The Power of Forgiveness

I wrote about it earlier on this blog in the blog-entry "Why Christians don't burn down Mecca" (it is, if I may say so myself, worth reading if you haven't already read it...:-)) that the big difference between Christianity and Christians and people from all other religions and life philosophies is grace and forgiveness. That's what makes us unique.

If you don't have the Spirit of God in you, if you don't know Jesus as your personal Savior, if you haven't been moved from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.....then true forgiveness (where you don't hold a grudge!) is next to impossible. Why would you forgive anybody?
And even if you forgive somebody who asks you for forgiveness, you wouldn't seriously consider forgiving somebody who is not sorry and who doesn't ask for forgiveness at all...!

But that's Christian forgiveness. Moedeled by Jesus Christ as he was hanging on the cross dying: "Father forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing". None of the people who crucified him were repentent. None of them were asking for forgiveness. But Christ forgave them anyway. Paul talks about this attitude in Romans 5:7-8: "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But Christ demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us"

This is not normal. This shakes the world. This changes hearts. It did 2000 years ago, and it still does today. And it changes people when we show the same forgiveness that Christ models for us.

People want revenge when somebody has hurt their family. It's only reasonable. People rejoice when a mass murderer's life ended. A mother talks about how relieved she is that her son's murderer now has a death sentence on his plate. She looks forward to the day where he'll be executed. But it won't bring freedom. It won't bring peace. Never.

The excellent movie The Interpreter (with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn) talks in a scene about how the African tribe, the Ku, have a ritual when somebody has been killed. The murderer is bound and thrown in the river, and the family members can either choose to let him drown and get their justice (but no peace in their hearts), or choose to swim out and save the murderer and through that gain freedom through saving a life.

Another movie that portrays the power of forgiveness in powerful ways is the movie To End All Wars with Kiefer Sutherland. Buy it and watch it, you won't regret it!!

Anyway...the reason I'm writing this long blog on forgiveness is two current events that once again show how powerful a testimony true, Christian forgiveness is. On April 15 the Palestinian Bible Society in the Gaza-strip was, for the second time in the last two years, hit by a bomb that blew up a lot of their building. The leader, Labib Madanat, said to the press: "We have so much love for the people who live in Gaza". No hatred. Just love.

Even more recently there was the situation in Turkey where three missionaries (a German and two Turkish) who worked for a Christian publishing house were brutally murdered by Islamic fanatics. Their wives and children were left behind and the Turkish media sought out the widows to hear their comments about the murders. They wives response was incredible: forgiveness!

Forgiveness changes the world. Hopefully there were many Turks watching the news that evening who saw true forgiveness. Saw love. Saw hope. There is no such thing as forgiveness in neither the Islamic world, nor the secular, Western world (I recently watched the movie "An Unfinished Life" with Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez that the producers claim is about forgiveness. The truth is that nobody in the movie confesses anything or talks about past hurts. Forgiveness Hollywood style is "You get over it. And time heals all wounds" which has nothing to do with the truth!)

God forgave me, so I'm called to forgive others. It's not easy. But it's the only way. May I, once again, recommend Philip Yancey's masterpiece "What's So Amazing About Grace" where Yancey tackles all the hard questions concerning grace and forgiveness.

I often struggle to forgive and give grace for little offenses against me. So I read "What's So Amazing About Grace" at least once a year, and I ask God to change my cold heart and give me a heart of forgiveness like some of the Kus, the Bible Publisher, the widows of some other Bible publishers, and countless others who change the world for good, one act of forgiveness at a time.

God bless you!

Torben - another wonderful book/movie about the power of forgiveness is Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables"