Luke 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
It seems this was one of the Lord’s favorite figures of speech.
It is followed by the standard “you can do great things”. (I have been stressing trusting the Lord for great things.) But this morning we are not going to talk about miracles (making the lame to walk, the blind to see, or casting out demons) and other great answers to prayer. No, we are going to talk about something far more important than a miracle. And this “something” is so fundamental to being Christian that failure to have it can be deadly.
The disciples make an interesting request, increase our faith. Where did that come from? The context helps!
17:1 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe [unto him], through whom they come!
2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
Aha!! THIS is why they made that request. It is as if they said, "Uh Lord, we’re gonna need more faith for this."
Let’s look at this
1 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe [unto him], through whom they come!
“offences” is the word skandalon - to put a stumbling block or impediment in the way, upon which another may trip and fall; metaphorically: to offend: to entice to sin; to cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey; to cause to fall away
These things are going to come, they are all around us, but don’t be the offender
2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
17:3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
Right here is the beginning of the point. Forgiveness. This is one of the chief virtues of the Christian life.
If thy brother trespass against thee – the word trespass means sin.
If a brother or sister sins against you, hurts you deeply, Jesus gives two instructions:
Rebuke him – tell him in no uncertain terms
If he repent, forgive him – right here is where we have difficulty. We are to forgive him. Forgive him when? When he repents. BUT, we have invested so much emotion into the word repent that we now expect him to cry crocodile tears to prove he is really sorry, write a report on why what he did was sin and the steps he will take to not do that again. The Catholic idea is penance. We practically demand penance only we don’t use that Catholic word.
When Jesus says if he repent all he means is he acknowledges that he sinned against you and asks forgiveness.
I will show you how I know this to be the case
4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
What?!? seven times in a day??!!?? OUR teaching today would be, after the 2nd or 3rd time, "Brother, I don’t believe you have repented at all. You come back to me when you’ve truly repented."
And yet, Jesus says, seven times in a day, all he has to do is turn to you and SAY, I repent and you are to forgive him!
This is revolutionary! The Jews taught you never forgave more than three times. Jesus says seven. In another place, he says 70x7!
“Revenge is natural to man, i.e. man is naturally a vindictive being, and, in consequence, nothing is more difficult to him than forgiveness of injuries.” ~ Adam Clarke
The kingdom is at odds with natural man – "I’ll get you for this" – and religious man – "You gotta prove to me you’ve repented"
One of the characteristics of a Christian is his readiness and willingness to forgive and the ease with which forgiveness is granted
All that we require of the offender is he turn and say, I repent. Or, since repent is not a frequently used word among us, “I was wrong, forgive me.”
And we forgive!
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