Walt Westbrook: Forgiveness, Part 2
(This is Part 2 of a series of blog posts by Rev. Walt Westbrook on Forgiveness. You can read Part 1 here. Walt is a pastor at St. Matthias UMC in Fredericksburg, VA where a group is studying Brian Zahnd‘s book, Unconditional? The Call of Jesus to Radical Forgiveness.)
I mentioned in the last post that Jesus forgave the people who were murdering him while they were in the act of murdering him. This is a role model for us all, but one could argue that Jesus is a different cat. Christian theology tells us that Jesus is fully human AND fully divine. Not 50/50. That would be Hercules. No, Jesus is fully a human being and fully God simultaneously. And, as such, he might have an inherently greater capacity to forgive than your fully human being who is not also God.
So, the book (Unconditional? The Call of Jesus to Radical Forgiveness by Brian Zahnd) gives us a couple of fully human examples of the same sort of thing. The first is Stephen, the first Christian martyr , meaning he was the first person to be killed specifically because he was a follower of Christ. In Acts 7, we find Stephen being stoned because he had defended Jesus as the Messiah (or as we know him, the Christ). An angry mob drags him out of the city, and proceeds to fling stones at him. In Acts 7:59-60 we read, “While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this he died.”
Two things: He prays for his killers while they are killing him. Is that not amazing? Could you do that? Someone is killing you, and it’s taking a while, so you have time to pull your thoughts together, and you forgive them. Hard to imagine. The only way to make that worse would be if someone was slowly killing someone you love. I think we can all agree that it is harder to forgive harm done to a loved one than harm done to one’s self. (Of course, forgiveness would still be the way to go.)
The second thing is that Stephen is not white-washing the situation. He prays for Christ not to “hold this sin against them.” It’s a sin. It’s not okay that they’re doing it. But, Stephen still wants Christ to forgive them. So, forgiveness is not minimizing the hurt. It is letting go of the anger so that it doesn’t control you or warp you into a bitter, mean-spirited person by poisoning your soul. The sin may be HUGE, but you essentially turn it over to God. Rather than taking the two most popular routes, payment or punishment (they must pay you restitution somehow or be punished), you take the third way: pardon.
Which brings us to Zahnd’s second human example: Pope John Paul II. In 1981, Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish Muslim, stood a few feet away from the pope as he was in an open motorcade going through St. Peter’s Square in Rome. Agca shot the pope four times, striking the torso, right arm and left hand. John Paul was critically injured, and spent 22 days in the hospital recuperating. In his first statement after the shooting, he requested that the people “pray for my brother, whom I have sincerely forgiven.” Imagine that sort of thing happening today. Forgiveness would be the furthest thing from the minds of people who would see only a Muslim trying to kill a Christian leader. World War III? Maybe.
But, that’s not how it all went down 20 years ago. After two years, the pope visited Ali Acga in prison. They met privately, and the pope let him know he had forgiven him. When Ali Acga was released from prison in 2006, he held aloft the 1984 Time magazine with the cover photo of his shocked face after receiving forgiveness from the pope, and called John Paul II his friend. The headline on the cover said, “Why Forgive?”
Why forgive? Christians forgive (when we do actually forgive) because Jesus taught us to, and showed us how. We may have seen someone be forgiving when we were growing up. Perhaps at some deep level we all know forgiveness is the right thing, the thing that might pull our world out of the cesspool of wars, torture and racial/religious hatred. Clearly demanding “justice” isn’t leading us out. Clearly the “payment or punishment” model isn’t leading us to a peaceful world. Forgiveness? Pardon? This may be the way to go. I say it’s worth a shot.
Peace and Prayers,
Walt
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I am a believer in forgiveness – wise, healthy, strong, courageous, just forgiveness.
As a pastoral counselor/psychotherapist I see too many people living with another kind of forgiveness or rather with what I believe is a misunderstanding of forgiveness. When they see forgiveness in this light persons who have have experienced injustice see forgiveness as meaning that they need to give up wisdom, health, strength, courage and justice.
I also experience many others raging against forgiveness because they understand it this way. Thus I believe it eincumbent on those of us who stand for forgiveness to describe forgiveness in a way that makes it clear that forgiveness involves striving for justice not acquiescing to injustice.
Unfortunately I don’t see anything in your two blog posts to help persons whose only understanding of forgiveness involved forfeiting a stance for justice.
Also as a pastoral counselor/psychotherapist I am convinced that God has given us a natural anger response to injustice. Thus to forgive we need to face the difficult task of working through anger rather than denying anger. Stephen and Pope John Paul may have done most of this work before their attack. Most of us will have to do much of the work afterwards.Ò
Great response Bob! Thanks!