Resentment is the poison we swallow while we hope the other person dies. – Unknown

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. – Lewis Smedes

Who is hard for you to love?

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus tells a chilling story about the importance of mercy and forgiveness. It presents a parable where a king forgives a servant’s enormous debt, but the servant fails to extend the same mercy to a fellow servant who owes him a much smaller amount. The king’s anger at the servant’s lack of compassion highlights the expectation that those who receive forgiveness should also practice forgiveness towards others.

“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matthew 18:32-35)

Why would this servant sit in judgment over a fellow servant? Because he was sitting in the wrong chair. Servants are not supposed to take the place of kings. The only thing that will change a servant from acting like a king is getting a view of the amazing love of the King who became a Servant.

To withhold mercy and forgiveness is a sign that you are sitting in the wrong chair.

We are the ones who should be on trial for our cosmic rebellion, but we put ourselves in the judgment seat. And yet the Lord, on the judgment seat, came down, put himself on trial, and went to the cross. The Judge of all the earth was judged. He was punished for us. He took the punishment we deserve for all the ways we harm each other.

The whole point of the gospel is to destroy your self-righteousness and the idea that you’re better than others.

That is why Christian Nationalism is so evil. Nationalism is a huge threat to the Gospel witness of the Church. And it is antithetical to the Gospel.

Patriotism is simple affection for your country.

Nationalism is the notion that your dirt is better than anyone else’s dirt. Your culture is superior to anyone else’s culture. Your people are better than anyone else’s people. God loves your country more than he loves any other country or tribe or language or people. That is anti-Gospel. (see Revelation 7:9-10)

The Gospel tells you you’re a sinner saved by grace. If you stay angry at somebody, you are amplifying your heart’s self-righteousness. Turning you into a self-centered, self-pitying, self-absorbed person capable of more cruelty. The evil is winning.

I was splitting wood a few years ago, and a piece flew back and hit me in the shin. It didn’t tear my jeans but broke the skin underneath. No big deal. I’ve had tons of worse wounds in my life. But a month later, an infection began to swell up in my leg. Cellulitis. Nasty wound. I went to the doctor, and they prescribed antibiotics. I had evil cellulitis in my leg. But the antibiotic pills were supposed to rid me of the infection. What might happen if I had stopped taking the antibiotics before the recommended time? The evil cellulitis would have won.

We need to take our Gospel pill and keep taking it until we see ourselves and others the way God sees them.

The gospel humbles you. You can’t stay angry at somebody unless you feel superior to them. A proper view of the gospel of grace humbles you out of bitterness and contempt for others. Only then can you forgive others.

When Jesus was dying on the cross and he was being executed, he said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:24)

He says, “Father, what they’re doing is wrong. They need to be forgiven. They are guilty, and I’m dying for their guilt.” Instead of screaming at his enemies, what does he say? “Father, they really don’t understand the magnitude of what they’re doing.” Jesus has something good to say about his executioners.

If he treats his executioners like that, how dare you and I withhold mercy and forgiveness to those who harm us? Jesus wouldn’t even talk like that at the very end.

And so, dear friend, may the Lord give us grace and patience that can grow only from a great view of His dying and saving mercy.

Maybe then we will get out of God’s chair.