Forgiveness… The Way God Deals With Evil

This past weekend my wife and I were in Oregon having fun with our granddaughters. Of course on Sunday we went to church at Newberg Friends Church (bell tower shown) where my son Gregg is senior pastor.

For the most part, for me, the sermon is the element in a worship service that speaks to me the most. The sermon Gregg delivered Sunday was powerful and impacting. If put into effect, it would be life-altering.

The sermon topic was “forgiveness”, and with all the recent media coverage of the Amish schoolgirl shootings by a madman, there was plenty of fodder for discussion. You can find a link to his sermon here or on his blog.

A common response to the Amish acts of kindness and forgiveness (by Christians as well as the general public) has been surprise and incredulity, as well as “he got off too easy” and “he should have had to face execution or spend his life in jail”.

Gregg, however, suggested that the Amish people lived out their faith as it should be. “I see forgiveness as capable of profoundly changing our lives,” he said.

Using a video film clip from Les Miserables, he showed us how, when the bishop voluntarily forgave the professional thief Jean Valjean, it altered Valjean’s behavior for the rest of his life.

We looked at the ancient Biblical example of Joseph, who forgave his brothers for selling him into slavery in Egypt (from which he became a powerful ruler).

In both of these examples, as well as with the Amish, forgiveness was imparted before it was even asked for. And this is the revolutionary, counter-cultural aspect of Christ’s teachings.

In Christ’s time, Judaism dictated that forgiveness was not automatic; in fact, it required earning by the wrongdoer with genuine attempts at atonement. In that context, a murderer was forever doomed with no opportunity for atonement to a dead victim.

However, God, through Christ, extended forgiveness and atonement to each and every one of us, “while we were yet sinners” and even before we asked for it. That’s the astounding way God deals with evil in the human race.

Does this mean evildoers get off scot free? Hardly.

One of Gregg’s seminary professors, Miraslov Volf, a native Croatian personally affected by the war in Kosovo, has written a poignant book titled, Free of Charge. In it, Volf says, “In the very act of forgiving, there is an act of condemnation.”

Gregg went on to paraphrase what Volf wrote with these words: “Forgiveness does not ignore or white wash or overlook wrong actions. It is not weak or whimpy or blind or fake. Forgiveness takes the bold, courageous first step of naming wrong as wrong, of condemning an evil action as being evil…and in the very act of naming it as wrong, forgivenss chooses not to demand payment of the debt the wrong act incurs.”

“Forgiveness,” Gregg taught, “names someone’s actions as wrong, but makes the choice not to forget, not to bring vengeance, but instead to release the other from the debt they owe.”

When a repentant wrongdoer does ask for forgiveness, the opportunity for reconciliation is then possible. But with or without repentance on the part of the wrongdoer, the act of forgiveness is a powerful and life-altering practice for our culture.

Thanks be to God.