You ARE forgiven.
Do you understand the power in those words…
Nothing is held against you.
Nothing can be used against you.
You are set free.
The slate is wiped clean.
You are without sin.
You are not a sinner…in this moment of time.
You ARE forgiven. Completely. Totally.
I don’t think we truly get it or understand the power and the meaning of those words.
But then, it doesn’t take us very long, does it? We can rack up sin, faster than you can say Jiminy Cricket. Any of us…all of us…are more than capable…to start judging, condemning, lying, bearing false witness…the sins go on and on…and they can add up way too quickly.
Thought.
Word.
Deed.
It is also our failure to do things…our withholding our love. It is holding our tongue, as well as wagging it…that…can get us into trouble.
It takes no time at all – for me to fall into sin. Sometimes I jump right in with both eyes open. And other times, my words, thoughts, actions can even surprise the heck of me. I do not even require the help of anyone else. I can get caught up in sin in my mind in a nanosecond of time…all by my lonesome-ness.
Words flow from the mouth – when we know we need a filter.
We say things.
We do things.
We fail to do things.
And oh, the mind…the mind roams freely, it sometimes seemingly goes where it wills.
And there is always someone to remember…remember us for our sinful nature, our sinful action…
And yes, they still hold it against us, they still hold it over us – like a mantel of shame.
Remember when he “said” that.
Remember when she “did” that.
And the fingers still want very much to point, in spite of the fact, that we have been forgiven…
There are those who linger in the past and make “a litany of our offenses.” And they are ready at any time to remind us again and again of our short-comings.
Simon the Pharisee was one of those kinds of people. His world was very black and white. You are religious or you are not. You are righteous or you are not. You either keep the law (the Torah) or you do not.
The world seems to be easier when you categorize people…and make that category stick.
That’s who they are. There is no way out.
They will never change. They are stuck there for good.
They will forever be known by their category. They cannot step out of the box that I have assigned to them.
It was a kind of a Pharisaic “world view.”
Once a sinner, always a sinner…
Once a gentile, always a gentile…
There were no shades of grey. There is no crossing over.
Nope this woman was a sinner. You know the type. I mean you do KNOW the type. She would “forever be” one of THEM. She was THAT KIND. There was no way out. No hope of escape. At least you knew where she stood and what she was like!
There is probably somewhere – deep down inside of “all of us” – that part of us – that is hard, judgmental and a little bit too self-righteous.
We are way “too quick” to condemn. We can think way too highly of ourselves.
It is important that we see a little of Simon the Pharisee in ourselves…because from time-to-time, he does raise his ugly head and come out.
Do you know “who has been forgiven?”
Do you know their world?
Do you walk in their shoes and live in their skin?
If you do not, then keep the condemnation and the judgment to yourself.
It is by condemning and judging others that we really truly condemn ourselves.
Amen.