About secret and obvious
The next thing Christ calls to pay utmost attention to is hypocrisy, which, unfortunately, very often accompanies repentance. A hypocritical post is a waste of time. After all, if you are sad, gloomy, if you do it for show, then internal transformation and transfiguration will not happen. And you try to fast seriously, to fast deeply, to fast not hypocritically. And then I remember the first preparatory week. Tell yourself: “do not fast like a Pharisee.” It’s amazing how the Church wisely organized our pre-Lent life. Everything here echoes each other. Everything is interconnected.
One way to express love is to forgive your enemies
It is unlikely that for an Orthodox person there is a more desirable way to be convinced of God’s love than to receive salvation. But these are still the wrong priorities.
This is a selfish motive. At the forefront of everything should be the relationship with God, and not the fear of what will happen to the soul after death. If you are a good person, you have nothing to fear, and God loves you. And he loves, which means he forgives.
But, as we have already figured out, the Almighty expects manifestations of love from a person. And one of them is forgiveness. In response to the Apostle Peter, Jesus said in the following passage to all of us:
(Matt 18:21–22)
“Then Peter came to Him and said: Lord! How many times should I forgive my brother who sins against me? up to seven times? Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, until seven times, but until seventy times seven.”
Divine irony?
It is worth paying attention to one more detail of this text. When Christ speaks about those who fast hypocritically, he then adds: Truly I say to you, they are already receiving their reward. And here, in these words, in the intonation of this sentence, it seems to me, one can hear divine irony. Christ addressed his words to people for whom irony is a very important and quite common tool of communication. Therefore, the Lord sometimes resorted to irony, and this Gospel reading also contains it, although, of course, it is very mild - “they are already receiving their reward.” We could now put the word “reward” in quotation marks, and where there are quotation marks, there is irony.
It is also very important how Christ prepares us to perceive the coming period of repentance: “do not be discouraged.” Fasting is not a prison into which you are driven. On the contrary, this is one of the brightest, most joyful periods of the year. We can say that we are embarking on the path of spiritual joy at that time of year, which, not coincidentally, coincides with the gradually approaching spring. When nature blossoms, our soul should also blossom.
This phrase was said by Jesus Christ, the circumstances in the canonical Gospels vary
This phrase comes from the lips of Jesus Christ. He speaks it in a famous sermon on the plain. The text is very similar to the content of another Sermon on the Mount. Perhaps the evangelists mean the same events.
It has not been fully established where exactly the actions took place. Regarding the Sermon on the Mount, there is an opinion that it is about the Mount of Beatitudes, because there are no real mountains in that area. There is also disagreement about whether the Messiah delivered the entire Sermon on the Mount at once, or whether its contents were a compilation of various quotes from the Savior recorded at different times.
Mount of Beatitudes - perhaps it was here that Jesus Christ said: “Forgive and you will be forgiven”
- Quotes about forgiveness from the canonical gospels
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus Christ pays attention to the issue of relationships with enemies:
(Luke 6:35–38)
“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing; and you will have a great reward, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Therefore, be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you: good measure, shaken together, pressed, and running over, will be poured into your bosom; For with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
There is a similar episode in the Gospel of Matthew in the description of the Sermon on the Mount. Here is the quote we are interested in:
(Matt. 6:14)
“For if you forgive people their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive people their trespasses, then your Father will not forgive you your trespasses.”
Christ says the same thing in the Gospel of Mark, but under different circumstances - when visiting Jerusalem:
(11:25–26)
“And when you stand in prayer, forgive if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your sins. But if you do not forgive, then your Heavenly Father will not forgive you your sins.”
Only in the Gospel of John there is no such episode. This is understandable: textual examination shows that the first three Gospels have a close connection, perhaps common primary sources. The Gospel of John is a later and more independent work.
Jesus Christ raises the topic of forgiveness in this text after the Resurrection:
(John 20:23)
“Whose sins you forgive, their sins will be forgiven; on whomever you leave it, it will remain on him"
As you can see, there is a completely different tone here. This is not instruction for believers, but guidance for apostles. Here the Savior does not teach to live righteously, but tells the disciples about their special advantages.
The risen Christ allowed the disciples to forgive sins in the name of God
Is it worth forgetting about everything earthly for the sake of heaven?
And finally, the last thing Christ says: where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. When reading these words, it is important to be very careful and not fall into extreme rigorism. After all, how easy it is to say: “My treasure is there in heaven, so here on this earth I will not do anything.” In my opinion, this is not what the Savior is talking about here at all. This worldview essentially justifies real idleness. This is an experienced immersion in a kind of Oblomovism, which is then quickly transformed into the person’s perception of the world from F. M. Dostoevsky’s “Notes from the Underground.” We can say that today's average inhabitant of social networks is a bizarre combination of Oblomovism and underground. I don’t do anything, but I judge everyone for everything.
I dare say that Christ never called for neglecting anything earthly. If you have talent, realize it. Be a brilliant military leader, a diligent servant, an experienced landowner. The Lord, speaking about the fact that our treasure should be in heaven, rather reveals His other words: “To Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Be honest with your boss or with your business, do everything responsibly, with due dedication, but do not forget where your heart should be. This is what you should do towards God. Or rather, even what your soul and your personality need. Paradoxically, the monks, who seemingly radically abandoned everything earthly for the sake of the heavenly, left behind a rich cultural heritage for humanity. Just look back at the culture of the Middle Ages - these are monasteries of magnificent architecture, rich libraries, and scientific achievements. Is it worth it, in this case, to fall into such an absolutely seductive rigorism, rejecting everything earthly, supposedly for the sake of the heavenly? The question, in my opinion, is rhetorical.
So, the guidelines that we hear in this Gospel reading organize us internally in the best possible way before the upcoming Great Lent. Don’t be a hypocrite, don’t be sad, remember what you must do in relation to God, rejoice in these days, blossom on the way to Easter. But the most important thing is to start this path with the most important thing - with forgiveness.
The Bible about the forgiveness of sins says that God can forgive them to a person
Why is it so important to us what the Bible says about forgiveness? The fact is that it is on its foundation that Orthodox teaching stands. This is not a matter of insults or reproaches. Everything is much deeper: it’s about the relationship between man and the Almighty.
In the Orthodox view, almost everyone is a sinner. In the life of such a person there can be no hope for the Kingdom of Heaven, achieved through one’s own efforts. But God will forgive because He is all-merciful.
Forgiveness is the hope of a believing Orthodox Christian, and therefore everything that is said in the Bible on this topic is very important.
How to forgive if you are... a rector?
Of course, as a leader, I always have a conflict in those issues that concern the intersection of my professional competence and the Christian ideal of forgiveness. What to do when a student or your subordinate violates or fails to complete something? Forgive? But in this case, complete anarchy will soon reign in the institute. I try to show maximum sympathy and leniency. Strictly speaking, then one thing is expected, but I am trying to find mitigating circumstances that, to one degree or another, can minimize the consequences for the guilty person. There is Russian legislation, the law on education - and I work within this legal framework, but at the same time I have the right to personally examine the problematic situation and, based on the context, decide what punishment I will apply. Of course, finding the perfect balance between justice and forgiveness is very difficult. But sometimes it’s enough to talk to a person, have an enlightening conversation with him and, perhaps, reprimand or reprimand him, and let him go. But I will meticulously follow the strictness of the regulations only in exceptional cases.
Of course, sometimes the action of your colleague or subordinate causes everything inside to rage. But for such cases, I have one special remedy - this is an artifact that will soon be 50 years old. When I’m on edge, he helps me “cool off the steam” and, when talking with the offender, find the necessary, more correct, but at the same time soft words. This artifact is kept in my closet. This is a poster that hung in the corridor of my institute. Then it was March 1967. I was supposed to be expelled from the institute “for systematic absenteeism.” But instead they gave me a reprimand and a warning, and hung a poster in the corridor with all this written on it. Now that I have become a rector, if I feel that I have reached the “boiling point,” I look at this poster and then mitigate the punishment as much as possible, as much as the situation allows, of course.
The Bible says God forgives sins
The Bible often addresses the topic of forgiveness, although it is not the most popular theme in Holy Scripture.
A set of texts as rich in meaning as the psalms, of course, touches on this issue:
(Psalm 103:10–12)
“He did not deal with us according to our iniquities, nor did He reward us according to our sins: for as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is the mercy of the Lord toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, so He has removed our iniquities from us.”
Already here, in the Old Testament text, the most important idea for Orthodoxy can be traced - God’s forgiveness of man out of mercy.
The same idea comes up further:
(Psalm 129:3–4)
“If You, Lord, notice iniquities, - Lord! who can resist? But with You is forgiveness, let them revere You."
Although the Old Testament God is often presented as merciless, we see that He comes to meet believers and invites man to cleanse himself from sin:
(Isaiah 1:18)
“Then come and let us reason together,” says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; Though they are red as crimson, they will be white as wool.”
At the same time, God erases sins forever. He is demanding, but not vindictive:
(Isaiah 43:25)
“I, I Myself, blot out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
Chapter 43 of the book of Isaiah: I myself will blot out your transgressions and will not remember your sins
"Blessings to you, army"
I was born and raised in a church family, but, oddly enough, the first Lent I most deeply experienced fell in 1973, when I served in the army. I couldn’t keep the fast myself then. The conditions of the army at that time simply did not allow this. But it was worse. I felt a real church hunger: without divine services, without confession, without communion, without living through Holy Week. Psychologically it was a very difficult experience. And it was in the army that I first experienced the experience of almost constant, internal prayer. It started on the train, when I was traveling for three and a half days to Baikonur, and in the carriage, in a unit of 40 Muscovites, 38 had already been convicted. And when you are traveling in a train with such people, you hear swearing so thick that you can only discern individual human words behind this hum, then you pray without stopping, constantly. All three days. It was then that I understood a little bit what it meant to be an Orthodox person in the Soviet camp, although my position was, of course, many times easier.
In general, in the army it was impossible to keep a prayer book with you. Therefore, I recited the prayers that remained in my memory by heart. Sometimes, if you have free time, or even if you wash the floors in the barracks, you look at the clock - probably at this time the all-night vigil is already being celebrated in churches - they sing “Blessed is the Man”, then “Lord, I Have Called”, “Quiet Light”. And at this time you can pray together with everyone, but only silently and not in the temple, but here, washing the floor in the barracks. And no one will bother you. Nobody will know about this. What you have inside is a mystery.
Once, when I was on a business trip, my confessor contacted me and said that I could take communion. And I stood at the altar on Epiphany on January 18, 1973. I put on a coat over my military uniform so that I wouldn’t get caught on the street. And this was the only time during the entire time that I served in the army when I was able to take communion. And after I finished the service, my church life became much more conscious than before.
Solzhenitsyn once wrote: “Blessings to you, prison,” and now I can say: “Blessings to you, army.” Because the first most conscious Lent and the experience of deep inner prayer happened in my life precisely in the army.
God's main motive is mercy out of love
But why does God forgive sins? Because we're so good? Not at all. He does it out of mercy:
(Isaiah 55:7)
“Let the wicked forsake his way and the wicked his thoughts, and let him turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He is abundant in mercy.”
Where does this mercy come from? By her own? No. As we remember, God is love. And he forgives us because he loves to have mercy:
(Micah 7:18–19)
“Who is God like You, who forgives iniquity and does not impute transgression to the remnant of Your inheritance? He is not always angry, because He loves to have mercy. He will again have mercy on us and blot out our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."
Orthodoxy teaches to accept Christ in order to receive forgiveness
The apostles tell us how people can accept the sacrifice of Christ and receive the forgiveness of the Most High:
(Acts 3:19–20)
“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who is appointed for you.”
(1 John 1:9)
“If we confess our sins, He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
It’s not enough to accept the Savior, you also need to start living like a Christian: in love and forgiving
To prevent salvation from turning into a selfish flight from hell, it is not enough to simply repent and begin to live in the bosom of the Orthodox Church. The most important thing is the example of Christ.
The most valuable thing for a person is to live as the Messiah lived: out of love. And one of Jesus’ instructions is to learn to forgive:
(Luke 17:3–4)
“Watch yourself. If your brother sins against you, reprimand him; and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times a day and turns around seven times a day and says, “I repent,” forgive him.”
(Col 3:13)
“...bearing with one another and forgiving each other, if anyone has a complaint against anyone: just as Christ forgave you, so do you.”
The Savior put this long chain of reasoning into a simple and accessible “forgive, and you will be forgiven.” St. Petersburg wrote beautifully about this. Maxim the Confessor:
“Let us love one another and be loved by God. Let us be patient with one another, and He will be patient with our sins. Let us not repay evil for evil, and He will not repay us according to our sins. For we will find forgiveness of our sins in the forgiveness of our brethren.”
But no one can compare here with Jesus Christ, who was able to illustrate the principle of Divine forgiveness in this parable:
(Gospel of Matthew 18:23-35)
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants; when he began to reckon, someone was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents; and since he did not have anything to pay with, his sovereign ordered him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and everything that he had, and to pay; then that slave fell, and, bowing to him, said: sir! Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything.
The Emperor, having mercy on that slave, released him and forgave him the debt. That servant went out and found one of his companions who owed him a hundred denarii, and he grabbed him and strangled him, saying, “Give me what you owe.” Then his comrade fell at his feet, begged him and said: have patience with me, and I will give you everything. But he didn’t want to, but went and put him in prison until he paid off the debt. His comrades, seeing what had happened, were very upset and, when they came, they told their sovereign everything that had happened.
Then his sovereign calls him and says: evil slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me; Shouldn't you also have had mercy on your companion, just as I had mercy on you? And, angry, his sovereign handed him over to the torturers until he paid him all the debt. So will My Heavenly Father do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother his sins from his heart.”
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What if you offended a loved one, a weak one?
Photo from the site belverede.blogspot.ru
- If you have offended someone close and dear to you, then it is many times harder to forgive. It is easier to forgive when they offend you personally. When it’s different, we often come to the defense of the weak, the child or the parents.
- Yes, here we are ready to lay down our souls for our friends. And the prophets denounced people not for themselves, but for God, for truth and justice. Throw stones at a prophet, throw dirt at him, he is a prophet. Unfortunately, they were stoned quite often. But the prophet stands up for the offended, for the insulted. He denounces the decline of morals, he denounces the falling away from God.
By standing up for others, we are being fair. It is only important that we really understand the limits, that we act not biasedly: “they offended me” and no matter for what or what, but understand that this aggressive person is really wrong.
Yes, we cannot forgive the offender for what he did to our child or our parents. The saints could do this. Let us remember Elizaveta Feodorovna, the great martyr, who asked to have mercy on her husband’s murderer and to cancel the death sentence. In this case, she really wanted the person to come to realization and repentance, so that God’s power would be over him.
Therefore, in such matters, we can turn to the saints who were able to forgive, to the holy Grand Duchess Elizabeth for prayerful help, so that we, too, can place concern for the human soul of the offender above any earthly offense.
Forgiveness is a sacrifice, and God made the hardest sacrifice to forgive humanity
Easy to say, but hard to do, right?
But the Savior wants us to understand that for Him these are not just words either. Love is often a sacrifice. And to prove his love for humanity, He makes a serious sacrifice - he goes to the cross.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for love of humanity
This is an example of love, courage and, of course, forgiveness - after all, the sacrifice on the cross is precisely a manifestation of forgiveness. How much can we do to forgive another person? Sometimes it is difficult for us to simply forget the insult. To suffer for the sins of someone else seems completely unthinkable.
It is unthinkable for a person to suffer for the sins of others, but God only asks to forgive
And yet, as Orthodox teaching teaches, the most powerful being in the Universe decides to do this:
(Luke 24:46–47)
“And he said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
HUMAN
Questions from this section:
- “Does the Bible Explain the Origin of Human Races?”
- “What is the human soul?”
- “Do we cease to exist after death?”
- “Is the story of the rich man and Lazarus just a parable?”
- “Is it true that there is a burning hell where some will be punished forever?”
- “Why does God allow people to suffer?”
- “Is a man free to worship God as his conscience dictates?”
- “Does it matter what you believe in if you believe it honestly and sincerely?”
- “How can any religious practice be wrong if God has never forbidden it?”
- “Is it wrong to judge others?”
- “Should I forgive someone who keeps sinning against me?”
- “Does the Bible view women as inferior beings to men?”
