3rd Sunday of Easter
April 25, 2004
John 21:15-19.

^21:15When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs."
¹⁶A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep."
¹⁷He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.
¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, "Follow me." (NRS).

Forgive and Forget!

  During the years Jesus spent with the 12 disciples, Peter enjoyed a degree of supremacy among the twelve. He was one of the first ones called to follow Jesus. He, James and John formed an inner group of three among the twelve who got to see some special things. Only those three witnessed the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the transfiguration. Later, those three were the ones Jesus asked to pray with him in Gethsemane. But Peter was the first one to confess that Jesus was the Messiah, to which Jesus responded, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:17-19). It sure seemed like Peter was the leader of the disciples.

  But then, at Jesus’ trial, Peter lied and denied knowing him three times. How do you suppose the rest of the disciples felt about that? Could they or should they just forget Peter’s sin? What was his status now with Jesus and the rest of them?

  250 years later, just after 300 A.D., there was a huge controversy in the Church. For the sake of political unity in the Roman Emperors required all people to burn incense before a statue of the emperor. This was a sign of loyalty to the Empire, like the oath of allegiance required for citizenship today. Of course, most Christians considered it a form of idolatry and refused to do this.

  As a result, there were occasional persecutions of Christians. The worst came under the emperor Diocletian in the year 303. He decreed “the destruction of all Christian churches, the burning of Christian books, the dissolution of Christian congregations, the confiscation of their property, the exclusion of Christians from public office, and the punishment of death for Christians detected in religious assembly.” (Durant, p. 651). Like Peter, many Christians gave in to fear. In fact, some bishops—i.e., regional church leaders—handed over their copies of the Scriptures to avoid death. That was unthinkable! What was the Church to do? Could these bishops repent, be forgiven and go on as bishops? One bishop named Donatus said no way! He “insisted that Christian bishops who had surrendered the Scriptures to the pagan police during the persecutions had forfeited their office and powers; that baptisms or ordinations performed by such bishops were null and void . . .” (Durant, p 658). Many agreed with him and separated from the rest of the Church and started the Donatist controversy.

  Today we sometimes hear of a pastor being removed from office because of getting a divorce or teaching false doctrine. Can such a man repent and still be a pastor? Or is he unfit for and excluded from office? What about any other Christian who commits a major offence? Is there forgiveness that would allow such a person to be reinstated? Or must we forever avoid him?

  Let’s go back to Peter. We don’t know how the other disciples felt about Peter, but we do know what Jesus said and did. ¹⁵When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." ¹⁶A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep." ¹⁷He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.

  In the words of a well-know Bible scholar, “There can be little doubt but that the whole scene is meant to show us Peter as completely restored to his position of leadership. He has three times denied his Lord. Now he has three times affirmed his love for Him, and three times he has been commissioned to care for the flock. This must have had the effect on the others of a demonstration that, whatever had been the mistakes of the past, Jesus was restoring Peter to a place of trust.” (Morris, John, p. 875).

  To put this in perspective, Jesus forgave Peter and forgot it! But how can this be? Can he simply disregard the fact that Peter publicly denied knowing him three times just to save his own skin? Didn’t Jesus say that whoever denies him before others he would also deny that person before his father in heaven? Should Donatus have disregarded the fact that bishops had surrendered the Word of God to pagans to be burned? Should we let a man continue to be a pastor after divorcing and remarrying?

  In one sense, no. No, we can’t simply act as if these things never happened and are of no consequence. These are major sins that affect many people. They must be dealt with. And so they were. Jesus’ conversation with Peter took place when Jesus appeared to his disciples for the third time after his resurrection. That changes everything! Jesus can freely reinstate Peter and commission him to feed his lambs because he was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification, (Romans 4:25). The penalty for Peter’s cowardice and betrayal was death. So Jesus died for him. The penalty for all those fourth century bishops who gave the Scriptures to pagans to burn was death. So Jesus died for them. The penalty for unfaithful, modern day clergy who have failed to keep their vows is death. So Jesus died for them too.

  Jesus forgives sin! That’s what his resurrection means, that we are forgiven. But what, I think, is the more amazing thing for us, is that he forgets this forgiven sin! That doesn’t mean that the event was erased from his memory. It means rather that the event in question has been removed from consideration in the present. It is no longer used against the person in any way. It’s like when a judge says that a remark made in court must be stricken from the record and that the jury cannot use it to determine its verdict. In that sense, Jesus forgave and forgot Peter’s sin. His utter failure no longer mattered. In the same way, Jesus forgives and forgets your sin. It is forgiven and stricken from the record. Jesus will not bring it up again to somehow use it against you. You might, but he will not!

  We have such a hard time forgetting, don’t we? We often say that we can forgive something but we can never forget it. That is, we can’t strike that sin from the record so that it no longer matters. We can never trust that person again! We keep a wary eye on the one who offended us; we make sure he or she never gets the opportunity to do it again. Maybe we even bar that person from the office he had before. Now I’m not saying, for example, that there may not be other reasons for telling a man that he can no longer be a pastor. But if the real reason is that we can forgive but cannot forget, is that really forgiveness? Who’s example are we following there?

  This is how we know how great the love of God is for us. He constantly does what we rarely manage: he forgives and forgets! He forgives us and then trusts us to go on. He says, Go and sin no more. (John 8:11). We’d rather forget the “go” part and just say, “Sin no more!”

  In other words, we often withhold genuine forgiveness and so lose the power of forgiveness. Remember Jesus’ first question to Peter? "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" Why would Peter love him more than the other disciples? Because he had been forgiven more! Remember Paul’s comments to the Corinthians? I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:9). Remember Jesus’ conversation with Simon the Pharisee when the “sinful” woman poured perfume on his feet and wiped them with her hair? “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more”" Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” (Luke 7:41).

  How often, by refusing to forget, do we shackle forgiven sinners so that they cannot express the great love they now have? What would have happened if Jesus had forgiven Peter and Paul but not forgotten their sins? What if they had not been apostles? Without them there would be very little left of the book of Acts! Without them, maybe you and I would be Druids today instead of Christians! Jesus really meant what he said about being born again and being renewed and transformed by the Holy Spirit. The power of God is not shackled by human sin. He renewed Peter and reinstated him to his position as apostle. He took Saul the persecutor of the church and turned him into Paul, the greatest of the apostles. God is not in the business of finding sinners and locking them up. He gives them new life and turns them loose!

  That is what we must learn to do, to forgive and forget so that new life can come forth. Yes it presupposes repentance. We can hardly expect a new fervent love from someone who has not repented, who is not really sorry for his sin. We are not told to forgive such a person. In fact we are told to retain his sin, to let him know that his sin is not forgiven as long as he refuses to repent. But to the one who repents—like Peter who wept bitterly after denying Christ and jumped out of the boat to get to shore to greet Jesus—we must forgive and forget.

  Do you realize that God is here giving us a chance for new life? He isn’t like Santa Claus making his list and checking it twice to see if we’ve been naughty or nice so that he can determine what gifts we deserve. He doesn’t hold our sins against us and limit what we can do because we might sin again. He forgives and forgets! And he’s telling us to do the same, to follow him. How many controversies or schisms do we have in the Church or in our families because we cannot forget someone’s sin? Whom have we shackled because we can’t forget his or her sin? What could he or she do in God’s kingdom, in this congregation, in your family if we would only trust, if we could only forgive and forget?

  Do you have something you need to forget? May God give you the strength so to do!