All of us have been wounded. No one gets through life with their hearts fully intact. Some wounds are small, some are huge (traumatic). We all share this in common . . . that we have all been treated unfairly, violated, hurt, ignored, not properly honored, taken for granted, or cruelly left out (cast aside).
We all have hurts, even from years ago . . . when we were bullied, abused in some way, have been made to feel inferior because our physical appearance, or laughed at because of how we speak (with a lisp, a stutter, or not articulate), concerned with a weight problem, feeling like an outsider, feeling socially awkward, having a disappointment with love.
We all have had humiliations: a posting about you on-line, no longer being able to control your bladder, a spouse cheating and you were the last to know, having a parent mock you in public, that DUI, missing that game-winning shot, having a friend betray your secret.
To the extent that we have been wounded, or hurt or humiliated we choose . . . how to live and how to die.
That brings us to this day. We hear how Jesus faced his death. In his day, a crucifixion was designed by the Roman government, not only as the ultimate punishment for a crime, but also meant to inflict the optimal amount of pain that a person could absorb and to be utterly humiliated publicly . . . to die naked, in front of everyone.
Now remember, as I spoke about last night during Jesus’ time in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus agonized about his death. Being God, he could have easily invoked some divine power and escaped all of this.
Jesus’ issue was not whether or not to die, it was HOW to die. He could do so with bitterness . . . or with love.
He could die with a hardness of heart . . . or a softness of soul, to die in resentment . . . or in forgiveness.
We know what he chose, but what about you? With how you have been crucified (with that wound, that hurt or that humiliation) will you stay in bitterness, resentment and vengeance . . . or can you choose something else?
In a bit, you will be invited to come before the cross, and I have three words for you to bring before the cross:
forgive, forgive, forgive. Yes, you’ve been wronged, yes it is not fair, yes that person (or people) aren’t suffering as you are (or as you did).
Jesus teaches in the Lords’ Prayer, forgiveness is a nonnegotiable condition for going to heaven. All your acts of moral purity or good actions are worthless if your heart remains bitter and incapable of forgiveness. Forgiveness is not easy, it’s often our greatest psychological, moral and religious struggle. It sometimes seems impossible.
Poet Alexander Pope, “To err is human, to forgive, divine.” Maybe the true forgiveness you need can’t come from you alone, maybe it can only come from a special divine grace inside us.
You will be invited to come before the cross. Bring that pain with you and allow God to transform you. You can be bitter or you can be better. Aren’t you tired of being bitter, of being so angry, of being hurt? Come to the cross and let go.