“THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS”

     I can’t begin to imagine the emotions Erika Kirk was feeling as she walked up to the podium in front of nearly 100,000 people (plus millions across the globe viewing from their homes) to speak at her husband’s memorial service just ten days after his life on earth was ended (at only age 31) by an assassin’s bullet. But through her tears, she very softly uttered three words that could only have come from a heart indwelled by her Savior, Jesus Christ. Those three words had a great impact on all who heard. As she talked about the young man who ended Charlie’s life, she said: “I forgive him.” She added, “Because it was what Christ did and it is what Charlie would have wanted.”  

     Jesus, God incarnate, preached a message of God’s love and forgiveness, but He was misunderstood, mistreated, and ultimately tortured and crucified. Yet as He hung from the cross, “Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing’ ” (Lk. 23:34).  He had the power to destroy those who were putting Him to death. When they came to arrest Jesus, He said, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father; and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Mt. 26:53).  Ray Overholt was so moved by that passage that he trusted in Christ for salvation and wrote a hymn which says,  “He could have called ten thousand angels to destroy the world and set Him free;  but He died alone for you and me.” 

     As Stephen, the first martyr of the early church, was being stoned by unbelieving Jews, “he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them!’ ” (Acts 7:60). His willingness to forgive those who put him to death was undoubtedly one of the things that Saul of Tarsus, who “was in hearty agreement with putting him to death” (Acts 8:1), could not get out of his mind. When Saul (now Paul the Apostle), shared the  story of his conversion with King Agrippa, he said that on his way to Damascus to persecute followers of Jesus (called “The Way”), “I heard a voice (from heaven) saying to me , ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads (animal prods)’ ” (Acts 26:14). In other words, his conscience was being pricked, partly by Stephen’s dying words of forgiveness. 

     This past week, Tim Allen, comedian and actor, shared that after hearing Erika Kirk’s words forgiving her husband’s murderer, his conscience too was pricked. Sixty years ago, when Tim was just eleven years old, his father was killed by a drunk driver and Tim had never forgiven the man. But, having heard what Erika did, Tim also publicly forgave the person who took his father’s life. 

     Forgiveness is a very difficult thing to do, for in doing so, in fact, to be genuine, it must be Spirit-led and Spirit-guided. It is the compassion of Christ that enables us to say, “I am now releasing you from the debt that you owe me.”  Forgiveness is only possible because of the character of the God we worship. In her book, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom, whose family hid Jews in their home to protect them from the Nazis, relates how in 1947, she returned to Germany, where she and her sister Betsy, had been taken as prisoners to Ravensbruk Concentration Camp, and where her sister had died. She returned to speak about “God’s Forgiveness” at a church in Munich. As she finished speaking and people silently were walking out, a man made his way through the congregation to approach Corrie. She saw his military uniform and immediately had flashbacks to the horrific treatment at the hands of the guards at Ravensbruck. The man had been a guard at Ravensbruck and recognized Corrie. He said, “I have become a Christian and know that God has forgiven me for the terrible things I have done, but I want to hear it from your lips as well.” He held out his hand and asked, “Fraulein, will you forgive me?”  

     Corrie relates how she initially struggled to forgive as she reflected on the trauma she had been through and how she had lost her family at the hands of the Nazis. She knew she needed God’s help to forgive, so quickly prayed for God’s love to fill her heart.  Suddenly the warmth and love of God flooded into her heart and she put out her hand and said, “I forgive you.” 

      Forgiveness is powerful and it is only possible because “God, through Christ’s sacrifice at the Cross, has provided forgiveness to us. Never are we more like God than when we forgive and never are we less like God than when we are unwilling to forgive.  How can we say the offenses done against us are unforgivable when it was for our sin Jesus was nailed to the cross? We are (and can) forgive because He has forgiven us. Paul definitely knew what it meant to be forgiven for his persecution of Jesus’ followers and he wrote this to the believers at Ephesus: “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32). Forgiveness is really Christianity in practice. 

     Do you have someone you need to forgive? Remember, “Unforgiveness, like a strong acid, hurts the person on whom it’s poured. But it always does more damage to the vessel in which it’s stored” (Mary Horner). When you think you can’t forgive, just remember how much you have been forgiven. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred and bitterness, and the waste of energy. When you are holding a grudge you can’t hold anything else!  There is tremendous power and freedom in forgiveness. Forgiveness frees both the giver and the receiver–and reflects the heart of Christ to the world. Oh, yes, and then there are Jesus’ sobering words: “For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgression” (Mt. 6:14,15)  There is that!

Forever His,

Pastor Dave N