Singing Forgiveness Songs

In John’s Gospel account, these are the first words that Jesus speaks to his disciples after his resurrection. The very first thing Jesus told his disciples when he gave them the Holy Spirit was to forgive. Think of all the many things Jesus could have said about receiving the Spirit! However, what He did say wasn’t about anything big and showy, nothing we would deem “miraculous.” It was the simple act -simple, though not easy- of forgiving. Many times we largely associate the power of the Holy Spirit with other manifestations of God’s power, namely: healing, tongues, prophecy, even raising the dead. But here Jesus gives us a major way of operating with the Holy Spirit (indeed, the first thing He said about the Spirit after his resurrection); forgiving those who have wronged us. All miracles Jesus performed were to bring glory to God and to show the amazing grace and perfect love God has for His creation. Could it be that the act of forgiveness shows those things as much as the “miracles”…or even more so, since this was the thing Jesus brought to his disciples? Jesus did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he instead emptied himself and took on the form of a man; it is only natural that forgiveness, not power, would be Jesus’ focus.

“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” God the Father sent Jesus to save us from living in eternal separation from Him. The story of humanity is one of transgression and sin and falling short of what God commanded. Jesus came as our Savior, the pure and perfect Lamb of God who was sacrificed in order that we might be seen blameless and holy in the eyes of God. Jesus was, in short, the agency, the means, and the vehicle of the Father’s forgiveness to us. His whole life, including his suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, was to bring Forgiveness to humanity. Now, regardless of how hard it is or how much we don’t want to do it, Jesus says that in the same way that the Father sent him, we are also sent – to forgive, forgive, forgive.

Why do we need to forgive? The commands that God gives are for our own benefit, so what is the good and holy purpose of our forgiving others? One of the biggest things, and one of the most overlooked, is the responsibility and weight and power of forgiving…or NOT forgiving. Jesus explicitly says if we forgive, sins are forgiven, but if we do not forgive, the sins are not forgiven. In essence, we bring a blessing or a curse upon the heads of people who hurt us. Which will it be? Do we put down our pride and forgive, or do we cast judgment on the offender? But we also are called to forgive because it frees us. Each unforgiven action, each unrighted wrong, is a weight we willingly string around our own necks. It ties our hands, binds our feet, and blinds our eyes. How can we “be the hands and feet of Jesus” when we are fettered and shackled with unforgiveness in our hearts? How can we see who God would have us minister to when our eyes are covered with scales of resentment?

But most of all, we forgive because we are forgiven by God, and we love because God first loved us. We may sin against man and do awful things against mankind, but it is nothing in comparison to our vile rejection of our perfect Creator God. Maybe the oft-misquoted Nietsche wasn’t so far off when he said, “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we
comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and
mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under
our knives: who will wipe this blood off us?”

And yet, and yet…He loves us and forgives us. Still, even now.

Always.

Forever.