“Forgive and Forget”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text is today’s Old Testament Reading from the 31st chapter of
Jeremiah, especially the last verse: “For I will forgive their
wickedness,” declares the Lord, “and will remember their sins no more.” I grew up at Canton, in McPherson County, Kansas. My father
always wanted to be a farmer, and I would have been a farm boy, except I was
born in 1960, and Dad went broke and lost the farm in the drought of ’58.
My grandfather had been in the earthmoving business. Dad started building
township roads with a horse-drawn grader when he was 12 years old. So,
after losing the farm, Dad worked for a few years in the oil fields, and then
returned to the family business, making his living building waterways and
terraces for soil conservation. About 30 years ago Dad was on his grader out in a lonely field when a
man pulled up in a pickup. Thinking he might be the landowner, Dad drove his
grader over to where the pickup was parked. When the man got out, Dad
could see from his beard and his clothing that he was a member of a religious
group, many of whom in that part of Kansas. Dad didn’t recognize who he was, but when he introduced himself, Dad
remembered him as a former grade school classmate. Right off the bat, he
told Dad he had an apology to make. Dad was mystified and couldn’t imagine
what it could possibly be about, because they hadn’t even seen each other in
over 50 years. Then this man proceeded to apologize to my father for
pushing him down on the playground at recess in the fourth grade! My father was flabbergasted! He told the man he couldn’t even
remember such a thing, and he wondered what in the world had prompted him to
come and apologize for it now. It turns out, this man’s farm was failing,
and the leaders of the sect he belonged to told him it must be because of some
sin God was punishing for. The only way to save his farm was to figure out
what this sin might be and make amends for it. So, this poor, misguided
man had searched back through his whole life, and finally concluded that God
must be punishing him for pushing down Leroy Vogts one day on the playground at
recess in the fourth grade. Does God really work that way? Does God keep a carefully recorded
accounting of our sins, just waiting to one day pay us back for the wrong we
have done? “For I will forgive their wickedness, and will remember their sins no
more.” In Jeremiah’s day the sins of the people of Israel were very great
indeed. They rejected the Lord and instead followed false gods. They
rebelled against God’s will and violated his commandments. In our text the
Lord says simply, “They broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them.” But, the Lord promises that he will establish a new covenant:
“This time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the
covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them
out of Egypt.” The old covenant of Mt. Sinai dictated that man must be punished for his
sins. But, the Lord promises that he will establish a new covenant, a covenant
not of Mt. Sinai, but of Mt. Calvary, a covenant of forgiveness: “This is the
covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the
Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man
teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they
will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness, and will remember their sins no more.” This is a prophecy of the new covenant established by Jesus Christ.
In this prophecy, Israel represents the Church, all those who trust in Christ.
The writing of God’s word on the heart represents the Holy Spirit bringing us to
faith in Christ. And knowing the Lord represents continuing steadfast in
faith. So, in these words of prophecy, Jeremiah is describing the new
covenant established by Jesus Christ. And what is the basis for, the
foundation of, this new covenant? Divine forgiveness: “For I will forgive
their wickedness, and will remember their sins no more.” At the Last Supper, when he instituted the Sacrament of Holy Communion,
Jesus said, “This is my blood of the new covenant, shed for you, for the
forgiveness of sins.” The blood of Jesus Christ is what gives the new
covenant its power. You see, a covenant is a promise, and the new
covenant, prophesied by Jeremiah, is God’s promise to you that your sins are
paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. As St. Paul says in Ephesians, “In
him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Because of the blood-sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, all your
sins are forgiven. There are so many beautiful Bible verses that testify
to the forgiving power of Jesus’ blood. First John: “The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from every
sin.” Revelation: “He loved us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” Romans: “God presented him as sacrifice of atonement, through faith in
his blood . . . We have been justified by his blood.” Colossians: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
and through him to reconcile to himself all things . . . by making peace through
his blood, shed on the cross.” And First Peter: “You were redeemed . . . with the precious blood of
Christ.” Jesus shed his blood to pay for your sin. Because Jesus died for
you, God forgives all your sins. God forgives and forgets. “For I
will forgive their wickedness, and will remember their sins no more.” God
forgives your wickedness and remembers your sins no more. As Psalm 130
says, “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?
But, with you there is forgiveness.” God does not even keep a record of
your sins, because your debt has all been paid by the blood-sacrifice of his
Son. God forgives and forgets. As the Lord says in Isaiah, “I am he
who blots out your transgression, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no
more.” Some people have a photographic memory, they can instantly remember
entire books. When I was in college there was a professor who had
memorized the entire Bible and could instantly quote any chapter and verse you
request. God, of course, has a perfect memory, but he chooses to forget your
sins, for his own sake, because all your sins have been blotted out by the blood
of Jesus Christ. If you were to stand before the Lord right now and ask
him to tell you all your sins, he would say simply, “I remember your sins no
more.” God forgives and forgets. Psalm 103 puts it this way: “The Lord
is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. He
will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat
us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as
high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who
revere him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our
transgressions from us.” What about that misguided man my father met? Was his farm really
failing because he pushed my father down on the playground at recess in the
fourth grade? Or, maybe there was some other sin God was punishing him
for? And is that why my Dad lost his farm—a punishment from God? For non-Christians, it is possible that their troubles might be a
punishment from God—but still with a loving purpose, to bring them to
repentance. But, that possibility doesn’t even apply to you.
Because, for all who trust in Jesus Christ, like that man, and my father, and
you, and me, God doesn’t work that anymore. For the sake of his Son
Jesus Christ, God forgives and forgets. “For I will forgive their
wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” When bad things happen in your life and you are tempted to wonder “Is
God punishing me?” look to the cross, see all your sins laid upon your Savior,
fully paid for in your place. That’s what Jesus meant when he cried out
from the cross, “It is finished!” Your troubles can’t be a punishment from
God, because there simply is no punishment left for you to suffer. “It is
finished!” by Jesus’ suffering and death upon the cross. As Isaiah says,
“The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.” “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no
more.” God forgives and forgets. Now what about you? Do you
remember the parable Jesus told about the servant who was forgiven a great debt
by his master, but then that same servant refused to forgive a small debt of one
of his fellow servants? Is that a parable about you? The great debt of your sin is all forgiven, but do you still seek
revenge and bear a grudge? St. John says, “This is how God showed his love
for us: He sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we would live through
him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent
his Son as an atoning sacrifice which pays for our sins. Beloved, if God
loves so us, we ought also love one another.” God forgives and forgets. Now what about you? Remember how
Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we
forgive those who trespass against us.” Who is it that has trespassed
against you? What are the grudges you are bearing? What are the sins
against you that you have refused to forgive? God forgives and forgets. Now what about you? St. Paul says in
Ephesians, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just
as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God.” Be an imitator
of God—forgive and forget. As St. Peter says, “Christ suffered for you,
leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” Follow the
example of Jesus, who pleaded for forgiveness for his enemies even as he was
nailed to the cross: “Father, forgive them.” God forgives and forgets. Now what about you? St. Paul says
in Colossians, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may
have against one other. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” “Forgive
as the Lord forgave you.” That means you will forgive completely,
unconditionally, just as the Lord forgave you. “Forgive as the Lord
forgave you.” That means you will not keep a record of wrongs and will
remember the sins against you no more, just as the Lord forgave you.
“Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” That means you will forgive and forget,
just as the Lord forgave you. Like that misguided man my father met, sometimes we get the mistaken
notion that God keeps a carefully recorded accounting of our sins, just waiting
to pay us back for the wrong we have done. But, that is absolutely wrong.
God doesn’t work that way. Because of Jesus’ blood-sacrifice for you on
the cross, God forgives and forgets all your sins. “For I will forgive
their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” God forgives and forgets. Now what about you? “Do not seek
revenge or bear a grudge.” “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
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