The Power of Forgiveness

The Power of Forgiveness
Week 4; Day3 Wednesday

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

These familiar words of Christ were uttered from the cross about the people who were in the act of crucifying him on false charges. It’s hard to imagine a more demanding circumstance for forgiveness to be offered. It is the ultimate example of forgiveness, and it was extended to us in that we all participated in his death via our sins. It is a high standard indeed that Christ set.

A current expression of unusual forgiveness from a human standpoint was set in motion on April 16, 2007, when a twenty-three-year-old Virginia tech student coldly and methodically took the lives of thirty-two of his classmates before turning the gun on himself and ending his own lonely, tragic life. As the events were reported and interpreted, conflicting opinions surfaced about how many died that day. Was it thirty-two, or thirty-three? Those who say thirty-two refuse to place any value on the life of someone who would do such a thing. He was an animal or demon- short of being human- and unworthy of being given the same value as the lives he took. Those who say thirty-three saw the shooter as a person with value as well, a deeply disturbed person with no friends but still created in the image of God.

The difference between these views has huge implications on forgiveness. An alumnus of Virginia Tech reported it was clear that those who planned an on-campus memorial to the victims intended to mourn the death of thirty-three people by putting out as many stones in memory of each life.

“Memorabilia was left at each stone for the respective persons,” he wrote, “even the shooter. So many artifacts were left at each stone that most of it has been moved inside. There was a table for each of those killed including Seung-Hui Cho, the shooter. On his table one item that touched me was a simple 3x5 card with the words ‘I forgive you’ on it and no signature- almost as if God had left it there for him. His table was full of as many artifacts as anyone, most of which reflected this feeling of forgiveness.”

This is an extraordinary inclusion. Those who advocate such quick forgiveness must know that the alternative is to seethe with anger, resentment, and bitterness that can eat away at a person’s insides and render one incapable of kindness or grace. To refuse to give forgiveness is to become, yourself, a victim of another’s crime. Those who refuse to forgive the shooter are perpetuating the control of his act over them. By forgiving, you take away that person’s power over you. You turn things back over to God and trust Him for justice to be done more wisely than you or I could ever determine it. There is no healing of wrongs done to us apart from forgiveness.

If Christ can forgive all of us for crucifying him with our sins, what crime is so great that we can’t forgive someone who has sinned against us (a sin already forgiven by the cross)?
“Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:32 NLT).