My roots are Southern Baptist, where the going term is "hate the sin but love the sinner." To drive that point home, after Larry Ashbrook brutally murdered all those kids at church near Ft. Worth, this was the Southern Baptist reaction:
NewsMax 9/21/99 Bill Murchison “….On the assumption that Satan, enlisting the help of Larry Gene Ashbrook, set out last week to intimidate Christians ... well, did this unholy pair pick the wrong church! Liberal Protestants of hazy theological outlook -- that might have been one thing. But Southern Baptists! No one in his right mind would put forward the Baptists as subject matter for spiritual intimidation. Confronted, menaced, jeopardized, Baptists reach for a familiar object -- the Holy Bible. They open it, they brandish it, they thrust it right in the Devil's face. Just how heart-warming it was to see them do so on a sun-splashed Sunday afternoon, in Texas Christian University's football stadium, I beg here and now to report. The Baptists, to every appearance, have it right: Spiritual warfare rages in our midst.
NewsMax 9/21/99 Bill Murchison “….Affirm? A mild word for what goes on at the stadium. What about the father of one of the victims, leading the audience/congregation in the singing of a song his murdered daughter had loved? What about the pastor of the desecrated church, the Rev. Al Meredith, whomping up a classic Baptist revival on the spot -- a call to fasting and repentance and prayer? "Raise your hand if you want the killing to stop -- if you want to see the spirit of the living God sweeping over our land like wildfire.'' Up in the air -- a forest of affirming arms, one of them attached to an Episcopalian journalist. Bad news for Satan. He's stirred up the Baptists -- folk who take him with the deep seriousness his malice deserves. The culture wars may have taken a decisive turn….”
‘Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'get up; take up your mat and walk'?.‘ (Mark 2:9)
Jesus experienced forgiveness as difficult, not just because he loved the brothers (his disciples), but because he loved everyone. If you care about anyone at all, it is hard to forgive those who harm them. Jesus offered... forgiveness---to the experts in the law, even though he was angered by what they were doing to the poor, and the helpless. He loved the widows and the fatherless.
If you lived in Yugoslavia, and had seen family and friends tortured and butchered. And if the perpetrators were known to you, and still living in your neighborhood, what would you do if one of them came to your home, begging forgiveness?
In George Eliot's story, Adam Bede is an honest carpenter. He has eyes for pretty Hetty Sorrel. But along comes Arthur Donnithorne, who is swashbuckling and rich. He takes Hetty just because he can, and leaves her, pregnant and sorrowful. Later, realizing he has ruined Adam Bede's life as well as Hetty's, Donnithorne comes to Adam begging forgiveness. Adam struggles, and only with great effort does he give it. "There's a sort o' damage sir," he says, "that can't be made up for. Aye, you whose sin hurts other folk, remember that."
Forgiveness is an wrenching event for the forgiver. Jesus knew this agony because he loved everyone so deeply. His willingness to forgive means healing for the world.