The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Forgiveness, Pt. 2)

Rev. Anthony B. Thompson

"Two days after the Emanuel tragedy, Dylann Roof [the killer] had a bond hearing. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t have Dylann Roof on my mind. All I could think of was, did Myra suffer? Why wasn’t I there for her?

I did not want to go to that bond hearing, but my children wanted to go, and they would not go unless I did. So I went for them. I told them “Keep your mouths closed. Don’t say anything.” When we got there I sat with my head down. I wanted it to be over with so I could go back home.

Then God intervened. He whispered in my ear, “I have something to say.”

Without a shadow of doubt I knew that it was the voice of God. It was the same whispering voice I heard at the age of seven that told me I’d be a preacher. So I got up immediately and listened to what God had to say. He said to Dylann, “Son, I forgive you and my family forgives you. But we would like you to take this opportunity to repent! Repent and confess, and give your life to the One who matters the most: Christ! So that he can change it and change your ways. And no matter what happens to you, you will be okay. Do that, and you will be better off than you are right now.”

After I did that, I experienced God’s love! I experienced peace! For the first time, I knew and understood what it meant and felt like to experience the “…peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). God’s love freed my heart, soul, and body of the burden of bitterness and anger. God healed me from the inside out. He took away all my burdens and granted me his peace!"

Timothy Keller, Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I? (pp. 31-32)

"The new culture is like the older honor cultures but with a new twist that borrows from the therapeutic. Modern culture teaches us that our primary concern is to demand respect and affirmation of our own identity. In this it mirrors the desire for respect and honor that drove pagan cultures centuries ago. People today are encouraged to respond with outrage to even the slightest offense, as was true in the older societies. However, the difference today is this: Modern therapy sees individuals as being oppressed and controlled by society's expectations, roles, and structures. Greater honor and moral virtue are assigned to people the more they have been victimized and subjugated by society or others in power. The further down the existing social ladder one is, the greater honor is possible. …[What this creates] is a society of constant good-versus-evil conflict over the smallest issues as people compete for status as victims or as defenders of victims. It atrophies our ability to lovingly overlook slights (1 Peter 4:8, “love covers a multitude of sins”). But most of all it sweeps away the very concept of forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness is seen now as radically unjust and impractical, as short-circuiting the ability of victims to gain honor and virtue as others rise to defend them. And so this culture is littered with enormous numbers of broken and now irreparable relationships."

Rachael Denhollander, at the sentencing of Larry Nassar

"I pray that you experience the soul-crushing weight of guilt so that you may someday experience true repentance and true forgiveness from God, which you need far more than forgiveness from me, though I extend that to you as well."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power of love … We can never say, I will forgive you, but I won’t have anything further to do with you.’ Forgiveness means reconciliations, and coming together again."

Timothy Keller, Forgive

"Don’t let yourself be twisted. Take in what Jesus Christ has done, put your little story about what people have done to you into the big story of what he did for you, and you’ll have all the power you need to grant forgiveness."