Hello, My Friends,
We find ourselves in the great fifty days of Easter, the Christian season which extends from Easter Day to Pentecost, and it gives us the opportunity to reflect back over the events that occurred during the passion, crucifixion, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. One of the most incredible statements Jesus ever made was recorded in Luke 23, verse 34. Jesus was on the cross, the people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. In the midst of this dramatic scene, Jesus spoke these amazing words. He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
In effect, Jesus was saying, “Father, let’s forgive them, because they don’t really know me, and if they knew the whole story, they wouldn’t be doing this. So, let’s not hold this against them. They’re acting on their own insecurities. God, they’re sinners. As bad as it’s been, as misjudged as I’ve been, as wrong as they are, let’s you and I not hold this against them. Because in the big picture, they really don’t know the significance of what they’ve done.”
In the whole matter of being judged, if there is a victory to be won, forgiveness is the only way out. If there is to be a happy ending, if there is any way out without giving power to the person who has misjudged us, the only way out is through forgiveness.
A long time ago when I was pastor in Davidson, there was a couple in the church who had a sixteen-year-old daughter who did something of which they disapproved. Her dad was an extreme right-wing-fundamentalist-type who sat in my office with his wife and said things about his daughter that I don’t believe I ever heard a man say to any woman, let alone his own daughter — the names he called her, and the things he said about her. “She’ll never set foot in our home again,” were his last words that day. He just judged her in an extreme way. Eventually, his wife left him, in large part because of this episode.
Years later, I was invited back for an anniversary service, and this girl (who is now a grown woman) was there. I went over to her after the service and asked how she was doing, and how her family was. She said, “Well, my mom has remarried, and my dad lives with us now.” I said, “What?” She said, “Yes, he’s had some health problems, and so we moved him in with us, and now we’re taking care of him.”
If there is any victory to be won when you are being misjudged or unfairly treated, it is through forgiveness. It is found through throwing open the door of relationships, for in so doing, you behave like your Father in heaven, and your Lord Jesus Christ.
Forgiveness may be the thing that God uses in the lives of others more than anything else you do in your whole life.
Bruce Jones, Pastor
Imagine Church
