Impossibility of forgiving sins (We cannot forgive each other)

This post is not tied to any particular passage, but something that comes up again and again.

Summary:  As Christians, we often believe that it is our duty to forgive the sins of others.  This is not actually what the New Testament teaches.  The New Testament teaches that God forgives sins, not us; That said, we enable life together to happen by extending forgiveness to others.

Point #1:  Forgiveness of sins is a key mission of Jesus Christ

(The word for forgiveness here is αφεσις; the word for sin is αμαρτια)

• Jesus instructs his disciples before his ascension:  Repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:47)
• Jesus describes the new covenant:  "for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:28)
• In Pauline epistles:  "We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace." (Ephesians 1:7).  I realize that many argue Luther(ans) overemphasize forgiveness in Paul, but it would be impossible to read Paul, even the perceived "real" Paul, and say that forgiveness was neither significant nor connected with justification.
• Hebrews has a lengthy developments of the theme of forgiveness and Jesus work as the new sacrifice, once and for all.  (E.g.:  Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.)

Point #2:  Forgiveness of sins is a divine and not human task

• In Matthew 9, Mark 2 and Luke 5, there is the story of a paralytic who is healed.  In each case, the issue is whether Jesus had permission to forgive sins.  In fact, his forgiving sins is considered blasphemy because it means he is assuming the role of God.
• In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus teaches about prayer and forgiveness.  However, The Lord's Prayer does not invite us to forgive the sins of others
• The Lord's Prayer in Matthew's Gospel:  καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν.  Forgive us our debts as we forgave the debts of others. (6:12)
• Further instructions about forgiveness:  Ἐὰν γὰρ ἀφῆτε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὰ παραπτώματα αὐτῶν, ἀφήσει καὶ ὑμῖν ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος·(6:14)  Here we are invited to forgive the trespasses.  While this is similar to sins, the writer Matthew is clearly avoiding commanding us to forgive the sins of others.  Why?  Because this is for God alone!
• In Luke's Gospel, there is also careful attention paid to the words around forgiveness:  
• καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν, καὶ γὰρ αὐτοὶ ἀφίομεν παντὶ ὀφείλοντι ἡμῖν.  Forgive us our sins as we are forgiving others.  (11:4).  
• In Luke's Gospel, the lack of human capacity to forgive sins is even more strongly underscored by the change in words here.  We are to pray that our sins are forgiven, but we are to forgive debts.
• The only time humans are commanded to forgive sins is when they are given the "power of the keys", that is, explicitly told to forgive sins.  This is done by the resurrected Christ as he breathes on his disciples the Holy Spirit
• “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” (John 20:22-23)
• When we look at the New Testament (and Old Testament) as a whole, we realize that within the biblical worldview, the declaration that humans can forgive sins is earth shattering.  Literally.  This is not a casual declaration that we can live and let live, but that human agents can change the divine ledger.  This is a truly awesome power given over to the apostles.  

Point #3:  As Christians, we are to practice forgiveness toward each other, but outside of the office of the keys, this is not about declaring someone forgiven before God.  Rather, this is about making life possible together.

• In Ephesians and Colossians, we are commended to forgive each other.  Yet a look at the words, reveals this is not about forgiving sins:
• ἀνεχόμενοι ἀλλήλων καὶ χαριζόμενοι ἑαυτοῖς ἐάν τις πρός τινα ἔχῃ μομφήν· καθὼς καὶ ὁ κύριος ἐχαρίσατο ὑμῖν οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς·  "...bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive." (Colossians 3:13, cf Ephesians 4:32)
• The word that is used here is χαριζόμαι, which means "be gracious to", "give favor" akin to Mary being called "full of grace."  The point here is not to declare them righteous before the heavenly Father, but to be gracious to them.
• In Luke's Gospel, we are commanded to forgive someone seven times seventy times. 
• ἐὰν ἁμάρτῃ ὁ ἀδελφός σου ἐπιτίμησον αὐτῷ, καὶ ἐὰν μετανοήσῃ ἄφες αὐτῷ· 4 καὶ ἐὰν ἑπτάκις τῆς ἡμέρας ἁμαρτήσῃ εἰς σὲ καὶ ἑπτάκις ἐπιστρέψῃ πρὸς σὲ λέγων Μετανοῶ, ἀφήσεις αὐτῷ. If your brother sins, rebuke him.  If he repents, forgive him.  And if he sins against you seven times that day, saying "I repent" forgive him. (Luke 17:3-4)
• Here may be the only time in Scripture that we are commanded to forgive someone else for what they do.  However, linguistically, the object of the forgiveness is the person, not their sins (we forgive them, not their sins).  This forgiveness here seems far more like akin to the meaning "let go" or "permit" (also meanings of the word αφεσις).  In short, what seems at stake here is letting the person back into your life, rather than declaring them forgiven before God.

Admission:  I am not developing here a deep theology of "the office of the keys" by which humans declare to each other that they are forgiven on Christ's behalf.  This is certainly a reality.  Humans need an external word of forgiveness and we can become Christ to each other, to offer forgiveness.  I am thinking more of a situation in which two people are upset with each other and the one person begins to feel they are responsible for "generating" the love required to forgive the other person.

What is at stake:  When Christians teach an ethic of forgiveness, we need to be careful that we do not ascribe too lofty a goal for ourselves.  God takes care of the heavenly ledger.  Outside of the office of the keys, this is not ours to mess with.  What is our job is to trust that Christ has been gracious to us and therefore find a way to be gracious to others.  More deeply, we might begin to see that God is also gracious to others and has forgiven them and therefore, any movement to forgive them is an act of aligning ourselves with God's movement.

Furthermore, God's forgiveness creates resurrection and new life -- this is in fact, what the story of the healed paralytic shows.  The man, forgiven, rises to new life.  As Luther writes, "where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation."  We cannot transform the hearts of others.  This is the work of God.  What we can do - with Christ's love - is make life possible for each other...and on rare occasions, be given the great joy of handing over the promises that Jesus has already forgiven the other person. 

Matthew 6:7-21; Must we forgive others?

The passage occurs in the narrative Lectionary, Year 1 (Most recently Feb 1, 2015). 

For my pound-it-out analysis of the Greek in Luke and Matthew's version of the Lord's Prayer, click here.

This week, I want to focus on the Bible verses 6:14-15:  (NRSV)
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

It brings up the haunting question, must we forgive others to be forgiven?  Before we answer this theologically, let's dig into the grammar and words in the Greek (is there a linguistic way out of this theological conundrum!)

παραπτωμα (paraptoma, "trespasses"):  In Matthew's Gospel a couple of words are employed to talk about sin.  In the Lord's Prayer, the word is "οφειλημα" which means first and foremost, a debt.  There is also the most theologically loaded term of sin, a wrongdoing against God, αμαρτια, used when Jesus institutes the Holy Communion.  The word in this verse, παραπτωμα, means linguistically, "overstep."  (This is what "trespass" literally means.)
How does this offer us a possible out:  You could say that that this verse actually exonerates us from forgiving the sins of other people.  We cannot do this.  Only God can forgive sins.  Jesus' claim to divinity in Matthew (see chapter 9 and healing of the paralytic) rests on his ability to forgive sins.  But we can and must forgive missteps.

υμων (of yours):  The entire section is conjugated in terms of verbs and possessive adjectives in the plural form of you.  Another way to look at this passage then is that Jesus is speaking to the collective and not just individuals.
How does this offer us a possible out:  It doesn't.  In fact, it makes it a whole lot more complicated.

ουρανιος (houranios, ie, horizon", "heavens.")  If you notice, the first part of the passage speaks about the Father in heaven; the second half simply about your father.
How does this offer us a possible out:  Perhaps we are speaking about human judgements -- if we do not forgive others, our human piers will not forgive us.

αφητε (aphete, in various forms in this passage, "forgive")  This word provides two avenues for reflection.  First, it's meaning.  It can mean "permit" or "let go" in addition to "forgive."
How does this offer us a possible out:  If one reads this translating "permit" instead of "forgive" it has a slightly different meaning, one that is less about heaven and hell, but simply about how our attitude toward others becomes God's attitude toward us in life.  God becomes the universal tolerance karma instead of judge.
Lastly, this verb is in the aorist.  Aorist can be thought of as an inceptive aorist, meaning it points to the moment an action began.  So, "If you begin to forgive others their trespasses..."  Ultimately, this does not alter the meaning, it simply waters down the intensity.

To put it another way, the Greek in these passages does not intensify the English meaning.  If anything, they provide us with a more earthly than eternal framework for understanding its significance.  Regardless, our forgiveness before God and the forgiveness of others are bound together.  Jesus didn't wait until enough humans had forgiven each other to die on a cross!

I think I would want to thread a very precarious theological needle and offer this:  While on earth. the extent to which we experience God's forgiveness is intimately related to how much we extend forgiveness to others.  Forgiveness and the prayer life that accompanies this are a way of life for Christians.  That said, when it comes to heaven and our sins against God, this comes down to the cross, grace and faith.

Matthew 6:24-34

This passage occurs in the Epiphany season of the Revised Common Lectionary (Year A).

Summary:
As usual, the Greek makes things more exciting!  First, the word for "serve" in 6:24, as "cannot serve God and Mammon" is not serve like "wait on the table" but serve as in "be a slave to."  Second, Jesus gives a number of commands throughout this passage.  The tenses of the commands (for which I devote an entire section) highlight Jesus’ point.  A brief review:  Jesus tells his disciples to look up into the sky using an aorist command; he tells his disciples to seek the Kingdom of God using a present tense command.  The one is a simple request; the other is a constant task.  The translations generally do not capture this distinction.

Key words:

δουλευω ("serve" or "be enslaved to," twice in 6:24):  This word does not simply mean "serve" as "I painted a wall for a poor person's house."  It is more akin to slavery and servanthood.  "It is not possible to be a slave to God and Money."  Saving "serve" allows us a bit more control, I think, than Jesus implies.  The word for serve as in clean-up/pitch-in is διακονεω.
μαμωνα ("mammon" or "money," 6:24): This word is not a Hebrew or Greek word, but is Aramiac, meaning wealth or property.  It it not found in the OT; it is not picked up in any of the NT letters.  It appears a few times, three times in Luke and once in Matthew.  I guess it is a deeper question -- is Jesus trying to personify money here or not?  I would suggest so, based less on what the word Mammon actually means, and more within the context of serving a master.
ολιγοπιστοι ("little faith," 6:30; appears in a few forms in Matthew's Gospel, also 8:26,14:31, 16:8, 17:20);  This is a "pet" phrase of Matthew.  The question is -- is this a rebuke or an encouragement?  Of course, there is some element of rebuke, but perhaps there is an element of encouragement.  Even being of little faith is better than being of none!  In fact, if you compare the stories in chapter 8 and 16 from Matthew's Gospel with their Marcan parallels, you will see that Matthew adds this word into to soften the words of Jesus!  (Or Mark excludes it).  It is a humbling reminder that Jesus teaches us, not simply when we are wise and have full faith, but even when we have little faith.
προσθειναι ("add" an aorist infinitive of προστιθημι in 6:27; also in 6:34):  Jesus here makes the point that worrying will not add an inch to our lives but seeking the kingdom of God will add all these things to us!

Translation issues
1)  What does that refer to?
In English grammar, a pronoun needs an "antecedent," ie, what it is playing the roll of pronoun for.  For example, "She and her sister are nice.  I like her."  The "her" doesn't really have a clear antecedent and so it is hard to understand.  In this case, Jesus says, "Seek the KoG and its righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you."  The question is, what are these things?  Righteousness or clothing and wealth?  (Kind of like King Solomon, who, in asking for wisdom, gained wealth).

2)  Tenses in commands:  Aorist vs Present

Jesus gives a number of commands in this section.  Commands can also be called imperatives.  They provide a helpful way to understand how tenses function in Greek commands.  In English, we really only have present tense commands:  "Go!"  or "Help!"  In Greek, however, the command can be given in either the aorist or the present tense.  This impacts how the verb should be translated.
The aorist is used for a simply command, like a "Do this now" sort of thing.  For example, εμβλεψατε ("Look up in the sky!", 6:26) or καταμαθετε ("Consider the lillies", 6:28).  An aorist command requests a specific action to be taken right now. 
The present tense is used for a command that requires continued action.  For example, ζητειτε ("Seek the Kingdom of God," 6:33).  Jesus wants his followers to ALWAYS seek the Kingdom of God.  While the "continuous" nature of present tense can be sometimes overstated, the present imperative strongly suggests a continuous action. 
In English the distinction between these two tenses is often overlooked.  In this case, a fair translation would be "always" or "continually seek the Kingdom of God."  (Whereas you don't always have to look up into the sky)

With negatives, it is a little more tricky.  I confess, I get them confused!  Jesus uses the same verb here in both the negative aorist and negative present command forms, so this will hopefully clarify.
Jesus uses the negative present imperative in 6:25:  μη μεριμνησητε.  In this verse, he is telling the disciples a forever command:  "Do not ever worry about your life."  The implication too, with a present tense negative imperative, is that the listener was in fact doing this action.  For example, angels often have to tell people μη φοβου.  (Present tense of "fear")  We translate this "Do not be afraid" but it would better as "Stop being and continue to stop being afraid."  Or perhaps, more poetically, "Do not fear."
Jesus then switches to a negative aorist command in 6:31 μη μεριμνατε.  This verb is actually an aorist subjunctive. (Why?  Well, I don't know the deep reason, but the basic reason is that negative aorist prohibitions take the subjunctive mood.)  In this verse, Jesus is telling the people not to ask "What shall I eat?"  While this could also be considered a permanent command, Jesus uses the aorist here because he was neither suggesting that the disciples were specifically doing that at that moment nor was he suggesting that this would be their constant question.  Lastly, Jesus tells the disciples (again using a negative aorist subjunctive) not to worry about tomorrow.  The use of the aorist is almost humerous here.  It is almost as if Jesus is saying, "For today, I tell you, don't worry about tomorrow."  The command is not in the present tense because Jesus doesn't want them to think about their actions for tomorrow!

Final note:  Sometimes trying to figure out why a particular author used a particular tense is challenging.  This is certainly true with negative aorist prohibitions!  They could easily have been present tense! Sometimes there is a bit of sloppiness in the tenses.  However, when you see Jesus using a present tense command for seeking the Kingdom of God, you can know that Jesus wants them to do this all the time!