The Gospel for Friday of the first week of Lent is taken from Matthew 5th, chapter 26. Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you, unless your righteousness surpassed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, you shall not kill. And whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever says to his brother Raca will be answerable to the Sanhedrin.

And whoever says, you fool, will be liable to the fire of Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there recall that your brother has anything against you. Leave your gift there at the altar. Go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison.

And men, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penn. Jesus had such a hard time with the judgment against him from the scribes and the Pharisees, and he’s warning his disciples that they should not ever fall into the trap of judgment against someone. It’s like he’s saying, you have to understand that the kingdom of God is about a flow of energy that goes between God in Jesus to other people. And when that is not a loving, forgiving, nurturing presence, the kingdom cannot happen. So whether you’ve offended someone or someone’s offended you, whatever is causing division among you, before you can truly be a worshiper of God, you need to make peace with everyone. Please pause and reflect upon these images.

And then I will close with a prayer. Foreign closing prayer. Father, one might say that forgiveness is one of the major teachings that we have coming from the lips of Jesus. It is the mark of whether or not we are in the kingdom of God. Bless us with awareness of that and motivate us perhaps by the very selfish notion that we would want to be treated better. Why do we treat someone in a way that is less than we would want?

It’s one of the key teachings of the kingdom, and we need to follow it. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.