The Necessity of Forgiveness

While on the cross, Jesus asked for forgiveness for the Roman soldiers that had nailed him to the cross, and who were now mocking him.  Jesus' forgiveness of the soldiers mirrors other radical statements that he made about forgiveness, particularly his statement that we should forgive those who have wronged us seventy times seven times.

We are uncomfortable about forgiveness because we think that it means we allow ourselves to be taken advantage of.  Our first instinct when we are wronged is to seek retribution and vengeance. 

Forgiveness in a biblical context is a different concept than holding persons accountable or taking steps to ensure our own safety.  Forgiveness simply means setting aside anger and resentment.  Ultimately, forgiveness is about recognizing that those who wrong us have no power over us.  Forgiveness is something internal that happens within ourselves.

Forgiveness is always associated with self-denial, but it is actually the most self-indulgent thing that we can ever do.  There will always be persons in this world who wrong us.  We can refuse to forgive, hold onto the resentment and anger, and let it damage us and make us miserable.  Or we can forgive and get on with our lives.

Forgiveness is necessary for our own redemption and the redemption of the world.  God needs us focused upon making this world the world that God wants it to be, and to make us holy.  Jesus had a job to do on the cross; to bring about the redemption of the world.  He didn't have time to hold resentment about those who, out of their own ignorance, had placed him there on the cross.  We don't have time for resentment either.  We have more important things to do.

Overcoming our Fear of Death

Our culture has an extreme fear of death.  This fear is not a fear of the actual event of death, but rather an understanding of what death is.  Death is perceived as the end of our existence and a separation from the persons and things that we are attached to.

In the Church we know better, or at least we should.  In the Christian tradition, the term "death" is really a misnomer because we know that we are eternal.  We literally do not cease to exist, but simply pass along from one form of existence to another.  And the great news is that the God of eternity has all power and authority on earth, and all power and authority in the next world.  Death does not separate us from those that we love or from God.  There is nothing that can ultimately separate us. 

Jesus reveals this in a discussion with the Sadducees.  The Sadducees did not think that people could be resurrected.  In support of this position, then turn to a text in the Hebrew Bible that says that if a man dies married but childless, the man's brother was required to marry the widow.  The Sadducees present Jesus with a hypothetical: what if there were seven brothers, the first brother marries a women and dies childless, and then the other six brothers, in turn, marry the women and die childless.  The Sadducees concluded that if there was an afterlife, this would mean that the women would have seven husbands, which violated the Hebrew Bible.  Consequently, this raised the inference that there was no afterlife.

Jesus responds to the Sadducees by referring back to the story of Moses and the burning bush.  God, in that encounter, revealed Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the present tense: God was not the God who was the God of these three Patriarchs, but still is.  In God's eyes, all are alive because God is the God of the Living.

In God's eyes, all are alive, because we are all eternal.  Consequently, death is not something to be afraid of.  It is just a passage from another form of existence to another.