The city of Bombay
in India is a city with a population of greater than 12 million people. There are nearly 60,000 people per square
mile. And they don’t all live in high
rises like we might expect. Instead they
live on the street. Or next to it, to be
more precise; in little villages pieced together from pieces of scrap metal and
wood. Entire towns made from discarded
construction materials. The well off
live in homes and apartments the way we would be accustomed to. The poor live in shacks and shanty towns
along the road ways.
I had the
opportunity to visit this bustling and crowded city a number of years ago. I was a senior in high school, spent my life
up to that point enjoying the Modern comforts of Western living – had never
experienced hunger or poverty. I was in
shock at the things I saw. Hundreds and
thousands of people living in shacks made from scraps. Built on every available empty piece of land. Crowded and (to me) it seemed careless. I
could not believe it. What about
sanitation? What about safety? Little children went running and playing
through these little towns. I wouldn’t
have thought one of these homes enough shelter to store my bicycle, and this
was their entire living.
You see, you
and I don’t know what it means to be poor.
We don’t know what it means to have nothing or to go hungry. We think poverty means you have a standard
definition tv set with no cable. We
think poverty means you don’t get to go to Disney world for your vacation. We think poverty means you have to shop at a
thrift store. Our standards are way too
high compared to some.
And because
we don’t understand what it means to be poor, we also don’t understand what it
means to be a beggar. To truly have nothing.
The shack dwellers in Bombay were not rich but they at least had
work. There were plenty who did not –
cripples, disabled people who were not able to hold the job of a day
laborer. They sat on the side of the
road, dirty, bedraggled, hands out, eyes down, faces forlorn. Begging for anything you would give.
We haven’t
ever seen this or experienced this, and so when we read in the Large Catechism
that the prayer for forgiveness as we forgive applies to our “poor miserable
life” we have little context for understanding what it means. We think we are pretty well off. We think we are doing okay. We think we have our lives together. The reality is that we do not. Before God we are beggars. Poor.
Having nothing. Not like the
shack dwellers who at least have a roof over their heads and a job and a salary. We are like the lame, the cripple, those too
weak to work, to earn, to pay. We can
only come before God with eyes down cast and empty hands extended upward. Forgives our sins. Forgive us our trespasses.
Remarkably,
He does. If I would have filled every open
hand and every hungry mouth I saw in Bombay, I quickly would have exhausted all
my resources. I could help one, maybe
two, perhaps a handful if I felt generous.
Jesus helps us all. He fills
every open hand, he feeds every hungry soul as he gives to us His all. Even his life in exchange for ours. He trades places with us, he becomes the
beggar so that we could be the king. Is
that something you would do? Trade your
middle class American lifestyle for that of a beggar in India? Not likely, but Jesus did that and more for
you. Traded heaven for earth. Traded abundance for poverty. Traded power for weakness. Traded love for
scorn. He did all of that for you. To purchase for you forgiveness. To be able to wash you and cleanse you and
clothe you, to take you off the street and clean you up and make something of
you. You were nothing. You were nobody. Now you are God’s own child.
Lord,
forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Do you see
how petty we are? When we begin to
realize how greatly we have been loved and how greatly we have been forgiven;
to consider that we won’t forgive even the smallest of sins that have been
committed against us? The way we keep
track, the way we keep score, the way we tally up the offenses that someone
else has committed. “I have a right to
retribution. I want justice. I want satisfaction. I want my pound of flesh. You won’t take
advantage of me!” How quickly we forget.
Jesus is the
Son of God. He is great. He is powerful. He is sinless. He is righteous. He has the right to demand from you
retribution. He has the right to demand
satisfaction for the sins you have committed against him. And heaven help us if he did.
There is a
plight worse than that of a beggar and that is the plight of a prisoner. We don’t have the context for understanding
that either. For us prison means bars
and a striped suit. Sure that’s bad, but
it comes with 3 square meals a day and a college education courtesy of the tax
payers. That’s not what all prisons are like – Prisons
are hell holes, a place where you go to die.
This is the place reserved for sinners. Beggars on earth become hell bound prisoners in
eternity. Prisoners in hell would long for
the good ol’ days spent begging on earth.
Forgive us
our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Forgive us Lord even for our refusal to
forgive.
In the end,
our forgiveness really isn’t worth all that much anyways. Luther says that our forgiveness is a sign of
the forgiveness that God gives. He says
that Jesus adds our forgiveness to this petition “so that he may establish
forgiveness as our confirmation and assurance, as a sign alongside the promise,
which agrees with the prayer.” (LC III p 96)
It is a reminder, evidence, proof positive. Our sins are gone because of what Jesus has
done. Our forgiveness that we give to
each other is an every day reminder that this forgiveness is real. When you forgive me because of what I have
done against you, you become a reminder for me of Jesus. Isn’t it beautiful that we can do that for
each other?
But Satan
would have none of it! Neither would his
allies in this life, the world and the flesh.
All this forgiveness and love and mercy – all this freedom and
release! That can’t happen. There must be death and to get to death there
must be justice! There must be
retribution! There must be satisfaction! To have all of these things there must be
sin. So that there can be sin, the Devil
the world and our flesh throw us into temptation.
“Lead us not into temptation.” The Lord commands us to pray.
What does this mean?
God, indeed, tempts no one; but we pray in
this petition that God would guard and keep us, so that the devil, the world,
and our flesh may not deceive us, nor seduce us into misbelief, despair, and
other great shame and vice; and though we be assailed by them, that still we
may finally overcome and gain the victory.
In the Large Catechism Luther tells us
that there are three different kinds of temptations; those from the Devil,
those from the world and those from the flesh.
Our flesh tempts us because it
delights in sin. There are all different
sins that entice us and appeal to us.
Unchastity, laziness, gluttony, drunkenness, greed, deception,
theft. The flesh, our flesh is eager for opportunities to participate in any one of
these sins. And if you think you don’t,
then watch out for the sin of pride. I
don’t do that! I don’t think that! All a false sense of security when it comes
to the flesh!
And then there are the temptations that
world lays upon us. Living in the world
means that we live with other sinful people.
They all carry that same flesh that plagues you. And the one thing the world can’t abide is
someone who doesn’t conform. Someone who
isn’t like all the rest. And so we
normalize the worst in us and marginalize the best. We love it when the mighty
fall. We love it when the pure in heart
are not so pure as they once seemed. We
love it when we can say “see I told you so.” And so the world drives us to anger. We drive each other to anger, not to mention hatred,
envy, hostility violence, wrong, unfaithfulness, vengeance, pride slander,
haughtiness. In our pride we look to the
world for useless finery, honor fame and power.
And then there is the devil, the
master-mind behind it all. Who wants
nothing more than for you to stumble and fall so that he can throw the whole
thing in your face and tear you apart with fear and despair. Sometimes he pushes you to pride and self
justification. Sometimes to weakness,
sometimes to despair, always away from God.
If we were to face these enemies on
our own we would surely be overcome. And
so we pray that God would preserve us from these temptation and keep us from
being destroyed by them.
So there is no help of comfort except
to run here, take hold of the Lord’s Prayer, and thus speak to God from the
heart: Dear Father, You have asked me to pray; Don’t let me fall because of
temptations. Then you will see that the temptations must stop, and finally
acknowledge themselves conquered. If you try to help yourself by your own
thoughts and counsel, you will only make the matter worse and give the devil
more space. For he has a serpent's head, which if it gain an opening into which
he can slip, the whole body will follow without check. But prayer can prevent
him and drive him back. [LC III p
110-111]
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