8.15.24

This week we are looking at the issue of violence from Jonah 3. And what we’ve seen is that there are two main sources of violence in the world - and in our own hearts. The first is polytheism. In a world of many gods competing for allegiance, the essential nature of that world would be violent and chaotic. But in a world created by a single God, it would be a place of order and peace. The second source of violence is from religion itself. Religion is the notion that we can do something to work our way toward God. And as a result, it boots off our performance. And when performance is your source of validation, it creates competition and condescension.

And we’ve also seen that God’s solution is forgiveness. The natural bent of our hearts is to run to either vengeance and make the offender pay, or to simply ignore the offense and sweep it under the carpet. But what these solutions share in common is a complete disregard for the offender. All the emphasis is on me and the hurt that I’ve experienced. And so there’s motivation for justice, for healing, for change.

But how can we forgive, when our hearts scream at us to protect our fragile hearts? Ultimately, the only way we can truly forgive is to be the recipient of forgiveness ourselves. The biblical key to forgiveness is the notion of overcoming evil with good. And this means we must first deal with our own hearts before we attempt to address the person who has wronged us.

But the way we deal with our hearts up front, is to take it to the cross. We have to see our own deep offenses against God - far deeper than anything this person might have done to us. We have to see that we have hurt and offended God. And yet, he was gracious and patient and kind toward us. He came and took on our hurt. He endured even more hurt from our rejection of him. And yet he paid the price to forgive us for our offenses against him.

To the degree the beauty of this paid offense melts our own hearts, to that degree we will be able to deal with the hurt and anger in our own hearts before we attempt to deal with the offender. And this means that, as we struggle to absorb the hurt of others, we do so by seeing how Jesus willingly paid for ours. And when we struggle to forgive, it’s because we’re not remembering the cross - the price that was paid for our own forgiveness.

Remember today as you deal with various hurts directed toward you - that the cross is the only place to put your own heart in a place that is willing and able to forgive.