The Bethany Bullet - April 21, 2009

This past Sunday, we continued with our parish theme for the year, “Six Just Words, Just Six words!” Last week we heard six wonderful words set to music, “Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Alleluia”; six words that describe the power of love and the strength of our forgiving God. In Lent we heard these words, “By his wounds we are healed”, six more words that describe our relationship with our Lord, but today is where the rubber meets the road. Today is a day to put our money where our mouth is. From Colossians 3:13- “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” It’s just six words, but they may be some of the most difficult words found in scripture.

Forgiveness cannot be forced; it does not come through fear, or by fee. The forgiveness we find in the pages of scripture is perfect, planned, and without price. Most of us can forgive and forget; we just don’t want the other person to forget that we forgave.

It may be easy to forgive the small things:

• Losing a borrowed item
• Bumping into someone at the store.
  

Without malicious intent we can find it in our hearts to forgive. When it does not hurt deep inside, most of us are able to bring forgiveness to those that we feel may have done us wrong.

But what about those things that bring real pain and suffering?

• Hurtful words
• Anger that is acted upon
• Violence, betrayal, & murder

In the midst of this, God’s word remains: “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Jesus had hurtful words thrown at him; anger came in blows to the face. He felt the pain of violence upon his back, he had been betrayed, denied, and his life was taken from him. As the nails pierced his skin he speaks, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” God’s Forgiveness is PERFECT!

Forgiveness does not come naturally to us. Even as we teach our children or grandchildren we have to coax the words out of their mouths. Jesus did not need coaxing. He fulfilled the will of the Father as he took on flesh, walked the way of a servant and took our sin upon the cross. This was the culmination of a plan that had roots back in the Garden of Eden, after the fall. God’s Forgiveness is PLANNED!

There is nothing that we have done to deserve forgiveness. It comes as a free gift. Indeed only through the power of the resurrection and the strength of the open tomb do we even have the ability to forgive. Left on our own, we are lost and condemned. Our works are nothing. God’s Forgiveness comes to us WITHOUT PRICE!

Even in the midst of our hurtful words, our acts of anger, our times of betrayal and denial, and in spite of our violent acts - God forgives.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Corrie ten Boom and her Dutch family hid Jews from the Nazis during World War II. For this she endured Ravensbruck, a concentration camp. Her inspiring story became a famous book and film, The Hiding Place.

In 1947 in a Munich church, she told a German audience that God forgives. "When we confess our sins," she explained, "God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever." After her presentation, she recognized a man approaching her, a guard from Ravensbruck. Chilling memories flooded back. She writes:

It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there - the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing…He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message.” he said. “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!” His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had spoken so often the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side .Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness. As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.

Who is the person you need to forgive? What situation in your life needs the strength of Jesus to bring healing? Who do you need to extend a hand of forgiveness and peace to? It’s not easy; in fact you can’t do it on your own.

There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love.

Love comes in the person of Jesus Christ. Forgiveness comes through him. God demonstrates his love for us:

• On the cross
• Through the open tomb
• In His Word
• In Water and Word; Bread and Wine

While we were sinners, Christ died—six wonderful words. Because of these words are we able to fulfill the words of our text today—Forgive as the Lord forgave you.