Once I entered a Chinese Restaurant, a caption at the entrance caught my attention. The saying goes this way, "If you are happy and satisfied with our food and service please tell it to others, but if not please come tell it to us."
In the gospel reading today, Jesus reminds us that if a brother sins against us we need to win back that brother. And Jesus gives three steps on how we win our brother back.
First, we need to go and point his fault to him alone. In this way his dignity and pride his protected. And to avoid deeper misunderstanding.
Second, if he does not listen to you, bring two or three witnesses. In the Old Testament a person can only be acused of a crime if there are two or three witnesses. The two or three persons must be trusted by both the acused and the acuser.
If using the first two steps fail, then bring the case to the community. The local community or local church has given by Jesus the authority whom to include or to expel in the community.
But, we have to remember that we need to exert extra effort to win our brother back. They say that it is easier to judge others than to judge onself may be applied here. This means that we need to bear in mind that we, too, like our brother had sinned in one way or the other. That is why, we also be ready and willing to extend forgiveness.
