All Roads of Forgiveness Lead to the Cross of Christ

Everything about this week leads to the cross of Christ.

• The Palm Sunday parade as people are filled with great hope!  
• The washing of one another's feet/hands as a commitment to serve as Christ serves us.  
• The sharing of the bread and cup as a foretaste of forgiveness.  
• The betrayal and arrest in a garden of prayer.  
• The trial and conviction of Jesus.

All of these events of Christ's Passion lead us to the cross of Christ.  Outstretched to embrace all of humanity, Christ died for our forgiveness with God, one another, and ourselves.  He died that we may live fully in this life (unencumbered by regret) and the life to come.

And then the waiting happens.. just as it does in our human relationships.  We wait for the dawn of Easter when we recognize that God can be trusted to forgive and receive us again.  A cross and an empty tomb reconcile us to God.

But, in our human relationships reconcilation may or may not happen.  You and I know from our own experience that forgiveness does not, however, always lead to reconcilation.  We are complex creatures, full of illusions and/or inward resistance to what could bring new life.

I heard someone say that just as forgiveness is a journey so too is reconcilation.  Reconcilation may be the larger goal, but it may not be possible for us to achieve with others in this life.  God makes it possible for us to be reconciled to Godself, but human beings are another matter.

When reconcilation seems impossible with another person, we are left with a choice about whether or not to move forward with forgiveness on our side.  Forgiving can be, and often is, a one-way street with fellow human beings.

Thank God that God is God!  God is love.  Love aims to restore us to a new kind of life!  God creates a two way street so that we are welcomed home into Love's Eternal Arms.  The magnitude of God's undeserved gift of forgiveness for each of us opens us up to respond with heartfelt repentance and gratitude.  This is why the woman who annointed Jesus' feet cried.

Writes Gregory Jones, "it is not because the woman has shown repentance with tears that Jesus forgives her; rather, she shows repentance with tears beause she has already known forgiveness and thus has great love for Jesus.  It is her faith in his gift of pardon that saves her."

Again, it is the Unstoppable Love of Jesus that saves the woman, and you, and me.  May our response be one of great love in return.

See you in the forgiving place,

Pastor Michelle