“Seventy Times Seven”
Forgive One Another
NOW IN - Matthew chapter 16 Jesus made a very bold prediction…
On this rock (on this truth that I am, the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God… on Me, on who I AM…
I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. – Matthew 16:18
REMEMBER… church has nothing to do with geography, a place or a building and everything to do with a people.
Jesus did not predict a place, He predicted a people.
A people who would flourish, expand, and keep pressing forward to every corner of the world.
I pray… for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
– John 17:20,21
UNDERSTAND – Jesus didn’t pray that we would…
• Build great buildings
• Preach great messages
• Have great worship
• Do great things
INSTEAD – Jesus simply desperately prayed that we would be one and brought to complete unity.
BECAUSE - Jesus knows that the entire deal… that the spread of the Gospel and the redemption of mankind depends on us His followers having relationships that are remarkably different than those in the world….
BY THIS – (how we love one another, how we one another one another)… BY THIS – all people will know that we are His disciples!
GET IT?
MG – that is why we are doing this series.
AND - that is why I put these LG Interest Cards on your seats.
LAST WEEK – we talked about ‘The Fellowship Of The King’ about carrying one another’s burdens.
THIS MORNING – we talked about forgiving one another in a conversation called, “Seventy Times Seven.”
Prayer
MG - I think… no, let me rephrase that…
Without a doubt the most difficult challenge that you will ever face as you strive to live out God’s kind of love…
IS WHEN - somebody hurts you, when they do you wrong, or when they do wrong to those you love.
BUT UNDERSTAND - forgiveness is not just some sidebar or footnote of Christianity. It’s not just one app in the app store. Or a pretty cool topic that we should get around to whenever we have the time.
INSTEAD - forgiveness and the dispensing of grace is the operating system for Christianity.
LIKE – it’s the basis for the whole deal that you and I are a part of. FORGIVENESS - is what makes the rest of it run.
To follow Jesus as a disciple is to become a practitioner of radical forgiveness. Conventional forgiveness, easy forgiveness, reasonable forgiveness is what most rationally minded people are willing to engage in. Christ’s followers are called to radical forgiveness, unreasonable forgiveness, reckless forgiveness, endless forgiveness, seemingly impossible forgiveness.
The expectations regarding forgiveness that Jesus places upon his disciples are among the most demanding aspects of Christian discipleship, but these demands must not be ignored.
AND YEAH – I get it, I know that forgiveness… opposes the way our world operates, kicks against our natural instincts, and IS so very uncomfortable to look at closely…
YET - it’s still something we have to deal with…
BUT – at the same time it’s hard to deal with…
BECAUSE – there is real hurt/pain/wrong/out there…
AND THEREFORE – the last that I want to do is stand up here (not knowing your story, not knowing that hurt and pain you went through), AND ACT - like forgiveness is an easy thing to do… OR EXPECT - that in our conversation this morning that everything will be worked out…
HOWEVER – however… what I do want to do… IS TO - open up your heart and mind to the incredible opportunity that forgiveness is. UNDERSTAND – forgiveness is recognizing…
• THAT - God is good,
• THAT - the Gospel is that true,
• AND THAT - the scandalous grace which surrounds us is not only abundant, but freeing.
MG – what I am trying to say is that forgiveness (or as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, not keeping a record of wrongs) is not a burden that God has placed on us…
BUT RATHER - a gift, an opportunity, that HE gives us.
OKAY – let’s do this, ‘Seventy Times Seven, Forgiving One Another.”
AND HERE – is how I want to attack out conversation by unpacking 4 statements.
Forgiveness, What It Is Not
Forgiveness, A Parable
Forgiveness, What It Is
Forgiveness, What It Is Not
UNDERSTAND - there are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings as to what forgiveness really is.
AND LISTEN - these misunderstanding of forgiveness (in my opinion) play a major role in why we refuse to forgive… which is why it is important to talk about what forgiveness is not.
Forgiveness is not
Conditional
IN OTHER WORDS - it’s not based on somebody else’s response. It’s not earned, deserved, bargained or paid for.
It’s not based on some promise that they’ll never do it again. If you say to someone “I’ll forgive you if…” that’s not forgiveness… BECAUSE - forgiveness is unconditional.
Minimizing
IT’S - not saying when somebody comes and asks for forgiveness, “Don’t worry about it. It’s no big deal. It didn’t hurt. It’s not a problem, it’s okay.”
THAT’S - that is not forgiveness, because it is not okay. UNDERSTAND - forgiveness means that there was a hurt or an offense that was significant enough to require forgiveness.
SO – we don’t have to pretend that the things that hurt us and offended us weren’t that bad. We’re not minimizing the offense, the wrong that they did to us.
Resuming
It is not resuming a relationship without change.
YES - we must forgive (this is not an option for a Jesus follower), but for a relationship to be restored requires genuine repentance (change) and time to rebuild trust.
(and even then it may never be what is once was)
The restoration of relationship without repentance is a ‘cheap reconciliation,’ which is not endorsed in Scripture.
- Brian Zahnd
Forgetting
IN FACT – the truth is, it’s impossible to forget the offense… BUT – let me tell something that is even better than forgetting… replacing…
IT’S - putting something else, something better in the place of those ‘hurts’…
IT’S - remembering but realizing how God can bring good even out of the wrong done to us.
You planned evil against me;
God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the saving of many people. – Genesis 50:20
UNDERSTAND – Joseph had to remember the injustice he suffered because it was so much a part of his story. But Joseph would remember it the context of forgiveness and God’s redemption of it and not as a fuel for vengeance.
Without forgiveness the Bible doesn’t even get past Genesis. Without forgiveness there really is no future for God’s people.
Forfeiting
Justice (it’s guaranteeing it)…
UNDERSTAND - forgiveness is not about waving the white flag of surrender and giving up all hope of justice…
NO - it’s not about dismissing your case, instead it’s about appealing it to a higher court.
And saying God that hurt me… but I will leave justice in your more than capable hands.
Weakness
NOW – I don’t know about you, but sometimes it feels weak for me to forgive, like if I forgive them then I loose and they win… AND - I don’t like to loose and definitely don’t want them to win…
BUT – what I am beginning to see is that forgiveness is not weakness… but great strength.
LIKE – keeping a record of wrongs is easy, but letting those wrongs go requires strength.
QUESTION – where was Christ most powerful?
UNDERSTAND - the cross is not a picture of weakness but of power.
AGAIN – it is extremely important to be clear as to what forgiveness is not, Forgiveness is not… conditional, minimizing, resuming, forgetting, forfeiting or weakness
Forgiveness, A Parable
IN - Matthew 18 we find one of the classics passages on forgiveness in the entire bible.
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” - Matthew 18:21
IN OTHER WORDS - what’s the limit? How far should this thing go? how many times should I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Like 7 times…
NOW – that number may seem kind of random to us, but it’s not (the number 7 means completion, rabbi’s said 3 times)…
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven. Matthew 18:22
UNDERSTAND – what Jesus is saying to Peter is this… “Peter, I did not come to simply raise the standard on how many times you forgive… NO - I came to change the system. Peter, this isn’t about a new standard – it’s about a new system. It’s about a new way of living.
Peter, this isn’t about trying a little harder… and forgiving a little better. NO – this is about an entirely different way to approach life. It’s about taking the power back from the perpetrator, and placing all of the hurt at the foot of the cross.
UNDERSTAND MG – Jesus is saying to Peter (and to us) that there is no limit to this forgiveness thing.
AND THAT – my friends is the gospel. THAT - is the good news! News that is both founded on and grounded in forgiveness.
BUT LISTEN… IF - you don’t believe Jesus. IF - the Gospel isn’t true. IF - Jesus didn’t die for you. IF - there’s isn’t forgiveness of sins available by faith. IF - grace isn’t real… THEN – by all means get even when someone offends you.
I MEAN – IF all there is, is this sorry planet THEN when someone hurts you, you make them pay. AND – you hurt them back so bad, that they will never want to mess with you again… YEAH… IF – there isn’t a just God who rules over the affairs of men… then by all means when someone breaks your heart – you break there’s back. If someone hurts you – you hurt them worse. If they hurt you worse – you hurt them worser…
BUT… IF the GOSPEL is true; IF our SAVIOR is real; IF the GRACE OF GOD is our hope for this life and the next
IF - it’s true that JESUS PAID a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt that we could not pay…
THEN… there is…
No limit; No cap; No end; No lid – to this forgiveness thing… because the forgiven, forgive.
AND AFTER – clearing up this no limit/no lid thing Jesus tells a story to illustrate exactly what he is talking about…
Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him… - Matthew 18:23,24
NOW – at this point everyone knows that Jesus is telling a made up story because no one would ever loan out that kind of money… I MEAN – using a number like 10,000 talents would be like us saying a number like sqajillion…
LIKE – it would take over 270,000 years to pay back 10,000 talents. That’s ridiculous, right!
AND – that my friends, is what the Gospel is. Ridiculous!
Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. “The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ – Matthew 18:25,26
No you won’t… you can’t. it’s not possible… you couldn’t even pay the interest… (btw neither can we)
The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. – Matthew 18:27
And that’s how it went down for you… and for you… and for me… And listen – when the master forgives the servants debt, the debt does not simply disappear. The master takes the loss. He accepts the full brunt of the debt himself.
But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. – Matthew 18:28,29
YOU KNOW – I wonder if that is how it looks from God’s vantage point as he looks at us and sees how we live our lives… WE – come into His presence and not only sing of grace but ask for it… then we leave his presence and demand justice for everyone else…
His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.
Where have we heard that before? And listen this debt actually could be paid back.
But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed
and went and told their master everything that had happened.
Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’
he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.
– Matthew 18:21-35
(let that sink in…)
OKAY… now let’s talk about…
What Forgiveness Is
F – Forgiveness Is Freeing Somebody
AND – who is set free in forgiveness?
WELL - in the parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 18; it is obvious that the one hearing the words, “I forgive you” is set free…
QUESTION – have you ever messed up?
Have you ever done something, have you ever hurt someone to such a degree that a wall was put up between you and them? Your hurt them – you offended them.
Do you remember what it felt like to be in the wrong?
To wonder if they would ever be able to forgive you?
You know that you don’t deserve it.
You know that you brought this on yourself.
HAVE - you ever felt the dark cloud of tension and separation that hovers over a strained and damaged relationship? (have you ever been there – done that?)
AND – do remember how good it felt when they said, “I forgive you?”
FORGIVENESS – is freeing somebody… and the person who did the wrong is set free by forgiveness….
BUT – he is not the only one set free…
QUESTION – in the story that Jesus told in Matthew the guy who was in prison being tortured was the guy who refused to forgive…
UNDERSTAND – nothing will put you in prison faster. NOTHING – will mess your entire life up quicker than unforgiveness. YEAH – you may think you are hurting them… BUT – you are only hurting yourself.
In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
WHAT - a graphic picture this is of someone who refuses to forgive. UNDERSTAND – people who hold on to bitterness are a miserable and they live in a self-inflicted torment…
NO - I don’t think they are any more destructive emotions than resentment and bitterness. THEY – are a cancer that will eat you alive. AND – if that wasn’t bad enough, unforgiveness gives that evil one, a base of operations in your life like nothing else does… because unforgiveness in the antithesis of grace.
The Bible says this in Hebrews 12:15; “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”
AGAIN – forgiveness is setting a prison free, and often times you discover that the prison was you.
O – Forgiveness Is Obeying God’s Command
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you. - Eph 4:32
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another, forgive as the Lord forgave you. - Col 3:13
UNDERSTAND – God is not just asking us to forgive – he is commanding us to forgive – God has placed forgiveness in the non-optional category. “you don’t know how bad they hurt me…”
No, I don’t - but God says, “forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another… forgive AS the Lord forgave you”
BOTTOM LINE - if we want to be a followers of Christ, if we want to live in His kingdom, if we want to trust this Savior… the one thing we can never do is hold on to resentment and bitterness.
AND LISTEN – for those of us who may need a little extra motivation to forgive, well, here it is.
For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. BUT if you do not forgive men their sins, your father will not forgive your sins.” Mt 6:14,15
That’s pretty clear isn’t it? Even if we’d rather it not be…
Now this is not saying that we forgive in order to be forgiven… because they would go against the rest of Scripture… INSTEAD – we forgive because we are forgiven.
The forgiven, forgive…
If you got it – you give it…
And - If you are not giving it you should seriously question if you got it.
R – Forgiveness Is Relinquishing Your Right To Get Even
Now, maybe you’ve been hurt, (they should not of treated you that way), and maybe you have the power to get even but forgiveness releases that right – it says NO to getting even… Forgiveness – cancels the debt that they owe you, because of the pain that they caused you…
REMEMBER - If there is to be any justice to be served, we need to leave it in the hands of God, the perfect judge.
Rom. 12:19 says, "Do not take revenge my friends. Do not repay evil for evil. Leave room for God's wrath for vengeance is mine. I will repay says the Lord."
You say, “If I give up my right to get even with somebody who’s hurt me, that’s unfair.” You’re right. It’s unfair. Whoever said forgiveness is fair? Was it fair for Jesus Christ to die on a cross and forgive everything we’ve ever done wrong and let us go scott free? Was that fair? No.
HEY - have you noticed how when we come into God’s presence we always want grace… but when it comes to someone offending us, we want justice?
UNDERSTAND – we forgive…
SO THAT - there can be peace in our heart…
SO THAT - we can get on with our life, and we leave the justice part to God.
QUESTION - who can do a better job of justice?
You or God?
Who has more ways at His disposal of righting wrongs, you or God?
Forgiveness is relinquishing your right to get even.
To triumph fully, evil needs two victories, not one. The first victory happens when an evil deed is perpetrated; the second victory, when evil is returned. After the first victory, evil would die if the second victory did not infuse it with new life. - Miroslav Volf
G – Forgiveness Is Grace At Its Best
Paul said in a passage we read earlier – “forgive as the Lord forgave you…”
Someone has said; ‘We are most like beats when we kill. We are most like man when we judge. We are most like God when we forgive..”
HEY – do you want to know one of the best ways that you and I can preach the Gospel and be imitators of God…?
FORGIVE - those who hurt and offend us.
When we choose to forgive those who intentionally and maliciously harm us instead of perpetuating the cycle of revenge, we become a living imitation of Jesus Christ. And as we do this, we help flood a world hell-bent on paybacks with a forgiveness that washes away sin.
– Radical Forgiveness
I – Forgiveness Is Intentionally repeating the process
UNDERSTAND - Forgiveness rarely a one-time thing.
“Peter asked Jesus, ‘Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?’ ‘No,’ Jesus replied. ‘Seventy times seven.’” - Mt 18:21
SO - every time you remember that hurt, you make a willful choice in your mind and say,
“God, they really hurt me.”
You don’t minimize the hurt and say it wasn’t a big deal.
It was a big deal, and that’s why you still remember it. “God, they hurt me, and it still hurts. But I am choosing, because I want to be filled with love and not resentment, I am choosing to give up my right to get even, to seek revenge, to wish bad on that person. I am choosing show grace to the one who hurt me. God, I pray You’ll bless their life. Not because they deserve it. They don’t. I don’t deserve Your blessing, God. But I pray that You’d show grace to them like You’ve shown to me.”
You keep on doing it until you know you’ve released them. Until as Jesus said you have forgiven them from your heart.
LISTEN – this deal of forgiving someone 7 x 70 times is some really tough stuff. It’s not easy. And sometimes we may be called to forgive them for the same offense over and over again… BUT UNDERSTAND – there is a flip side to this intentionally repeating the process thing…
YOU SEE – that is exactly what God does for us.
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. – Lamentations 3:22-23
V – Forgiveness Is Victory Through Remembrance
In Christ we are set free by the blood of His death, and so we have forgiveness of sins. How rich is God’s grace, which has given to us so fully and freely… - Eph 1:7,8
UNDERSTAND MG - the Gospel just doesn’t need to be preached so that non-Christians become Christians, it needs to be preached to Christians so that we never forget…
the price that was paid for our sins
the blood that was spilled to set us free
SO THAT – we become like the woman who knelt before Jesus in Luke 7… crying, weeping, pouring out… who loved much because she had been forgiven much.
SO THAT – we remember and never forget just how AMAZING the love is, that our God has for us and demonstrated to us.
The forgiven, forgive!
E – Forgiveness Is Enjoying The Celebration
FORGIVENESS – is an awesome thing, I MEAN…
WHEN - 2 prisoners have been set free!
IT’S TIME - for a celebration.
WHEN – a relationship is reconciled and peace is restored
IT’S TIME - for a celebration.
NOW - Jesus also told another parable about forgiveness in Luke 15 – Its about a son who left home and lived a terrible but then came home to seek forgiveness from his father… Maybe you’ve heard it before – it’s called the prodigal son.
It’s a powerful picture of our King and His Kingdom.
QUESTION – how does the father react when his son came home and asked for forgiveness – he forgave him and then he threw a party!!! The party of all parties…
The father said to his servants, 'Hurry! Bring the best clothes and put them on him. Also, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get our fat calf and kill it so we can have a feast and celebrate. My son was dead, but now he is alive again! He was lost, but now he is found!' So they began to celebrate. – Luke 15:22-24
YES - forgiving is enjoying the celebration because peace has been restored and the Kingdom of God is here.
This kingdom does not come by political machinations. This kingdom does not come by military might. It doesn’t come by bullets or ballots, by elections or intrigues, by democracies or demagogueries.
The kingdom of God comes quietly, almost secretly. Like seed growing, like bread rising. It comes like a long walk home. It comes in whispers and quiet conversations. It comes while people are sleeping. It comes in surprising ways and in unexpected places. It comes by unconventional means and by unauthorized agents. It comes through the gradual transformation of hearts and minds one life at a time.
The kingdom of God comes in a million different ways as people become fascinated with Jesus Christ, find his forgiveness, and learn to extend it to others. Where is this kingdom? Jesus said it is among you.
This kingdom is seen and experienced among those who take seriously the call to be apprentices of the Jesus way.
A way that calls us to forgive as we are forgiven, to forgive seventy times seven, to forgive the sins of others, to forgive the sins of enemies, to forgive unconditionally.
This is the kingdom of God.
It is radical—and it is the greatest thing ever!
It is the hope for the world. I’ve never heard anyone describe it any better than Frederick Buechner:
The Kingdom of God? Time after time Jesus tries to drum into our heads what he means by it. He heaps parable upon parable like a madman. He tries shouting it. He tries whispering it. . . . What he seems to be saying is that the Kingdom of God is the time . . . when it will no longer be humans in their lunacy who are in charge of the world but God in his mercy who will be in charge of the world. It’s the time above all else for wild rejoicing—like getting out of jail, like being cured of cancer, like finally, at long last, coming home. And it is at hand, Jesus says
From time to time we hear a story that reminds us there really are people who dare to live the life of radical forgiveness. The book Amish Grace tells such a story and opens with these words.
Amish. School. Shooting. Never did we imagine that these words would appear together. But the unimaginable turned real on October 2, 2006, when Charles Carl Roberts IV carried his guns and his rage into an Amish schoolhouse near Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Five schoolgirls died that day, and five others were seriously wounded. Turning a tranquil schoolhouse into a house of horror . . .
According to the survivors, Roberts said, “I’m angry at God and I need to punish some Christian girls to get even with Him.”
As the world shuddered from news of the Nickel Mines tragedy, the world would soon be stunned by a demonstration of radical forgiveness—forgiveness that transcended tragedy. Within hours of the killings, a group of men from the Amish community went to Amy Roberts’s house to express . . . forgiveness!
They brought gifts of food to Amy and her children, telling Amy they had forgiven her husband and held no animosity toward her. They also promised to help her in the future by providing for her what she might need.
Later that evening an Amish man visited Charles Roberts’s father to offer his comfort. “He stood there for an hour, and he held that man in his arms and said, ‘We forgive you.’”
In the days following, Roberts’s parents received many more visits from members of the Amish community offering condolences and expressing forgiveness.
On the evening of the killings, as a grieving Amish family gathered in their home around the coffin of a little girl murdered in the schoolhouse shooting, the slain girl’s grandfather told the younger children, “We shouldn’t think evil of the man who did this.” The same man later told the Associated Press, “I hope they [Roberts’s widow and children] stay around here. They’ll have lots of friends and a lot of support.”
Five days later when the Roberts family gathered to bury the gunman in the cemetery of Georgetown United Methodist Church, more than half of the seventy-five mourners were from the Amish community.
Some of the Amish mourners who gathered around Amy Roberts and offered her hugs of support were parents who just days earlier had buried their own children. A Roberts family member described it this way. About thirty-five or forty Amish came to the burial. They shook our hands and cried. They embraced Amy and the children. There were no grudges, no hard feelings, only forgiveness. It’s just hard to believe that they were able to do that. Only forgiveness.
The Amish had only one way to respond to the most wicked of all transgressions: only forgiveness. There was no talk of reprisal, revenge, getting even, or making someone pay. Only forgiveness. They imitated Christ by offering only forgiveness. They took up the cross by responding with only forgiveness. They lived the Sermon on the Mount by demonstrating only forgiveness. They understood there was only one way to bring about healing—only forgiveness.
When people from around the nation, moved by the tragedy, sent money to assist the Amish families who had lost children, the Amish families shared this money with the Roberts family. What can explain this kind of generosity? Only forgiveness.
Radical forgiveness is what it means to take up the cross and follow Jesus.
The funeral director who witnessed the actions of the Amish community at Roberts’s burial recalled the moving moment in these words. I was lucky enough to be at the cemetery when the Amish families of the children who had been killed came to greet Amy Roberts and offer their forgiveness. And that is something I’ll never forget, not ever. I knew that I was witnessing a miracle.
The Amish act of forgiveness changed the story line coming out of Nickel Mines. Instead of the Nickel Mines tragedy, media outlets began to speak of the Nickel Mines miracle. Forgiveness changed the story line from the horror of murder to the miracle of forgiveness.
The miracle of Nickel Mines is a deliberate echo of the miracle of the cross. How is it that we don’t speak of the cross of Christ as a tragedy, which was, after all, the murder of an innocent man? It’s because on Good Friday Jesus changed the story line when he chose to absorb the blow and respond only with forgiveness. This change in the story line of Good Friday is what the Father endorsed on Easter Sunday in the resurrection.
The Amish of Nickel Mines understood that they were not just recipients of the forgiveness that flows from the cross—but that they were to be active practitioners of the same kind of costly forgiveness.
And at its heart, radical forgiveness is what it means to take up the cross and follow Jesus. Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, and there upon that cross extended forgiveness to his murderers.
This is the radical act of cross carrying and enemy forgiving, which Jesus calls us to follow. And as hard as it was for Jesus to pray from the cross, “Father, forgive them”—it was no less hard for the Nickel Mines parents to offer forgiveness to the Roberts family.
But as some of the Amish elders said, “We have to forgive. Refusing to forgive is not an option. It’s just a normal part of our living. It’s just standard Christian forgiveness.”
Just standard Christian forgiveness? Some might beg to differ. That the Amish act of forgiveness in the Nickel Mines murders was international news may say something about how substandard post-Constantine Christianity has become.
But whether we regard it as standard or exceptional, this is the Jesus kind of radical forgiveness that captures the imagination of a world hell-bent on revenge.
