Have you ever lost your luggage?  Have you every arrived at your destination be it vacation or business or a family trip, but found that your luggage didn’t arrive? It is one of those awful, helpless experiences. You stand at luggage carousel while it goes round and round. Other people pull their luggage off and head for their cars or ride home. Finally, you alone remain. A few orphaned pieces of luggage stay on the carousel. But none of them are yours! You stand, waiting, watching and hoping, but to no avail. 

Losing your luggage is one of life’s most annoying experiences.

But here’s the point: God wants you to lose your luggage. God wants you to lose your handbags of hurt, your garment bags of grudges, your bundles of bitterness, your train case of testiness. God wants you to lose the heavy weight of revenge and animosity and resentment. Let it go. Lose it in the mysterious labyrinth of God’s love. 

How many extra pounds of luggage are you carrying around right now? How many bags do you need to lose? 

The Disciple Peter approaches Jesus with this question one day. “Lord, if a member of the church sins against me, how many times should I forgive him or her? As many as 7 times?” 

This is actually a curious question. Peter says, “How many time should I forgive ‘a member of the church.’” That is probably not the original questions that Peter asked. Yes, he asked about “forgiveness.” That was real! But not about  “the church”, at least not yet. The church did not yet exist. The church comes after the resurrection, after Pentecost. 

This passage appears only in Matthew.  Why do you think that is? Was forgiveness a problem in Matthew’s church? Was there a lot of resentment there? Was there an unforgiving spirit in that congregation? (Please remember that all four of the gospel writers are preaching to a congregation) – writing letters to them much as Paul wrote his letters later on. 

The primary issue in this story is that forgiveness is a key matter in Christian Formation.  

How many times must I forgive? Peter knew that forgiveness was the key! So he said, “Can I forgive as many as 7 times?” Jesus answer is, “No, not 7 times Peter, but 70 x 7.” Jesus did not mean that we should forgive 490 times. What it really means is forgive an infinite number of times, an unlimited number. The reference to “70 x 7” is almost absurd. You forgive so many times that you lose count! 

So you ask the question, “Lord, I have someone who is driving me up the wall. They are cruel, insensitive, hurtful, and mean spirited. I know I am supposed to forgive.  But how many times should I do that?”  

And Jesus answers, “An infinite number of times.  You forgive so many times that you lose count.” That’s the force of this exchange! 

So how do we do what Jesus suggests? I’m sure that many of you have asked yourselves that question. You ask it about a former spouse who continually maligns you and tells lies about you. Or you ask it about a parent who abandoned you as a child. Or you ask it about a child who has bled you financially to support an addiction. Or you ask it about a corporation who used you, then discarded you. Or about a family member who molested you as a child. Or about a friend who betrays you, who breaks a trust! 

The world’s advice is simple. The world says, “Don’t get mad; get even.” Or the world speaks like Donald Trump’s ex-wife, Ivana Trump who once said, “Don’t get even; get it all”  

President Ronald Reagan often humorously told a story on himself. He said, “I have Irish Alzheimer’s. I remember only my grudges.” 

Jesus said, “Forgive so many times that you forget how many times you have done it.” The question is how do you do that? I have several suggested steps. 

GET TO KNOW THE GOD WHO FORGIVES 

First of all get to know the God who forgives. Get acquainted or re-acquainted with our forgiving God. 

Remember the old Clint Eastwood movie, ‘Unforgiven?” It was a hard movie, but also a compelling movie. It told of the Old West of 1880. (I think the movie was released in 1980.) It is the story of William Muny a drunken killer who has reformed himself. He is now a pig farmer and a widower. He cannot escape his past reputation. Seemingly he cannot find forgiveness in his life. 

Get to know the God who forgives. The Bible bears witness to this so often:

        I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my

own sake, and I will not remember your sins  (Isa. 43:25)

        For as the heavens are high above the earth,

            so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes

our transgressions from us. (Ps. 103:12)

        Jesus heals a crippled man: “My son, your sins….”

        Jesus teaches us to pray: “Forgive us, as we forgive.”

        Paul:  “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and

anger and wrangling and slander, together with all

malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted,

forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”

(Eph. 4:31)

         And in this Wedding text: “Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” (Col.3:13) 

Words about forgiveness permeate the Bible. It is a consistent theme. Get to know that God who forgives. Read the Scriptures, remember the stories. You many have one of those Bibles that has a concordance in the back. It tells you where to look if you have certain issues you want to hear the Bible speak to.  One of those issues might be “forgiveness.” Look it up, you might be surprised. 

A friend of mine tells a story of a phone call he received one of those days in his office from a woman who simply wanted to talk to the Pastor. When he got on the phone she said, “Pastor, I don’t want to give you my name. I am an old woman now. When I was 15 years old I committed an indiscretion. I always felt forgiven for that indiscretion, but now that I am old I no longer feel forgiven. Preacher, how can I find forgiveness?”  

My friend recognized the pain and hurt in her voice. He asked her for her first name. She said, “My name is Frances.” Then he said to her, “Frances, in the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.” 

“Oh thank you,” she said. Then she hung up the phone. Until that point she did not know the God of forgiveness. 

Remember John Erlichman from the Watergate scandal? He served about 18 months in prison.  He died in 1999. Seminary preacher and teacher Fred Craddock’s tells of a chance meeting at a luncheon banquet. The man he was sitting next to seemed familiar. Craddock extended his hand and said, “Hi, my name is Fred Craddock.” The man replied, “My name is John, (there was a pause) Erlichman. I sometimes keep a low profile because my presence sometimes makes people uncomfortable.” (Another pause) “Do I make you uncomfortable, Reverend Craddock?”

 “Not at all, why should you make me uncomfortable?” 

“Because of the things I did.  I was a moral failure.  And you, being a minister and all.  I just thought you might be ill at ease.” 

Fred Craddock extended his hand one more time,  he put his other hand on John Erlichman’s arm. “Friend, has no one ever told you about the mercy and forgiveness of God?”  

A tear formed in John Erlichman’s eye. “No sir. I guess they haven’t.  Not very much anyway.” John Erlichman learned something that day about our forgiving God. 

Or the story about a boy who accidentally killed his Grandmother’s pet duck with slingshot! He was playing with the sling shot one day and took aim at the duck. He quite unexpectedly hit the duck in the head and killed it instantly. His sister saw it happen. She used the incident to manipulate her brother. She had him take over her chores like setting the table and washing the dishes.  

The boy finally became so upset that he confessed to his grandmother. His grandmother said to him, “Son, I saw it all. I was standing at the window and I forgive you. Jesus saw it all. He was at the window too. And Jesus forgives you!” 

Far too few of us know the God of extraordinary forgiving grace! Get to know the God of the Psalmist who writes: 

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and do not forget all his benefits—

who forgives all your iniquity,

who heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the Pit,

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy…

                                                            (Psalm 103:2-3) 

Get yourself acquainted with that God, now and quickly.

MAKE A LIST

Then make a list of the people you need to forgive. It can be a short list; it should be a secret list. But make the list.  Write it down.  Put the names in code if you need to.  

I read about a woman whose doctor told her that she had been infected with rabies.  It was too far advance for him to do anything about curing her. She grabbed a piece of paper and began scribbling on the page. He said to her, “What is that, your last will and testament?” “No”, she replied. “It is a list of the people I want to bite.” 

Do you have such a list?  Who is on your forgiveness list?  Make a list! Examine it carefully.  There maybe even someone hidden from your fore conscious. Maybe even a brother or sister church member? Sometimes our luggage is unnamed for a long time. Medical science now pretty much agrees that 80% of all chronic illness is caused by unresolved anger!  

Can you name the luggage you carry with you? 

THEN PRAY 

Finally, pray for those people on your list by name. Make that your prayer list for the next two weeks leading up to Easter. Pray daily for every name on your list. Pray for each person by name. Pray for even someone whose name you may not remember. It is very difficult to continue to hate someone for whom you are praying. 

Think of it as a kind of rummage sale of the spirit! Someone has written these words: 

Perhaps we should have a rummage sale of the spirit. 

Maybe we could peddle the old grudges and unforgiven

hurts that have lain too long in the attic of the soul.  We

could probably fill a great hall with old prejudices alone….

We really don’t need those old yokes of anger.  The rule

for Christian discipleship is to travel light.  

Jesus said, “Pray for those who despitefully use you.” It is very difficult to hate or resent someone for whom you pray! Praying for that person may heal you from the inside out. 

Sometimes it is hard to pray. I know that. The hurt runs deep. Suggestions abound in this world about how you should solve the problem. Some say you should run away or move away rather than forgive.  That probably won’t work. Some say you should walk away.  Just turn and walk away. There is a story about couple who was celebrating their 60^th wedding anniversary. Someone asked the man how they had lived to be so healthy for so long. He replied, “When my wife and I were first married, we agreed that if we ever had a disagreement, she would remain silent and I would go outside and walk. I guess I attribute my long life to the benefits of the great outdoors. 

My father used that solution. He went out for a walk when he and my mother argued. When he came back he expected it to be over. 

There is also the suggestion that you ignore the person whom you need to forgive or with whom you are angry. Seldom do any of these suggestions work.  

So we often hear: “I can forgive, but I cannot forget.” God is not asking you to forget. God is asking you to forgive over and over and over again for your own sake!  God is asking you to forgive the sake of your own soul. Pray – often and hard – for the person you need to forgive. 

It’s the way of the Kingdom. It is the way of the Master. It is the way of a disciple. It is the allowing yourself to be re-formed into the image of God. It is the mind and heart of Jesus being formed in you. 

The question is still asked, “God, how many times must I forgive?  Seven times?” And the answer remains, “Son or daughter forgive so many times that you lose count!”