The hospital was unusually quiet that bleak January evening, quiet and still like the air before a storm. Sue Kidd, standing in her nursing station on the 7th floor, threw a stethoscope around her neck and headed for room 712, last room on the hall. Room 712 had a new patient. Mr. Williams. A man all alone. A man strangely silent about his family. As she entered the room, Mr. Williams looked up eagerly, but dropped his eyes when he saw it was only his nurse. She pressed the stethoscope over his chest and listened. Mr. Williams' heart sounded good. There seemed little indication he had suffered a slight heart attack a few hours earlier.

He looked up from his bed and stammered, "Nurse, would you…" He hesitated, tears filling his eyes. It seemed like he changed his mind. The nurse held his hand and he brushed away a tear and tried again, "Nurse, would you call my daughter? Tell her I've had a heart attack. A slight one. You see, I live alone and she is the only family I have." "Of course I'll call her," she said. He gripped the sheets and pulled himself forward, his face tense with urgency. "Will you call her right away - as soon as you can?" He was breathing fast - too fast. "I'll call her the very first thing," the nurse said as she flipped off the light. Before she walked out, he called out, "Nurse, could you get me a pencil and paper?" She dug a scrap of yellow paper and a pen from her pocket and set it on the bedside table.

She walked back to the nurse's station and sat by the phone. Mr. William's daughter was listed on the chart as the next of kin. She dialed her number and a soft voice answered. "Janie, this is Sue Kidd, a registered nurse at the hospital. I'm calling about your father. He was admitted tonight with a slight heart attack, and…" "No!" she screamed into the phone, "He's not dying, is he?" "His condition is stable at the moment," Sue said, trying hard to sound convincing. She bit her lip as there was silence on the other end. "You must not let him die!" came a voice so compelling that the nurse on the other end trembled. "He's getting the very best care," she reassured her.

"But you don't understand," Janie pleaded. "My daddy and I haven't spoken in almost a year. We had a terrible argument on my 21st birthday, over my boyfriend. I ran out of the house. I haven't been back. All these months I've wanted to go to him for forgiveness. The last thing I said to him was, 'I hate you.'" Her voice cracked and she began sobbing. Sue sat listening, tears burning her own eyes. A father and a daughter, so lost to each other! As Janie struggled to control her tears, Sue breathed a prayer, "Please, God, let this daughter find forgiveness."

"I'm coming. Now! I'll be there in 30 minutes," Janie said, and hung up. All Sue could think about now was room 712. She knew she had to go back there. She hurried down the hall, nearly running. She opened the door. Mr. Williams lay unmoving. She reached for his pulse. There was none. "Code 99. Room 712. Code 99. Stat!" The alert was shooting through the hospital within seconds after she called the switchboard through his intercom. Mr. Williams had had a cardiac arrest. With lightening speed, the nurse leveled the bed and bent over his mouth, breathing air into his lungs. She did compressions on his chest: one, two, three…at 15 she moved back to his mouth and breathed as deeply as she could. Where was the help? Again she compressed and breathed. And again… He could not die!

"Dear God," she prayed, "His daughter is coming. Don't let it end this way." The door burst open. Doctors and nurses poured into the room pushing emergency equipment. A doctor took over the manual compression of the heart. A tube was inserted through his mouth as an airway. Nurses plunged syringes of medicine into the intravenous tubing. Sue connected the heart monitor. Nothing. Not a beat. Her own heart was pounding! "God, don't let it end like this. Not in bitterness and hatred. His daughter is coming! Let her find peace."

"Stand back!" cried a doctor. Sue handed him the paddles for the electrical shock to the heart. He placed them on Mr. Williams' chest. Over and over they tried. But nothing. No response. Mr. Williams was dead. A nurse unplugged the oxygen. The gurgling stopped. One by one, the emergency team left, grim and silent. How could this happen? How? Sue stood by his bed, stunned. How could she face his daughter? How could Janie ever find peace now?

Of all of the problems you face in life, is there anything more painful than a broken relationship? Is there anything more hurtful than the barriers that divide people? Is there anything more soul-destroying than the absence of forgiveness between two people? Do you see evidence of broken relationships and barriers between people in your world? Divorce, lawsuits, violence, war, pain, suffering, feelings being trampled on, domestic violence, and murder are all evidence of the broken relationships that barriers between people bring about, don't you agree?

Let me ask you something: Has someone hurt you? Do you feel estranged or alienated or walled off from anybody? Do you have bitterness in your heart toward any other person? Is there someone who hasn't forgiven you? Or someone you haven't forgiven? Does it feel good? I doubt it! It never feels good to me. Does it cause pain in your life? I bet it does! It always does for me. Hatred, prejudice, bigotry, vengeance, and harshness toward one another…all these are sinful. They are dividing walls. They are spiritual poisons. Poisons that will kill our souls.

Our Bible text tells us why we have all the broken relationships, barriers of hostility, hatred between people, lack of forgiveness, and absence of peace in our world and in our life. All of these BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS come from our BROKEN RELATIONSHIP! They come from our broken relationship with God! We were created to have a perfect relationship with God! We were created just like Him - perfect! And our relationship with Him was supposed to be perfect! Then everything else, all our other relationships in life, will also be vibrant and wonderful and peaceful. Everything in life flows from our relationship with our Creator. But we messed that all up pretty badly as soon as we were born!

Verse 6 lets us know that we are POWERLESS, HELPLESS. We were helpless to fix our relationship with God, and therefore, helpless to really have meaningful relationships with other human beings. Our relationship was broken and needed to be fixed, but there was nothing in us or about us that would move God to do such a thing for us. Verse 8 reminds us that we were SINNERS - people who not just accidentally, but purposely break God's will for our lives. And verse 10 makes the case stronger by stating that we were actually God's ENEMIES. That is how broken your and my relationship with God was! And that broken relationship is what breaks all the other relationships in our lives. So Why did Jesus Have to Go to the Cross? TO REESTABLISH OUR BROKEN RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD!

Verse 6 doesn't only tell us we are powerless. It also says, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." And verse 8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Do you get what is so striking about this? We didn't make the first move. We didn't come half way back to God, so that He was less angry with us. It was right while we were fighting against God and hating Him that Christ stepped into our world and let our punishment be put on Him! He did that to break down ALL barriers between you and God! To fix your broken relationship completely! So that you and God would be reconciled. Jesus went to the cross to exchange enmity for friendship! Our text stresses repeatedly the contrast between what we were and what God has made us. How utterly incapable we are to help contribute to our salvation and the great price that was required to accomplish it!

We were enemies of God. But God made us his friends. Completely because of his love for us! Jesus going to the cross for sinners is the fullest expression of God's love we could ever have. As we look at the cross during Lent and are reminded of our sins that brought Christ there, we should also be reminded of the width, height, and depth of God's love for us! He reestablished our broken relationship with Him! Listen to the result in verses 1-2: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand..." God declared us "not guilty" for the sins we have committed. He has forgiven us! He exchanged our enmity for friendship! We are now at peace with Him. There is nothing else keeping us apart. No more barriers. No more walls. We are friends. We can trust that we are acceptable to Him now because of what Jesus did for us. THIS is why Jesus had to go to the cross - TO REESTABLISH OUR BROKEN RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD!

So, since God has reestablished your broken relationship with Him, shouldn't you do that with others? Since God has forgiven you, wouldn't it be a small thing to forgive others for how they have hurt you? Since God's wrath has been removed from your life, and you have an eternity of love to look forward to with Him, shouldn't you remove your wrath from others? Has someone hurt you? Do you feel walled off from anybody? Do you have bitterness in your heart toward any other person? If so, go fix that! Don't wait around any more! Don't put it off any longer. For your sake, for their sake, for God's sake…go fix it! Ask God to go with you. Ask Him to give you the words to say and the love to say them with. "I forgive you. Jesus has forgiven you. Please forgive me." Go break down those walls of hostility. Make your enemies your friends! Just like Jesus made you his. And don't wait as long as Janie and her father did.

Speaking of whom, you probably want to hear how that story ends. Mr. Williams had just died. When Sue, the nurse, left the room to find Janie, the only daughter, she saw her against the wall by a water fountain. A doctor who had been inside Room 712 only moments before, stood at her side, talking to her, gripping her elbow. Then he moved on, leaving her slumped against the wall. Such pathetic hurt reflected from her face. Such wounded eyes. She knew. The doctor had told her that her father was gone.

Sue took her hand and led her into the nurses' lounge. They sat on stools in silence, until Sue said, "Janie, I'm so sorry." It was pitifully inadequate. "I never hated him, you know. I loved him," Janie said. "God, please help her," Sue thought. Suddenly Janie said, "I want to see him!" Sue, at first unconvinced this was a good idea, got up and put her arm around her as they walked slowly to room 712. Janie pushed open the door, they moved to the bed, huddled together, and Janie leaned over the bed and buried her face in the sheets. Sue couldn't bear to watch this sad, sad goodbye. She backed against the bedside table, and her hand fell upon a scrap of yellow paper. She picked it up. It read: "My dearest Janie, I forgive you. I pray you will also forgive me. I know that you love me. I love you, too. Daddy." The note was shaking in her hands as she thrust it toward Janie. Janie read it once. Then twice. Her tormented face grew radiant. Peace began to glisten in her eyes. She hugged the scrap of paper tightly, and the nurse said a prayer: "Thank you, God. Thank you that through your forgiveness, relationships, no matter how fragile, can be mended together again."

Janie's relationship with her father was restored. It was reestablished through the forgiveness that only God could give us through Jesus. This is why Jesus had to go to the cross. To reestablish your relationship with God. To forgive you. Don't waste any more time! There is not a moment to spare! Go and call that person you need to today and tell them, "I love you." Amen.

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