‘Forgive as the Lord forgave you.‘ (Colossians 3:13)

Some say that forgiveness can be overemphasized, making an easy gospel. But that is the least and last thing forgiveness means. It is hard to forgive. Forgiveness is painful. It was hard for Christ to forgive. There are many things you might do to serve your fellows. You might give your brother a drink if he thirsts. You might feed him if he is hungry. You might fetch a doctor if he is sick. You might take him wherever he needs to go. Yet nothing you could do for him would cost you as much as forgiving him, if he had done you wrong.

The reason for this is that in forgiveness, the wrong done, does not disappear. It remains present in all its cruelty and offence. The forgiver bears it, painfully. There is an element of self-sacrifice in every forgiveness.

A woman appears on the evening news. Her son has been arrested for a heinous crime. The outrage of the community is reflected in the interviewer's manner. Retribution is on everyone's mind-everyone, that is, except the woman who is his the mother of the accused. "He is my son," she insists. "I will never give him up." Does she lightly pass over his crime? No. It weighs on her, and as she finds forgiveness for her son, it crushes her.

Such is the agony of God against whom are all wrongs. The cross pictures God as the great forgiver, and therefore the bearer of the world's sin. "He was wounded for our transgressions. . ."