13 February 2011
Forgiveness
02/17/11 06:08 PM Filed in: From the Pastor
Bad days are the results of things that happen, and things that happen are the results of what people do. People who misunderstood. People who intended to hurt us. People who forgot or neglected to do something. People who betrayed or violated us. People whose injury done to us was either yesterday or yesteryear. People do things, and we find it difficult to believe what Jesus said about them that day – that they didn’t know what they were doing.
Yet His words are probably the most descriptive truth about all human sin, lovelessness, rebellion, hurt, hate, anger, violence, and the thousand other evils that overflow our fallen race. Even when sin is calculated, planned thoroughly, conceived carefully, and executed efficiently, no one really understands the depth or dimension of sin’s destructiveness or the degree of its horrible damage to people. In a very real sense, every sin is a sin of ignorance.
To learn the grace of forgiveness – to embrace the will to forgive anyone or everyone who seems to be ruining your life right now – you need to find a starting place and Jesus points you to it. “They don’t know what they’re doing.” But the fact of the matter is, that isn’t the way you feel. You tend to see things from the viewpoint of your experience, and when bad things happen, it appears that whoever did you wrong knew exactly what he was doing and didn’t really seem to care either.
It must have looked that way from the Cross, too, but Jesus teaches about the forgiveness: Forgiving those who assail you is the key to not being permanently victimized by them. Whatever the initial impact of any offense you experience by others, your will to refuse to react, carry a grudge, or seek to retaliate in kind secures the high ground.
Yet His words are probably the most descriptive truth about all human sin, lovelessness, rebellion, hurt, hate, anger, violence, and the thousand other evils that overflow our fallen race. Even when sin is calculated, planned thoroughly, conceived carefully, and executed efficiently, no one really understands the depth or dimension of sin’s destructiveness or the degree of its horrible damage to people. In a very real sense, every sin is a sin of ignorance.
To learn the grace of forgiveness – to embrace the will to forgive anyone or everyone who seems to be ruining your life right now – you need to find a starting place and Jesus points you to it. “They don’t know what they’re doing.” But the fact of the matter is, that isn’t the way you feel. You tend to see things from the viewpoint of your experience, and when bad things happen, it appears that whoever did you wrong knew exactly what he was doing and didn’t really seem to care either.
It must have looked that way from the Cross, too, but Jesus teaches about the forgiveness: Forgiving those who assail you is the key to not being permanently victimized by them. Whatever the initial impact of any offense you experience by others, your will to refuse to react, carry a grudge, or seek to retaliate in kind secures the high ground.