Amish girls were murdered in Pennsylvania in 2006. The aggrieved families and the Amish community immediately forgave the persons and the society who could produce such an event. The murderer was prayed for, and the bereaved reached out to the family of the heartless perpetrator. The physical site of the grisly affair was leveled and graded, and no opportunity was given to erect memorials to the victims. A memorial might remember the victims, but it would also remind the world of the hatred of persons who committed such a crime. Hatred can be perpetrated and descendants of criminals are embarrassed by some forefathers. Fathers are called to leave blessing, not cursing. The world expressed in various media, utter public amazement at the Amish for their forgiving attitude in the matter. For the moment of a few days, the public admired and wondered. No Amish statements of holier than thou or even personal offense were made to individuals or society. The genuine faith of the Amish was clear, and noted worldwide.
This is a rather simple and godly way of getting on in life, leaving with God insoluble issues, like untimely death. God’s judgment (evaluation with consequences) is sure, just, complete, and free of human infirmities. God wants it this way. He will make all things right. Unforgiving persons tend to develop vengeful attitudes, small or great, but ugly in any form or volume. There is a creeping sickness of pride, of superiority, of winning at the expense of others losing – and of adding various diverse factors that reduce righteousness in us. It can affect a whole people if revenge is large in its dimensions. The fierce and repeated statements of hatred and vituperation toward O. J. Simpson flowing from a member of the family of Simpson’s former, now murdered, wife reflected negatively on the aggrieved family member. Revenge became greater than grief. God will do better in meting justice on the guilty, favoring the innocent, than can any fellow citizens who may have an iron-clad case against another. True justice belongs to God.
Scripture acknowledges that the spirit of revenge exists in the human psyche, and that governments have to take the matter into account. It is so strong that it may include penalties of punishment that include execution of the wrong-doer. Humaneness in the society ought to treat even the guilty with respect, recognition that is the badge of a human being. The discovery and uses of forgiveness make decent and godly persons following Christ-likeness. That forgiveness, as described by the Apostle Paul in Romans, includes loving one’s enemies, providing sustenance even if perpetrators are not rehabilitated. God has compassion even for guilty prisoners. Christianity’s story is that Christ provides forgiveness against sin, large and small sins. He took the judgment upon himself to be consistent with his own nature – that every wrong must be judged to make right all things. If that payment is accepted, the forgiven must follow in his train and become forgivers. The Lord’s Prayer makes special accent chosen from man’s spiritual needs, needs that are rightly mentioned as meaningful for prayer. Forgive us, Lord, for unforgiveness. Even larger is the sentence implied in the Lord’s Prayer: Forgive me to the degree that I am forgiving. We are called upon to evaluate the mercy of God’s forgiveness of us on our own similar mercy. Human forgiveness does not release a perpetrator of evil for accounting to God for unacceptable acts. God has the true measure of motives, circumstances, facts, and the total context of lives. His evaluation is righteous and just altogether. Human beings rightly have a sense of uncertainty in judgments using temporary insanity or some other condition, to cover uncertainty about another’s thought and conduct. We wait on God. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020