From Forgiven to Forgiving

Jesus has taught us to pray, in what we know as The Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Immediately after teaching his disciples this prayer, Jesus adds:
"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15)

The good news is that the Jesus who served and washed Judas' feet on Maundy Thursday, the Jesus who died on the cross on Good Friday and who prayed from that cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," is also the Jesus who can enable us to forgive those who have sinned against us.

Corrie ten Boom shares the following story in her book, The Hiding Place, that powerfully illustrates this truth....

It was a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S. S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing centre at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there--the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie's pain-blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. "How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein," he said. "To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!"

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me you forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When he tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.

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