Chapter 31. Forgiving Others. He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven, for everyone has need to be forgiven. George Herbert. No prayers can be heard which do not come from a forgiving heart. J. C. Ryle. If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:15. Wilbert Flintwinch had worked at Pembroke's department store for over thirty years.
He began as a sales clerk and worked his way up to overseeing the men's clothing department. He had over twenty employees who worked under him, and he had the power to hire and fire these employees. One morning, Wilbert received a note that Henry Pembroke, the owner, wanted to see him. As Wilbert walked to Mr. Pembroke's office, he thought about his many experiences with the company over the years, some happy, some sad. Wilbert hoped that perhaps he was about to receive a promotion.
On the other hand, there was the dark secret. Had Mr. Pembroke discovered it? When Wilbert entered Mr. Pembroke's office, the store manager was there as well. After exchanging greetings and making some small talk, Mr. Pembroke invited Wilbert to sit down. "I'll get right to the point," Flintwinch, he said with a grim face. "We've discovered that you've been stealing from the company for years, and—" "There must be some mistake," Wilbert interrupted. "There's no mistake," Mr. Pembroke continued.
"You've been entering phony refunds on the cash register and pocketing the money." "Why? That's absurd!" Wilbert protested. "I love my job here, and I'm well paid. I have no reason to steal from the company. Show me one of these phony refunds you're talking about." Mr. Pembroke reached across the desk and handed one of the receipts to Wilbert. After perusing it, Wilbert calmly said, "This shows the refund was given by an employee with the number 107863. That's not my employee ID number.
I knew there was some mistake." "I know it's not your ID number," Mr. Pembroke replied curtly. "It belongs to a Debbie Rawlings. However, after some checking, I've learned that no such person works here. It's a phony setup." "Well, why accuse me?" Wilbert asked in feigned surprise. "At first, we didn't," Mr. Pembroke explained. "We checked the records for refunds from employee number 107863 over the years, and we found that they go back nearly ten years.
During this time, nearly a million dollars in fake refunds have been given by this fictitious employee." "I still don't see why this has anything to do with me," Wilbert contended, fighting to remain calm. "Actually, Flintwinch, we probably would have never connected these thefts to you," Mr. Pembroke stated. "But you made one fatal slip. A refund from 107863 was issued at 8:37 a.m. last Thursday. This was before the store had even opened.
So we checked the security cameras, and they show you punching keys on the cash register and taking out cash at 8:37 a.m. that day." With those words, Mr. Pembroke reached for the telephone. "No," Wilbert protested. "Please don't call the police. I don't want to go to jail." "Well, you should have thought of that before you started stealing from us." "Please, please forgive me," Wilbert wailed, throwing himself on Mr. Pembroke's desk. "I have absolutely no excuse.
You've treated me so well through the years, and this is how I repaid you. I deserve no mercy. But think of my wife and children. I'm their sole support. I deserve to be punished, but they don't." Wilbert continued crying and pleading for nearly fifteen minutes. Finally, Mr. Pembroke relented. "Okay, okay. If you return the money, I won't say anything to the police." "But I don't have the money. I've already spent it." "What? You've spent a million dollars?
How?" "Well," Wilbert explained, "there have been vacations, summer camp for the children, medical bills, remodeling." "Well then, I'm sorry," Mr. Pembroke interrupted. "You'll just have to sweat it out in prison." "No!" Wilbert cried out in desperation. "Please forgive me. Please forgive me." This new round of pleas continued for another ten minutes or so. Finally, Mr. Pembroke relented. "All right, you don't deserve it, but I'm going to let you go free.
I just don't want to see your disgusting face around here ever again. We'll mail you your final paycheck." "Oh, thank you. Thank you," Wilbert cried out with tears of joy. "You're the most wonderful man in the world." "You mean the biggest sucker in the world," Mr. Pembroke corrected him. "All right, get going." "Oh, one last thing, Mr. Pembroke," Wilbert interjected. "I know I have no right to ask this, but please let me keep my job.
My family depends upon this income, and with the recession on right now, I don't know how I could ever get another job. You can be sure I'll never do anything dishonest again. Not only that, but if you let me keep my job, I'll work twice as hard as ever. I can guarantee you that Pembroke's will get back its million dollars and increase sales over the next few years." Once again, the men talked back and forth, Wilbert pleading and Mr. Pembroke saying no. Finally, Mr. Pembroke relented.
"I can't believe I'm doing this, but okay. You can keep your job. Now get out of my office before I change my mind." Wilbert bounded down the stairs in relief, and he was true to his word. He jumped in and helped various salespeople with customers. He talked up Pembroke's department store with everyone he could. On the commuter train every morning and evening, he told people around him what a wonderful guy Mr. Pembroke is and what a great store he runs. However, about two weeks after his meeting with Mr.
Pembroke, Wilbert noticed something in the shirt pocket of one of his employees, Fernando Rodriguez. Wilbert didn't say anything about it, but when Fernando's shift ended, Wilbert followed him out to his car. "Oh, Mr. Flintwinch, I didn't see you," Fernando said, startled. "What are you doing here?" Ignoring his question, Wilbert glared at Fernando and coldly demanded, "What's that in your shirt pocket, Rodriguez?" "My shirt pocket?" Fernando responded with a puzzled look.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of sugar. "You mean this?" "That's exactly what I mean," Wilbert fired back with a scowl. "I'm sure you know we have a zero tolerance policy here on employee thefts. You took that sugar from the break room, didn't you?" "Why, I guess so. But thefts? This? I didn't even realize it was there. I usually take two packs of sugar to add to my coffee.
Today, after I added the first pack, Bob came over to my table to talk, and I totally forgot to pour in the second pack." "Do you expect me to believe that baloney?" Wilbert shot back. "This employee theft has got to stop, and the only way to kill it is with a firm, no-exceptions policy. In short, you're fired, Rodriguez." "But Mr. Flintwinch, why would I want to steal a pack of sugar? We've got lots of sugar at home." "I'm sure you do," Wilbert replied coldly. "All in little white packets.
How long have you been stealing sugar from the company, Rodriguez? Years and years, I can guess." Fernando stared at Wilbert in disbelief. "But I tell you, Mr. Flintwinch, this was totally unintentional. Surely you wouldn't fire someone over a pack of sugar. Here, take it back," he said, offering the pack to Wilbert. Wilbert jerked back his hands. "Are you trying to bribe me?" he objected. "I don't want your stolen goods. Just get out of here. I don't ever want to see you again.
We'll mail you your final paycheck." "But Mr. Flintwinch, you can't do this," Fernando pleaded. "My family depends upon this income, and with the recession on right now, I don't know how I could get another job. Please, please." "You should have thought about that before you stole from the company," Wilbert replied stonily. With that, he turned his back and returned to the store. Too implausible. You're no doubt thinking, "That could never happen in real life." "Oh, but it does.
In fact, you've probably seen Wilbert Flintwinch many times. Some of us may have seen him just this morning when we looked in the mirror." Undoubtedly, you recognize the story about Wilbert Flintwinch as a modern version of Jesus' parable of the unmerciful servant. Each of us becomes a Wilbert Flintwinch when we refuse to forgive our fellow man. If this story sounds absurd, it is. It's exactly how absurdly and how wickedly we act when we refuse to forgive others.
Whatever others have done to us is like taking a pack of sugar in comparison to what we've done to God. No one on earth would be as forgiving as Mr. Pembroke. Yet there is one who is even more forgiving. Conditional forgiveness. One of the things that should be explained to every new Christian, but almost never is, is that God's forgiveness is conditional. In fact, not only do preachers fail to tell new converts this essential truth, they usually proclaim the exact opposite: that God's forgiveness is unconditional.
Preachers assure their listeners that if they only pray the sinner's prayer and invite Jesus into their hearts, then every past and future sin is unconditionally and permanently forgiven. However, those living the kingdom life don't rely on what preachers and commentators say. They trust in what Jesus says. In the parable of the unmerciful servant, Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus tells of a servant who owed the king an enormous sum, over a million dollars.
When the servant pleaded that he could not pay what he owed and begged for mercy, the king forgave him the entire debt. Yet that same servant went out and refused to forgive the tiny amount that a fellow servant owed him. Remember how the parable ends? "Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.
Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.'" Matthew 18:32-35. In this parable, Jesus reveals that when God forgives us, it's conditional. The king forgave the servant all of his debt.
Yet when the servant refused to forgive the debt owed to him by a fellow servant, the king rescinded his original forgiveness and reinstated the debt. Just in case we didn't get the point of the parable, Jesus drives it home in the end. "So my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses." Matthew 18:35. When he gave us the Lord's Prayer, Jesus only authorized us to ask for forgiveness from God to the extent that we forgive our debtors.
Matthew 6:12. He went on to say, "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Matthew 6:14-15. James reinforces what Jesus teaches. "For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy." James 2:13. So there's no point in even imagining that we're living a kingdom life if we are unmerciful and unforgiving.
When Jesus denounced the Pharisees for "straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel," he pointed out that they had neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. Matthew 23:23-24. So we can proclaim to the whole world how wonderful God's mercy is. We can sing how amazing his grace is. Yet all of our glorious words are drowned out by our actions when we don't forgive others. It's not that we're like Wilbert Flintwinch. It's that we are Wilbert Flintwinch.
Can anybody imagine for a moment that God would want to spend eternity in company with a Wilbert Flintwinch?