FORGIVENESS MEANS FREEDOM

FORGIVENESS MEANS FREEDOM 

GRANTING FORGIVENESS is a freeing experience. It frees the other person to relate to us in friendship again; it frees us from the frustration and hostility we may have been carrying around inside ourselves. This freedom has its effect on our prayers: We cannot approach God our Father with full freedom and ease if we are harboring grudges in the corner of our soul. We cannot enter fully into the presence of God if we know we are dragging along things that we do not want our Father to see. 

One of Jesus’ last prayers to His Father was a prayer of forgiveness. He uttered it from the Cross, and He uttered it on behalf of those who were putting Him to death in the most cruel and humiliating way they knew. Jesus prayed for them in the manner of one acting as a defense lawyer at their trial: He pleaded ignorance on their behalf. Jesus prayed for them in the manner of one acting as a defense lawyer at their trial: He pleaded ignorance on their behalf. Jesus prayed as a son asking a special favor from his father – knowing that the mercy He was asking for these men was not something they deserved but asking, nonetheless, as a son asks a father for an undeserved favor. Jesus prayed His own forgiveness: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Jesus invites us to pray as He prayed and to forgive as He forgave. He invites us to not only forgive others, but to pray for their forgiveness by God. The ultimate test of whether we have forgiven someone is whether we are willing to sincerely pray that they receive mercy and forgiveness and blessings from God. To pray such a prayer of forgiveness is to pray as Jesus prayed. 

For reflection: Am I holding any grudges? Is there anyone I need to forgive? 

Note: Taken from George Martin, PRAYING WITH JESUS – A GUIDE TO BIBLICAL PRAYER, Liguori, Missouri: Liguori Publications, 1989, pages 65-66. 

Jakarta, 20 October 2012 

A Christian Pilgrim