I couldn’t tell you how many prayer meetings I have attended where not many people showed up and the pastor said, “All I know is that Jesus said where two or three people are gathered together, there I am.”
I have this sneaking suspicion that Jesus was not giving us an excuse for when we have bad attendance. Let’s be honest, the Bible is full of people who met God by themselves and not with two or three people.
Context is king here. This verse wraps up Jesus’s huge thought on fixing a broken relationship. Listen to the verses that come before it. “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. …For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:15-17,20, ESV).
I believe Jesus was saying, “When you choose to fix a relationship in my house, I want you to know that when you get the parties in the room, my presence plans on being there.” The Bible reminds us over and over that we not only need God, we need people to be part of our lives as well. God designed life in such a way that it works better with people rather than in isolation.
Just because relationships are difficult doesn’t mean we give up on community. Conflict in and of itself is not bad, but unresolved conflict is. That creates a toxic environment.
I think that’s why Peter responded to Jesus’s words by asking how many times we should forgive. Jesus didn’t let him off the hook. He told him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22, NKJV). Jesus is not only committed to your relationship with him; he is committed to healthy relationships with others who are in your life, even if it takes 490 times to get it resolved inside and out.
After pastoring an inner-city congregation in Detroit for thirty years, Pastor Tim served at Brooklyn Tabernacle in NYC for five years and pastored in Lafayette, Louisiana, for five years. He became Senior Pastor of Times Square Church in May of 2020.