The Lord's Prayer:  Restoration and Responsibility

		Debts?! What debts? ("Restoration" and "Responsibility") RESTORATION Forgive us our debts ... or Forgive us our sins. In this phrase we come to a distinct difference between the Matthew account and the Luke account, according to the Greek words used, but less so perhaps in the meaning. In Matthew it appears that the word is used of accounting, and speaks of “something owed, a due, a fault, a debt,” and the “debtor” in the next part is speaking of the person as a delinquent, or transgressor, and a “sinner”. In Luke's account the word is the one we have all heard about as in the falling short of the (archery) target and missing the prize. In both cases it is an acknowledgment that we are in need of restoration and we are coming to the Father for forgiveness. Keeping the accounting image in mind of the Matthew version it is as if we are “in God's bad books” and we are asking to have the slate wiped clean. (I just realized how archaic this reference to the slate being wiped clean really is. I HAVE used a slate and slate pencil.  I guess a better phrase would be the debt is recorded on the spreadsheet and we are asking God to hit "Delete" not just the entry but the whole file.) And this important aspect is that it is a daily situation as surely as was the request for daily bread. In the context of the sermon on the mount, and the “extra” sense that we have already seen when Jesus contrasts the “you have heard it said, but I say” we get a further revelation of just how much for which we need forgiveness. It is not for the gross sins and transgressions of “the law” per se, but it is all the areas where we “come up short”. This comes out more clearly I think in the next phrase when we acknowledge our RESPONSIBILITY to extend to our “debtors” the same kind of forgiveness that we are seeking from the Father. It should really be a frightening realization that our forgiveness is dependent on our forgiving. We like to think our forgiveness is completely covered by Grace and our confession of our sin, but Matthew 6: 15, shows clearly that our forgiveness is conditional.   RESPONSIBILITY “...As we also have forgiven our debtors.” OR “For we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” This confession and profession on our part fixes us with the responsibility that Jesus was teaching his disciples. Not only in Matthew 6:15 but again in Matthew 7:1&2 and following. The same judgment you use on others will be the judgment used on you. And with the measure you use it will be measured to you. And then in Matthew 18 when Peter is asking how often he should forgive his brother, Jesus' reply is basically a reworking of the same principle. How often do YOU want to be forgiven? Taking up the idea of this debt/debtor and the going beyond the letter or legal “sin” and going rather to the moral obligations, of “what do I owe?” or “what am I owed?”, I think Matthew's record lets us come to another aspect of our responsibility. And that is, while Luke might frame the request and the forgiveness of others to the sin committed according to the law, the “as we forgive our debtors” covers those who may be innocent of any transgression against us but whom we may “perceive” to owe us something. If we think they “owe us one” we must forgive them. We cannot expect that they will ever “make it right” with us. They may not even be aware that we expected something of them that they failed to deliver. And isn't that the kind of forgiveness we need from the Lord as well? It is the arrogance of the self righteous that can say, “All these laws I have kept from my youth” and perhaps even be truthful, but oh how horribly in debt we are to His mercy and Grace for all the Love and Worship he is due, and all that we have withheld. Every slight, every “but-you-never-covered-this” or “you-didn't-take-notice-when-I-did-this-for-you” or “boy,-do-you-owe-me-for-this” attitude that I hold against any individual or organization, these are the things that could do me in. And these are the debts that I must forgive, and these are the kinds of debts I must acknowledge before the Lord if I want to know the restoration and cleansing of His forgiveness, and in turn that I must extend to all those who I feel have “sinned against me”. And, as the above mentioned passages indicate, this is not optional. And it is not once and for all, but daily, continually. Your name Hallowed,--- moment by moment. Your Kingdom Come, --- moment by moment. My Daily Bread, --- moment by moment. My being Forgiven, --- moment by moment. My Forgiving Others, --- moment by moment. My abiding in his Refuge to escape the onslaughts of the world, the flesh and the devil, --- moment by moment.