Please come to the fall cleaning on Sunday, September 29th from 2-6PM to help prepare the building and grounds for the High Holidays.
Rabbi’s Reflections – Sunday, September 29, 2024
Shavuah Tov,
“No One Owes Me…”
By Jerry Miller
“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil…forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:35; 37b ESV)
In the September 15 Reflection, I shared some thoughts on the freedom we experience when we choose to forgive those who have wronged us. Today I want to continue with the forgiveness theme. As I shared last time, this is so central to our walk with the Lord, and the above passage definitely adds another dimension to the issue. These verses are part of a larger teaching given by Yeshua, as He described the gracious nature of God Himself. Our response, as we see this gracious nature, is to seek, by His grace, to walk in the same love He continually displays to us. As we all know, this is easier said than done, as the saying goes. The bottom line is, we are to live as “sons (& daughters) of the Most High.” The good news is, by the work of His Spirit, He really does help us to change and become more and more Messiah-like in how we relate to others. His work of changing us is one that continues for a lifetime. We grow into this likeness to Yeshua, as we walk with Him in relationship and continue to yield to His ways as we learn what He desires of us as His sons and daughters.
Some years ago, the Lord really got my attention with v. 37b quoted above. We all know the importance of us, as Yeshua-followers, being willing to forgive. But the idea with the specific Greek word here translated “forgive” speaks of a willingness to release others. Here and elsewhere Yeshua uses what we might call “debt language” in His reference to sin. In other words, sin results in a condition of indebtedness. As this applies to our relationships with one another, if someone sins against us, in essence they incur a “debt” that is “owed” us. In what way do they owe us? Well, in our natural processing, we feel they “owe” us an apology, or restitution—something we hope will make up for the fact that they wronged us. So it’s interesting to note here that in the Luke 6 passage, Luke uses a different word for “forgive” than the word Matthew used in Matthew 6. Luke evidently saw in Yeshua’s exhortation to forgive, a call to actually release an offender from the “debt” we feel they owe us through their sin against us. I believe Yeshua was giving His disciples, and us, a practical picture of what forgiveness is to look like when we’ve been wronged. We are to actually give the offender a pardon by canceling his or her debt. If we simply say, “I forgive you,” but we hold onto the sense that the other person still “owes” us, we aren’t seeing the degree of forgiveness to which Yeshua calls us.
In my own life, I came to see this issue in a very personal way. I was walking through a situation in which I was experiencing disappointment over the actions of a particular person. In my mind I was “rehearsing” with God the frustrations I was feeling about this person’s actions, assuming that I had “deserved” better. I didn’t use these specific words, but in essence, I felt the person “owed” me. But then the Lord spoke something to my heart that was, honestly, a life-impacting sense. He was wanting me to see that I am to take the stance that “no one owes me.” If someone sins against me, they do not owe me. If someone’s actions toward me are disappointing, that person does not owe me. In other words, by His grace, I am to release, just as Yeshua taught in Luke 6.
I knew God was speaking something in that moment, that was to change how I processed sin and offense. I received His correction and asked forgiveness for self-pity and other attitudes that interfered with the power of His mercy working in and through me. Over the years since that time, whenever I am tempted with offense toward another, the Lord is faithful to remind me of that stance that “no one owes me.” Despite the temptation to be offended, I embrace this by faith, and God has been amazingly good in giving me grace to forgive and truly release. Honestly, I still don’t walk it out perfectly, but I am committed to this as a foundational value for how I live and interact with others. Since embracing this principle, I have felt much more of a sense of freedom and victory in processing disappointment and even mistreatment. By His grace, I am determined to continue to grow in Yeshua’s likeness in this area.
So, here is the bottom line on this issue. As long as we maintain the “right” to be offended, we are not releasing. How can we know if we have truly released one who offends us or sins against us? We can know we have released the other person when we stop mentally rehearsing our case for why we are right and they are wrong. I’m speaking here of the condition of our own hearts. I fully realize there are situations in which practical steps of confrontation and resolution are needed, and it’s very important that we see a place for that. But Yeshua was speaking to our hearts in the Luke 6 passage, and I believe His exhortation to “release” is a key to the personal experience of freedom that we can know in our own lives.
God has given us an incomprehensible grace we do not deserve. As we see this, we are to be changed in how we relate to others, as the revelation of His love and goodness causes our own hearts to become more tender. As God has forgiven and released you and me from a debt (of sin) that we could never repay, so we can be empowered by His grace to release others and live by the simple realization that “no one owes me.” May the Lord impart to your heart today a fresh empowerment for living and growing in the gracious heart of our Messiah.
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
26 Elul Sunday 29-Sep-24
Deuteronomy 32:1-6 Nahum 3 2 Chronicles 18 Acts 11 Revelations 5