They answered him, ‘We are descendants of Abraham and have
never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, “You will be made
free”?’ (John 8:33)
A couple
years ago I read Desmond Tutu’s book No
Future Without Forgiveness wherein he not only discussed the individual and
community healing that can flow through forgiveness but he made no bones about
its messiness. Forgiveness is tough work.
“Forgiving
and being reconciled to our enemies or our loved ones are not about pretending
that things are other than they are. It is not about patting one another on the
back and turning a blind eye to the wrong. True reconciliation exposes the
awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, the truth. It could even sometimes make things
worse. It is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile, because in
the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing.
Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing.” - Desmond Tutu
If you are looking for quick, neat and tidy
solutions, forgiveness may not be the first word that crosses your mind; it may
be something closer to revenge. Revenge, or the instinct to desire revenge, comes
from a deep innate place of justice – a deep yearning for justice to be done.
Surely we can have some measure of empathy for the anguish and bitter hatred
expressed by victims of hideous crimes. We want to see justice done – and
quickly please. We seek justice; this is good.
Sadly, it is
likely not too difficult for us to image mass deportation, war and even
genocide. It has been all over the news during my lifetime alone. The Psalmists
lived through such a time of exile and hated their captors. Their land had been
conquered, language despised, culture ridiculed, sacred places of worship and
community gatherings destroyed, and vessels used for religious rites desecrated
during drunken parties. The feverish pitch of the visceral desire for revenge,
and a yearning for divine justice is expressed throughout the Psalms. These
yearnings exist today by many peoples.
Psalm 139 is
a staple for those who seek the comfort of being fully know and fully loved in
spite of sin. It has moments of a mysterious divine gentleness in being intimately
known and sings out in amazement and joy that “such knowledge is too wonderful
for me.” Yet, it quickly turns on the issue of justice with a guttural desire
for their oppressors to be slain. “Do I not hate them, O Lord…I hate them with
perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.” And just as quickly as the psalm
turned toward the pain and delight of revenge it turns back in surrender to a
just God. “Search me, O God, and know my heart…see if there is any wicked way
in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”
The appeal
is to a God of eternal justice. As a follower of Jesus I must confront the
reality that divine justice is intimately bound up in forgiveness as an enabler
of perfect freedom. Forgiveness frees individuals to heal and to participate in
authentic community. Forgiveness has the power to liberate us from inner turmoil,
cultural hurts and systems of injustices. It is messy work but forgiveness
powerfully enables healing.
As I reflect
on the reintegration of prisoners back into community I often think about
justice, community safety and hope. I would like you to consider a reality many
prisoners experience - they are outsiders in a world of insiders. They come to
see that, to quote one man, “I was a prisoner long before I went to jail.” This
is not to lessen the reality of the crime and the sometimes horrendous consequences
on the victim. It is, however, to suggest that sometimes we come to see
ourselves as slaves of a freedom-depriving macro system. And we realize we don’t
like being slaves. A slave is a prisoner to some power dynamic, craving,
insecurity, injustice or false god in society. To see oneself as stuck in a
slave-master relationship with someone or something is to plant a seed of
injustice and a desire for justice. Slavery is a false identity imposed on
another by coercion or in some cases simply societal norms. Slavery is
life-depriving. The truth is that we are set free and the sooner we learn to
walk in freedom the sooner we can deepen in the truth of justice. Seeing
oneself freed from the shackles of slavery is the starting point for authentic
healing.
Freedom is
not a birthright but a revealed and learned identity.
We become
more ourselves by participating in the lives of others. Yes, it is messy work,
but should that surprise us? Surely we can admit that we all have our messy
bits on the inside. Learn to forgive yourself, to be merciful to yourself and
it becomes easier to forgive others and to offer mercy to the other. This is
the building blocks of the common good, our collective home, our community and
we will surely get glimpses of the Kingdom of God as we begin lifting these
building blocks.
A dear
friend of mine is a crack addict who has been clean for some time now. He does
not take a healthy, drug-free day for granted and he knows the next craving
could be just around the corner. He knows the feeling of living out of an
identity in exile, a slave in a foreign land. He also gets glimpses from
time-to-time of a freedom born out of his true identity and he knows the power
of an enemy which deprives him from living out of this true identity and true
nature. He knows this voice of guilt, shame and fear. He also knows that every
day of walking in the image and likeness of his true identity allows the place
of exile to feel more distant; it becomes a place to which he no longer wants
to return. This personal journey of “slavery” to “freedom” involved going to
prison and the embrace of a forgiving community who are as interested in
holding themselves accountable as they are in holding the other accountable.
We have a
tremendous capacity to keep ourselves busy. Maybe we can find a little time to
delve into the messy reality of forgiveness. I think our freedom is somehow
bound up in forgiveness.
