Let go of the pride

As Bruce Malina and others have shown, to cancel lawful debts, let alone to forgive one’s enemies, without some good or mitigating reason was an action that brought intense shame on the one who did so. For in this, the one forgiving debt and offenses to his person (and his people) would be showing himself as a fool, as weak, as fearful of standing up for his rights, and as someone who, as we might say, was ready to let others “get away with murder.” Thus the promise of forgiveness to those who owe “debts” is the abandonment of the cultural criteria for maintaining one’s honor when disgraced, through retaliation. It is a commitment to magnanimity, mercy, and peace, even if it means that others will see one remaining in disgrace.—The Disciples’ Prayer, page 130