THE TOUGH WORK OF FORGIVENESS
Forgiving others doesn’t come easy to me. And I wouldn’t be surprised if forgiveness doesn’t come easy to you as well.
Oh, I am not talking about the forgiveness we offer when other people are just rude, or ill—mannered, or occasionally lose their cool over little things. Actually, our lives are filled with countless little encounters where we bump into each other and bruise each other’s egos. I’ll come home from a busy day and be so wrapped up in the hectic happenings of the office that I wouldn’t ask my wife how her day went. Or the stress of some problem I’m facing will make me snap at my daughter when she asks for help on a math problem. All of us say things when we’re under pressure that we later regret. We pout, we lose our temper, we can be just plain ornery with people around us. We have different tastes and expectations, and can’t quite figure out why people aren’t more like us. We criticize for no real reason at all. And afterward, it’s only right that we say—"Forgive me." And say it with feeling!
Now in most of those situations, the offense is soon forgotten. The other day at work I apologized to a colleague for what I thought was rather surly behavior on my part the day before, and she replied—"It’s not a big deal—I didn’t take it seriously. I just figured you were having one of those days." A bit of bruising is just part of ordinary life, isn’t it?
But there are other times when forgiveness comes hard—at least to me! For there are times when what has happened to us feels like a punch to the gut. The words have been so cutting, the actions so unfair, that we feel as though we’ve been wacked on the side of the head by a lead pipe. Emotionally we feel run over by a load of undeserved criticism. We’re hurt and we’re angry. For what has happened to us is truly unjust. We didn’t have this coming. What happened has damaged, even destroyed our lives, or perhaps the lives of those we love deeply. All we want is payback.
Forgiveness? It’s not even in the picture! I remember as a young man, watching someone I love be deeply hurt by injustice. The pain that was inflicted took me years to forgive. Down deep, I wanted to see the person who caused hurt be hurt himself. I wanted to see old scores settled. It took me years before I could truly, deep in my soul, wish well to the persons responsible for that injustice. It took me years to forgive.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
I think of how hard forgiveness is for me, and then, during this Lenten season, I visit Calvary where Christ died, and I am amazed by what Jesus had to say from his cross. During the next few weeks, here on the Back to God Hour, I’d like to reflect on some of the amazing last words of Jesus, for they shed a remarkable light on who he was and what he came to do.
Actually, it’s rather amazing that Jesus was able to speak from his cross at all! Many men sentenced to crucifixion had spit out so much venom toward their captors on the way to crucifixion that their executioners had literally cut out their tongues to silence their ranting. Evidently, even war—hardened legionnaires could only take so much verbal abuse!
Yes, it’s a remarkable sign of the incredible goodness and grace of Jesus that his tongue is still firmly between his teeth as his cross drops into its socket on Golgotha. Jesus can still speak from his horrible perch on Calvary. But what is there left to say? The words must be few. As he endures this terrible torture—as his body pulls down upon his rib cage and not only speech but breath becomes a torment, there will not be energy for anything more than a few select phrases. The words will be few—but they will be significant. What will he choose to tell us?
THE HABITS OF SPIRITUALITY
You stand beneath the cross, and Jesus speaks his first words. Far from a curse, what you hear is a prayer! Between the gasps, you hear him say, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
Now, Jesus is doing right here what he has done all his life. All life through, he has prayed. And now, he prays again. Frankly, this is the way it with people. You tend to practice at the end of your life what you have practiced for a lifetime. People who aren’t very serious about God have sometimes told me that when they get old, they will ‘get religion." When they’re retired, and no longer have the money to travel or the energy to golf—that’s when they’ll focus on God. That’s when they will have plenty of time to pray and meditate. They’re saving matters of faith for when they are too old to enjoy anything else. How odd, I think to myself. These folks really believe they can practice a superficial spirituality all their life—then die like one of the great saints of the church? Don’t they understand that the habits of the heart are habits developed over years of practice?
As a parish pastor for over twenty—five years, I’ve watched a lot of people die. Would it come as a surprise if I told you that I seldom saw incredible change in people during the last months of their life? Yes, I know of deathbed conversions. I’ve even seen one or two. But the truth is we tend to end life pretty much the way we live life. The last chapter we write tends to be in line with the previous chapters. We tend to fall back on old habits in moments of crisis. The patterns you are creating right now are the likely habits that you will carry through to the end of your days. Knowing that, are you satisfied with the way you are cultivating your relationship with God?
Jesus exemplifies what I’m talking about. He has spent a life—time in prayer. Jesus has immersed his ministry in communion with his Father. He has conducted prayer vigils that have run from dusk to dawn. A close relationship with his heavenly Father, forged through prayer, has been the bedrock of his ministry. So no wonder it’s natural for him to pray now! And what a prayer this is! Here on Calvary, in this moment of crushing personal need, Jesus doesn’t pray for himself. He prays for others! And he speaks of what we ourselves have such a hard time offering—he speaks of forgiveness! "Father" he says, "forgive them, for they know not what they are doing."
THEOLOGICALLY SUSPECT?
Wait a minute you say—what kind of prayer is this anyway? This prayer seems to fly in the face of how we think forgiveness works. Doesn’t it say in I John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. . . ." That’s the order, isn’t it? We confess, God forgives. And now Jesus comes along and says—"Father forgive them BECAUSE they DO NOT KNOW what they are doing . . ." Is Jesus saying ignorance is bliss? Is Jesus saying that repentance doesn’t matter? Hardly.
To shed some light on things, we have to ask who Jesus is praying for. You know, you might think that these words of Jesus are only concerned with the little troop that has gathered around his cross that afternoon. Perhaps the ‘them’ are his Roman executioners—the garrison unfortunate enough to draw ‘Golgotha duty’ that momentous Friday afternoon. No, if only the soldiers are on Jesus’ mind as he prays, then Jesus is asking that some unsuspecting soldiers be let off the hook for this horrendous crime. Jesus is just asking that these men be given a pass with regard to their unwitting responsibility for the death of God’s Son.
That’s one way to approach Jesus’ words. But I don’t think it does justice to the incredible scope of Jesus’ prayer. For as Jesus hangs on Calvary, he has in mind the mission on which he has been sent by the Father. That means the horizon of his words stretches far beyond that little hill outside Jerusalem. He holds in mind a vision so vast that it embraces even the likes of me—and you.
When it comes to the meaning of Jesus words, I think that Johann Heermann, the hymn writer, had it right. In his famous Lenten hymn, "Ah, Holy Jesus, How Have You Offended." he wrote:
Who was the guilty, who brought this upon thee?
Alas my treason, Jesus has undone thee
T’was I Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee.
I crucified thee . . .
Now, Heermann is proposing a staggering reality. He is suggesting that if we sing his hymn honestly, we will need to include ourselves in the "them" of Jesus’ first words from Calvary. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" is a prayer that catches me up in Jesus’ gaze. Jesus is asking that through his death, where guilt is paid for, people like me may come to know the overwhelming grace of God’s forgiveness!
WE KNOW NOT WHAT WE DO . . .
"Forgive them, for they know not what they do." Do those words describe you—and your deep spiritual need for divine pardon? Let me ask you—do you fully know what you are doing, morally and spiritually? Don’t you suspect there are dimensions to life that have escaped you? As you look back over life, don’t you wonder why you sometimes did what you did? Don’t you say to yourself, "What was I doing, anyway?" I’ve said those words to myself.
And Jesus, who knows all things, hears those words echo out to Calvary from a billion voices. Jesus understands that we mere mortals are caught in the grip of spiritual battles that we do not fully comprehend. We live in a world where spiritual forces of darkness war against us. And where unwittingly—as unwitting as those soldiers beneath the cross—we can be caught up in doing terrible things that cause great pain and inflict great damage . The evil that pervades our world is deeper and more terrible than we know.
Some time ago, I heard a former attorney general of the United States say that he really didn’t believe in the existence of evil—he only believed that human beings do some bad things. If you agree with him—if you agree that evil itself doesn’t exist—then you will see little reason why Jesus needs to speak this word which points to the moral confusion that so often wracks our lives. Then you’ll think of people as basically good, but who occasionally stumble through ignorance into dumb behaviors.
But if you believe, as Scripture teaches, that demonic forces roam this world, seeking to undo what is good and right and beautiful. If you believe Scripture is right when it says in Romans 3:10, "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands . . . All have turned away . . ." If indeed you understand that humanity is caught up in a rebellion against God that defies God’s good designs for this world—then you will begin to sense the depth of Jesus’ prayer. Then you will understand that Jesus’ prayer is one for all of us half—blind people who can scarcely imagine the way our sins and our failings have wounded the heart of the Father God.
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." My treason nailed Christ to the cross. My guilt and disobedience drove the nails home. For by our guilt we share responsibility with Christ’s first century executioners. With them, we are doing the unimaginable. We are executing God’s own Son. We are executing the one sinless man who walked the face of this globe. And we are not executing him with the finesse of a lethal injection carried out in a room meant to parody the clean—scrubbed look of a hospital operating theater. We are not executing him with the quick finality of a two thousand volt jolt, delivered by means of an electric chair. We are executing the sinless Son of God in a way that is deliberately designed to make death exquisitely terrible and horrible.
In fact, even more than that. We are subjecting him to a death that is SHAMEFUL. Yes, this is what this death is. Shameful. Crucifixion was intentionally obscene in the classic definition of the word: "disgusting, repulsive, filthy, foul, abominable." Crucifixion was intentionally a death that shamed the victim. In fact, the very reason that it was carried out in public was so that the crowds could join in the revulsion of the crucified. The cry of Lamentations 1:22 could be the cry of a crucified victim, "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?" Yes, it is nothing. The executed hangs in exquisite agony—and no one really cares. Jesus Christ ‘endured the cross, despising the shame.’ Crucifixion was a topic that was never raised in polite Roman society.
Did anyone in the world really know what was happening on that Friday afternoon? Did anyone truly understand that humanity was crucifying its God that afternoon? Did anyone know that sinlessness was bearing shame? Did anyone know what they were doing? How could they know? How could anyone know, until the sky was darkened, and the earth was shaken, and the graves torn open—how could anyone know that this moment was the point upon which all history turns.
How could anyone know—including you and me! And how could we know that the purpose of all this cruel insanity was to work the forgiveness of the very ones responsible for the crime! The shame of the cross is the shame of my sin. The shame of the cross is the shame of my own loveless words and deeds.
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing." This is a prayer that reaches across the centuries. It is a prayer that you and I might be shaken from our spiritual lethargy and come to see the true significance of the Lenten journey to Calvary. This is a prayer requesting that the Father will strip away our blindness and give us the grace to see what we have honestly done with our lives. And what Christ has done for us by his death.
"Father forgive . . . . " The Greek verb originally used here indicates that Jesus prayed that prayer more than once. The tense implies repetition. As the spikes were driven into hands and feet: "Father, forgive . . ." As the cross was planted in the earth, "Father, forgive. . . "As the mutters of mockery began, "Father, forgive . . ." This is the Savior’s prayer. And it echoes down to today. In the ministry of a Savior who STILL continues a ministry of intercession for a sin—wracked world.
EMBRACING FORGIVENESS
I wonder whether you today see yourself embraced by the words Jesus utters. It may well be that the issues you face in life very much involve issues of forgiveness. There are people in your life that you find impossible to forgive. You’re life is controlled by rage, not grace. And perhaps down deep, the person you find most impossible to forgive is yourself. You’ve made a mess out of so many chapters of your life, and you hold yourself accountable. Down deep you hate yourself for what you’ve said and done. You don’t know how to let your past go. And what makes it worse is that you are convinced that because of your lovelessness, you can’t be loved by God. Do you want to know the truth? Most people I meet, regardless of how respected they are in their communities, wonder whether God’s forgiveness can really enter their lives. This is their deep fear: God’s forgiveness is for other people—not for me!
Today, would you listen again to the voice of Christ? Would you allow him to insert your name into his words from Calvary? Father, forgive John and Martha, Karl and Peter. Forgive Michelle and Callie, Rochelle and Caleb. Christ went to Calvary so that the relationship between you and God might be restored. So that you might walk away from the cross forgiven by God! And then, so that the power of grace might be unleashed in your own life—so that you can experience the power of God’s Spirit to forgive those who have wronged you! Christ went to Calvary so you can even forgive yourself. Christ spoke those words so that you may speak the words he taught us and mean them! "Forgive us our debts, Lord, as we forgive our debtors."
THE FORGIVING GOD
Forgiveness! What a God—given gift! What an amazing sign of the presence of God’s Spirit, at work on earth! Dostoevsky, in his novel, The Brothers Karamazov, records the conversation of two brothers, Ivan and Alyosha, who are speaking together about the terrible evils that people commit against each other, especially against children, in a broken world. Ivan, the atheist, argues with deep passion that there is no way in heaven or earth to have harmony with God in such a rotten world.
Alyosha, the simple Christian believer, has no sophisticated argument to counter Ivan’s anger against God. He sits in silence, with his face in his hands, until he finally offers the only word that can be spoken—because God himself at Calvary has made that word possible. "There is one," he says, "who can forgive everything, because he shed his innocent blood . . ."
Aloysha is right. There is one who is the sign of the power of forgiveness in this world.
His name is Jesus.
Today you can pray, "Father, forgive me," because there is one on Calvary who himself prayed, "Forgive them, Lord, for they do not know what they are doing."
Robert Heerspink
Rev. Robert Heerspink is a native of west Michigan. He completed his undergraduate studies at Calvin College and holds the degrees of Master of Divinity and Master of Theology from Calvin Theological Seminary. He has also received a Doctor of Ministry degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Bob was ordained a minister of the Word in the Christian Reformed Church of North America in 1979, and has 26 years of parish experience, having served four churches throughout west Michigan. He was appointed the Director of The Back to God Hour in 2006. Bob has written several resources related to congregational stewardship, including the book, Becoming a Firstfruits Congregation. He is a regular contributor to TODAY, the monthly devotional of The Back to God Hour. Bob is married to Edith (Miedema) and they have three children. His hobbies include reading fictional and historical works, watersports, and occassional golfing.
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