Power and Responsibility

Perhaps you may remember from a previous reflection, that the phrase “Amen, I say to you,” means this is important. It means pay attention, what comes next is very significant. In school speak, the phrase means, this is going to be on the test. 

Jesus says the phrase, “Amen, amen I say to you, twice in this passage. 

The first is, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” I think we most often think that whatever we forgive on earth, will be forgiven in heaven. What we cannot forgive will remain for all eternity. And it does. But it goes much deeper than that. 

This first interpretation, in many ways, gives us power. We can forgive or not. We can hold another bound for whatever pain, great or small, intended or unintentional, inflicted on us. There is power in that, but more there is an awesome responsibility. Because I don’t think that is what Jesus meant at all. 

This teaching of Jesus came after the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus taught the disciples how to pray. This comes after he gave them the words, “Forgive us as we forgive.” What he is telling the disciples (and us) is that they do have the power to forgive (or loose) on earth, and they have the ability to not forgive (hold bound). Their decision will remain forever in heaven. 

They are being called to understand that what they hold bound will be bound to them in heaven, and what they forgive will be loosed from them in heaven. 

We carry the grace of forgiveness. We take on the burden of the unforgiven grudge, slight, or intentional hurt that we have chosen not to forgive. That is the responsibility, and Jesus has given us that power. Jesus modeled that power himself, when from the cross, he said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

Forgive and be forgiven, hold bound, and be held bound. Jesus knows; personally, forgiveness is hard, and he is calling his disciples to this very high standard. When we are sinned against and broken by the hurt, it is hard to forgive. We pray for grace. We ask Jesus to help us to forgive what has left scars on our hearts. When we struggle to forgive someone from the sin they have committed against us, we pray, “Lord, I want to forgive, forgive what I cannot forgive. Heal in me what is damaged and wrap me in your grace.”

The second time Jesus uses the phrase, he says, “Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

We know this passage well. I don’t think it is by coincidence that it follows the call to be people who carry the grace of forgiveness. No doubt, there are many ways this passage can be read and many different situations in which it can give us hope. 

Today perhaps, we can see it as the next step when we find it hard to forgive. If we share our brokenness with another, that person’s prayer is joined to ours, Jesus is with us. Together, we have a strength that alone we could never muster. When we pray with another, we pray for a healing of all that is broken in us. We pray that we might forgive what we hold bound. 

Do not hold your pain close, unwilling to share it with another of God’s faithful. It is not a weakness to share your pain, and there is no honor in toughing it out alone. It is the command of Jesus that we are lowly enough to admit our sorrow and ask for help. Grace comes when we humbly join our hearts together in prayer. Together we are so much stronger than we are alone. When we are together, Jesus is with us.

In God’s Unending Love,

Gwen