Luke 17:3 So watch yourselves. If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them.
We often have a certain picture in our head that doesn’t completely match reality. An example might be helpful. A Catholic hymn from 1870 begins with these words: “Infant Jesus, meek and mild.” This is often the only image people have about Jesus, the little baby in the manger at Christmas time. They might know something about the Sermon on the Mount, but little more.
But a fuller picture of Jesus is presented in the Scriptures that will challenge even the best of us. And Luke has a way of presenting this fuller picture, a picture that offends in new ways, better than the other Gospel writers. His purpose was different from the other writers, and part of that difference was to present some of the very difficult demands that Jesus made on His followers.
Our text today deals with something we have all had to deal with in our lives. Offense happens. Sin is present. What are we supposed to do when it happens?
The picture painted by society at large these days is that no offense should happen in interpersonal discourse. No one should be offended. No one should feel like their toes get stepped on when other people talk. There should be no “micro-aggressions” happening, and the list of these grows longer by the day.
But Luke paints a different picture. When sin happens, Luke tells us to rebuke the offender. What! Rebuke seems harsh. Are you sure Jesus didn’t mean coddle, excuse, or ignore? Those would be much easier. Rebuking is a very difficult action to take, and I think especially today where every judgment gets labeled “racist.”
Jesus would never have survived if He lived today. He would be killed. Oh, I guess they didn’t like Him back then any better, did they. His words were just as offensive then, to their ears as they are to ours.
So, maybe we need to do another translation and remove all the offensive lines. (Just kidding!) And you thought rebuking was difficult, try the next line. When someone repents…. What!? Repentance would mean an acknowledgment of wrong, and nothing is wrong today. “I was born this way.” “That’s just who I am.” “That’s just the authentic me.”
There are things that need to be rebuked and for which repentance is the proper response. Talk about offensive, in your face teaching. But it doesn’t stop there. Jesus tells us that if they repent, truly change their behavior and attitude, then we are to forgive them.
Now wait a minute! This is personal. It is not so easy to forgive when someone sins against you. Let them steal from a big, bad corporation, but not from me. Let them malign the person far away and disconnected from their lives in a post on social media, but don’t let them tell me to my face. Let them ‘cancel’ others, but don’t let them not invite me to their birthday party.
You see, forgiveness is the hard thing to do. When repentance happens, and that is a prerequisite to Biblical forgiveness, then it is our job to forgive. We can’t hold the prior offense against the other person. We must leave it in the past, just as the LORD has left it in the past. Repentance is the key.
But Jesus makes it even harder in the following verses. If they sin and repent seven times in a day, it is our job to forgive. I’m not really sure how you sin and repent that many times in a day, but that is another topic. How truly repentant can you be if you repeat the same sin after real repentance on the same day, let alone seven times?
There might be some moments today that require us to rebuke someone who has sinned against us. They were aware that it was sin, and they did it anyway against you. We are talking interpersonal sins, sins between people, sins done to others.
But all discipline, and rebuke is just one avenue of discipline, has the end goal of repentance and return to right relationship with God and with others. And when we rebuke, be ready with forgiveness in hand. Don’t let the results of their sin fester in you. Be ready to forgive when you see genuine repentance.
The Arnold Journey 