Forgiveness
Like you, my thoughts are turning to Easter and the days leading up to our remembrance of Jesus’s
death, burial, and resurrection. Do you have a set of the Resurrection Eggs which beautifully depicts the story of Easter beginning with a tiny donkey in egg #1 (Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday) and ending with an empty egg, #12 (symbolizing the empty tomb, and Jesus’s victory over death). Each egg holds a symbolic representation of the Easter story and will capture a young child’s attention as you open each egg, explaining its significance.
I have been reading Luke 22-24 to prepare my heart for Holy Week. One sentence from the mouth of
Jesus is very convicting. He says this, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they are doing." There Jesus was-- nailed to a Roman cross, dying a horrific, unimaginable death while asking God, His Father, to forgive the Roman soldiers for his agonizing death. Jesus extended His mercy and forgiveness just as He offers it to each of us. I encourage you to read Matthew 18: 21-35, which is a picture of how the Lord teaches us to forgive and what happens when we choose to hold on to offenses with unforgiveness in our hearts.
The story of Easter is a story of incredible love offered and forgiveness granted. Before God created the world, He knew mankind (Adam and Eve) would sin and mankind (all of us) would need a Savior. So, all along, God knew He would need to birth a perfect, spotless Lamb - a Savior, to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Jesus paid the price for mankind’s sin: a debt we could never pay for a debt He did not owe.
Jesus is God’s gift to mankind in order that we might have a way to eternal life, a way to be reconciled to Holy God. Jesus says in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” However, a gift is not yours unless you receive and believe. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have eternal life.” Scripture teaches us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, the Holy Spirit lives in you. You are a new creation; you are the righteousness of Christ. Your sin has been forgiven! This is the ‘good news' of the Gospel!
In our book study this week, we are studying how to teach our children to forgive. But first, have you received the forgiveness that is yours in Christ? Do you know Jesus as your Savior, the One sent by God to redeem you from your sin and to give you eternal life? 1 John 5:11-12 says, “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” And verse 13, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life.”
If you know Jesus as your Savior, are you walking in forgiveness towards those who have wronged you? Before we can teach this truth to our children, it is imperative that we are walking in obedience
ourselves. Forgiveness does not mean that what the person did to you was right. It means you have
released the person to God, and you are no longer bound by a spirit of unforgiveness or bitterness.
When I struggle to forgive, I look to Jesus and the cross and remember His words, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” May this Easter be a time of spiritual refreshment and may your heart overflow with gratitude for the magnificent love which held Jesus to the cross to pay our sin debt in full.
If you would like to reach out to Jeannie, you may email her at jbrostrand@redeemerdayschool.org.