Jul 19 2013
‘Overcome my unbelief’
“I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief!” said the anguished father whose son was held captive by an evil spirit. His son had been having fits for years and the spirit refused to go. As the father pleaded with Jesus he had faith, but wished he had more. Do you sometimes feel like that? How do you think Jesus would respond to that? Would he be angry or compassionate? What follows is an imaginative but possible rendering of this story in Mark 9:14-29. More
Nov 28 2013
‘The borrower is slave to the lender’
Proverbs 22:7 and Matthew 18:21-35
“Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?” asked Peter. “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times,” answered Jesus (Mt 18:21-22)
Peter thought seven times was generous and godly. The number seven was sacred in his culture, and it was usually used to symbolize completion. Surely anyone who forgave seven times had done what God required? But Jesus chose another number – seventy seven. By compounding the sevens Jesus was saying that God’s people should never stop forgiving. His reasoning was simple: If God has forgiven us; we should always forgive each other. He then illustrated his point by telling a story about a servant who owed his master money. The master took pity on him and released him from his debt. But the servant refused to do the same for a fellow servant down the road. When the master heard about it he reinstated the first servant’s debt and threw him in prison. So Jesus concludes that if we do not forgive each other our heavenly master won’t forgive us. We must always keep on forgiving.
Now, this makes a lot of sense with spiritual debt, but what about financial debt? Does it make sense to lend money seventy seven times to someone who promises to repay but never does? More