...Oh to Grace How Great a Debtor...

In my blog "Time between Times" I referenced the fact that we (myself and all my friends my own age) are living in that phase of our lives where new beginnings are being forged - friend's getting married, having kids, buying houses, etc. - but at the same time endings are a reality as well - older family members passing away, etc. Thus we are in between two times - the time of beginnings and the time of endings.

The background of that blog was the weekend where I went away to a good friend of mine's wedding - a time of great beauty and vibrancy - only to return home and be informed of an old family friend's death. One more reminder of my feet being in two places at once. The elderly family friend who passed away was not some one who I was very close to but he knew me since I was born and he was close to some others in my family.

The weekend when all this occurred I dropped by my grandparents house to pick up some mail and ran into my grandfather who was in the garage. What was supposed to be a quick stop turned into an hour long conversation as I just stoood there and listened as my grandfather told story after story about this man who was no longer with us. A man who my grandfather had employed for over thirty years. A man whose only claim to fame was that he "could do the work of 3 men on a job site" so said my grandfather. An old alchoholic who came into my grandfathers office one day with a crumpled newspaper in his hand inquiring about the job opening for a simple grunt worker - a man who took the job and later became one of the best employees they had and earned some profit sharing. A man who took his profit sharing and moved to Tennessee and bought his own poultry farm only to lose it all in a record heat wave one year and came back to Fort Lauderdale to work the same construction that he had hoped to get away from. The man who lost his wife a few years back and lived in the part of town "on the other side of the tracks" - his creaky wooden house nestled between a Subway and a used car lot.

My grandfather was giving an impromptu eulogy for a man who few would remember - but it seemed right.

The best story went like this:

Lacy was poor. There's no other way to put it. Not only did he lack financial resources all his life but in the twilight of his life even his bodily resources had forsaken him. He was almost entirely blind and deaf, he had lost all of his teeth and could hardly walk. His wife before she died was about the same but tack on a severe case of Alzheimers to the list.
And like many people without resources they had succumbed to the lure of creditors. In fact they had accumulated so much debt they were dragged into court - bankrupt and without a prayer.
And so into the courts my grandfather went with Lacy and his wife - they couldn't afford an attorney and so they went in as they were. When the judge called Lacy up and asked him some questions - Lacy bellowed something back so loudly (since he can't hear himself) and incoherently that the judge was shocked and those few people in the courtroom couldn't help but laugh. The judge obviously realizing Lacy would be of no use asked if he had a wife or family member present. My grandfather had to inform the judge that Lacy's wife was present physically but most of the time didn't know where she was or even her own name due to the severity of her alzheimers.

"So let me get this straight," the judge rumbled, "this couple owes tens of thousands of dollars to the creditors and he can't hear a word I'm saying and she wouldn't even remember any of this?"

"That's right your honor," my grandfather answered on their behalf.

"And they have virtually no recordable income and are both on disability?"

"That's right your honor."

The judge sat in silence surveying the situation.

"I have no choice but to cancel the debt of this couple," the judge ordered.

"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[d] and the other fifty.
42Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
43Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.
46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.
47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
48Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
49The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" (Luke 7)

Are we not all like Lacy?
Standing before the judge deaf, dumb and blind - with a debt far greater than we could ever repay?
Our only hope being the mercy of the Judge?

I love the way the passage ends. Lacy's story is not totally unique. I'm sure there have been other instances of such legal mercy, perhaps even those in Luke 7 had seen or heard of a judge cancelling monetary debt. But who was this man who could cancel spiritual debt?

"Who is this who even forgives sins?"

He is Jesus.