I was watching an old episode of LOST a while back and it was a scene where Sayid was captured by a husband of a women he had formally tortured. Her husband was going to bring justice by torturing Sayid now. After many beatings, the wife walks in and sits as Sayid begs to let him go and pleads with her that they have the wrong guy. She begs him to remember her. To validate her pain. To acknowledge the anquish he put her through. He finally acknowledges it and breaks down crying stating that he has seen her face in his minds eye every day since he tortured her and there were no words that could express his sincere apology accurately.
You then expect her to bring her husband back in and beat or kill him but instead she says a line I remembered from the last time I watched that episode years earlier but was reminded of again. She said.
I will let you go.
I will tell my husband we have the wrong man. You will be free. He was crying and with a puzzled look on his face he simply asks a question. Why? Why are you letting me go. Her response? Because I refuse to stoop to your level and hurt you like you hurt me so as to be a captive by unforgiveness. I forgive you for what you did to me. You cannot make me a prisoner to unforgiveness any longer. I forgive you. Now leave.
It was a powerful moment of extreme forgiveness and her determination to not let unforgiveness hold her back or captive to it.
The night in which Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and broke it....
We have heard this scripture a million and one times if you have grown up in a Church. But it hasn't been until recently that I realized the weight of that first line. The writer wants us to know something pretty amazing here. The very same night when they were all coming together and sharing a meal Jesus knew this was His last supper but He also knew Judas was going to betray him by taking money and giving Him over to the Roman guards yet He served Judas anyway. He was (is) God. He knew who was sitting at the table with him. He served him anyways.
He forgave Judas before Judas even needed forgiveness. The coming betrayal was something we needed to read. We needed to know that Jesus knew that. Yet in that same night, despite His coming betrayal, He broke bread with Judas anyways. The very same night Jesus was betrayed was the same night He not only broke bread with his betrayer, but Jesus didn't let that hold Him back from what He was called to do that night. He goes on to die and rise again for all of humanity....despite their sinful humanity to be set free from their sinful humanity.
There are bumps and detours in our lives. There is pain, devastation, abuse, brokenness, wrongs done to us. Words spoken to us. Intentional and unintentional wounds inflicted to us by other. Losses. Betrayals and flat out lies, at times, made up about us. Broken friendships, marriages and families.
If we are to model Jesus' life. We are to forgive. None of us are being betrayed unto death. But harboring unforgivness can be a spiritual death. It can devastate a life. It can hold you captivate. It can isolate you. It can trip you up by focusing on what was done to you. It can get you stuck in an endless cycle of trying to right the wrong. To fix that person and get them to get them to understand what they have done to you. It can get you to come down to their level, making you just like them. A captive to pain and unforgiveness.
Let it go. Forgive. Even when they don't deserve it. Even when they don't understand or sometimes even acknowledge the pain they inflicted upon you (that is the hardest thing to do, I know, you feel like forgiving them gives them the upper hand that, in some way, you forgiving them tells them what they did to you was alright). It wasn't alright, but God will deal with them. You are only responsible for allowing God to free your heart of unforgiveness and move on in all that He has called you to.
Forgive them today. Don't stay down there with them. Be set free today. Forgive them, let it go.
It is what Jesus calls us to do. It's what Jesus did and continues to do with all of us. There is freedom for you in forgiving. Take that step.
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