We can give thanks for Jesus’ tender honesty in the Gospel lesson for the weekend. It is a rather famous moment when Jesus acknowledges that we will have disagreements and broken relationships. There is a way toward reconciliation and the restoration of joy in our lives. This section in Matthew’s Gospel is even the paradigm offered in most church constitutions for how to tend congregational conflict.
Jesus’ teaching picks up immediately after he tells the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine, finding the one, and rejoicing. Jesus is all about seeking the lost, restoring, and rejoicing. Jesus is tender and honest about the reality that we are going to have disagreements and our relationships will break. We will be lost, and we need a way to be led back into relationship and have our joy restored.
Jesus offers a process: begin with the person who has hurt you, and if you are not listened to, then bring along one or two people to help the process. If you are still not listened to, then bring the whole community. Within each step is the chance for clarity, needed course correction, reconciliation, and joyful healing. If the person refuses even the whole community, then Jesus’ honesty turns to a tender sorrow because of separation and naming how unreconciled harm is carried even into heaven. Yet, Jesus is present where two or three gather, a presence not dependent on harmony but on an openness for the ways of tender honesty and forgiveness.
Most likely you have been on both sides of this, as the one harmed and the one who caused the harm. We often forget the vulnerability, fear, and sorrow on both sides. The community also grieves; all ninety-nine wait for the one to be restored to community. Thankfully, it is a tender and honest Jesus who cares for us on both sides of the hard work of reconciliation and restoration.
Yours in Christ Jesus,
Pastor Peter