Update: Forgiveness, 28 of 40

So, this would be another sermon preview blog.

But first my regular update. Henry has been doing quite a bit better today, he's getting back to his happy self. We went to Ohio last night to begin celebrating my mother-in-law, Janice's birthday. It's Monday, but her and Bob are going out of town so we visited last night and then went out to lunch today. Then we went shopping and came home. Other than that, not much happened.

Now, onto other things, like forgiveness...

If I was preaching my sermon in certain churches tomorrow morning I feel that there might be a possibility of being fired on the spot. Some people just have a very strict view of forgiveness and my sermon is pretty much going to blow up that possibility. I am pretty sure I mentioned that I am currently preaching a series on the Last Words Jesus spoke from the cross. Last week I preached on Mark 15:33-41, where Jesus cries out, "My God, My God why have you forsaken me?" This week we are in Luke 23:33-38, which includes Jesus saying, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.'

Jesus forgives 3 groups, soldiers, the crowd, and the rulers, before they ever ask for forgiveness. And, ready for your mind to blown, intercedes on their behalf before they even do what he forgives them for.

Think about that for a moment.

He forgives them before they ever utter a word or begin an action, before they sin.

What this tells me, is that Jesus forgives us before we ask for forgiveness as well. Jesus forgives me before I sin. Jesus forgives you before you ever ask.

Now, there are still things we need to do, but they are for our benefit much more than they are for God's. We still have to accept the forgiveness, to unchain us from the pain, to free us to live, and to empower us to also forgive. And forgive we must, because we are still to pray 'forgive us as we forgive others.' We still have to give a response, we still have to make changes, we still have to repent, but not in order for God to forgive us, we do those things in order for us to know we are forgiven.

What Jesus does on the cross has meaning, meaning for you and for me, and what he does up there accomplishes the task, not opens the possibility for the task to be accomplished later on. That is amazing love, that is holy, that is mercy and grace, that is what Jesus does.

Peace and Love,
Pastor K

Update:
Since I finished this blog I have been thinking more about it. I want to clarify something. It dawns on me that I may be putting entirely too much emphasis on this one moment in time, this one sentence in a book of 66 books. I have lambasted people for doing the exact same thing. So, I could be wrong, maybe this was a one time thing, maybe I am reading too much into it. Maybe we are not forgiven before we ask for it, maybe we are not forgiven before we sin, but what if? What if we are?