Jitterbugging for Jesus

I heard a preacher say once that if we all were vested with the power of God for 24 hours — who reserves vengeance for himself/herself — we’d all be dead before the cock crows.

Unlike God, we would be merciless in dishing a double- or triple scoop of ice-cold revenge to everyone who ever wronged us.

The great prophet Micah said:

“Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?

“You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.

“You will again have compassion on us.” (Micah 7:18-19)

We all know it’s God’s will that we bear our crosses and seek God’s forgiveness even for those we genuinely hate. Nobody ever said it’s easy even for a devout Christian who might, say, lose a couple of children and friends in a school shooting.

“Jesus wept — another sign of his strength.”

I once heard a young woman who was a lay leader in her United Methodist Church talk in a national TV interview about the loss of her baby in the Oklahoma City bombing. Though she was not an activist against it, she had been opposed to the death penalty.

That, however, was before her baby was killed by Timothy McVeigh, a killer so cold he said in another TV interview he had no remorse at all for killing babies.

The Methodist mother did say in a number of interviews that she thought she could forgive McVeigh over time, and wanted to forgive him. She didn’t want to be in bondage to hating him.

But the wound was still too deep for forgiveness at that time.

Mindful of that sobering perspective of how our perspectives can change when evil strikes close to home, it’s as important to understand what forgiveness is not as to know what forgiveness is.

1. It does not mean that the offense we are called to forgive is insignificant, that the offense doesn’t matter, that the offense is excused.

It can’t be said emphatically enough that to forgive is not to excuse what can’t be excused.

It can only be forgiven — and again, forgiveness can be a long process, depending on how grievous the offense is.

2. Forgiving doesn’t make us weak, dumb suckers.

Forgiving even the most evil person doesn’t make us a doormat for everybody in this hard-hearted world to wipe their feet on without resistance.

Forgiveness is in fact a sign of healthy ego-strength.

Jesus personified forgiveness and mercy and loved even his enemies. Yet he passionately, strongly resisted them at every turn.

Jesus was no mushy, namby-pamby, hippie-dippie, all-you-need-is-love Tiny Tim tip-toeing around bad people through the tulips.

Jesus waged an aggressive, in-your-face resistance movement, all the way to his face-to-face meeting with “that fox” Pilate.

Pilate was the weak one in that encounter.

3. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that because you wronged me I’m now going to trust you: not if you continue to show yourself unworthy of trust over and over.

Because someone you trusted and valued as a friend says “I’m sorry I stabbed you in the back to get the promotion and I’ll never stab you in the back again” doesn’t mean he won’t stab in the back tomorrow or next year.

Thank God we don’t have the power of God to exact vengeance on our enemies.

And Jesus, by the way, never said we won’t have and won’t make enemies!

Jesus did have plenty to say about forgiveness, even from the cross upon which he absorbed the pain of all our hard-hearted sin.