Jesus conferred on Peter...
Illustration
Object:
Jesus conferred on Peter and the church the power of the keys, the authority to forgive sins in God's name (v. 19). But we are not very good at forgiving. Martin Luther made that clear: "It never fails: at times you do and say something that disgust me, and I do and say something that does not please you at all, just as one member of the body injures another..." (What Luther Says, p. 525).
Part of the problem is that we are not as tough on ourselves as we are with our neighbors. Again Luther offers significant wisdom:
But it so happens that you will not discover the beam in your own eye, if you behold continually the sins of others.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 2/2, p. 107)
But this lesson is never learned. In this world one brother is forever rebuking another because of a speck in his brother's eye, he should go look at himself in a mirror before passing judgment. He will find beams in his eye big enough to make hog troughs.
(What Luther Says, p. 524)
The first Reformer also has some advice for implementing the power of the keys. We need to realize that:
My sins are nothing but large oaks thirty feet tall; and I allow the paltry specks, in my brother's eye to irritate me more than my large beams.
(Ibid.)
Luther's namesake Martin Luther King Jr. implies that forgiveness is like a door leading to the future.
(Strength to Love, pp. 48-49)
It wipes the slate clean, so we can all forget the crap in the past and really start to live. Forgiveness is also good for you. Neurobiologists have found that in a forgiving mode you think more clearly and rationally about your options since the fontal lobe circuits of the brain are activated. Because the brain's limbic system is de-activated, stress is reduced (Andrew Newberg, Why Do You Believe the Things That You Believe?, pp. 138, 188-189).
Part of the problem is that we are not as tough on ourselves as we are with our neighbors. Again Luther offers significant wisdom:
But it so happens that you will not discover the beam in your own eye, if you behold continually the sins of others.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 2/2, p. 107)
But this lesson is never learned. In this world one brother is forever rebuking another because of a speck in his brother's eye, he should go look at himself in a mirror before passing judgment. He will find beams in his eye big enough to make hog troughs.
(What Luther Says, p. 524)
The first Reformer also has some advice for implementing the power of the keys. We need to realize that:
My sins are nothing but large oaks thirty feet tall; and I allow the paltry specks, in my brother's eye to irritate me more than my large beams.
(Ibid.)
Luther's namesake Martin Luther King Jr. implies that forgiveness is like a door leading to the future.
(Strength to Love, pp. 48-49)
It wipes the slate clean, so we can all forget the crap in the past and really start to live. Forgiveness is also good for you. Neurobiologists have found that in a forgiving mode you think more clearly and rationally about your options since the fontal lobe circuits of the brain are activated. Because the brain's limbic system is de-activated, stress is reduced (Andrew Newberg, Why Do You Believe the Things That You Believe?, pp. 138, 188-189).
