Father, forgive...

Those words, from the Gospel according to Luke, ring loud and clear for me every Holy Friday. This year, however, there is something different about them. Usually, I think of forgiveness as me gaining some power back from an offending person; in forgiveness, I release that person's grip on me as well as my need to be held by that oppressive power. Today, however, there is a bit of a deepening in that understanding.

Here's the scene: Jesus is on the cross; he has been unjustly judged and beaten by Roman authorities, so say all the gospels. According to John's Gospel, Jesus' own religious leaders have even turned on him. These same religious leaders had seen Jesus perform miracles, heal people, even cavort with people of questionable backgrounds. The last straw for these authorities, according to John, is Jesus' final miracle - raising Lazarus from the dead. In that final act before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus proved his power over death itself. Fear struck the authorities: "We have to kill him or the people will start to believe in him."

Luke has Jesus say from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing..." Even there, perhaps especially there, one sees Jesus as one who eats with sinners. On the cross, Jesus renounces all of the forces of evil that have paved the way to his death. He has seen how dark the human heart can become, and in their final act, humanity even tries to kill the Divine itself. Forgiveness halts the powers of sinfulness and death in the moment when Jesus cries out, "Forgive".

Forgiveness, it has been said by a professor in seminary, is the only the thing the Church has to offer. Perhaps that is right. From forgiveness itself flows a host of other emotions/virtues: compassion, humility, love, acceptance. Forgiveness is about the offended one, but, in some mysterious way, it also unleashes the powers that turn the hearts of humanity. In the name of religion, so much has been said and done against nations and peoples, against one another. Religion has for too long propagated what is called "sacred violence". We see it in the crusades and holy wars of all ages; we see it even in the rhetoric of political leaders of modern times. In Jesus, however, we encounter the Christ, the anointed one of God, who changes all violent realities. No longer is violence in any form legitimate, because God says from the cross, "Forgive."

It's almost like a command: "God forgive them! Release them! As these powerful words are spoken, make it happen that humanity would see the travesty in the violences they commit against one another." When Jesus cries, "Father, forgive," he means that all of the sacred violence that has been condoned since time immemorial is now no longer valid and humanity is released to act in a new way - the way of the Christ.

Blessed Holy Friday,
Tim