It is not an easy thing to forgive. To truly forgive. In fact it may be one of the hardest things that we as humans have to face. Forgiveness. It is a two edge sword. It is not just about one person forgiving another for the trespass that they have committed against the victim. It is also about the one who committed the offence understanding that they are indeed worthy of the forgiveness offered to them. This understanding means that they can’t take it for granted, but they also can not assume that they are not worthy of that forgiveness either. Forgiveness, real forgiveness, is one of the hardest things to truly offer and to truly accept and if it really gets inside of a person, if the forgiveness is genuine and the acceptance of that forgiveness is genuine, then it changes a person. And for many that is the hardest part of the idea of forgiveness. It is far easier to hold on to desires for justice and even revenge, to hate those who have wronged us and ignore any hope of reconciliation. It is easy and it seems to satisfy some base desire within us. We seem to want to be angry, we seem to want to hate.

We can look at the world to see this fact played out. We can see what a desire for revenge and an angry justice has resulted in. War rages, hatred grows worse and worse, more and more fierce, and the world is further and further fragmented. Our church follows suit. We are a divided household. Even individual families can be affected. Mother against daughter, father against son, brother against brother, sister against sister. We have seen it, experienced it even. The inability to forgive is the inability to truly love and that inability shatters humanity. We are left bereft of each other’s company, of their presence in our lives, of peace and of hope. Yet humanity persists in this. We seem unwilling to really forgive those who once wronged us, as if it was easier to hold a grudge then it was to love. Maybe it is for us. That isn’t exactly a hopeful thought.

Yet our reading for today expresses something very different. From the cross, a place of horrendous suffering and humiliation, Christ asks God to forgive humanity for what they are doing to him. “They know not what they do.” This from the lips of a man who had spent three years showing people what the Kingdom of God would look like, who even allowed some to touch and experience that kingdom as he offered them healing and an inclusion into a community long denied to them. His repayment for such an act was death on the cross. His reaction (according to Luke), to forgive those who had inflicted this torture on him, even when some were the very ones that he had tried to reach out to, to show God in his actions and to give people a glimpse of God at work in their lives. Instead of revenge or an oath to have his justice, he grants them pardon.

This is a rather important thing to realize on the day of Christ the King. This is not a king like any we can truly fathom with our human understanding. This is a king who issues pardon to his people, even for crimes against the king himself. This is a king who walks with the people, showing them a greater Kingdom then any this world has known; a place where compassion would rule, where the lame were made to walk, the sick healed, the hungry fed, the wrongs made right. This is a King who suffers all so we don’t have to suffer for the things that justice would have us answer for. This is a King who grants forgiveness as we make him suffer for our sins and who issues pardon to all, even the one placed on the cross beside him, a criminal in truth. This man, who admits to deserving the punishment that he is now facing, is granted forgiveness, and assured a place in heaven. This is our king and the one who calls us to forgive as he forgives us.

What would that look be like to forgive someone so deeply who had wronged me so completely? Could I do it? Sometimes I can hardly fathom this act. To be able to look someone in the eye who had wronged me so deeply and to say in no uncertain terms “You are forgiven”. What would those words feel like leaving my mouth when they were filled with love and compassion and not an ounce of regret or uncertainty? And what would it be like for me to receive that forgiveness? To be set free? To be given new life? Those moments seem so foreign to us in this world obsessed with “justice”, “righteous anger” and “hate”.

Yet we have a story of that forgiveness lifted up from scripture for us today. It is a story that defies any human notion of justice or revenge, of taking back what was taken from us. God loves so deeply that we are forgiven, even in the face of our most heinous crimes. We experience that every time we confess our sins and are granted absolution. We experience that every time we eat the bread and drink from the cup. We experience it every time we hear the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. Maybe in our human existence that notion of such complete forgiveness is a thing experienced only on very rare occasions. But in God, we experience it every day of our life. In God, we experience a love that forgives all things and beckons to see God in that act. It is boundless love.

It is a love that changes everything. Maybe it is hard to understand God’s love in our lives when we are so caught up with ideas of justice, of an eye for an eye, of earning the freedom we have through righteousness and lawful acts. But imagine a moment where you have experienced forgiveness from some person in your life, where the burdens you carried were lifted from your shoulders and you were made free. I think of moments when I have experienced this, moments when I wronged another human being and instead of their anger and hate, I received love and forgiveness. One event in my life happened when I was in my late teens. I was on my own at home when I received a call that a friend of mine wanted to purchase some potatoes. So I went out to make the necessary preparations. As I was doing so I made a miscalculation while driving our small tractor and crashed it into the side of our water truck. The truck was undamaged, but the tractor was badly crushed in the front. I still went ahead and picked the potatoes for my friend and when we were done, I fled, leaving a note for my mom and dad and where to reach me. But I couldn’t face them. The next few hours were agony. And then they called, asked what happened and said we would talk about it when I got home. By the time I got home, they had cooled down and instead of anger and punishment they extended their forgiveness and their relief that I had not been hurt. It was as if the life returned. My shame and guilt did not completely vanish, but I was no longer imprisoned by those feelings anymore either. This wasn’t the perfect forgiveness of God, but it gave me freedom and I was changed, altered by that experience. I felt love back in response for the graciousness of my parent’s act. I felt hope again. When my whole world had constricted to include only my shame and guilt over the event, I was set free. And I was forever altered by that event.

The King we are called to worship today, throughout the church year and through our lives is one who forgives all, suffers all on our behalf and gives us our life back. This is not a king that conquers armies and smotes enemies. This is a king that gives us back our lives, who forgives us all and asks us to forgive as we are able all those who have wronged us and to accept that forgiveness in return. We are asked to see the kingdom of God in that forgiveness. In those mercies that attend us day by day. This is our King, the one who grants us mercy beyond any measure we are able to understand. And all we can ever do is love our God in return, in our small, imperfect ways and walk the path that such love sets before us. Thanks be to God.

Amen