Read Luke 7:36-50
"Now which of them will love him more?"
Simon replied, "I suppose the one that had the bigger debt forgiven." vs. 43
We bristle under the thought of
forgiving...at least sometimes. When someone has hurt you badly, when their
actions have pierced your soul, when the wounds they inflicted upon you have
shaped your identity, the thought of forgiving is beyond difficult. It could be
seen as irresponsible or enabling. "If I let them off for what they have
done, what keeps them from doing it to again, or to someone else," you
think. "NO! I will make them pay for what they have done.
They will not
get off that easily." There are no free passes in life.
Tomorrow, I will take a look at how holding onto this unforgiveness actually binds us to the sin of another. But today, I want to be sure we are talking about the same word. I am afraid that when we start talking about forgiveness that we start feeling like we are condoning someone's sinful/hurtful actions. To condone means making an excuse for, overlooking, never really dealing with. Condoning is the easy way of dealing with injury. Condoning fails to come face to face with injury, refuses to acknowledge the depth of pain, and glosses over consequences. Forgiveness on the other hand is opposed to this form of coping. Forgiveness emerges from truthfulness. It names the offense for what it is. It owns the pain and the attitudes, actions, and thoughts that result from the pain. Forgiveness recognizes the consequences of sinful action and reminds us how readily we are shaped by our pain. And yet...having stood in the face of these truths, forgiveness refuses to be bound to the offense or the offender. It refuses to bind others to the offense or injury.
Tomorrow, I will take a look at how holding onto this unforgiveness actually binds us to the sin of another. But today, I want to be sure we are talking about the same word. I am afraid that when we start talking about forgiveness that we start feeling like we are condoning someone's sinful/hurtful actions. To condone means making an excuse for, overlooking, never really dealing with. Condoning is the easy way of dealing with injury. Condoning fails to come face to face with injury, refuses to acknowledge the depth of pain, and glosses over consequences. Forgiveness on the other hand is opposed to this form of coping. Forgiveness emerges from truthfulness. It names the offense for what it is. It owns the pain and the attitudes, actions, and thoughts that result from the pain. Forgiveness recognizes the consequences of sinful action and reminds us how readily we are shaped by our pain. And yet...having stood in the face of these truths, forgiveness refuses to be bound to the offense or the offender. It refuses to bind others to the offense or injury.
Instead, forgiveness lets go
of the pain and injury after having carried it to the cross of Jesus, the place
where all sin goes to die.
Likewise, to forgive is not to justify someone's sinful actions. We don't stand as defense attorney. We don't calculate reasons or attempt to make sense of sin. Sin is sin. Certainly, there are underlying reasons why people do what they do. Perhaps it was the way they were raised, the result of some pain they suffered. Perhaps it was a failure to understand that what they were doing brought injury. But in the end, an act of injury still leaves an inexplicable wound. In the end the only sense is that it is sin. If there is any empathy, it is because we too sometimes are caught up in non-sensical sin. But the movement of forgiveness refuses the need to explain away. To do so negates the heart forgiveness which is gift.
Forgiveness is at its core a gift.
Likewise, to forgive is not to justify someone's sinful actions. We don't stand as defense attorney. We don't calculate reasons or attempt to make sense of sin. Sin is sin. Certainly, there are underlying reasons why people do what they do. Perhaps it was the way they were raised, the result of some pain they suffered. Perhaps it was a failure to understand that what they were doing brought injury. But in the end, an act of injury still leaves an inexplicable wound. In the end the only sense is that it is sin. If there is any empathy, it is because we too sometimes are caught up in non-sensical sin. But the movement of forgiveness refuses the need to explain away. To do so negates the heart forgiveness which is gift.
Forgiveness is at its core a gift.
When you offer forgiveness, you plum the
depths of pain, brokenness and sin. You refuse the side alleys of condoning and
justifying. You move right through into the confusion and the chaos. You enter
in the darkness. You feel the weight. You name the offense. You become aware of
its lingering effects. In the end, in the face of what can't be explained, you
emerge from the darkness to offer gift. You give to another the gift of
freedom. You free people from your hate, your animosity and your desire for
revenge. You free them from a cycle of "returning evil for evil."
In
the end it is a gift, the possibility of life beyond sin. After carrying the
sin to the cross, it is the new life that comes after the cross.
No comments:
Post a Comment