Forgiveness Sets us Free.
It was at the top of the Cape Bryon Bay Lighthouse – the most easterly point of Australia – when I met some YWAMer’s (Youth with a Mission). One of these was a young woman who I discovered was from Holland. Her name was Trish and after some conversation I asked – “Have you heard of Corrie ten Boon?” She had and we talked further about Corrie.
Corrie was a courageous Dutch citizen who along with her father and other family members, helped many Jews escape the Nazi Holocaust during the Second World War. She was imprisoned for her actions. Her most well known book was “The Hiding Place” and formed the basis for a cinema released film and the telling of one of the stories I shared with Trish.
This is that story in Corrie’s words: Betsie (Corrie’s sister) and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbrück concentration camp where we were sent. Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: “A fine message, fräulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!” And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course–how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?
But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. It was the first time since my release that I had been face to face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.“You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard in there.” No, he did not remember me. “But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein”–again the hand came out–“will you forgive me?”
Betsie had died in that place–could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking? It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do. For I had to do it–I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:15).
I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality. Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.
And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion–I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. “Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”
And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!”
Forgiveness is a difficult thing to offer to people around us but the rewards are eternal – and it makes this world a much better place to live in. Unforgiveness leads to bitterness and imprisons us. Forgiveness sets us free. 2000 years ago Jesus said: “If you hold to My teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31,32. Jesus is saying that in committing ourselves to obey Him and being willing to forgive where necessary we can be set free. There is no better way to live.
Bruce Stewart.