There is a silly song by Irving Berlin that tells the story of a small business owner on his deathbed. The first verse has the doctor speaking of the imminent doom of the old man. So, since time is so short, the son is called and instructed by his father to fulfil his dying wish; so he can die with a smile on his face. He tells his son that he must go out and collect all the outstanding debts owed to him. The listener is expecting tales of huge amounts, but instead the boy is given a small personal list of names of fellow businesses owing paltry sums—starting with: “Cohen owes me ninety-seven dollars, and it’s up to you to see that Cohen pays.” The second verse finds the old man miraculously alive and extremely well. When asked by everyone who knew how sick he had been how he recovered, he answered: “Cohen owed me ninety-seven dollars, and my son went out and made poor Cohen pay.” Have you ever wondered why in the King James the Lord’s prayer reads: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Mt.6:12)? It is in fact an exact translation. People generally don’t think of their many sins as being an ever-increasing mountain of debts before God. But that is exactly what they are. Each soul is under obligation to keep God’s laws, thus our sin is an unfulfilled obligation before God. The surprise is that people scoff at the idea of being in sin-debt to God, but have a clear idea of the sin-debt owed to themselves by others. That is why our prayer to God: “Forgive us our debts,” must be preceded by forgiving those sin-debts against us. If not, we have set the limits of God’s forgiveness: “as we forgive our debtors.” Mercy begets mercy!
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