Forgive Us Our Trespasses
Reading for Thursday March 8
Gospel of Mark 2:1-12
It’s confusing when a person first begins to make contact with Christians because they talk about so much about sin. Today’s Bible section is about the healing of a paralyzed man who goes to Jesus for help and first of all Jesus announces that the man’s sins are forgiven. If the man was like most people he might well have been indignant that his moral condition was being given priority over his great physical need. He perhaps was more than a little offended because most people don’t think they have sinned very much, certainly not enough to be in need of forgiveness when they are looking for healing.
The man who had been paralyzed went home healed though.
A lot of people would like the benefits of friendship with Christ but are bewildered by the Biblical emphasis on sin. Respectable law-abiding people are often quite unable to form a public friendship with Jesus because they don’t feel any need for forgiveness. Law-breaking people feel that the circumstances excused the sin.
So does admitting sin become a barrier to forming a friendship with Jesus?
All branches of the Christian Church state that all people are sinners and all people need forgiveness. It is only human to want to argue, deny and dismiss such a statement.
What usually happens is that the call of the Divine propels a person to Jesus because the person recognizes that through Jesus some empty place in their life can be filled. When people pray, ‘Forgive us our trespasses’ they are sometimes going as far as they are able in the process of recognizing sin.
After that prayer, which they often make with only a very hesitant admission of sin, most people become assured of Jesus’ friendship towards them. As people continue in that relationship they begin to get to know who Jesus is and what he did for them. It is when they study why Jesus died in the way he did, that they begin to understand something; God puts much more emphasis on sin than people do. Why? Because sin is the thing that has broken the unity between God and people. People who are friends with Jesus think about how Jesus demonstrated God through his own actions and begin to feel a quite supernatural desire to live like Jesus. At this point in their life-journey they begin to understand how much they need to be forgiven and changed. Since they already know Jesus they are now able to accept forgiveness without denying the need. They can ask for forgiveness without fearing that they will be penalized, and they can talk about forgiveness without embarrassment.
Gospel of Mark 2:1-12
It’s confusing when a person first begins to make contact with Christians because they talk about so much about sin. Today’s Bible section is about the healing of a paralyzed man who goes to Jesus for help and first of all Jesus announces that the man’s sins are forgiven. If the man was like most people he might well have been indignant that his moral condition was being given priority over his great physical need. He perhaps was more than a little offended because most people don’t think they have sinned very much, certainly not enough to be in need of forgiveness when they are looking for healing.
The man who had been paralyzed went home healed though.
A lot of people would like the benefits of friendship with Christ but are bewildered by the Biblical emphasis on sin. Respectable law-abiding people are often quite unable to form a public friendship with Jesus because they don’t feel any need for forgiveness. Law-breaking people feel that the circumstances excused the sin.
So does admitting sin become a barrier to forming a friendship with Jesus?
All branches of the Christian Church state that all people are sinners and all people need forgiveness. It is only human to want to argue, deny and dismiss such a statement.
What usually happens is that the call of the Divine propels a person to Jesus because the person recognizes that through Jesus some empty place in their life can be filled. When people pray, ‘Forgive us our trespasses’ they are sometimes going as far as they are able in the process of recognizing sin.
After that prayer, which they often make with only a very hesitant admission of sin, most people become assured of Jesus’ friendship towards them. As people continue in that relationship they begin to get to know who Jesus is and what he did for them. It is when they study why Jesus died in the way he did, that they begin to understand something; God puts much more emphasis on sin than people do. Why? Because sin is the thing that has broken the unity between God and people. People who are friends with Jesus think about how Jesus demonstrated God through his own actions and begin to feel a quite supernatural desire to live like Jesus. At this point in their life-journey they begin to understand how much they need to be forgiven and changed. Since they already know Jesus they are now able to accept forgiveness without denying the need. They can ask for forgiveness without fearing that they will be penalized, and they can talk about forgiveness without embarrassment.
posted by Jessie Coates at 10:09 PM
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