The fact is that in my life, I've been horribly wounded, not by unbelievers who don't know any better, but by Christians who thought they were doing the work of God. I've been bruised, battered, judged and left for dead in a pool of tears by folks who attend church every week. What am I supposed to do with that?
The saving grace is that Jesus is praying for us. That the church works at all is a miracle. And Jesus' words from the cross haunt me: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they're doing." Ha. The heck they didn't know what they were doing -- they were killing him for heaven's sake! They knew exactly what they were doing. What they didn't get was the significance of what they were doing. They didn't see him as the Son of God. They had eyes, but could not see.
What I've come to understand is that there are two common issues to be addressed. The first is a recognition problem. We don't see Jesus for who he is, and we don't see other children of God for who they are -- for whose they are. If we truly understood the depth of love that God has for the others around us, the enemies, the mean people who suck, then we could be more than the Pharisees who didn't see Jesus for who he was. The second issue is to follow the advice. How do I forgive the mean people, the child molester, the rapist? I think it's interesting that Jesus didn't say "I forgive you." He didn't say, in the third person, "I forgive them." He said, "Father, forgive them." He reached out to the edges of his grasp, took the attackers, and handed the whole mess off to His Father and made a big fat excuse for them -- "they don't know what they are doing."
Hmmm... [Sigh.] When I can't yet bring myself to forgiveness, perhaps I can pass it along to The Father to excuse their true crime -- blindness. Thank you, Jesus, for those words!
