GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 11:25
Forgiveness
As the cliché goes, some things are easier said than done. For example, it’s easy to say, “Move the vehicle.” Ordinarily, it might be easy, but the battery is dead, and the engine will not start. Or, “move that two-hundred-pound weight”—easier said than done. Or, “earn that degree,” and so on.
One can picture Jesus standing beside the desiccated fig tree, teaching the disciples about prayer, repeating a principle from his earlier lesson (Matthew 6:12), and summing up this lesson by presenting a condition. He said, “And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, in order that your Father in heaven may forgive your trespasses.” (Mark 11:25) Jesus presented one of those propositions that are easier said than done. Everyone knows the cliché, “Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you”—easy to say, but hard to practice.
Someone commented that harboring resentment against another is like drinking poison and hoping that the other person will die—not exactly wise. Forgiveness is one of those hard things, but a lack thereof sours the person, blackens the personality, and blocks the Father’s forgiveness of one’s own transgressions (παράπτωμα, paraptóma—a side-slip, lapse, or deviation; a fall away, i.e., an unintentional error or willful transgression).
Previous
Next
Directory