Our society has pretty much lost the value of forgiveness. Well, people do forgive one another, but it is an act between individuals that signifies regret for something they have done. Saying you are sorry is only a small part of the Christian meaning.
Jesus spoke of forgiveness bringing radical change into a person’s life. When Christians describe Jesus dying to bring forgiveness of sin, they are speaking of a decisive transformation of history. Talk about God saving the world refers to a forgiveness that rescues humanity from self-destruction.
From one perspective, the entire Christian life is forgiveness. Love includes mercy that disregards wrongs committed against us. Refusing to retaliate breaks the cycle of violence that threatens civilization.
Forgiveness assumes the necessity for change in order to build a better future. It pertains to the community as well as the individual, to life before as well as after death.
Martin Luther King maintained that forgiveness is needed now more than ever, because we live in a nuclear age in which we must learn to love or else.
We do well to hear him, as many of our present political and religious leaders regularly claim forgiveness is for losers. They believe we must use power even if it means violence to defeat those who want to destroy our nation and churches. To forgive supposedly enables evil to prevail.
This has led the most powerful man in the world to make senseless statements about not being able to think of anything he has done that warrants forgiveness. It prompts right-wing groups to rewrite history in attempts to remove mistakes they can no longer handle.
But more critically, it has induced our nation to fight a war with the intention of achieving peace through strength and being caught in an escalation of violence that murders civilians and threatens genocide.
All of this demonstrates exactly why forgiveness is needed. In the next few weeks, I plan to examine more deeply the many features of forgiveness.
