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The power of forgiveness is
astounding, and it is a gift from God. Forgiveness is
essential to being fully alive. You cannot live the fullness
of life Jesus offers without forgiveness. Receiving and
offering forgiveness is absolutely essential.
As we begin Holy Week 2004, I
invite you to remember two things.
YOU ARE FORGIVEN
First, remember that you are
forgiven. That’s the glorious part of God’s good news in Holy
Week and beyond.
An associate minister on the
staff of a large church was at a party. He told a friend that
he had a dream last night, but he was a little embarrassed to
talk about it. It was a dream about his senior minister. The
friend finally encouraged him to tell the story, and the young
minister complied.
He said he’d dreamed that he had
died, and he stood at the bottom of a ladder that led to
heaven. There was an angel standing there giving him
instructions. The angel said that he should climb up the
ladder to heaven. He should carry with him a piece of chalk,
and each time he thought about one of the sins he’d committed
in his life, he should mark a rung on the ladder and then keep
on climbing.
He started the climb up the
ladder—marking as he climbed. He had climbed a long way when
suddenly he looked up and saw his senior minister coming down.
“Why are you coming down the ladder?” the young man asked. The
reply came, very simply and curtly, “More chalk.”
We don’t have to number our
sins. We don’t have to count them. We don’t have to record
them. Yes, we have to ask for forgiveness. But Scripture
teaches us that God is more ready and eager to forgive than we
are to ask.
In a Sunday School class a
teacher was asking the children, “Can anybody tell me what you
have to do before you are forgiven?” There was a long silence,
and finally one little girl said, “You gotta sin!”
Sin is a given, for all of us.
But God extends forgiveness readily. That’s the force of the
powerful text in Psalm 25 today. “Do not remember the sins of
my youth or my transgressions.” Another place in the Old
Testament says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far
has God removed our sins from us.”
And then there are the stories
of Jesus. There is the story of the woman caught in the act of
adultery. She was about to be stoned to death by a group of
men. Jesus simply looked at the crowd and said, “Let the one
who is without sin among you cast the first stone.” Gradually
all the people drifted away. Jesus looked at the woman and
said, “Where are your accusers?” She replied that none were
left to accuse her, and Jesus said, “Neither do I accuse you.
You are forgiven. Go and sin no more.”
Or the amazing story of the
paralyzed man who was brought to Jesus by four friends. They
couldn’t get to Jesus in the main room of the house, so they
cut a hole in the roof (if you can imagine that!) and let the
man down through the hole in the roof. When Jesus saw their
faith, he said to the man, “Your sins are forgiven. Rise, take
up your bed and walk.” The man did exactly as Jesus asked him
to do. The power of sin forgiven led him on an entirely new
life journey.
Or there’s the story of the
disciple Peter. Peter was the one whom Jesus re-named “The
Rock.” But then on the night of the Last Supper Jesus said to
Peter, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three
times.” It happened as Jesus had said. The Scripture tells us
that Peter went out and wept bitterly because of his failure.
Yet immediately after the Resurrection, Jesus says to Peter,
“Peter, I want you to feed my sheep and tend my lambs.”
Forgiveness is at the center of that story.
A huge and positive piece of
life takes hold when you know forgiveness.
To be forgiven are amazing words
to receive and assimilate. Someone did a survey recently and
asked people what were the three words they most liked to hear
in the course of life. Number one, as you might imagine, was
the words “I love you.” The second most yearned-for words,
however, were “You are forgiven.” Interestingly, the third
words most wanted to be heard were “Supper is ready.” But
forgiveness is an energizing, enlivening, quieting, and
healing force in life.
Zig Ziglar is a popular
motivational speaker. One day he was speaking to a large
audience when he did something very unusual. He took out a
crisp new $20 bill. He said, “How many people would like to
have this $20 bill?” Everybody in the room raised their hand.
Ziglar pulled out a Magic Marker and marked a huge black line
across the $20 bill. Then he asked again, “How many would like
to have the $20 bill now?” Most of the hands went up a second
time. Ziglar then took the $20 bill and crumpled it in his
hand until it was a small wad of paper. He said again to the
crowd, “Who would like to have this $20 bill?” Again, most
people raised their hands. Finally he took the $20 bill and
ground it into the floor with his foot. He picked it up a
fourth time, held it up and said, “Who would like to have this
$20 bill?” Most people raised their hands a fourth time.
Then Ziglar said this: “You have
learned a very important and valuable lesson this morning. No
matter what I did to the $20 bill, you still wanted it. Why?
Because it didn’t decrease in value at all. It’s still worth
$20, whether it’s crumpled or ground under foot or marked up
with a Magic Marker.”
Ziglar then looked his audience
directly in the eye and said, “And the same thing is true
about you and me. We may go through some pretty bad
experiences in our lives. We might even make some bad
decisions that really mess up our lives. But our worth remains
the same, no matter how crumpled or ground in the dirt or
marred our lives might otherwise become.”[i]
This is what Peter and the woman
who was caught in adultery and Zacchaeus all discovered in the
person of Jesus. God is more ready to forgive than we are to
ask.
A magnificent movie was produced
in 1992, starring Clint Eastwood. The title of the movie was
“The Unforgiven.” It was a powerful film, and won an Oscar.
I’ve seen it several times.
The Gospel message is, no one
needs to remain unforgiven. Can a ruined life be restored? The
answer is a resounding “yes.” That is the undeserved but
consistent message about the God revealed in Jesus.
ALSO EXTEND FORGIVENESS
But there is a corollary to this
first principle—a corollary to the announcement that you are
forgiven. The corollary is this: you and I must extend
forgiveness to others. Forgiveness is also something we live
out. Paul says in Colossians, “Forgive one another as God in
Christ has forgiven you.”[ii]
But it is not easy.
A recent survey showed that 6
out of 10 Americans say they have forgiven themselves for past
misdeeds. Three-quarters of all the people surveyed said they
believed God has forgiven them. But only half say they have
forgiven others for major wrongs done to them.
Forgiveness is a response to the
call to discipleship. It doesn’t mean simply turn the other
cheek. It doesn’t mean letting the other person go scot-free.
Nor does it mean that we forget what happened to us. Rather it
means you renounce the hold that fear and anger have on you.
Disallow the pain and anger to rule your life.
There was an interesting
editorial statement in the Washington Post in February of
2002. This is what it said:
Higher levels of forgiveness
were associated with overall higher levels of
satisfaction with life and few reported incidents of
psychological distress, including feeling nervous, restless,
or sad.”
Clearly forgiveness is good for
the body as well as for the soul.
A man by the name of Terry
Anderson was a hostage for almost 7 years in Lebanon. He was
treated brutally and cruelly over those 7 years. After the
ordeal was over he said something very illuminating:
Forgiveness isn’t something
that you just do and get over with. It’s a process. What does
it mean to forgive? Does it mean that I accept what they (my
captors) did to me? No. Does it mean I have to love them?
That’s what Jesus said, but I’m not ready for that. It does
mean not hanging on to the anger. I’m not going to spoil the
joy of being a free man by being angry. I can’t hurt them by
my anger. I can only hurt myself.
Do I have the right to be angry
at times? Sure! In the short run, the answer is “yes.” Jesus
was angry on Palm Sunday in the temple. He didn’t seem very
forgiving of the merchants as he overturned the tables in the
temple. But prolonged anger is destructive to us. That’s why
Paul says, “Be angry, but do not sin,” and “Do not let the sun
go down on your anger.”[iii]
Some of you might ask, “How can
I forgive an ex-spouse who maligns me? How can I forgive a
thief who has stolen precious memories? How can I forgive a
corporation that uses me and then discards me? How can I
forgive a parent who abandons me? How can I forgive a child
who tries to destroy our family?”
At first, we cannot forgive. We
often prefer the axiom, “Don’t get mad, get even.” Or as
Donald Trump’s first wife Ivana once said, “Don’t get even,
get it all!”
Do we understand the meaning of
extending forgiveness? Forgiveness is not a matter of
forgetting. Rather it is choosing not to actively remember.
Forgiveness is not saying to the offending person, “You’re
okay.” Rather it is saying, “I’m okay, and I’m willing to let
God deal with whether you’re okay.”
Forgiveness is not saying, “I
don’t feel the pain anymore.” Rather it is saying, “I do not
feel the need to hold on to your involvement in my pain
anymore.” Forgiveness is not just “a nice thing to
do.”
Forgiveness is a matter of
worship. I offer all my burdens and brokenness to God. Divine
forgiveness pours through me and fills me with a forgiving
spirit.
I believe this forgiving spirit
must fill us and fill this church.
I read about a church in
Arkansas that has a “church dog.” He is a very friendly mutt
who lives on the church grounds. The minister of the church,
who happens to be United Methodist, says of the dog, “He is
the best greeter we have ever had. He greets everyone who
comes to church on Sunday mornings. And it's like he’s saying
to everyone, “You don’t have to be perfect to be welcomed
here.”
That’s that spirit that must
permeate this place every Sunday as well.
I know this is the Easter
season, but I am reminded of the Christmas story of “The
Grinch who Stole Christmas.” In this story we are told that
the Grinch has a heart two sizes too small. Christians and
churches have big hearts. Our hearts are bursting with joy and
with forgiveness.
During this Holy Week, hear the
divine promise of forgiveness. And then pray for the strength
to forgive.
Remember the words of Mahatma
Gandhi: “One can never forgive too much. The weak can never
forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
I would simply add, forgiveness
is the attribute of those who know and follow Jesus.
Remember this week: forgiveness,
both given and received. And in remembering, become a whole
person in Christ.
[i] Thanks to Norman Neaves for this
story
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