Forgive

Matthew 18:21 - Then Peter came to him and said, "How many time shall my brother or sister sin against me and I forgive them? As many as seven times?

We really like the power anger gives us over others - or at least the illusion of power it gives us over others. Staying angry doesn't always translate directly to power but it feels powerful to us. I think this may be behind the anger of Trump supporters - the powerful feeling anger gives. Yet their anger is powerless because of its lack of compassion for others. One can be angry and still have compassion for the person we are angry at.

We like this feeling so much, Peter asks permission here to stop having to forgive after seven times. He thinks this is generous. Maybe it is for the day - it's clear that he thinks there ought to be a limit. So, he asks permission to stop after seven times. Oh, how we too want permission to not forgive. We have all sorts of justifications but most of the time we are not innocent in the situation. Therefore, it is up to us to think about our part and put ourselves in the shoes and minds of others. This requires compassion. Without this compassion our forgiveness will be mere condescension; we will not be able to cut the chord that binds us to our "enemy".

A better question to ask is why don't we want to forgive? What are we getting out of not forgiving someone? Sometimes it takes a lot of time to figure the answers out and so forgiveness doesn't always happen right away. But unless we are sincere, we are merely putting a bandaid on a broken arm - it won't help.
B