Debt Free

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.” (Luke 11:1-4)

We pray to forgive everyone in debt to us.  Forgiving debts is quite a challenge, yet this version of the “Our Father” has us do just that.  “What do you owe me?”, we might ask those from whom we expect some payment.  Once answered, our response must be: “There is nothing to pay back. I forgive your debt.”  

This is all quite a bit different from “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  Both versions are important.  When we hold someone in our debt, they are beholden to us, and they are in our power to some extent, perhaps to a large extent.  

When someone asks for our forgiveness because they "trespassed" against us, they owe us a debt, so to speak.  We have power over them.  By forgiving, we make the debt go away.  They are no longer in our power; we set them free.

Deacon David Pierce