By Norman H. Patterson Jr.
I think the last bastion of human surrender is our need to be right. It is an inherent need we all share. We not only want to be right, but we also want to prove to God and everyone else precisely why we are right.
We all have a fundamental sense of justice. Nothing infuriates a human being more than injustice, especially against ourselves. Something as simple as someone cutting us off in traffic or finding out someone talked about us behind our back can incite rage within us. We are walking courtrooms, complete with court reporter, bailiff, lawyer, judge, jury, and executioner.
The Bible uses an interesting term, "righteousness." The word "right" is at the heart of this word. Scripturally speaking, there are two forms of righteousness, our own or God's. What I have been describing is personal righteousness. We not only want to prove to ourselves and everybody else that we are right, but we also want to prove it to God as well.
Our need to be right is the last obstacle keeping us from experiencing true salvation. Isn't forgiveness the giving up our need to prove that we are right? Jesus revealed this obstacle in His prayer,
“Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
To drive this home, Jesus told a parable in Matthew 18:23-35. It's about a servant who owed a king more than he could possibly pay. The king had the right to recover his debt by selling the man, his family, and all his possessions.
The man fell on his knees and begged for mercy. The king had compassion on him by forgiving this man's unpayable debt. The king transcended humanity’s need to be right. He operated out of a higher, more noble law; the law of love.
That's not the end of the story. The man in this parable acted on his need to be right. As soon as he left, he searched for and found a fellow servant who owed him a nominal amount of money. We expect the man to give the same compassion that he was shown.
The parable takes an unexpected turn. Instead of showing mercy, the man choked his fellow servant and demanded payment on the spot. It was his right. And even though the fellow servant begged for mercy, the court backed the man and threw the servant into prison until the debt was paid.
The parable goes on to say that when the king heard what the man did he said to him,
‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.
Jesus concluded the parable by saying,
So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.
In other words, give up your need to be right!
I think about the people who have wronged me. I can lay out a case showing why I was right and why they were wrong. I can tell you my opinion of what a reasonable punishment would be. From time to time, I do this very thing. I make my case before anyone who will listen. Sometimes a sense of justice rises up inside of me and boils over into anger. Left unchecked, I become overwhelmed with my need to be right.
I can feed this need or I can show the same mercy that has been shown to me. So I pause and meditate on the Cross of Jesus Christ. I see the innocent Man imprisoned on the wooden beams and I realize that I am the one who deserves to be suffering this excruciating sentence. And it comes home to me, that He gave up His need to be right so I can do the same, and in doing the same I am released from my own prison and I open the door for my fellow prisoners to be released as well. What they do with their liberty is not my responsibility, but I know that, for my part, no one is going to be punished because of my need to be right.
