To Forgive and Retain

Submitted by AnnMarieKneebone on March 28, 2008 - 12:09pm.

John 20:19 - 23

It takes freedom to forgive sin. It takes freedom in your soul and in your heart. It takes freedom in your mind and in your spirit. It takes a freedom in your body as well. The kind of forgiving and retaining that I believe Jesus is referring to is not the holier-than-thou-I-am-doing-this-for- you-to-make-you-a-better-person type of forgiveness. That is not the kind of forgiveness that Jesus practiced. Jesus forgave sins of others so that they could be empowered – often for their own healing. It was an empowerment of faith. As I consider the many times that Jesus referred to forgiving someone it was never for his own betterment or status. It was one path of healing – a healing that was presented to him as a need. This is a cyclical thing, I think – forgiveness which evokes healing which evokes empowerment which comes around again back to forgiveness.

Is there a time to retain sin? I like to think not. Maybe there is. Jesus seems to indicate by his words that there is, but he also cried out on the cross prayers of forgiveness for his persecutors. What’s interesting about that, I think, is that Jesus was crying out a prayer for his Father to forgive them – he did not say that he forgave them. He forgave lots of people – why is it that he didn’t just cry out, “I forgive you. You don’t know what you’re doing.” Did Jesus not cry out his own forgiveness because at that time it was inappropriate? He was the one being abused … oppressed.

When a person is being abused by their partner and comes to me for counseling there is no way I am going to tell them to just forgive their abuser. I’m going to tell them to get out of there. When we are marching in the Pride Parade and some fundamentalists hurl hateful and abusive words at us, I am not so much standing in forgiveness for them. Rather, I am ready to fight – non-violently fight. I will take their abuse for the greater good sometimes, but it will be for my part an act of non-violent resistance, not simply passivity. I am digressing a little, but it is to the point that there seems to be a time to retain sin as opposed to forgive. Oppression, abuse, and all their ilk are not tolerated by Jesus and neither should they be tolerated by us. Maybe receiving the Holy Spirit, the Holy Breath of Christ, is also an empowering of discernment – to know when to forgive and when to retain.

Jesus said, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you.” How did the Father send him – that’s my question? We have the power to forgive or retain sin. As people who have received the divine breath of the resurrection, I believe we can experience rejoicing and pass that on to others along with the forgiveness of sin. It does not mean that we tolerate oppression and all its evils. That would not at all be how I understand the Father sending Jesus.

Ultimately, even in the face of all these questions and uncertainties, the message of the resurrection is a message of joy and freedom. It is a message of empowerment and forgiveness. It is a message of holy spirit-breath. Forgiving or retaining sins is not a power trip. I think instead it is for empowering to participate in enacting freedom.

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