Lenten Sermon Series--The Last Week
Tuesday: Forgive for Forgiveness Sake
Rev. Dan Odell
Smoky Hill UMC

Mark 11:20-25

Prayer

According to a news report, a certain private school in Washington was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick, they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. 

Every night the maintenance man would remove them, and the next day the girls would put them back. Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man.

She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night (you can just imagine the yawns from the little princesses).  To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.  He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror. 

It took a dramatic demonstration to get the girls attention.  And that is just what Jesus was trying to do for the disciples, the temple authority and as readers of the gospel today, I would argue, for us as well.

Today I’ll speak more about pride, prayer and forgiveness but I want to begin with a brief summary of our book study on the last week of Jesus’ life. Today we will focus on Tuesday.  Tuesday was a very long day for Jesus.  It covers almost 3 chapters and a total of 115 verses.

The day begins with the disciples seeing the cursed fig tree – The one that Jesus cursed the day before for not having fruit and also which the authors tell us the tree represents the temple authority. Jesus and the disciples then walk through the valley and into the temple for more challenges with the temple leaders. Jesus skillfully answers and evades the challenges, and as he teaches, Jesus evokes a great deal of anger within the temple leaders he but amazes the crowds.  The leaders want to kill Jesus but are afraid of the crowds so they will not act in daylight.

Jesus insults them with the parable of the vineyard and brings shame to the Pharisees and Herodians with the question of paying taxes to Caesar.  For those of you who are familiar not with the story, he asks them for a coin, they give him a denari. Now a denari represents a days wage for a laborer and is an official roman coin.  It has a picture of Caesar on it and it has the inscription, the son of god.  And after examining the coin, he says, “Whose image is on the coin?”  And of course they reply, Caesar.

Now graven images were not to be possessed by faithful Jews – it was a sin.  And so having possession of this coin would have been an embarrassment and Jesus’ handling the situation became an insult to the authorities.  So Jesus hands the coin back to the temple authority, and says “Give Caesar what is Caesar’s and give God what is God’s.

Jesus is also asked about marriage in heaven, and basically says that relationships won’t be the same as they are here.  He also gives the great commandment: to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself. He also witnesses the widow in the temple giving all she had – two copper coins worth a penny, but our authors point out that she did it not out of a sense of piety, but because the authorities demanded it – and that was shameful to take the last pennies from a widow. And also Jesus also foretold of the temple’s destruction.  As I mentioned, it was a long day for Jesus.

Now I want to shift gears for a moment and call your attention to the picture behind me – it is that of a cave near the Mount of Olives.  And it’s about a fifteen minute walk from the temple.  Now this cave is significant for it is believed that this is where Jesus and the disciples hung out - they spent a lot of time here.  And this is the place where Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer, and in it we have the line, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others.  And that is what I want to focus on in my sermon today - this passage at the beginning of the chapter as it specifically relates to the idea of forgiveness. 

Jesus said “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”

Practice forgiveness each time you pray – that’s an interesting concept that bears repeating – forgive every time you pray so that God can forgive you.

And for most Christians this is not an easy concept - It is one that many of us would like to keep hidden in this cave.  But for us I think it is time we brought the process forgiveness as a part of prayer out into the light of day.

So what if I told you that your sins would not be forgiven by God unless you forgave others?  Think about that – God will not forgive you if you hold back forgiveness towards another person.

Does that get your attention? 

So let me ask the question: What would it mean to your prayer life if you included forgiveness in your daily prayers?  Could this be connected to what Jesus was saying when he talked about praying for your enemies?  I think there is a connection.  And I think if we included forgiveness in our prayer life it could be powerful. 

Let me tell this story, and try to tie it in.

I know a man who is about my age.  Jeff played football in High School, and dated the prom queen.  He led an ideal youthful life, and had the character of humility as well.  So to describe his life as wonderful would be an accurate statement.  He went to college and then married his high school sweetheart and they settled in Denver.  He had a good job and they started a family. Everything was going along quite well.

In the mid 1980’s he was traveling on business and staying in a hotel. At seven in the morning the hotel room phone rang, and it was his father.  And my friend could tell by the sound of his fathers voice that something was wrong.  The information was coming out all too slowly.  There was a car accident.  His two boys were critical condition.  There was a drunk driver that caused it.  And finally, the words came out, your wife is dead.

Coming out of shock, my friend spent many months and years wrestling with his grief, his anger, and his inability to forgive the man who had ripped his life to pieces. 

Till one night, when through the help of a compassionate minister, many tears were shed and he was finally able to forgive the man who killed his wife. 

Now no one was expecting this, but as Jeff prayed a prayer of forgiveness for this man, he had powerful experience with God.  His heart was renewed and he felt all of the guilt, shame and pain of his own sin being lifted as well.  He found and experienced a profound forgiveness from God at the same time he offered forgiveness to someone else.

We have been talking for a few weeks about Lent as a season of preparation for new life in Christ.  Certainly we need to practice forgiveness is a part of experiencing new life.  But what holds us back from forgiving – and why can’t we make forgiveness a part of our prayers each time we pray?  For we all know that we should forgive others, but something holds us back.

As I spent a few days thinking about this question, I came across this reading from our old friend C. S. Lewis.  And he helped with the question and I think the issue of our not forgiving has to do with pride.  Here is a long quote that I think will help us from his book, Mere Christianity:

According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the upmost evil is Pride.        

Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

Does this seem exaggerated? If so, think it over.  I pointed out a moment ago that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others.  In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are, the easiest way is to ask yourself, “how much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronize me, or show off?” 

The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with everyone elses’ pride.  It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise.  Two of a trade never agree.  Now what you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive – its competitive by its very nature – while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. 

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.  We say that people are proud of being right, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not.  They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others.  If everyone else became equally rich, or clever or good-looking, there would be nothing to be proud about.  It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.  Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.  That is why I say that Pride is essentially competitive in a way the other vices are not.

Greed may drive men into competition if there is not enough to go round; but the proud man, even when he has got more than he can possibly want, will try to get still more just to assert his power. Nearly all those evils in the world which people put down to greed or selfishness are really far more the result of pride.

So do you think Lewis is right?

I would invite you to think about a time in your life when you held back forgiveness?  Did pride have any part in your holding back? In every instance I thought of it certainly was.

So for the next week, I want you to make forgiveness a part of your prayer.  Who ever you need to forgive, forgive them.  Or at least ask God to help you move closer in your forgiveness.

I’ll close with a funny story about pride:

One Sunday morning, a mother went in to wake her son and tell him it was time to get ready for church, to which he replied, "I'm not going." "Why not?" she asked.

I'll give you two good reasons," he said. "(1), they don't like me, and (2), I don't like them." His mother replied, "I'll give YOU two good reasons why YOU SHOULD go to church.  (1) You're 49 years old, and (2) you're the pastor!"

So may we let go of our pride, and incorporate forgiveness into our prayer life, so that this lent we can prepare ourselves for new life in Christ on Easter morning.

Amen    

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