JUL 2009

Dear Evangelites and Friends,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

Bernard Madoff, the Wall Street financier who had destroyed many lives and organizations with his fraudulent Ponzi scheme, was recently sentenced by US District Judge Denny Chin to the maximum 150 years in prison.

In his sentencing, the judge said: “The lifetime sentence not only put a horrible thief in his place but let others who might consider a similar scheme know that there is high price to pay for such vicious white-collar crimes. Madoff began the scheme in the 1990s, and it took away the life savings of thousands and hurt many charities so that he could support a lavish lifestyle for his family. What he did was shameful and unforgivable. He took from the rich and the poor and hurt many lives in the process” (Kerrville Daily Times, 30 June 2009).Imagine, in the words of a human judge, not even 150 years of imprisonment will impart forgiveness to Bernard Madoff for his crime.

Imagine, in the words of a human judge, not even 150 years of imprisonment will impart forgiveness to Bernard Madoff for his crime.

I recall the words of the Judge to come at the end of time—Jesus Christ Himself. I recall His first words when He was dying on the cross—“Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). No one standing near the cross expected Him to say that. After all, a crucified man might scream or curse or threaten, but you would not expect a word of forgiveness from him. Yet that is precisely what Jesus offered to the men who were murdering him—He offered them forgiveness. He prayed that they might be forgiven. He asked the righteous and holy Father in heaven to forgive His murderers.

His hands could no longer minister to the sick for they were nailed to the cross. His feet could no longer take him on journeys of mercy. He could no longer reach out to touch the lame and cause them to walk again. Soon He would be dead. As His earthly life was ebbing away, He did one thing He could still do. He prayed.

He prayed for His murderers that God would forgive them “for they do not know what they are doing.” One important lesson we could learn from this is this—no one is beyond the reach of God’s grace. Most of us would agree with that in an abstract sense. But that concept becomes very difficult when we have to forgive those who have sinned greatly against us.

Jesus forgives those whom we would immediately curse to hell. Indeed, His ways are always higher and purer than our ways. And no place can we see this more clearly than in His willingness on the cross to forgive even those who sinned greatly against Him.

As I reflect on these remarkable first words of Jesus on the cross, one thing comes to mind that I believe will help us understand how to forgive the unforgivable. There is something we must give up—we must give up trying to force people to understand how much they hurt us.

This may be the greatest barrier to forgiveness. Many people who have been deeply hurt say something like this, “I would be willing to forgive if only I am satisfied that they know how badly they hurt me. I would forgive if I am satisfied that they have some understanding of what they have done to me.”

However, our Lord on the cross tells us that if we are going to forgive, we must give all that up. We cannot be set free unless we release those who have hurt us from the burden of understanding all that they have done to us.

“Father forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.” The key is not that they did not know. The key is that they didn’t know what they were doing. They knew they were killing a man named Jesus, but they didn’t know who He really was. They were guilty of much worse than they knew. They were guilty of killing the Son of God. When Jesus cried out, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do,” He was really saying, “Father forgive them because they are in desperate need of forgiveness and they don’t even know it.”

Sometimes we refuse to forgive because we want the other person to feel what we felt when they hurt us so badly.If we wait until people truly understand what they did to us, in most cases we will wait forever. But withholding forgiveness will not help them understand. They cannot crawl into our skin and feel as we feel. They cannot enter into our pain. Hence, we forgive …

• in spite of what they’ve done
• because that’s what Jesus did on the cross
• because that’s what Jesus did for us

To forgive us has cost Jesus His life. To forgive others will cost us something too. We will certainly have to give up our anger, turn away from our bitterness, and decide by a conscious choice that we will forgive those who have sinned against us. And very often we will have to perform that act of forgiveness over and over again until we learn the grace of continual forgiveness.

In order to come to grips with the healing power of forgiveness, we need two things: soft heart and courage. Some of us have been deeply hurt by the things others have done to us. In response we may choose to become hard on the inside to protect ourselves from any further pain. But that hardness has made it difficult for us to hear the gentle call of the Holy Spirit. We need a soft heart to hear His voice.

And then we need courage. Only the strong will have the courage to let go of the past. We need courage to take the giant step of forgiveness. However painful forgiveness may be, it is definitely better than refusing to forgive.

We release a prisoner when we forgive. And that prisoner is not the one who needs to be forgiven, but the one who has been wronged and trapped in his own prison of unforgiveness.

Being criticized unfairly, misunderstood, slandered, unappreciated, derided, and belittled are just some reasons why we can be caged in the prison of unforgiveness.

May the Lord set us free from this prison.

A Fellow Pilgrim in Him,
Pastor John

Tel: 6749-2990 (O) 9789-2414 (HP) Email: johnyuencw@gmail.com