Reflection
Forgiveness
many people think. And the prevailing culture of " me first " clashes with the Christian view of life.
John Bunyan famously drew us a picture of the journey of a Christian life as a climb up a
mountain with stops on the way to assess progress, or not. The excitement of our christian
journey will be marked by changes in our understanding, our growth in knowledge of God. As we
grow more like Jesus.
So what marks someone out as a Christian, different from a non Christian. There are many
qualities we could identify. At different stages of our Christian life we may stress one more than
an other, and perhaps make different choices as we mature. At this point on my spiritual journey I
am identifying two qualities. They are forgiveness and servant hood and are more closely linked
than one would at first suppose.
Forgiveness is a given, ordained by Jesus in his how to pray lesson. It is not forgetting, nor
excusing, although these qualities may be part of the parcel. Forgiveness is not denial, nor
pretending that an offence doesn't matter, or that the hurt isn't real. It involves suspending
judgement on another's action, not pointing the finger. It is accepting the one (s) to be forgiven as
though nothing had ever happened, as though there had been no offence, loving them as God
loves us. And it is not easy, it is not cheap, it is not usually instantaneous, and it needs practice.I
St Paul says we need to "die" to our grudges, our hurts, our prejudices, in order that we may
"grow". It involves accepting the offender as loved as much as one is loved, so if one has a poor
experience of love or poor self image, it may be difficult to exercise forgiveness. By forgiving we
can release ourselves from the tyranny of bitterness and being offended. It may even heal a
fractured relationship . We have to use empathy and imagination to try to understand the
situation, or the condition which produced the offence, and this requires we exercise the big word
LOVE, which is also a deeply misunderstood word. And we need to remember that Jesus
exercised forgiveness through out his life and Luke 23:34right up to his death upon the cross.
Which now brings us to servanthood, which again is a given, ordained by and shown by Jesus in
his life of service to others It is an attitude of mind, a disposition of the heart and daily practice
by someone who serves. It is not to be confused with servility. It makes one's main priority to
serve rather than to lead. And servanthood involves the same attitudes as forgiveness. Indeed, it
would be difficult to serve without an attitude of forgiveness.
It is not in opposition to leadership, but is a mode of leadership, shown for us by Jesus' life. A
servant is not greater than his master.
Our ambition is to be like Jesus..There is nothing wrong with ambition, it is a necessary drive and
a great force in serving God and people, but wrong when used to further one's own climb up the
ladder of success, or at the expense of others.
Let this mind be in you
In both these characteristics of a Christian, love is the underlying common feature supporting
feature, putting others first, battling with self, the all encompassing characteristic of life today
Love, as christians use the word, is defined by crossing out the "I" in our lives.
Measure yourself today, count how many times the pronoun "I" comes into your conversation.
This is why the Christian life is so exciting. There are so many opportunities for growth towards
Christ-likeness, for change, for a few more steps up the mountain, for more expressions of love.
And to become Christ like .
Some Bible references : Matthew 6:8-15; Matthew 18: 21; Mark 11:28; Luke 23:34; 2Corinthians
2:6-7;
I John 1:9;
Matthew 18 : 1-5; Matthew 23 : 11-12; Mark 9:34 -37; Mark 10 :43 -45; Luke 22:24 -27. John
12:25 -27; Philippians 2: 5-11;