Forgiveness, But Not Encouragement Of Evil
11th Sunday after Trinity Sunday
1 Corinthians 9:2-18; Matthew 18:23-35
An 18-year-old young man entered the restaurant, approached the table where a middle-aged man was sitting, and where he was served his ordered dish - a hamburger. The young man unceremoniously took that hamburger, put his feet on the table...
How did the older person react? - Yes, as almost everyone would... It was necessary to teach the impudent one a lesson. But the young man also fought brazenly - left and right. In addition to the afore-mentioned person, the young man also beat another. There was a trial... It happened in Toronto.
Failure to respond to insolence, failure to resist evil - would be an encouragement to create evil, crimes. Some sects and individuals want to understand literally the precept of Jesus Christ:
"But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also."
(Matthew 5:39).
Christ did not mean to encourage evil and perpetrate denigration, but rather, not to respond to evil with evil; to overcome evil with good, so that people in their daily lives, in their relationships with each other, would try to practise the principle of love.
An insolent, ill-mannered person should be taught, his passions and evil intentions should be curbed, stopped; but a blow for a blow, a slap for a slap still does not heal, does not educate.
When a servant hit Jesus Christ on the cheek during the interrogation before the high priest,
“Jesus answered him, ‘If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike Me?’” (John 18:22-23)
Thus, Christ taught to forgive our offenders, but not to indulge evil. In the Gospel story, a parable told by Christ is recounted. The king forgave a debt of 10,000 talents (about $10 million in today's currency), but the one who received forgiveness did not forgive his offender 100 dinars (about $20).
Of course, this is not a real-life example, not a specific case, and it is not about money or material things. Christ told a parable, i.e. - an imaginary example in a life situation that might occur - to show the relationship between our sins before God and the sins of individual people before each of us.
When we bear a grudge against someone, and harbour evil for the wrong done to us, and we will not be able to forgive it in any way, we should remember this parable and understand that we have sinned immeasurably more before God the Creator, violating His instructions and commandments.
And, so, in remembering, we should recognize that we have time for everything: for dancing, for entertainment, banquets, anniversaries, for pleasing our bodies, but we don't have time for God. That, simply speaking, we do not want to know God when He is benevolent towards us because our mind and senses are filled with pride, arrogance and indifference.
We remember well what bad deeds, wrongs and injustices our neighbours have done to us, but we don't want to look "into the water at our own true reflection"; we don't want to stop on our life path and confess to our conscience. If we were to do that, it would be easier for us to forgive the sins of our neighbours against us.
When a person does not forgive others, harbors evil, hatred, and pride in oneself, one not only causes harm to others, but also to oneself, personally. Such a person causes harm to one’s personal physical, mental and spiritual health. Evil, hatred eats, destroys a person prematurely and, truth to tell, causes premature aging, and many diseases.
St. Apostle Paul testifies in the Epistle to the Galatians (5:15): "But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! " - This applies to both individuals and organizations.
Hostile, hating people can, without touching each other physically, destroy each other... And they can commit a criminal offence, and in an explosion of passion - kill, maim. Every crime and sin, as the Lord testified, originates in the human "heart" (Mark 7:21-23).
The Apostle Paul was aware of our human imperfection, he knew that we get angry, but he calls us in the name of God:
"Be angry, and do not sin’: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,"
(Ephesians 4:26).
In our daily life, we must accustom ourselves not only to be fair-minded in our relations with our neighbours in light of Christ's teaching, but also understanding of human weaknesses and imperfections.
Plutarch, a great ancient Greek writer of the 1st -2nd centuries (46-126 AD), who wrote many works (approximately 227), making use of the works of hundreds of Greek and Roman authors (more than 150 of his works have come down to our time), tells about a great and famous philosopher Socrates (469-399 BC).
Once Socrates was teaching in the public square in Athens. Suddenly, some impudent young man came up and pushed Socrates without any reason. The young man ran away and hid in the crowd. But Socrates did not say anything, did not react to that unworthy act - the insulting action of the young man. His students asked him why he did not react accordingly.
— If you were kicked by a donkey, do you think it would be any good if you kicked the donkey?
Therefore, if we, who commit countless sins before God, our Creator, nevertheless hope for forgiveness from Him, then we should forgive all the more a small number of sins, the offences of our neighbours. For, as the Lord said, when each of you does not forgive his brother from the heart of his sins, then God will punish each of us for all our countless sins before Him. - This is the conclusion we draw from today’s reading of the gospel story of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
