Let go of past hurts, forgive, choose to be free

Picture two images. The first is Clint Eastwood holding his Magnum 45 staring at an evil person saying his famous lines, “Go ahead, make my day.” Why do we like that image so much?

It is because we have wanted to confront someone who has wronged us and pay them back for the wrong they have done. We want justice done. If no one else will do it, we want to do it ourselves. We hate being a victim. We want life to be fair and just. We want the bad punished, and the good rewarded.

The second image is of our Lord on Good Friday, nails piercing his hands and feet, blood running from his head where the crown of thorns has gouged his flesh. His enemies have unfairly accused, persecuted, and are now putting him to death. He has every right to look down at them and say, “If I wanted to I could call down legions of angels to wipe you out.” Yet what does he say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Which image has more power for you? Be honest now! Clint Eastwood with his Magnum 45 or Jesus Christ saying “Father, forgive them?”

When Peter asked our Lord how often should he forgive someone, he was pushing the extent of forgiveness. The law required a person to forgive someone three times. Peter thought that doubling that number and adding another would be enough to please God.

Jesus’ response is that we should not forgive out of obligation, but from a heart that has experienced God’s forgiveness. Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness calls for a new heart and mind outlook. We must be convinced that forgiveness can accomplish more than holding onto past hurts and resentments.

A young mother picked up her preschooler and went to the post office. As she reached for her mail box, a woman bent over to get the mail out of her box. The young mother brushed the head of the woman with her arm. She apologized and then stepped back to look at her mail.

She was about to walk away when the other woman came at her, head down, and rammed her in the stomach, knocking the breath out of her. The woman said, “That’s payback for what you did to me.” Then she added, “If your child hadn’t been here, I would have done something much worse.”

Compare this with Nelson Mandela, who was the president of the new Republic of South Africa. The white racist government of the former South Africa had imprisoned him for thirty years. When they finally released him and after he was elected president, he invited the two white guards who had guarded his cell for all those years to his inauguration.

The newspaper pictured them standing on each side of him. The caption read, “Mandela forgives captors.” Both became Christians from guarding Mandela for all those years. He forgave both of them totally, freely. Now, which person you think possesses more power, the lady in the post office ramming her head into the stomach of the young mother, or Nelson Mandela, forgiving the men who had guarded him for almost thirty years?

When we choose to hold onto past hurts, we are holding on to the past and allowing the culprit to have power over us even after many years have passed. When we choose forgiveness, we choose to be freed from bondage to our past.

Families cannot go forward until they forgive the past; marriages cannot be healed until one or both forgive the past; our spiritual lives cannot be freed to find joy until we forgive. Let go of past hurts, forgive, and leave the judgment to God. Choose to be free.