A Cycle – 2^nd Sunday of Easter 26

1 Pt.1:3-9

It all happened so fast that the disciples had trouble grasping the meaning of it all.  They had witnessed the glorious welcome of Jesus into Jerusalem, and it fueled all their hopes, dreams, and expectations. The promised King of the Jews, the Messiah had arrived. The prophecies were unfolding.  Yet that evening in the upper room Jesus’s actions and words that evening were challenging. But they were used to Jesus saying and doing things that were confusing and challenging.  But His arrest and His trial were unexpected and they were in hiding, fearing for their own lives and their future was uncertain.  By fleeing and by their attempts to protect themselves, they had betrayed Him.

But now, they knew the women had discovered the stone rolled back and the burial garments placed on the slab.   The women also reported seeing an angel who said He had risen. They remembered His words stating He would be raised after three days. When suddenly He appears before them and offers them peace and breathed upon them. They would have felt the transforming power of the Holy Spirit ignite very part of their bodies. The baptism of fire John the Baptist prophesized Jesus would give to all was happening to them at that moment. Theologians tell us that moment brings about an inner conversion, changing our hearts so we can live lives of discipleship.  It is also flooding us with the love and forgiveness or God.  It is a powerful moment where we know God is embracing us and freeing us from the guilt which holds us back from becoming effective disciples.  

The first necessary step in God’s plan for our redemption was unfolding for them and for us.  The structured beliefs of disciplined religious practices have held us in check until now.  It was a necessary step in God’s plan for our redemption by providing us with all we need to be holy men and women of God.  If you believe, then you must respond by embracing forgiveness and allow it to wash over you and change your uncertainty to an absolute trust in God’s ability to forget our sins.    

  Jesus did not mention their betrayal, their abandoning Him, their fear, and their confusion.  The absence of those failings tells us all we need to know about how God views our sinfulness.  It is our own inability to see beyond our failures which fuels our lack of trust in the goodness of God and His desire to embrace us. Jesus gave us example after example of forgiveness and His words offering “peace” convey what forgiveness feels like. Notice there is no reprimand for their failure to believe. There is no demand for any sacrifice that must be made to be restored.  Peace, serenity, and the absence of fear or doubt are offered freely. There is nothing we need to do to receive forgiveness, it comes to us because Jesus is always seeking to reveal Himself to us.    

This should not surprise us because that was Christ’s message from the beginning of His ministry.  He came to set us free from sin, fear, doubt and show us the heart of the Father.  His final words from the cross continued the message of forgiveness.  Have you ever thought about those final of Jesus are directed at you. Scripture is the living word and is God speaking to us.  Challenging us, just as Jesus challenged the disciples.    

It is easy for us to hear them and believe Jesus is talking about all those involved in His crucifixion.  The Pharisees, the crowd who demanded His death, Pilate, those who flogged Him and spat upon Him.  Those who nailed Him to the cross and mocked Him for three hours.  We easily get trapped in the story and forget the Word of God is speaking to us every time we read it, hear it, and pray with it.  The church teaches us, “our sins were placed upon Him.”  Those words “forgive them they know not what they do” are directed at you and me. They are meant for every generation, including those yet to be born.  However, we somehow hear them and think of them as a story from the past but they are alive and directed at each of us.   

Forgiveness is ours to embrace or to ignore as the prodigal son was trying to do. God does not want slaves; no, He wants sons and daughters who know the kingdom is theirs.  But we also must know discipleship comes without a demand of remorse, restitution, or apology for our past.  That spiritual truth is hard for us to comprehend.  We know human nature makes it hard for us to forgive those who have wounded us.  That spouse who abandoned you and your children. That drunk driver who killed your child or the person who abused your child.  Forgiveness is the hardest thing demanded of us and yet we easily pray forgive us as we forgive.  God offers us peace, welcome and wholeness without any cost to ourselves.  But instinctively, as a people forgiven, we know we must forgive those who have wounded us.  It is the cost of discipleship and for what it is worth it is nothing more than a decision.  A decision to forgive does not come from the heart or from a place of kindness.  It comes from a desire to be in a right relationship with God.  It is for us and our healing not that of that other person.  Today as you pray the Our Father – forgive that person. Surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit and allow that Spirit to change our hearts so we know we have no choice but to offer forgiveness to those who have wounded us.