A summary, as of today, of my forty days with the gospels

Here is a summary of what I have learned so far reading the gospels during Lent this year: If you take the gospels as your guide, you must learn to stay in Jesus’ presence, to see the world as Jesus sees the world, and to treat others as Jesus treats them. One of the most affecting examples of this is the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18. Before you read further here, take your bible and read the parable.

The primary point of the parable is simple: If we fail to forgive others as God has forgiven us, we forfeit our forgiveness. But it seems to me that the root of the servant’s unforgiving action is his failure to see his debtor through God’s eyes.

Earlier in Matthew 18 Jesus has repeated his very hard saying about cutting off our hands and feet and plucking out our eyes if any of these body parts cause us to sin. And if we pay attention to the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant we can see that all of these body parts contribute to his stumbling, to his sin.

First, the servant who has been forgiven his debt leaves the presence of his king. He went out—on his feet. It is a mistake to leave God’s presence and go out into the world on our own two feet without him. Immediately it seems, the forgiven one encounters temptation. He sees—with his eyes—another servant who owes him money. How quickly he succumbs to his personal vision of this servant as debtor when he sees with his own eyes, his own judgment, rather than the king’s. He fails to see his debtor as the king sees him. His eye causes him to stumble. His vision is not pure. He sees with the prideful eye of one who presumes to know the difference between good and evil.

But that is not the end of it. Next he seizes his debtor—with his hands—and throws him into prison. He not only sees as one who judges, he acts with his own hands to punish. And the consequence—of his walking out of the king’s presence and influence, of seeing with his own eyes rather than the king’s vision, and acting with his own hands rather than the hands of the king—is to be judged and treated the same way that he judged and treated his debtor. He forfeits his forgiveness.

The point: Be the image of Jesus in the world, be Christ’s ambassadors, by walking in his presence, by seeing others as Jesus sees them, and by using our hands to treat others as Jesus would. I think that’s a pretty good summary at this point of my forty days with the gospels.