Hating that You’ve Not Got Much to Be Forgiven For
Over the past few weeks we’ve had the joy of baptising a number of people here at Firwood Church.
It has been awesome.
One of the great things about baptism services is the opportunity to hear the stories of those being baptised. Stories of what they were like, how they became a Christian, and what has changed since that time. We call them testimonies.
I remember preparing for my baptism at the age of fifteen. I remember thinking about having to share my testimony before getting into the water. And I remember thinking that I didn’t really have anything impressive to say. I had heard stories of people saved from a life of drugs, gang life, or worse. How did my story compare to those? I remember feeling that if only I had committed more ‘big sins’ people would have been more impressed as I shared my testimony. Or perhaps I could have added a few details to make me seem worse than I was, like maybe I used to punch kittens or something*…
We are currently reading through Luke in Soul Survivor’s Bible in One Year, and the other day we arrived in chapter seven at the account of the sinful woman who is forgiven (Luke 7:36-50). Jesus enters a guy’s house, and as he sits there a woman (seemingly a woman of ‘ill-repute’), enters and begins to wash his feet with her hair and tears, annointing them with ointment. The Pharisee (Simon), is more than a little shocked by this. Why would Jesus, a prophet (in the Pharisee’s eyes), allow this woman to touch him?
Jesus, knowing what he was thinking, teaches him with a story of debt and forgiveness. His point comes in verse 47:
“He who is forgiven little, loves little”. Luke 7:47
‘This woman loves me a lot because she has been forgiven a lot’, says Jesus. But where does this leave those of us with testimonies that don’t make for Hollywood screen adaptations? Are we destined to love God a little less than others like this woman?
This is not the point Jesus is making at all. The truth is, we are all in the same position as this woman, and each other (Romans 3:23). It’s not that we need to sin more so that we may be forgiven more and thus love more. Rather, as we understand more and more of the depth of our sin, and rid ourselves of the crazy idea that we were basically good and didn’t really need saving, or at least not as much as some people, we will understand more deeply the love that God has for us. This will also always have an effect on the love we have for others. If we know the extent to which we have been forgiven, we will be much more ready to extend that grace to others.
God describes us as living as his enemies before he saved us (Romans 5:10), a road that ultimately leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13). Yet in that state, Jesus laid his life down to save us.
Those who have been forgiven have been forgiven much. We just need to realise it.
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*I have never punched a kitten. Or a cat. Or any animal. All God’s creatures have remained punch-free in my presence.