e merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. (Luke 6:36-37)
If you haven’t read Corrie TenBoom’s The Hiding Place, you need to get yourself a box of tissues and do so. It’s the story of a woman who was put in a German concentration camp because she and her family helped Jews escape from the Nazis. After the war, she became a public speaker, traveling the world with a message of forgiveness and reconciliation.
One day, she met a man after her talk. He was very pleased to meet her again, and told her that since they had last seen one another he had become a Christian. One of the sadistic guards from the camp thanked her for her forgiveness, and then he stuck out his hand.
Would you have shaken his hand? Could you have forgiven him? I know people who talk big about mercy, forgiveness, and tolerance, who then say that people who abuse animals, or hunt animals, or abuse children, or (pick your favorite unforgivable sin) should rot in hell. These same people have been known to claim that I should rot in hell because I’m judgmental. Reread that last sentence. It doesn’t matter that they’re talking about me. They’re right, I should rot in hell, but God as forgiven me. No, the point that is ironic is that they condemn me for doing exactly what they are doing.
Have you forgiven Hitler? He lead his people in the murder of thirty million people, six million of them Jews. Can you forgive the Young Turks, who stripped Christians girls and lined the roads with the crosses on which they were crucified. Can you forgive Stalin, who gave the orders that resulted in fifty million of his nation’s people to be killed? Can you forgive Mao, who did the same to sixty million Chinese?
Can you forgive the Conquistadors? The Crusaders? The Inquisitioners? The judges and accusers in the Salem Witch Trials? How about the slavers and plantation owners in the American South? Can you forgive the presidents like Andrew Jackson who set in motion the Trail of Tears? How about BinLaden? John Wayne Gacy? The pedophiles who live in your city? Barack Obama? Donald Trump? The people who voted for him or who support him?
We all have people we find it hard to forgive. For me, one of the hardest involved something I don’t even remember happening to me. Everyone involved meant well. They were trying to help but I was too young to understand all that. What I remember is having reactions twenty and even thirty years later for which that event was the only explanation for my reactions.
Forgiveness isn’t easy, but it is necessary. It is to be the identity of the Christian. It doesn’t mean what the other person did wasn’t wrong. It doesn’t mean that you or someone you think shouldn’t have been harmed wasn’t harmed. What it means is that you no longer desire to punish that person… punishing them doesn’t bring you joy, or release, or a sense of justice.
In fact, if forgiveness is to be part of our identity, perhaps we should start each day with the question of, “Who do I get (or need) to forgive today?”
Have you forgiven Hitler? He lead his people in the murder of thirty million people, six million of them Jews. Can you forgive the Young Turks, who stripped Christians girls and lined the roads with the crosses on which they were crucified. Can you forgive Stalin, who gave the orders that resulted in fifty million of his nation’s people to be killed? Can you forgive Mao, who did the same to sixty million Chinese?
Can you forgive the Conquistadors? The Crusaders? The Inquisitioners? The judges and accusers in the Salem Witch Trials? How about the slavers and plantation owners in the American South? Can you forgive the presidents like Andrew Jackson who set in motion the Trail of Tears? How about BinLaden? John Wayne Gacy? The pedophiles who live in your city? Barack Obama? Donald Trump? The people who voted for him or who support him?
We all have people we find it hard to forgive. For me, one of the hardest involved something I don’t even remember happening to me. Everyone involved meant well. They were trying to help but I was too young to understand all that. What I remember is having reactions twenty and even thirty years later for which that event was the only explanation for my reactions.
Forgiveness isn’t easy, but it is necessary. It is to be the identity of the Christian. It doesn’t mean what the other person did wasn’t wrong. It doesn’t mean that you or someone you think shouldn’t have been harmed wasn’t harmed. What it means is that you no longer desire to punish that person… punishing them doesn’t bring you joy, or release, or a sense of justice.
In fact, if forgiveness is to be part of our identity, perhaps we should start each day with the question of, “Who do I get (or need) to forgive today?”
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