March 24, 2021
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
John 8:1-11
Forgiveness and a Fresh Start
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Offenses chain us to the past. This is true for both the victim and the wrongdoer. The victim is riveted there by the lingering hurt and feelings of anger. What starts as anger can turn into resentment; and resentment easily escalates into hate.
The person who committed the wrong is also shackled to the past. Guilt and remorse pull them back and won’t let them go.
How can we be liberated from the sins of the past? There’s a way. There is a key which can unlock the chains. The key is forgiveness. Forgiveness frees both the offender and the victim. It liberates us from the unending imprisonment to the past and releases us into the bright hope of tomorrow.
The Pharisees had confronted Jesus with a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. According to Mosaic Law, adulterers were to be stoned. Now, adultery is an act that requires two people. So we may wonder why they came to Jesus with only one person. Where was the man? Why had they let him off the hook? But let’s lay aside the issues of gender injustice and focus on what happens next.
Jesus doesn’t refute the Law of Moses. But he points out something very important that the Pharisees were ignoring: they were all guilty of breaking the commandments. Every last one of them was just as guilty of committing sin as the woman they’d brought before Jesus. Jesus told them that the person without sin was free to cast the first stone.
One by one, the accusers left the scene. In the end, only Jesus was left with the woman. And he was the very one, the ONLY one, without sin! Jesus was the only one worthy of judging her guilty. The one who will judge the living and the dead pronounced his judgment over her. He released her from her guilt.
“Go your way,” he said, “and don’t sin again.” Jesus set her free. His forgiveness gave her a fresh start. She was free to live another day, to live in hope for a brighter future.
Forgiveness is the key that unlocks us from the past. It opens a way forward. That fresh start allows all our human relationships to move forward. Retaliation only leads to a constant cycle of revenge, like the feud between the Hatfields and McCoys. But forgiveness breaks the cycle and provides a fresh way forward.
The nation of South Africa practiced this in a really big way. For decades, South Africa’s government had been ruled under the racist system of Apartheid. This system gave governing power to the white minority population. The native African population were oppressed and suffered tremendous injustice.
But in 1995 a new government formed under Nelson Mandela. Mandela knew that they could not just turn the page and forget all that had happened under the past regime. The nation was in need of healing. Without the healing, they would remain chained to the sins of the past. It would follow and haunt them like a specter.
And so Mandela formed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Commission was chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Both the perpetrators of violence and injustice and also the victims of those actions could testify. If those who had committed the political crimes made a complete and truthful accounting of what had occurred, they were given amnesty. At the end of their testimony, they were given the opportunity to ask for forgiveness.
On the other side of the coin, the victims of the crimes were given an opportunity to speak their truth. They were given a platform to tell the stories of the atrocities they had endured. And they, too, were given an opportunity to give forgiveness.
Remarkable stories were poured out during the hearings. Archbishop Tutu was present as many of these accounts were confessed and revealed. He was amazed by the healing powers of forgiveness. He recounted:
“I have witnessed so many incredible people who, despite experiencing atrocity and tragedy, have come to a point in their lives where they are able to forgive. Take the Craddock Four, for example. The police ambushed their car, killed them in the most gruesome manner, set their car alight. When, at a TRC hearing, the teenage daughter of one of the victims was asked: would you be able to forgive the people who did this to you and your family? She answered, ‘We would like to forgive, but we would just like to know who to forgive.’”
Tutu remarked how forgiveness was essential in allowing the whole country to move forward instead of remaining mired in the pain and violence of the past:
“Unearthing the truth was necessary not only for the victims to heal, but for the perpetrators as well. Guilt, even unacknowledged guilt, has a negative effect on the guilty. One day it will come out in some form or another … Forgiveness gives us the capacity to make a new start.”
Friends, let us pursue forgiveness. Let us pray ardently for its refreshing and vital grace to rain gently upon us. Forgiveness is the key. It liberates us from the past and grants us a new and fresh start.
