Apr 4 - "Forgive and Forgive Again"

Jeremiah 31:27-34
"The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD."
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How many times should you forgive someone for doing wrong to you? This is a hard question because as humans, we have certain predilections where, if allowed to "misbehave" on multiple occasions, the forgiver can be seen as an enabler of the "misbehaving".

In Matthew's Gospel, Peter asks Jesus how often we should forgive someone who has wronged us. Peter suggests seven times as a good amount. But Jesus says, no, you should forgive "seventy times seventy" times; a pretty big number. In relation to today's reading, Jeremiah is delivering a prophecy to the Jewish people of the time saying, even though they have sinned and forsaken God over and over and over, He will forgive them, bring to them a new covenant in time and "remember their sin no more."

One of the things I remember my parents telling me time and time again as I was growing up was this: "Scott, dear son, there is nothing you can ever do to stop us from loving you. There is not a thing in this world you could do, no matter how terrible, which could ever cause our love for you to go away." What a message! Some people could take this as a sort of carte blanc, using this as an opportunity to take actions without consideration of their effect. Does this message from loving parents mean there was never punishment for poor behavior? Did it mean a life of choices without consequence? Not at all.

As a child, I often wondered how this was possible. Really, nothing? Not one thing? I could live a terrible life and they would still love me? To me, the message became one not of a right to misbehave to my heart's content, but one of an immense responsibility.

As an adult, with my own children, I can understand the wonderful message of love they gave to me. It is a message Greta and I have passed along to our own three daughters. I know in the deepest part of my soul, this message of love and infinite forgiveness is absolutely true.

So today, forgive. Forgive again. And then, forgive some more. Because, in forgiving, you are not only showing a deep love for the forgiven, but you are giving and given a glimpse of the love God has for you and for all of us.