Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. [Matthew 18:21-22]
"A Bad Dream"
“DAD how dare you look in my diary?” Max screamed at his
father in fury. Chuck was red with anger at his little boy for what he read in
that diary.
“How dare you lie to me? You said you would never
smoke a cigarette and right here in this diary, you confess you have. Your
promises are no good to me now Max!” Chuck yelled at his young son.
“Well my privacy is ruined. How I can ever trust you again!” Max
said crying.
“Me? Its you who lied and I can never trust you
again. I wish I never had a son.” Chuck said and right away he was sorry
he said that. Max burst into tears and ran out the door to go down the block to
his friends house to hide. Chuck slammed his hand down on the counter and hurt
it. He hated fighting with his son. Parents hate it when their children are mad
at them. It hurts them way down inside but sometimes they are proud and
don’t know how to make things are ok.
“That kid drives me
crazy.” Chuck fumed thinking of what he read in that diary. “Let him
go. I will just take a nap.” And with that Chuck laid down on his sofa and
went soundly to sleep.
Chuck woke up suddenly and looked around. It
wasn’t his bedroom but some other place. He was on a flat white stone
sleeping and there was no furniture and everything was dark all around him.
“Fluffy, where are you fluffy?” Chuck heard a familiar
sound.
“Grandpa?” Chuck said as the elderly man walked past
him looking for his dog. He said curious of how this could be considering
Chuck’s grandfather went to be with Jesus long ago.
“Why
hello little Chucky, are you ok?”
“Yes Grandpa, just
didn’t expect to see you. Where are we?”
“Well I am in
heaven. I am looking for our dog Fluffy. You remember Fluffy? You loved him so
much. Well he is here now and he still likes to run away. Where are you Fluffy!
Say, I am not sure why you are here. Is something wrong Chucky?”
“Well I sort of had a fight with Max and I guess that is on my mind. Oh
yeah, Max is my son, your great grandson. He looks a lot like you
Grandpa.”
“Aww, well I am sure he is a spark plug like you
and your dad were growing up. Listen, the only regret I have from my life is
that I went to heaven with some people who had not forgiven me. You probably
don’t know this that when I died, I was not speaking to your mother, my
daughter. It was something silly now that I look back on it but I wish I had
apologized and got past it so I could have hugged her before….”
“ARF ARF.”
“Oh there you are Fluffy. Gotta run
now. I have to get Fluffy home. Grandma is waiting supper on us.”
Chuck’s grandfather said and then he was gone. Chuck didn’t know
exactly what to make of it when he looked up and a large powerful man walked
past him as he sat on the slab. The man walked like he had someplace important
to go and did not look to the right or left.
“Dad?” Chuck
said with amazement. The big man stopped in his tracks and looked at Chuck
curiously.
“Son? Is that you? What are you doing here? Wait a
minute. Are you asleep?” The big man asked.
“Well no Dad.
Well, ummm, yes, I think so.” Chuck confessed.
“I thought
so.” Chuck’s deceased father said with his big barrel laugh. “Ok
spill it, what did you do wrong. When you were a kid, you always took a nap
when you had done something wrong.”
“Well, it’s Max.
He and I had a fight. I read his diary which was wrong but found out he lied to
me which made me really mad and now I can’t forgive him.” Chuck told
his father, the one guy he could always talk to.
“Chuck do you
think you have ever been forgiven?” His Dad asked.
“Well,
by you maybe, a few times.”
“Try 10,316 times Chuck. But
that’s not what I mean. Who forgave you of everything and made it possible
for you to go to heaven?”
Chuck thought for a moment and then he
remembered his Sunday school classes when he was a child. “JESUS.
That’s it isn’t it? He died on the cross so I could be
forgiven.” Chuck said with excitement for getting the right answer.
“That’s right Chuck. God forgave us all of lots worse things
than Max has done. And if He was willing to give his life for our forgiveness.
It’s the least you can do to forgive Max, ask his forgiveness too. Do it
now son, before it’s too late.” And with that Chuck’s dad stood
and began to fade out.
“Wait dad, I wanted to ask you about how
to build a shed.”
“No time now son. I have to go. Have you
seen your Grandpa? He just stepped out to walk Fluffy.” And he was gone.
Suddenly Chuck woke up with a start. He realized he was home now but
the visits from his ancestors had not been for nothing. Suddenly he heard the
door to the house open. “Max is that you?”
Max entered the
room looking very sad and staring down. Chuck stood up and put his hands on his
shoulders and just said, “I’m sorry.” To stop themselves from
crying (which men don’t like to do), Chuck and Max hugged and Chuck knew
he would never let some little issue come between him and his son again.
“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a
king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
As he began the
settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since
he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his
children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
“The servant
fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged,
‘and I will pay back everything.’
The servant’s master took
pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
“But when that servant
went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.
He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he
demanded.
“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ “But he refused.
Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the
debt.
When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly
distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he
said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.
Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on
you?’
In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be
tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
“This is how my
heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from
your heart.” [Matthew 18:23-35]
