. It's not that they (we) are being asked to love first, but rather they (we) are being warned that things can change in an instant between us and our Lord if we hold back forgivness, condemn, act like a judge, etc. Because in God's kingdom, we are expected to act like our King. Like I said in the beginning of this entry...a lot does depend on forgiveness. But not everything. God starts everthing.