“Marcia” has struggled with bipolar illness most of her life. Even with the help of medication, she wonders at the start of each day what “trick” her bodily chemistry might play on her during the next twenty-four hours.
Living with this disease has taught Marcia to be patient with herself and compassionate toward others who deal with severe struggles in life. A few years ago she landed a teaching job working with special needs children. She is amazingly successful in her work; her patience and compassion allow her to reach children that others would regard as hopeless. Marcia loves each of the children and they love her.
We are all lumps of clay in the hands of the Divine Potter. Each of us deals with some kind of struggle in our lives, even though it may not compare with Marcia’s. Patiently, our loving Potter, works with us to make us into a beautiful vase capable of holding the flowers of his love. Our struggles are part of the process that is necessary to transform us from formless clay into a priceless work of God’s hands.
Today’s gospel reading (Matthew 18:21-19:1) talks about patience.
Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
The “mercy” people of Jesus’ time advocated patience. Instead of getting even with an offender, even after several offenses, they taught to extend mercy all the way up to seven offenses! Surely, Peter must have thought, Jesus didn’t expect them to go that far in forgiveness. Maybe Jesus might suggest something more reasonable, like three times.
Jesus’ answer blew Peter’s mind. “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.”
What? There is no way we can even keep track of that many offenses unless we turned it over to our accountant. By saying to forgive seventy-seven times, Jesus was teaching us that God wants forgiveness to become our way of life.
He then went on to develop his teaching with a parable. He told of a wealthy king who met with a debtor who owed him a “huge amount” of money. And since the debtor “had no way of paying him back” this king ordered that he and his family be sold in payment of the debt.
At this moment the servant knelt down and began to beg: “Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.” This compassionate king conceded and forgave the man all his debt. We note the “seventy-seven times” mentality of the king. It would have been more reasonable for him to cut the debt in half or even demand a 10% payment at a given date. We cannot even imagine the infinite degree of patience and compassion that existed in the heart of this king.
Then the parable takes a negative turn. The freed servant ran into someone who owed him a small debt. Rather than imitating the heart of the king, he demanded full payment from the debtor, even after the debtor knelt down and begged, “Be patient with me.” Hearing about this, the king “handed him over to the torturers.”
Jesus concluded: “So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”
Do you think Peter asked Jesus any more questions that day?
We keep remembering that we all were once lumps of clay, and that the Potter has been working patiently with us all our lives. There were times in which a less patient potter would have tossed us into the junk pile. But not our Potter. His patience and compassion are “seven-times seventy;” he never gives up on us, even if we give up on ourselves.
Is there any way for us to guarantee that the Potter will continue to treat us this way? Yes, by imitating his patience and compassion in our dealings with others. When our patience is tried to the limit by an irritating habit of another, we realize that this is nothing compared to how our stubborn resistance tests the patience of God.
Whatever “bipolar” kind of issue we struggle with in our lives, we remember that this serves a purpose in the Potter’s hand. As we struggle to be patient with ourselves and even with the Potter, our hearts begin more and more conformed to his.
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
