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"Let your attitude toward life be that of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 2:5; J.
B. Phillips) Or, as the New English Bible puts it, "Let your bearing towards one another arise out of
your life in Christ Jesus."
Today we celebrate Holy Cross Day, our patronal feast. Having a gutsy name for your parish, a
name like "Our Saviour," gets you a gutsy patronal feast, one that cuts right to the basics after all the
fruh-fruh of religion has been dispensed with.
Holy Cross Day used to be called by its more "high church" name, "The Exaltation of the Holy
Cross." It's a feast that was placed on the Church's calendar to commemorate the discovery in the fourth
century of the true cross of Christ, which, sometime later, fell into the hands of the Persians, and then,
later still, in the 7th century, was recovered by the Western Church. Holy Cross Day, the patronal feast
of the Parish of Our Saviour, is about the discovery of the true cross of Christ.
What does the true cross of Christ look like? Peter once asked this very question, although he
didn't realize this was the question he was asking. Actually, what Peter asked is this: "Lord, how often
must I forgive my brother if he sins against me? As many as seven times?" And Jesus answered, "Not
seven times, but seventy times seven." Then Jesus went on to tell this parable:
"The kingdom of heaven, " said Jesus, "is like a king who decided to settle his accounts with his
servants. One servant was brought to the king who owed him $60,000,000. It was impossible to repay such
an amount, of course, and since the servant had no means to pay it, his master gave orders that he should
be bound up and all his possessions sold, including himself and his wife and his children, so that the
king might recover at least some of what was owed him.
"But the servant fell at his master's knees and begged. 'Be patient with me," he said, "and I
will repay you.' And the master had compassion on his servant and forgave him the entire debt! He
released him from his obligation, and let him go free.
"But as soon as he got out on the street, this same man met a fellow servant who owed him a couple
hundred dollars, and he demanded that his fellow servant pay up immediately. His fellow servant couldn't
pay it, so he fell at the man's knees and begged, 'Be patient with me, and I will repay you.' But the
first servant would not agree, and he had the man bound and thrown into prison until he should pay.
"Well, the first servant's attitude and behavior was reported to the king, and the king then sent
for the servant and said, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all your debt to me when you appealed to me.
Were you not bound, then, to have compassion on your brother, just as I had compassion on you?' And the
king had the man handed over to the torturers until he should pay the whole $60,000,000.
"'And that,' Jesus concluded, 'is how my heavenly Father will deal with you, Peter and James and
John and Bill and Edward and Edna, unless each of you forgives your brother and sister from your heart.'"
The kingdom of heaven is like that, says Jesus.
Now I tell this well-known story because I think it points us to the true cross of Christ. The
point of the story, quite simply, is this: Freely you have received forgiveness from God, so freely
extend forgiveness to your brother or sister who sins against you. Extend forgiveness regardless of
whether the person has "repented" of his offense, and regardless of whether he has apologized or has any
feelings of remorse. Knowing that you yourself are one who has been forgiven, extend forgiveness because
it is in the nature of God to extend forgiveness to all, regardless of whether they deserve it or not.
When we nailed Jesus to the cross, he was guilty of no offense. But do you remember what Jesus
said as we nailed his hands and feet to the wood? Neither Pilate nor Caiaphas nor the soldiers who had
mocked and spat on him had expressed any remorse for what they had done, but Jesus said nonetheless,
"Pater, aphes autois. Father, release them from their debt, forgive them, for they don't know what they
do."
If Jesus, nailed to the cross, had not said those words, or if his actions had not said them for
him, if Jesus had not, from his heart, asked his Father to forgive us for what we were doing to him, do
you think there would have been a resurrection?
I don't believe there would have been. Resurrection is not a kind of magic. According to the
story Jesus himself told, if one does not forgive his brother from his heart, if he does not release his
brother from his debt, then he himself will remain bound. He will, in other words, be in hell, in
torment! Life is like that, said Jesus.
You see, not being able to forgive is like having a tiger by the tail. It's a question of who's
got whom? Forgiveness is not alone important for the one who has sinned or offended. First of all,
forgiveness is important for the one who has been sinned against.
The word Jesus used, both in his parable and on the Cross, is "aphieme." It's a word which means
"to cancel, to let go, to release from one's grasp, to set free."
Rabbi Harold Kushner tells about a graduate student who called him one day. She was doing a study
on the dynamics of forgiveness, and she called the rabbi because she had read his books and figured he had
been in touch with a lot of people who had been badly hurt in life. She wanted to know what happens when
a person forgives someone else. What effect does it have on the person who is extending forgiveness?
And Kushner says that when they met in his office, the student told him that among all the people she had
interviewed "there was unanimous agreement on one point -- that when they forgave someone, there was for
every single one of them a physical sense of relief, a feeling of the letting go of a weight. Most of
them," she said, "had not realized that they were carrying such a heavy burden of bitterness until they
'released the other from their grasp.'"
Not forgiving is like the man walking along the road carrying a large bundle of wood on his back.
A farmer comes by in his wagon, and seeing the heavy load the man is carrying he asks him if he would like
a ride. The man says, "I sure would." And the farmer invites him to climb in the back of his wagon.
They continue on down the road, and a few minutes later the farmer looks over his shoulder to ask the man
a question and finds the man standing in the wagon bed, still holding the big load of wood on his
back!
Life is like that, said Jesus. Put the load down! The living depends upon the forgiving, from
our hearts. And that's why, if Jesus had not begged his Father to forgive us when we nailed him to the
Cross, there would have been no resurrection.
If, from his heart, Jesus could not have said, "Father, forgive them," or if his actions had not
spoken it for him, he would have been bound by his own pain and anger and bitterness, bound to death,
unable himself to be released to life. Life is like that, said Jesus.
But Jesus did say it, and he meant it. And when he said it, he was hurting. Forgiveness is not
denying that an offense took place. It's not a matter of denying that it hurt. Jesus had nails through
his hands and his feet, and his heart was pierced, too. But his broken heart meant it when he said,
"Father, forgive them." And just so was he raised to life.
Forgiveness is not a matter of celestial arithmetic: "Let's see, seventy times seven? That's
four hundred ninety times. After that I won't have to forgive anymore." Forgiveness is an attitude, a
cast of mind toward life. Jesus forgives and means it because, as Voltaire said, "Forgiveness is God's
business."
So this all leads to a second question: If Jesus could not be raised if he did not forgive us, do
you think that we can be raised with him if we do not forgive those who have sinned against us? St. Paul
answers it this way:
"Your attitude," says Paul, "your cast of mind, should be that of Christ Jesus, who, though he was
divine, took the form of a slave and gave his life for the world." Or, as J. B. Phillips puts it, "Let
your attitude toward life be that of Christ Jesus himself." Or, as the New English Bible has it, "Let
your bearing towards one another arise out of your life in Christ Jesus." Let it arise out of your life
in the One who, on the Cross, said from the depths of his broken heart, "Father, forgive them." What Paul
is saying is, "Let God's business be your business."
On the evening of April 25, 1958, a young South Korean exchange student at the University of
Pennsylvania left his apartment and went to the corner to mail a letter to his parents in Pusan. Turning
from the mail box, he stepped into the path of a gang of eleven boys. Without a word, they beat him to
death with pipes and blackjacks.
All Philadelphia cried out for vengeance. The Philadelphia District Attorney asked for, and
received, permission to try the boys as adults, so that, when convicted, they could get the death
penalty.
Then a letter arrived from Pusan, from the parents and relatives of the young man who had been
murdered. It read:
"Our family has met together, and we have decided to petition that the most generous treatment
possible, within the laws of your government, be given to those who have committed this criminal
action.... In order to give evidence of the sincerity of the hope contained in our petition, we have
decided to save money to start a fund to be used for the religious, educational, vocational, and social
guidance of the boys when they are released.... We have dared to express our hope with a spirit received
from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins."
What would it be like if the world suffered from an excess of such compassion? What would it be
like if even just the Church of Jesus Christ suffered from an excess of such compassion?
What is the kingdom of heaven like? The kingdom of heaven is like a king who had a servant who
owed him $60,000,000. It's like a bankruptcy court in which the bailiff cries, "All debtors rise!"
That's us! The kingdom of heaven is like that.
When we come to the Eucharist in just a moment, we will receive the Blood of Christ from the
chalice, the Blood of Christ which was "shed for you, and for many, for the forgiveness of
sins."
It was shed, however, not just so that our sins might be forgiven by God. It was shed so that by
our forgiving, we ourselves may be raised to new life, raised to a new attitude toward life, raised to a
new bearing towards one another through our life in Him who, while nailed to the Cross, said, "Father,
forgive them." We receive the Blood of Christ, shed for the forgiveness of sins, so that, by ourselves
doing God's business on earth, by our releasing those who sin against us, we ourselves may also be
released. Literally freed, raised to new life. Resurrected!
"Have this bearing, this cast of mind, towards one another. Let your attitude toward life be that
of Christ Jesus." This is the true cross of Christ, this cast of mind. It is God's business. It is the
business of Our Savior. And it's the business of the Parish of Our Saviour as well, and of his Church.
It is resurrection, freedom and life!
In the Name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. |