Weekly Devotion: Skyway Gratitude
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“Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ ”
-Matthew 18:21
In the fall of 1996, I came down with the flu. Nothing unusual about that, many people get the flu in the late fall and early winter. But that flu turned into pneumonia, and it was bad enough that I ended up in the hospital for two weeks. I got out a few days after Thanksgiving. A day or two later, I had to go do some business in downtown Minneapolis. I was walking to a bank in the IDS center around lunchtime. I was still in some pain; my lungs had been surrounded by fluid at the height of the infection. The fluid was drained and my lungs were finally beginning to heal. I had been basically away from the public for a month. During that time, I didn’t see many people during that save family and hospital personnel. I stopped walking and looked around as what looks like a sea of humanity milled around me. For those who don’t live in Minneapolis, there is a big atrium in the IDS center that is a meeting point for the Skyway system. The Skyway is a system in downtown Minneapolis that started in the 1960s that connects buildings to each other. It is a godsend during those cold Minnesota winters. The IDS atrium had a number of skyways that came together at this point which meant it was full of people. Having not been around so many people for such a long time, I stopped at that moment to just take it all in. I was back among the living after a long time away from the rest of the world. Before my illness, I took life for granted but at that moment I felt a sense of gratitude and grace. It was a moment to savor because I knew from personal experience that it could be taken away at a moment’s notice.
When we think about the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18, it’s easy to see this as a tale about being forgiving and it is about that. But it is about so much more as well. The servant owed the king an astronomical amount of money. It would be impossible to pay back. He and his family were going to face jail forever. Then the king does something amazing: he forgives the debt! It was amazing! This man leaves feeling relieved, but we soon learn he isn’t thankful. When he sees another servant who owes him a small amount of money; he closes his ears to listen to this servant as he pleads for patience. Instead, he had the servant thrown in prison. When the king learns of what this unforgiving servant did, he is enraged. He forgave the servant and was angry that this man couldn’t show mercy towards a fellow servant. The servant took the mercy given to him for granted. Now he and his family would live in judgment. This man didn’t realize he was swimming in mercy and in the end, he lost it all.
Jesus is telling us to be forgiving people, but it is so much more than that. When Jesus calls on Peter to forgive seventy times seven, we are to basically swim in forgiveness because this is the way of God. God forgives us and we as Christians must realize that we are forgiven and live in gratitude. How do you live a life of gratitude? By showing love and concern for the people around you. We are forgiven by God, we don’t have to do anything to earn God’s favor. We should take that in and live in gratitude.
Take a moment during the week and stop. Think about the love and mercy God has shown you and appreciate it. Then live out that gratitude in how you treat others. Forgiveness is something to savor and take in and then give away.
-Dennis Sanders, Pastor