Our present society is a society that is based on the rationale of judgement. If we take someone to court we expect a judgement to be handed down to us. If we take someone to task about a wrong doing we expect that there is some form of judgement to be handed down. If we malign someone with intent that intent is surely to bring the community's judgement upon that person. Our goal is to ensure that our petty squabbles are finalised with someone else's judgement and thus allowing us to move forward with our lives not caring about the other only about the fact that they got their just deserves. Often this seems to be the case even in the Hebrew scriptures that God passes final judgement rather than some form of forgiveness (Ex. 14:19-31). Is this solely the case when we look at this passage? The Egyptians have done wrong in the sight of the Lord and have refused God's openness and freedom only seeing the dictates of pharaoh. Dictates that constrain and curtail the freedom that comes from God.
Yet, in some allegorical way at looking at the Red Sea passage we can see it not as retribution on the Egyptians but rather a removal of the past guilt and excess that the Israelites had accrued during their time in Egypt. The washing away of their past is a symbolic understanding that is celebrated on the shores of the Red Sea by the women, immediately following on from this reading in Exodus. The parable from Matthew (Matt. 18:21-35) seems to instantiate this powerful supremacy of God with a suggestion that God's retribution is still alive and well in the eschaton, if we do not follow God's offer of redemption through forgiveness. This is the power of the bully in the playground who loses face and requires violence to show their strength. It reflects our own judgemental attitudes when it comes to the actions of the other. The passage from Romans asks us "Who are you to pass judgement on someone else's servant?" (Rom. 14:4). God has accepted each person for who they are not for who we think they are. It is not our role to fall into the habit of upholding our power by judging others and utilising our power to condemn whether they have acted in a manner that is contrary to what we believe to be God's purposes.
We do not enter into the cycle or circle of forgiveness as more often then not we seek judgement on those who have created the issue for us. In the parable the pain of bearing a debt of such worth and being allowed to let it go is too much for the servant as he attempts to retrieve his own self pity by passing judgement on those that are unable to fend for themselves. Michael Lapsley reminds us that we need to turn to our own frameworks or faith to find healing and a response to hurt. Often it is not only the other that we need to blame but also ourselves who are guilty. We blame all manner of outside influences and people rather than looking first to ourselves, even as Christians, and forgiving our own faults that may have given arise to the situation in which we seek judgement. Our own failings may be a remnant of our own histories that we fail to acknowledge and leave in the past or they may be the result of an in built prejudice gifted to us from our community and our growth into adulthood. No matter which it is these chains also need to be broken through seeking our own forgiveness before we can make the amends that is required to form community in the present.
God's power comes from forgiveness and the setting of things into right order without the need to resort to violence as love is not violent in nature. We need to avoid the trap of judgement and enter the cycle of forgiveness. The first step on that cycle is to forgive ourselves and to understand that it is often our own faults that bring about the trap of judgement rather than faults in others. By embracing the presence of God's love in our hearts we are able to embrace the love of the other that is inherent in our faith journey. In taking that step and opening our arms to the other we allow God's love to flow and improve the community to which we belong. We also decrease the animosity of the other within the community as they are not judged but rather welcomed and listened to by those around them so that their woes and our woes are eased in forgiveness.
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