March 5, 2006

Lent Series 2006 – 1

On December 22, 1984, four young men were shot on a NYC subway as they were attempting to mug one of the passengers on the train.  Carrying sharpened screwdrivers, they were on their way to rob a video arcade when they decided to demand some money from the guy sitting next to them.  They figured he was helpless until he pulled out a .38 and blasted away at them.  Who was the man with the smoking gun?  An undercover cop?  An off-duty soldier?  Jack Bauer?  Dirty Harry?  Vin Diesel?  Robin Hood?  The Lone Ranger?

No.  It was a 37-year-old, bald, skinny,  timid, glasses-wearing, electronics-store manager named Bernard Goetz.  Not the guy you would expect to be a vigilante.  But he had been mugged once before, and he had had enough.  The “subway vigilante” as he came to be known, instantly became a hero.  A popular actress sent him a telegram.  “Thug-buster” T-shirts began to appear on the streets of New York City.  Rock groups wrote songs in his honour.  People raised and gave money to go toward his defense.  Radio talk shows were deluged with callers.

It isn’t hard to see why.  Bernhard Goetz did what every citizen wants to do.  He fought back.  He “kicked the bully in the shins.”  He “punched the villain in the nose.”  He “clobbered evil over the head.”  He got revenge.  And people applauded him for it.  People are mad.  Angry.  We want to fight back, but we don’t know how.  And then, when a modern-day Wyatt Earp walks onto the scene, we applaud him.  Way to go, Thug-Buster!  They had it coming!

Really?   What good was done?  Is that really the way to reduce the crime rate?  Are subways forever safer?  Are the streets now free of fear?  No.  Anger doesn’t do that.  Anger only feeds a lust for revenge that feeds our anger that feeds our revenge… you get the idea.  Vigilantes are not the answer.  So what do we do?  A good option is found in Luke 23:34.  Jesus’ first Word from the Cross.  He is speaking about the mob that killed Him.  “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  How did Jesus keep from retaliating?  Instead of blasting away at the thugs who tortured Him, He Spoke a Word of Forgiveness!

I.

That isn’t what Bernie Goetz did.  Is it what you and I do?  That guy that just cut you off in traffic?  Does he deserve your forgiveness?  Do you say, “Father, forgive him”?  How about that person who lied to you?  Do you want to forgive them or get them back?  Or the person who insulted you?  Right in front of all your friends?  What about the person that didn’t invite you to the party?  Feeling love toward them?  How about the person who gossiped about you?  Ruined your reputation?  The one who didn’t do what they said they would do?  Or the person who abandoned your friendship and became friends with someone else, leaving you hanging?  Leaving you all alone?  The girl that rejected your invitation for a date?  Or maybe even the husband or wife who left you?  Who abandoned you?  Who has remained distant from you?

Are you filled with so much love for these people that your first inclination is to forgive them and ask God to forgive them?  Or do they make you so mad you could spit?  Do you just want to hit back?  Shoot back?  Get revenge?  Make them come groveling back to you if they are ever going to deserve your forgiveness?  Isn’t that how we often feel?

Not Jesus. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  How could He be so forgiving?  So loving to that mob on the hill that day?  Look what they were doing!  The Roman soldiers had been torturing him all morning, nailing him to the cross and gambling for his clothes.  Jesus forgave them.  Could I be so forgiving?  Could you?  How about the people who stood there watching and spoke no words in Jesus’ defense?  Could I be so forgiving of those who stood by and did nothing to help me?  Could you?

How about the religious leaders who came to taunt Him?  The ones who hurled verbal stones at Jesus?  Of all the scenes of the cross, doesn’t this one anger you the most?  What kind of people would mock a dying man?  Who would be so base as to pour the salt of scorn upon open wounds?  How low and perverted to sneer at one who is laced with pain!  Who would make fun of a person who is seated in an electric chair?  Or who would point and laugh at a criminal who has a hangman’s noose around his neck?  And yet, Jesus speaks a word of forgiveness: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  Could you?

No doubt you’ve had your share of words that wound.  You’ve felt the sting of a well-aimed barb.  Maybe you’re still feeling it right now.  Someone you love or respect slams you to the floor with a slur or slip of the tongue.  And there you lie, wounded and bleeding.  Perhaps the words were intended to hurt you.  Perhaps not.  But that doesn’t matter.  The wound is deep.  The injuries are internal.  Broken heart, wounded pride, bruised feelings.  Or maybe your wound is old.  Though the arrow was extracted long ago, the arrowhead is still lodged… hidden under your skin.  The old pain flares up from time to time, reminding you of harsh words not yet forgiven.  (Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him The Savior).  Can you forgive for this??

Jesus could.  Jesus did.  When He taught us, He told us, “Love your neighbor…Forgive seventy times seven!”  (meaning, don’t stop.)  Well, He practiced what He preached. Perfectly.  Selflessly.  On the cross, his first words were “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  His word of forgiveness condemns my unforgiving heart.  Makes me feel guilty.  Doesn’t it make you feel guilty too?  You know those wouldn’t have been our first words!  You know we would have loved to have Bernie Goetz’s .38 with us!  When I look at Jesus’ forgiving heart, I am convicted, I am exposed, because I know I can’t love and forgive the way He wants.  And too many times, I don’t even want to.  I don’t even try.  Do you? 

II.

It is for our unforgiving spirit that Jesus hung on that cross.  And that’s why Jesus’ Word of forgiveness is also one that Comforts my Grateful Heart.  When Jesus said “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” was He speaking to the Roman soldiers?  Yes.  Was He speaking to the mob on the hill?  Yes.  Was He speaking to those who were jeering at Him?  Yes.  But was that it?  No.  He was also speaking to you and me.  He also knew the wounds that we would cause Him, He knew all about our unforgiving anger, the grudges we hold, the nails we would pound into his hand, and He spoke those words of forgiveness for us!

And we need those words of forgiveness!  Martin Luther once had a dream that he was being attacked by Satan. The devil unrolled a long scroll containing a list of Luther’s sins, and held it before him. On reaching the end of the scroll Luther asked the devil, “Is that all?” “No,” came the reply, and a second scroll was thrust in front of him. Then, after a second came a third. “You’ve forgotten something,” Luther exclaimed triumphantly. “Quickly write on each of them, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sins!’”

Friends, Jesus provided forgiveness for us!  He put substance behind the Word of forgiveness He spoke to us on the cross!  And here’s how!  First of all, He lived these words of forgiveness!  He loved and forgave people perfectly!  He never held a grudge!  Never refused to forgive!  He lived that perfect, revenge-less life that we have failed to.  He came in as our substitute “forgiver” because we aren’t doing a good job of forgiving in the game of life.

We didn’t love our enemies.  But Jesus did.  He forgave them.  How many hammer blows did it take to pound the nails into his hands and feet?  Seven?  Is that too many?  No, Jesus forgave them.  How many verbal taunts were hurled at Jesus on the cross?  Seventy-seven?  That’s too many, right?  No. Father, Forgive them.  And how many times, in the next week, next month, or year, will you and I lapse back into our sinful ways?  Harboring grudges, growing bitter, resentful, even plotting revenge?  How many times, right in our own church, will we create divisions, speak harsh words to each other, question motives, refuse to help, or refuse to forgive?  Seventy times seven?  And still, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  Jesus spoke these words for you.  For me.  He spoke them as our perfect substitute.  He forgave when we didn’t.  God sees his forgiving spirit in us now.

But there was also a penalty to be paid for the times we haven’t forgiven.  Blood had to be shed.  And that’s why Jesus was at the cross. Look closely at his hand that is being nailed into that cross.  See anything?  Look again.  Look under his hand.  See anything now?  If you look between his hand and the wood closely enough, you just may see a list.  A long list.  A list of our mistakes: Lies. Greed. Anger.  A list of our sins.  Dangling from that cross is a list of all your sins.  The bad decisions from last year.  The bad attitudes from last week.  There, for all of heaven to see, is a list of your mistakes.  But that list cannot be read.  The words can’t be made out.  The mistakes are covered!  The sins are hidden!  They are hidden by Jesus’ hand and covered with his blood!

Colossians 2:13-14 says: “When you were dead in your sins…God made you alive with Christ.  He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”  Jesus took every one of our sins, our refusals to forgive, took them to his cross, and gave his blood to pay for them, since we couldn’t, because He didn’t want us to be separated from Him.  His blood.  His suffering.  His death.  That was the price required to back up these words: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  Because of the cross, forgiveness is yours!

And now, his Word, his attitude of forgiveness, is something that can begin to fill your life.  Years ago, a man named T. D. Terry had a stressful job that stirred within him daily bouts of anger.  His daughter, when she heard him describe them years later, responded with surprise. “I don’t remember any anger during those years!”  He asked her if she remembered the tree – the one near the driveway about half way between the gate and the house.  “Remember how it used to be tall?  Then lost a few limbs?  And after some time was nothing more than a stump?”  She did.  “That was me,” T. D. explained.  “I took my anger out on the tree.  I kicked it.  I took an ax to it.  I tore the limbs.  I didn’t want to come home mad, so I left my anger at the tree.”

Let’s do the same.  But instead of taking out our anger on a tree in the yard, let’s take our anger to the Tree on the hill.  Leave your anger at the tree of Calvary.  Let Jesus take care of it there.  That’s where He paid the price for it.  Leave it with Him.  And know that He is not angry with you.  He isn’t upset.  He loves you.  He has forgiven you. Listen to his word of forgiveness!  Amen.

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