Don't hold it against them

 2 Timothy 4:16-17

At my first defense no one appeared on my behalf,

but everyone deserted me.

May it not be held against them!

But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength,

so that through me the proclamation might be completed

and all the Gentiles might hear it.

I’ve worked with the grieving, the dying, and the addicted, and so when I was reading the daily mass readings today the above passage stood out to me in a big way for many reason I’ll write here.  In my opinion, 2 Timothy-the last of St. Pauls Epistles- is probably one of his more important letters.  We tend to save what we think is most important for the last.  Before you leave the babysitter, you remind them where the emergency contacts are, and before you leave for a long trip or some surgery you tend to try to say the most important things you want the people to remember.  As I read this letter, I see a lot of that reflected in St. Paul’s writings.  He seems to be summing up the life and body of work he’s done in Christ, while leaving as many instructions for the church he is leaving behind as he can, the ones he feels are the most important for people to know and remember.  He’s doing what Jesus did before his ascension when he gives the instruction in John 13: 33-34 33 “Little children, I am with you only a little while longer. You will look for Me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you: ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”…

That’s how I see this last letter.  It’s the love letter goodbye, written with a lot of mindful heart.  So, as I read the verses we are discussing today I began to, not only personalize it, but overlay it in the lives I’ve been privileged to be a part.  I see St. Paul’s situation isn’t unique and very applicable to our lives.  While not many of us will know the privilege of being put to literal trial for our faith, as he was, we are and we do go through trials.  We have that we can apply/overlay as we contemplate this scripture.  The people Paul is referring to, the ones that did not stand with him, are likely people he considered family in Christ.  They are people he likely healed, taught, nurtured, brought the Gospel, and helped in every way. Again, even though we likely don’t have literal disciples, we have those kinds of people in our lives.  They are people we invest in, people we love.   In the same vein as Paul, those people sometimes vanish when we go through our trails.  (This understanding of mine comes from the aforementioned people I have worked with. Many times, I’ve seen at critical moments the people in need watch their friends and family vanish when things got hard.  The reasons varied, some can’t, some are too hurt and scared by the pain, but there is always a fear based reason.)   I see this is a common theme of people’s lives, one that sows seeds of bitterness and discontent, which are not from God.  It can cause us to falter in our own walk with God. 

The way I read the next verse it’s like St. Paul doesn’t even take a breath before he asks the Almighty  and the people reading the letter what at times seems unthinkable, and does so vehemently. “May it not be against them!”  He’s not asking God to judge them according to their deeds.  He’s not asking for the Church to disown them.  He’s very strongly crying out that what they did, and what they did not do, not be held against them.  A role model portrayal of Jesus’s teaching that we forgive seven times seventy times!  More than that, I get the feeling that he didn’t have to forgive it because he wasn’t offended by it at all.  He was more saying it, not for himself, but as a plea to God and the people around him.  “Don’t hold them accountable for what they have done.”   That does two things, one it puts no barriers between him and God. Then it also puts no barriers between him and the people.  His witness is all the more powerful!  He has taught them these lessons, and shown them in his life how they apply. 

He goes on in the last part of the verse to give God the Glory.  He claims no part of the power it took to get through his trials.  He points to the victory.  Not his victory done by his power, he gives God all the credit.  People will fail us, but God never does.  But when people fail us, the greatest witness we can give is to allow God to work through us to accomplish whatever trail we face and still be able to love those people as God loves and forgives us.  Asking God not to hold someone’s sin against them is what Jesus said when he cried out, “Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do.” St. Stephen said the same as they stoned him in Acts, he and Paul were following Jesus, and so should we. 

Just some food for thought and prayer…

Heavenly Father, We praise you and offer thanks giving for never failing us even in our darkest hour. We ask that nothing be held against those who fail us, as we have surely failed others before.  In Jesus name, Amen!!

Here I am, Lord, send me!

Lisa Brandel