Today’s Gospel reading has probably the most important teaching of Jesus or anyone in the Bible. And the reason it is so important is that it goes to the heart of our relationship with God. It goes to the heart of the greatest commandment – to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbour as ourselves. The heart of the teaching – the forgiveness of sins –
The forgiveness of one another and forgiveness from heaven itself: Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Why is this so important? Because our relationship with God has been broken by sin. Sin is dealt with by repentance and forgiveness. When God discovered in the days of Noah that wiping out sinful humanity and starting again did not eradicate sin but saw it begin again with righteous Noah – So God began to deal with sin through forgiveness. He instituted a system of sacrifices whereby 3 times a day – morning, noon and night, the Priests would offer sacrifices for the people to appease God’s judgment and instituted forgiveness to deal with their sin. While it worked in theory, the Israelites wandered away and worshipped other god’s. So God dealt with their sin by exiling them – driving them out of the land and out of his presence and into enemy lands. But there was something that prevented God from doing that forever. The same “something” that prevented God from destroying all of humanity in the flood and kept one family – Noah and his family. And that is God’s love.
And so, in John 3:16, we see how God’s love now deals with human sin: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but receive eternal life. And now, in Matthew 18, Jesus is teaching us about that same principle – that through love of our neighbour – forgiveness of sins is how we restore relationships and thereby we show our love for God. As St John says; whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And that this restoration is so powerful – so effective – that it affects not just here on earth but the very heavens itself: For whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
In this passage, Jesus gives us a lesson on how to deal with matters where we or someone has been hurt. And the first thing Jesus says is: go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. Sounds simple, but in practice this is not what we seem to do. We hold a grudge. We tell OTHERS about the hurt. We gossip about them. In today’s world of social media we might unfriend them – or post something about them to tell the whole world. But here Jesus says – go and speak with one another. And that’s not easy because we are proud people. We want the other person to come to us and apologise to us. But then we might not accept their apology. But let us remember the example God gave us – it was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us – the righteous for the unrighteous. God didn’t wait for us to make the first move.
As Christians, we have a great responsibility here because we know about God’s love. And sometimes we are challenged to make the first move even though we truly believe it was not our fault. And sometimes we are challenged even further to accept an apology and offer forgiveness when we truly believe that justice has not been given to us. But there is justice in God who sees what is done. And the justice is in the peace which God gives to us as we read in Psalm 133: How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. And if you’ve ever had a relationship restored you will know that peace that comes. But sadly we quickly forget that feeling of peace when the next conflict comes.
As you are probably aware, our entire church is currently in a situation of division needing reconciliation. You would have received the report from our General Church Board and College of Bishops concerning the Ordination of Men and Women to the Public Ministry. It speaks into the division we face with an impasse that seems unable to avoid a split in our church.
And as you are no doubt aware this has caused great hurt. Such great hurt that many of our family and friends have left the church.
That division is sadly existent in the church from the very beginning. St Paul had to deal with that in his own ministry.
He had to separate from his friend and colleague in the ministry Barnabas. Acts 15 says: They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company.
Paul had to deal with division in one of the first church communities he established in Corinth who were divided over Baptism: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas ”; still another, “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Division is how Satan enters into the relationship. As St Paul warns in Ephesians – in your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger giving Satan a foothold.
Satan looks for and sometimes creates division to do his work. He divided Adam and Eve – first physically – when he tricked Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. Then spiritually when he turned them against each other and God: The woman you gave me, she made me eat. Satan infiltrated the 12 Apostles as we hear in Luke’s Gospel: Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus.
Satan creates division but God has given us the path to healing through reconciliation – but it is not an easy path. Many churches have succumbed to Satan through division. Many Christians have left the family of faith through unreconciled division. And that’s why I say – this is the most important teaching of Jesus and so powerful that it rocks the very foundations of heaven: Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Sometimes, sadly, reconciliation is unachievable. In fact in the Marriage Act there is only one grounds for divorce – irreconcilable differences. So what happens when that point is reached. Jesus addresses that also when he says:
Let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Sadly we have not understood what Jesus meant here and have used this as justification for removing people from our lives and from the church through excommunication. But we need to look more closely and ask ourselves – how did Jesus treat Gentiles and tax collectors. He ate with them – he loved them – he included them closer in his lives than any other group.
The call for us to love unconditionally and with readiness to forgive and reconcile is always upon us. As St Paul said today in our 2nd reading: Owe no one anything, except to love one another; This is not easy. Sometimes it will be the hardest thing we have to do. But life is too short to hold a grudge – to withhold forgiveness from someone who was once a friend – a family member – a brother or sister in Christ. But how sad it would be to reach the end of our life or the life of that person knowing we could have reconciled but didn’t. And it is never too soon as Paul reminds us: For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.
So let us look to ways that we can reconcile with one another regardless of who is at fault and hopefully as we continue to discuss the subject of ordination that we can seek reconciliation, forgiveness and unity as we remember How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! And in this all, let us always remember, it was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us.
