This Monday morning, a quick reflection from Drake Richey on the only place on earth where there lies no unfinished business between debtor and creditor. Richey looks to the Law, and then to Calvary, for the only hope we have against “the debts grown too big and beyond our ability to repay.”
At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he made to his fellow Israelites. He shall not require payment, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.
In 2008, many Americans decided that they would no longer pay their mortgages. Some tried to renegotiate their debts for lower rates and extended schedules and others simply ran from their creditors because the debts had grown too big and beyond their ability to repay.
I can relate. In the summer of 2007, I moved and was unable to sell or rent the condo that I owned in the former city. I could barely afford to keep making payments and was not able to sell the property at a price that would repay the loan. I feared that one month I would not be able to make the required payment and that the bank would take everything that I owned. In my indebtedness, the proclamation of the Lord’s time for cancelling debt is good news to me and all those who are heavy laden.
Jesus’ death on Calvary proclaims that our debts before Him have been cancelled and forgiven. My indebtedness before God far exceeds what I owe to my bank and yet Jesus pays my debt and does not replace it with another heavy requirement. It is to those who are in debt that Jesus says, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:28-30)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY2VD3WzpvY&w=550]
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