Forgiveness is a Verb

 I know: forgive is the verb, but I am making a play on the common phrase “love is a verb.” As I am reading through the Gospels, I am reminded that almost every time Jesus exercised His divine power to forgive, He paired it with an action that benefitted the forgiven one. The lame man at the pool of Bethesda, the paralytic lowered through the roof, the woman taken in adultery, the blind beggar and others received forgiveness and something tangible.

This morning’s reading recounted the activities at a banquet at Simon the Pharisee’s house. Most often, we focus on the sinful woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and anointed them with costly oil. It is right that we look here as even Jesus emphasized to Simon the fact that one who is forgiven much loves much. The woman demonstrated her love by humbling herself completely by a tearful washing and by an expensive anointing. Jesus demonstrated forgiveness by removing the stigma of the woman’s former life.

The irony we may overlook is where Simon stood in all of this. Simon the Pharisee, so called by Luke, is Simon the Leper according to Matthew. It is unlikely that people would have gathered at Simon’s house for a banquet if he still had leprosy, so we can assume he was cured, most likely by his esteemed Guest. We don’t know how long Simon suffered with leprosy, but we do know that it is not like the flu or a cold that comes and goes rather quickly. He undoubtedly bore the stigma of his illness for some years. This would have meant no contact with his fellow villagers and especially not his fellow Pharisees. And it meant no access to the temple or synagogue. He was an outcast. So was the sinful woman.

Simon’s Pharisaical understanding would have implied that he too was a sinner because leprosy was considered a curse inflicted for wrongdoing of some kind. As with Jesus’ other cures of leprosy, Simon was delivered not only from the pain and disgrace of the disease; he was also granted reentry into Jewish society if he presented himself to a priest for approval. Throwing a party for his Healer may have stemmed in part from Simon’s gratefulness. Or it may have been a way to bolster his status by entertaining the most popular rabbi the town had ever seen. Look at me, he might have said; Jesus ate here at my table. His failure to perform the expected courtesy of washing his Guest’s feet may suggest that his motivations leaned toward the latter.

In our position as Christ-followers, we too deal in forgiveness; not the forgiveness of sin leading to salvation, but the forgiveness of wrongs committed against us. This is no small matter; more than once Jesus stressed the importance of forgiving as He tied it to our forgiveness by God: “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” I chose the translation using “debts” purposely. Paul counselled the Romans to, “owe no man anything.” Forgiveness is something we owe our brothers precisely because we have been forgiven by our Heavenly Father. Rather than collecting on the debt we imagine is owed to us by the offending brother, we must forgive the debt. Let it go.

The sinful woman at Simon’s banquet demonstrated her respect for Jesus in a dramatic way, and He rewarded what He called her faith. I doubt that she spent the tears and oil in hopes of receiving something in return. She recognized that she owed the Judge her life as payment for her sins; He forgave her debt and gave her back her life. When we forgive someone who has wronged us, we return them to a relationship that is free from indebtedness.

Whereas the woman had preexisting faith (and probably repentance), a number of those who received Jesus forgiveness made no claims to faith; some didn’t even know who He was. This pictures what Paul told the Romans: “While we were still weak, Christ died for the ungodly.” Our forgiveness of others must look like this. We are not to wait until the one who wronged us expresses remorse. Our forgiveness flows from our need to imitate our Lord and to obey His command. This won’t always result in a restored relationship; Jesus forgave those who nailed Him to the cross, but He died, nonetheless.

That is not to say there are no rewards to be had from forgiving regardless of the state of the forgiven. Unforgiveness is, first of all, a sin. Living in a state of continual sin is a curse in itself. Granting forgiveness where it is due relieves the burden of sin. Unforgiveness also causes what the writer of Hebrews calls a “root of bitterness” to grow within us. Bitterness spreads like a cancer into all parts of our being and contaminates every act we attempt, especially our worship. Jesus specifically told believers to, “leave your gift at the alter and go be reconciled.” Withholding forgiveness does nothing to harm the unforgiven; it clearly harms to one who fails to forgive.

Sometimes we are able to do something concrete to demonstrate our forgiveness; sometimes we cannot. Whenever possible, we should do what the law requires – that law being to love as Jesus loved. When the forgiven is unable to respond either through lack of desire or because he is unavailable due to death or other circumstances, we still forgive, and we still derive the benefits of forgiveness. We must not let pride stand in the way of doing what is right. By that I mean that pride can lead us to elevate our position as the wronged party. We should remember David’s words regarding his multiple sins surrounding his affair with Bathsheba: “Against You and You only have I sinned.” The woman and her murdered husband surely had a part in David’s sin, but he rightly recognized that the ultimate party to the affair was God.

Likewise, God is the only person we need to be concerned with when we forgive. The woman at Simon’s banquet may have been embarrassed or ashamed; she was one year’s wages poorer for her expense; she was also relieved of a burden only Jesus could bear. When we forgive others, we give that same gift to someone, albeit on a smaller scale. Whether they receive it or not, we are better for it; the verb forgive is both a passive verb and an active verb. Pause and reflect: who do you need to forgive?