CROSS WORD ONE: THE FORGIVENESS THAT DOES NOT STOP
--LUKE 23:33-38
On Sunday, February 21, 1988, Jimmy Swaggart, “America’s leading television evangelist,” on national television and before his Baton Rouge congregation of 7,000, tearfully confessed to “moral failure.” A few days later I was driving to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis to make a hospital visitation. I happened to be listening to Ann Keith and Bruce Bradley’s afternoon talk radio program on KMOX. One caller called Ann and Bruce in relation to the Jimmy Swaggart scandal and said, “I am so tired of hearing Christians talk about forgiveness.”
The caller, Ann, and Bruce implied that Christians talk about forgiving anything: murder, rape, child abuse. Ann especially felt this provided guilty parties a license to accept no responsibility for their actions. She looked at forgiveness in terms of holding no accountable. Forgiveness is the heart and soul of the message of our Christian faith, and Jesus brings this truth home to us so well after outlining the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:14-5, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” You see, if you and I do not forgive those who wrong us, God will not forgive our sins. It’s that simple
Forgiveness is vitally important to Jesus; so important that it is the only petition in the entire Lord’s Prayer upon which He gives further commentary. Many words that our Lord speaks from the cross point directly to us, but this one truly hits home. It speaks to me where I am in my daily life and relationships.
These first words from the Cross show us that Jesus truly “practices what He preaches.” We remember His words from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:44 and Luke 6:28, “But I say unto you, “Love your enemies. Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Jesus is our example in forgiving those who despise us and persecute us. In commanding us to forgive, He expects no more from us than what He has done Himself.
Who are those people who despitefully use us? They include people who verbally attack us and people who falsely accuse us. Jesus was falsely accused of “blasphemy.” He prayed for those who falsely accused Him. The Roman Soldiers who are driving the nails into Jesus’ hands and feet abuse Him both physically and verbally. They stripped Him, trust the crown of thorns into his head, bowed before Him, and mockingly proclaimed, “Hail, King of the Jews.”
Jesus forgives those who despitefully used Him, and He expects His disciples to show the same love, compassion, and forgiveness. When I was pastor of Sumner and Beulah United Methodist Churches, both Olney and Red Hill High Schools had great girls basketball teams. Although most of our youth attended Red Hill High School, Rhonda Lathrop was on the Olney Team. Many of her UMYF sisters played for Red Hill. Rhonda is truly a modern day disciple of Jesus who forgave those who abused her. In one Olney-Red Hill game she was constantly attacked on the floor verbally including the use of filthy language, some actually coming from the lips of her UMYF “sisters in Christ.” Although deeply hurt, Rhonda forgave, smiled, and went on playing the game.
Today the sentiment of most people, including many Christians, is: “I can’t forgive; I won’t forgive.” One can not be a Christian and have such an attitude and spirit. We fulfill Romans 8:29, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.” We carry out I Peter 2:21, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps.” Our destiny as disciples of Jesus is to be “conformed to His image,” to “follow in His steps.” Our calling is to forgive others as Jesus forgave on the cross. We are to follow His pattern and example. He forgave His murderers. He forgave those who humiliated and insulted Him. He forgave those who falsely accused Him. He forgave those who verbally and physically abused Him.
True disciples of Jesus have always followed the pattern of their Master. Remember Stephen, the first Christian martyr? His dying prayer in Acts 7:60 was, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Like Jesus, Stephen completely forgave those who murdered Him. He did not want God to hold this sin against them on Judgment Day. He was not vindictive. He did not want God to punish those who had wronged him.
The title of today’s message is, “The Forgiveness that Does Not Stop.” A forgiving spirit knows no end. In Matthew 18 Peter and Jesus have an important dialog on forgiveness: “Then Peter came to Him and said, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’” Paul also reminds us in I Corinthians 13: “Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.” Christians do not “keep a record of wrongs committed against us.” We never say to anyone, “I’m sorry, I’ve forgiven you 490 times, there is no more forgiveness.” Jesus and Paul affirm for us that our forgiving spirit is to have no limit.
As Disciples of Jesus Christ, you and I are to always and in all circumstances show the same forgiving spirit as did our Lord and Stephen. An unforgiving spirit is incompatible with Christianity. Christian and unforgiving are a contradictory terms. You and I simply can not be a Christian while holding a chip on our shoulders or a grudge of any kind. Satan wants to enslave us in bondage to an unforgiving spirit. The Holy Spirit is able and seeks to empower us to be like Jesus in forgiving those who curse us, who hate us, who despitefully use us, and who persecute us. We can only do this as we surrender to the Spirit’s control and stand on the promise of Zechariah 4:6, for a forgiving spirit is truly, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.”
I have never forgotten a story I read as a high school senior. Written by award-winning newspaper columnist and author Bob Considine, it appeared in the January 1966 issue of GUIDEPOSTS, and was entitled, “Could You Love this Much?” In 1950 Karl Taylor and his wife Edit lived in a small apartment in Waltham, Massachusetts. They had been married for 23 years. Karl was a government warehouse worker whose job sometimes took him out of town. In February, 1950, the government sent Karl to Okinawa for a few months. During that time Edith was working in a factory in Waltham. She decided to put a down-payment on a cozy cottage with lots of trees and a view as a surprise for Karl when he returned home.
Karl had always been faithful in writing Edith long letters every night he was away from home, but this time letters had not come for months. After many long weeks, this one cam: “Dear Edith, I wish there were a kinder way to tell you that we are no longer married. . ..” He had obtained a divorce from Mexico by mail and married Aiko, the 19 year old maid, who cared for his apartment. Edith was 48. Edith did not believe Karl had stopped loving her, but accepted that he loved Aiko too. She asked Karl to keep in touch about the day-to-day events in his life.
In 1951 Marie was born to Aiko and Karl, and Helen followed in 1953. Karl and Edit kept corresponding, and Edith sent presents to the little girls. Finally, Karl wrote that he was dying of lung cancer. He was afraid for Aiko and his two little girls. He had been saving to send them to school in the US, but his medical bills had taken everything.
As a final gift to Karl, Edith offered to bring Marie and Helen to Waltham to care for them if Aiko were willing. In November 1956, Aiko sent them to her “Dear Aunt Edith.” The girls brought Edith great joy, but the letters from Aiko were sad. “Aunt, tell me now what they do. If Marie or Helen cry or not.” Edith realized she had one more act of kindness to do for Karl. She must also bring Aiko to America.
In August, 1957, Aiko Taylor came to America. As her plane landed in New York, Edith was concerned, “What if I hate this woman who took Karl away from me?”
“The last person off the plane was a girl so thin and small Edith thought at first she was a child. She did not come down the stairs, she only stood there, clutching the railing, and Edith knew that, if she had been afraid, Aiko was near panic.”
“She called Aiko’s name, and the girl rushed down the steps and into Edith’s arms. In that brief moment, as they held each other, Edith had an extraordinary thought. “Help me to love this girl, as if she were part of Karl, come home. I prayed for him to come back. Now he has—in his two little daughters and in this gentle girl that he loved. Help me, God, to know that.”
God honored Edith’s prayer and forgiving spirit. “Aunt Edith” truly became the proud “other Mother” to Aiko , Marie, and Helen, and she could testify, “God has taken one life I loved dearly; He has given me three others to love. I am so thankful.”
No wonder the article was entitled, “Could you love this much?” It could have as easily been called, “Could you forgive this much?”
Could you? Yes, you can and indeed you will, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” You can I can forgive in the same way Jesus, Stephen, and Edith Taylor forgave.
Are you harboring an unforgiving spirit? Do you bear a grudge against someone today? Are you unable to forgive? Jesus says in Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” If we do not forgive, we can not be forgiven. If you can not forgive, turn to the Holy Spirit for help. Let Him “conform you to the image of His Son who prayed for those who murdered Him, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” May each one of us always freely give “The Forgiveness that Does Not Stop.”
