Forgiveness is an enormously important biblical concept, particularly in the New Testament. It is central to Jesus’ ministry: Jesus compassionately forgives those who sin but also confronts those who cling to their own righteousness, and teaches radical forgiveness of one another. God’s forgiveness in the Old Testament is less apparent, sometimes indicated in the mercy that God chooses to sustain the human race instead of destroying it but Old Testament forgiveness also often involves ritual acts of repentance or punishment for an offense (Leviticus 4:1-26).
Forgiveness addresses human sin, but what is sin/iniquity? We know that human being after the fall of man have rejected and resisted God’s priorities example… Adam and Eve demonstrate this tendency by seeking to “learn about good and evil and... be like God” (Genesis 3:3-5). But is obedience to arbitrary rules required of a tyrannical God, or is there something we can understand for life today? Indeed, the Law God gave to Moses attempted to teach quality living in community and includes justice for the poor. The prophet Micah summarizes God’s expectation: “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). If the Bible describes God’s priorities as those which sustain a just and compassionate society, then people departing from these priorities introduce elements of injustice and oppression. Cain, for example, playing out an all-too-familiar sibling rivalry, murders his brother Abel. Jacob tricks his blind father to steal a blessing. Leah is married off to a man wants to marry her sister. Joseph, Jacob’s favored child, lords it over his brothers who retaliate by selling him into slavery. Moses guides the Israelites to freedom, and they complained bitterly about their hard life (hunger & thirst) in the desert. Rebellion against God invites curse and destructions therefore; community and family are torn apart.
When such wrong has been committed, relationship has been broken, and the damage is not repairable by the one who committed the wrong. These are chilling thoughts. The Bible calls such actions sin and iniquity a difficult word for a contemporary audience. One theologian suggested that sin is a state of being before it is an action. It is a state of being alienated from ourselves, from others, and from God.
Sin brings walls of separation between people, but it also occurs within ourselves when we fail to meet a goal, reach an ideal for ourselves, or hurt someone we didn’t intend to hurt. When we don’t make an effort to mend it, as a result our failure weighs us down. We may ignore it, act cheerful, and put a brave face on things, but the damage done within ourselves remains with us affecting our lives. And guilt occurs in our relationship with God. Perhaps we fail to retain a prayer time, or we do not serve in a way we feel is right. Perhaps in our struggle with faith, we experience doubts and wonder if God condemns us for them. Once we are alienated from God, we do not know how to get back. We may feel afraid of God and then resentful. Only when forgiveness breaks in and frees us can we begin to reverse our self-perpetuating cycles of alienation, fear, and aggression. Without forgiveness we are chained to our past. Paul describes our dilemma, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” (Romans 7:15), Then he rejoices, “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:25).
For Jesus, forgiveness is central and occurs repeatedly in both stories and actions. His manner of forgiveness reclaims people from their alienation, returning them to community with others, to God, and to themselves. Jesus’ style of forgiveness is unusual. He moves eagerly to offer forgiveness even before he is asked. He does not require that people express being truly sorry. Rather, he assumes that all human beings are weighed down with a need for God’s forgiveness. His forgiveness is tender and personal, more resembling acceptance or unconditional positive valuing. Jesus’ lavish forgiveness seems to precede repentance. The offering of forgiveness makes a psychological space safe enough for sufferers to acknowledge and face the horrifying prospect of their sins. Repentance then connects them with the healing forgiveness that awaits them, liberating them and offering a new beginning.
Jesus’ frequent use of the word evil to describe human beings indicates a matter-of-fact recognition that sin is an ordinary part of the human experience. Individuals can either acknowledge it and be reunited with God through forgiveness, or they can deny it and cling to an illusion of their own righteousness. Many people in the Bible and in life today adhere to strict code of behavior, thereby maintaining a sense of control over their own righteousness and judging those who do not also conform. But denial of sin makes biblical characters as well as modern citizens dangerous. This is the violent underbelly of forgiveness. Jesus knows this and regularly confronts the self-righteousness with their need for God’s forgiveness. As long as they, or we, cling to our own righteousness, we will be unable to enter into a trusting relationship with God, and like those who sought Jesus’ death, we will want to destroy the One who forgive abundantly. In addition, we who are unable to face the frightening reality or our own sins and receive God’s tender forgiveness will be unlikely to forgive those who sin against us.
The theme of forgiveness is prominent in Jesus’ ministry. We find the word, for example, used in healing stories. In Matthew 9:1-8, some people bring to Jesus a paralyzed young man. Jesus greets the youth warmly, not with healing, but with forgiveness: “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you” (verse 2). Jesus offers forgiveness before inviting him to walk, apparently understanding sin as the roof of his paralysis.
In another story (Luke 19:1-10), Jesus cheerfully invites himself to the home of Zacchaeus a rich tax collector. In the context of first-century hospitality, Jesus is enacting forgiveness. In first-century society tax collectors were conspirators with Rome, the foreign government which ruled the Jewish homeland. Rich tax collectors were suspected of charging extra taxes to pay their own pockets. They were routinely excluded from society. Receiving hospitality and eating with another person implied intimacy, equality, and acceptance. Zacchaeus would never have presumed to initiate such a scenario, but Jesus, ever eager to forgive sins and include the outcast, enacts forgiveness. And Zacchaeus acts forgiven: “Lord, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold” (verse 8). Jesus celebrates Zacchaeus’ return to the human family: “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (verse 9-11).
In a third story (John 8:3-11), teachers of the law and the Pharisees bring to Jesus a woman “caught in adultery.” Jesus’ abundant gracious forgiveness as well as his assumption of universal sinfulness are both apparent here. These men have brought a woman so sinful that no one appears for her defense. Although her crime involved a partner, the partner does not appear. One might suppose that she has been involved in such behavior before. Jesus indicates no interest in discussing her guilt, but rather raises the subject of her accusers’ sins. In the end, no one judges her guilty, but Jesus, ever using His forgiveness to the individual, gives her a tool so she will be able to resist further overtures from men – “go and sin no more” (verse 11).
Therefore, without a shadow of a doubt Jesus knows that all of us bear a terrible need for God’s forgiveness and acceptance. This message consumes much space in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Those who recognize their sin, Jesus tenderly and personally forgive. Those who deny their sin and condemn others, Jesus routinely confronts. We also are called to search our hearts, to bring our broken relationships, our harsh words, and our indifference to suffering to our Lord for healing and forgiveness. And because we know and acknowledge our own sinfulness, we are called as well to graciously and abundantly forgive those who sin against us.
Jesus’ teachings on our forgiveness of others are brief compared to His teachings on our need for God’s forgiveness, and these teachings are radical. In Matthew 5, Jesus instructs His followers not to fight back. For example, Roman soldiers quartered in a city could legally force citizens to carry their packs one mile. With this practice in mind, Jesus asserts, “And whoever compels you to on one mile, go with him two” (Matthew 5:41). When Peter brings the word forgiveness itself into the discussion, asking how often he must forgive his brother, Jesus asserts: “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22). This number symbolically represents forever.
Contemporary psychology has taught us that denial is dangerous to ourselves and to our families. To deny a family member’s outbursts of rage compounds the problem. This caution against denial is consistent with Jesus’ teachings. While we may recognize within ourselves our own need for forgiveness and understand the burden of guilt carried by the one who hurt us, forgiving another may be a lengthy process. Following Jesus’ ways of forgiveness, we do not deny the actions of those who sin against us any more than we deny our own sinfulness. The harsh word hurts; the thoughtless, greedy, or bullying act still stings, the alcoholism is still self-centered, and we do not ignore that. We will need to acknowledge the hurt, and the grief associated with it. As we work these through, we will gradually notice our own complicity in the wrong committed against us. By them, we will know that we have followed Jesus’ admonition to forgive as God has forgiven us (Matthew 6:12).
On Naga Context:
For more than 60 years, India, with all her military powers could in no way subdue the Nagas. In 1997, a cease-fire agreement was signed between the two entities. Even after more than 12 years of cease-fire and innumerable rounds of talks within and outside India, and with the participation of a third body, truth and understanding seem to elude India. You may ask why. The simple reason is that Nagalim is unique – her political struggle is akin to that of no other nation in the world. Hence there is every chance that the conventional style of political negotiations which have hitherto worked with other nations, may not work in our case.
Every Naga must not, in any way, forget this solid fact that God’s finger controls every event. Why, then, are we so quick to compromise? Why do we so easily get intimidated by India’s economic and military might? We say this to our shame. We have gone our own ways – “In the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit.” Yes, we are backslidden!
Over 12 years of cease-fire has no doubt, brought respite to the Naga inhabited areas. But I see another powerful hidden force at work – love of comfort, pleasure, immorality and complacency combined with a false sense of security. This force is eating away at the very basic foundation of our uniqueness – our faith in the Living God and our brotherly love for each other.
“Lord, increase our faith” was the apostles’ prayer. This should be our prayer, too. For the faith we receive from our Lord Jesus is a saving faith as well as a living faith. This faith, when we possess it in full, can do wonders. Decrease of this will only invite fear, greed, hatred, an unforgiving heart, distrust and unwillingness to face reality, etc.
We have observed that these 12 years of respite has only increased ungodliness among the Nagas. Firstly, sexual immorality – adultery, fornication, divorce, prostitution, rape, abortion, homosexuality, etc. Secondly, injustice, corruption, tribalism, extortion, drunkenness, orgies, addiction, etc. Thirdly, ingratitude, murder, desecration of the Lord’s Day – where fasting days have turned into feasting days, selfish ambitions, unrighteousness motives and unforgiving hearts. Under the banner of Christ we need complete change of heart, change of mind and change of lifestyle.
Therefore, let’s ask God to revive us and renew our minds. Let us re-dedicate ourselves to the cause of the Naga Nation. Let us forgive our own brothers on the basis “Jesus’ ways of forgiveness” to restore the true brotherhood, because forgiveness is the only way to restoration and reconciliation. If we are united in the Lord as a brother definitely our solution has arrived. Then, this is true what we claims “Nagalim for Christ.”
Let Nagalim be a Nation for Christ!
Somi & Achung
New Eden Prayer Centre, Senapati, Manipur.
