Hamilton Grange sits in a park on West 141st Street in West Harlem. The National Park Service gives walking tours of the estate five days a week. If you take a tour, park rangers will tell you the story of Alexander Hamilton’s Revolutionary War heroism, of his service as secretary of the US Treasury, and of his influence as author of most of the Federalist Papers. They’ll show you the home’s early American furnishings and tell you how it’s been moved twice to accommodate New York City’s growth. But what would the house say if its walls could talk? What would it tell us about Hamilton’s conversations with his wife, Eliza?
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton explores that question in the song “It’s Quiet Uptown.” After Hamilton’s philandering and their son Philip’s death in a duel, the couple struggles to rebuild trust. They walk together in their garden. They take their children to Trinity Church, but the words between them are few. Yet despite the pain they’ve experienced, their love persists. There’s a moment in the song (maybe you know it) when Eliza takes her husband’s hand, and the musical’s cast begins to sing:
“Forgiveness. Can you imagine?”
Matthew, Mark, and Luke each report Jesus’ Maundy Thursday institution of the Lord’s Supper (Matt. 26:26–28; Mark 14:22–24; Luke 22:19–20). Each records that Jesus took bread and the cup and that after he’d given thanks, he gave them to his disciples to eat and drink. All three include the words “This is my body” and reference the blood of the new covenant being poured out. The accounts differ in minor details, but Matthew’s report stands out because it includes the phrase “for the forgiveness of sins.”
If you read straight through Matthew’s gospel, you’ll notice that before his Upper Room account, he includes extended sections on forgiveness. Perhaps the most well known is found in Matthew 18:21–35. There Jesus tells of a servant who owed his king more than he could repay in many lifetimes. To settle the deficit, the king ordered that “he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold” (v. 25). Then, the servant pleaded for mercy, and out of pity, the king forgave the man’s massive debt.
If you’ve heard the parable, you know what happens next. Instead of responding with joyful gratitude, the servant found a colleague who owed him a few months’ pay. He “grabbed him and began to choke him,” demanding he pay back what he owed (v. 28). When the second debtor pleaded for mercy, the first man showed none. Instead, he threw his colleague in prison. When the king heard about this, he was incensed. He’d hoped his forgiveness would be received and extended, not forgotten. So he summoned the first debtor and said, “You wicked servant, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” (vv. 32–33).
That’s the lesson: We’ve been forgiven much, so we can forgive. We all have griefs and failures that hang over us. The debts we owe God and others because of our sin are far greater than we can repay. If the walls of our lives could talk, they’d reveal the regret and pain we often feel. But through the blood of the new covenant, our slate has been wiped clean. Can you imagine it? Can you feel the great weight taken from your shoulders? When you take Communion with your church, does it remind you of all the King has forgiven? If so, then you can forgive those who’ve wronged you.
We shouldn’t gloss over abuse or abandon our passion for justice, but as D. A. Carson wrote, “[Christians] are called to abandon bitterness, to be forbearing, to have a forgiving stance even where the repentance of the offending party is conspicuous by its absence.” Because Christ has forgiven us, we can take the hands of those who have wronged us. We can offer them the mercy we’ve received.
Whose hand will you take today? Whom do you need to forgive?
Jared Kennedy (ThM) serves as managing editor for books and curriculum for The Gospel Coalition and as cofounder and principal of Gospel-Centered Family. He is author of books like The Beginner’s Gospel Story Bible, Keeping Your Children’s Ministry on Mission, and The Story of Martin Luther.
