Hate and Forgiveness

Before we meditate on the Last Judgment we need to reflect on Hate and Forgiveness.  

ONE

The message coming from almost every media outlet is that we must pick a side, left or right, then fear and hate the other.

Fear and hatred in every epoch of history result in violence, murder and war.

At the origin of this message is Satan, the absolute destroyer. He wants everyone to fear, hate and despise everyone else so that we destroy each other and the world. It is that simple. Satan doesn’t care who burns the house down – just that it burns.

Luke 6, Jesus said: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly…Be merciful as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned.

TWO

Jesus says do not judge and do not condemn. What does He really mean? We can and must judge propositions: this is accurate this is inaccurate. We can and must judge behaviors: this is a right behavior, and this is a wrong behavior.

However, we cannot judge persons: this is a good person, this is an evil person.

We must judge their behaviors, but we cannot condemn them as evil and most importantly we cannot hate.

1 John 3 In this way we distinguish the children of God from the children of the devil: anybody not living a holy life and not loving his brother is no child of God's. This is the message as you heard it from the beginning: that we are to love one another; not to be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One and cut his brother's throat; cut his brother's throat simply for this reason, that his own life was evil and his brother lived a good life…If you refuse to love, you must remain dead; to hate your brother is to be a murderer, and murderers, as you know, do not have eternal life in them.

1 John 4 Anyone who says, 'I love God', and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen.

THREE

Darryl Burton was falsely convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in the Missouri State Penitentiary – known as the bloodiest 48 acres in America - A very hate filled place and Darryl became a hate filled person. Someone gave him a Bible and challenged him to read the words of Jesus. He found in the Bible that Jesus said, Love your enemy, pray for them and forgive them. But Darryl hated the people that imprisoned him unjustly and took his life away.

Jesus said love your enemies and pray for them. Well, Darryl prayed for them alright…he prayed for a building to fall on them…

And the third thing Jesus said was forgive them. But for Darryl that was over the top. He said, I can’t forgive these people for what they have done to me. No one can do that.

But Darryl kept reading and Jesus was falsely convicted, sentenced to death, had his flesh ripped off with a scourged of a cat of nine tails, had a crown of thorns forced into his brain through his skull and nailed to a cross.

But one verse in the Bible, Luke 23:34 stopped Darryl in his hatred, “Jesus said, Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.”

That verse pierced his heart because to him, that was divine, not human. Only God could do that so Jesus had to be divine. To forgive is divine – it can’t come from us. As Alexander Pope said, To err is human, to forgive divine.   

FOUR

So Darryl began to try to do what Jesus did and pray for the people he hated.

Through clenched teeth he prayed…

“Oh Jesus, I pray for them, but you know what they did to me. Make them turn around and do the right thing.”

But he was so angry. Filled with rage and hate. And he gave up.

Jesus I can’t do this!

Then Jesus whispered to him

No Darryl, you can’t forgive them, but I can forgive them through you

if only you would let me.

And that is how forgiveness works. That is the mystery of Forgiveness. It has to come from God through us if we let God use us.

With this realization Darryl began to pray for those people from his heart and it gave him a peace beyond all understanding. And 10 years before they found the real killer and Darryl was released he was already free! Free of hatred, free of fear.

But if we live in fear and hate and cannot forgive then we are already imprisoned. Locked inside a cell, holding the key ourselves…

FIVE

In the Our Father we set the standard for how we will be forgiven when we pray…Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

CCC  2838 Our petition will not be heard unless we have first met the strict requirement of forgiving others

2840 Now – and this is daunting – this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us...

We close with the words of Jesus

Forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.

End

I have posted a link for Darryl Burton’s witness. Its 30 min – listen to it. Its powerful.