Friday, March 9

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Colossians 3:13

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Romans 5:8

For God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

On Monday morning, October 2, 2006, a gunman entered a one-room Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. In front of twenty-five horrified pupils, thirty-two-year-old Charles Roberts ordered the boys and the teacher to leave. After tying the legs of the ten remaining girls, Roberts prepared to shoot them execution-style with an automatic rifle and four hundred rounds of ammunition that he brought for the task. The oldest hostage, a thirteen-year-old, begged Roberts to “shoot me first and let the little ones go.” Refusing her offer, he opened fire on all of them, killing five and leaving the others critically wounded. He then shot himself as police stormed the building. His motivation? “I’m angry at God for taking my little daughter,” he told the children before the massacre. (From an on-line article about the book, “Amish Grace”)
The story captured the attention of broadcast and print media in the United States and around the world. By Tuesday morning some fifty television crews had clogged the small village of Nickel Mines, staying for five days until the killer and the killed were buried.


But the most riveting part of the aftermath was that the blood was barely dry on the schoolhouse floor when Amish parents brought words of forgiveness to the family of the one who had slain their children.


Fresh from the funerals where they had buried their own children, grieving Amish families accounted for half of the seventy-five people who attended the killer’s burial. Roberts’ widow was deeply moved by their presence as Amish families greeted her and her three children. The forgiveness went beyond talk and graveside presence: the Amish also supported a fund for the shooter’s family.


The outside world was incredulous. Within a week of the murders, Amish forgiveness was a central theme in more than 2,400 news stories around the world. The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, Larry King Live, Fox News, Oprah, and dozens of other media outlets heralded the forgiving Amish. Three weeks after the shooting, “Amish forgiveness” had appeared in 2,900 news stories worldwide and on 534,000 web sites.


The story of forgiveness had, in fact, become bigger than the story of the tragedy. Forgiveness trumped the violence and captured the world’s attention.
How is such forgiveness possible?

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

And how did the Lord forgive us?

For God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Forgiveness is always hard. Forgiveness is hard because it is costly. To forgive we must give up the right to our need for justice and punishment. To forgive we must give up the right to keep and polish our “trophies”.

Having said that, it is easiest to forgive when the offending party comes to us, falls on his or her knees and apologizes for the hurt and pain they have caused us and begs for our forgiveness. And sometimes that happens.

But most of the time forgiveness does not happen like that. Most of the time the person or persons who have hurt us by their sin never do apologize, and never seek our forgiveness. Sometimes they aren’t even aware that they have said or done something to wound us.

How do we forgive then? We forgive as Jesus forgave us. We forgive without apology; we forgive without justice; we forgive without acknowledgment of wrong; we forgive because he has forgiven us and because forgiveness sets us free.

We forgive because we refuse to carry another’s sin in our hearts any longer. We forgive because we can trust Jesus to deal with that person and their sin. We forgive because Jesus both commands and enables us to forgive.

Does forgiveness sometimes feel like it is impossible for you? Ask Jesus to help you forgive others as he forgives you. 

Pastor Brian Coffey