Luke 11:3

     Sorry, everyone, for the late post. 


     After teaching his disciples to pray for their daily bread, Luke tells us that Jesus taught them to ask forgiveness for their sins, linking it to the way they forgave those who sinned against them. In traditional renderings of the Lord’s prayer, the phrase is stated in two ways. “Forgive us or trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Some denominations say, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors - the phrasing used in the musical rendition as well. The more modern ecumenical version states simply, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.
     In Matthew 6:9-13, we also hear how Jesus taught people to pray, this time taught as part of the Sermon on the Mount. This is where debts rather than trespasses or sins is used. Both variations have significant meaning. Trespasses or sins would include the harm we have done, and the harm directed at us. Debts would refer to the good we should have done and the good that someone might have failed to render toward us.
     Jesus definitely links what we ask for with our own willingness to offer the same to others. It is not a situation of quid pro quo--that is, Jesus wasn’t saying we can earn what we ask for, or deserve it. But he was concerned with spiritual health, and he knew that to ask for forgiveness without being willing to extend it to others, is to miss the meaning and power of grace. A commonly used image in past years in reference is the Dead Sea. Water flows into it, but not out. The salt has therefore built up and it can no longer sustain life. To ask for forgiveness without giving it is likened to asking to receive without giving.
     Jesus doesn’t want us to live a life that circles only into ourselves. God didn’t make us for that kind of life. God made us for community and love and mutual support.
     The prayer of Jesus thereby seeks to turn out hearts to our neighbor, even our enemy. To forgive sins is to resolve conflict. In the version Jesus taught the people, we are reminded of the good we are supposed to do, and that which others are called to do as well. If the prayer for bread symbolizes talking with God about all that we need, perhaps the prayer for forgiveness is also about our service and discipleship.

What do you find hardest to forgive?
What good might you have done, yet failed to accomplish?