The Cost of Forgiveness

 If anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible.  Leviticus 5:17

Forgiveness' Price
By Rev. William Dohle

I want you to do something... This week, I want you to count how many times you hear people say: "I forgive you."  When you need to apologize or when someone apologizes to you or when you overhear someone apologize to someone else, I want you to count.  How often do you hear "I forgive you" spoken.

I bet you hear it very VERY few times this next week or the weeks and months after that.  Why?

It's not because people are getting any better.  Sins abound in our lives all the same and they ain't going away.  So it can't be because we don't need forgiveness.

Nor is it because people aren't apologizing anymore.  I can't say it's because we don't hear "I'm sorry" on the streets.  In fact, I hear "I'm sorry" a lot, especially in my house.

No, I think the reason why you won't hear "I forgive you" spoken is because, deep down people know how costly forgiveness is!

Forgiveness requires a sacrifice on someone's part.

Most of the time forgiveness costs the forgiver the most.  They give up the right for retribution and for repayment.  If someone says: "Your loan is forgiven" it is the one who forgave the debt who took a loss.  If someone says: "You are forgiven" regarding a wrong you have done, they have sacrificed their right for vengeance.  They have said, "You owed me for that...but I have given debt up.  I will not hold it against you."

Forgiveness always costs the forgiver but sometimes forgiveness costs the one asking for forgiveness too.  Absolution in a catholic confessional, for example, has certain requirements.  "Say 5 Hail Marys and 5 Our Fathers".  Every action has its consequences and these consequences are passed down to the one asking for forgiveness.  They still must suffer loss for what they have done.

It is this second model of forgiveness that we see demonstrated in the book of Leviticus.  In this chapter, sin offerings are described for everything from intentional sins of the priest that affect the entire congregation to unintentional sins committed by the assembly to intentionally unintentional sins committed by individuals.

For an entire chapter, we are told what sacrifices to make in order to be forgiven.  Bulls, lambs, and doves are killed and chopped up, their bodies given to God in a certain way, and, in the end, the same refrain plays over and over again...

In this way the priest will make atonement for them before the Lord, and they will be forgiven for any of the things they did that made them guilty.

I wonder sometimes... why such graphic detail?  Why describe the sin offerings in this way?

Christians borrow much of our language for Jesus' blood atonement directly from Leviticus.  It is here we see sacrifice atoning for sin.  The biggest difference, however, is that intentionally these sacrifices were not human ones.  Israel existed at a time when sins were atoned in other cultures by human sacrifices.  Somebody had to be killed in order to appease the gods.  Israel's laws changed that.  By sacrificing an animal you eliminate the need for a human sacrifice.  You take a loss...but not in human blood.

Details aside, though we realize through this reading that forgiveness is costly.  Very costly in fact.  The consequences for sinning against God and against each other, even though unintentional, still remain.  Someone must suffer the consequences of sin!  Someone must suffer.

Though very few Christians read these passages as anything significant, we still believe the world view they assert.  We still think that forgiveness is costly...not to us so much but to God, to Jesus the Christ.  In Christian thought, Jesus ransoms us from sin, death, and the devil with his blood.  He is lamb of God sacrificed for the sake of the world.  Despite our sweamishness at these passages, the sacrificial system itself remains intact for Christians...animals have just been replaced by Jesus Christ himself.

Though we'd like to think we can get rid of these passages and avoid them, truth is these passages make up the heart of much of Christian theology.  Getting rid of them would rid us of the need for a sacrifice for sin and, in many minds, the need for Christ himself.  Christ comes to forgive our sins through his blood on the cross.  That image is straight out of this text.

But, as Christians, we must realize too that forgiveness doesn't stop with God either.  Though God may have forgiven us, we still must pay the consequences of our sin and that is often very difficult.  It requires us to repent to others and humble ourselves in their presence.  It requires, at times, a sacrifice of time and even resources to truly say "I'm sorry."  It requires a price, smaller than the price paid by God, but a price nevertheless.

God help me forgive others as freely as you forgave me.  Give me strength to pay the cost of repentance, even as you paid for my sins.  Amen.