Why I Care About Reconciliation So Much

Yesterday I posted here about how until there is some degree of relational reconciliation. A couple people have suggested to me that I should just move on and not worry about it. Others have wondered why I care so much about being reconciled both with people who were my closest friends as well as corporately with the congregation.

To be honest, the primary reason I care so much about — and pray daily for — reconciliation is because I believe Jesus cares that much about it and wants it to happen.  In fact, the cross itself is fundamentally about reconciliation (both vertical with God and horizontal with each other).  

I care about because Jesus does:

MATTHEW 5:23-24

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”

The implication here is clear.  Being reconciled to your brothers and sisters is essential to the Christian life and a pre-requisite to worship that honors God.  Churches often use this passage to talk about being reconciled before taking communion.  That is, if there is someone in the church you are not reconciled with, take care of that first before taking communion.  But there is nothing in this passage that implies it has to be someone in the room.  As Christians, our worship is hindered and our itness compromised when we have unreconciled relationships. 

Jesus makes this clear when he teaches the disciples towards the end of his earthly ministry.

JOHN 13:34-35

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Simply put, you can not simultaneously love a brother or sister in Christ (as Jesus commands) and not be reconciled with them.

The Apostle Paul also talks about reconciliation and how we have been given a ministry of reconciliation:

2 CORINTHIANS 5:17-19

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

And then Paul reminds us of the work God has done on the cross to reconcile us to Him.  If God has reconciled us, we must be reconciled to each other as well.

COLOSSIANS 1:22-23

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.