Saturday: I Distinctly Remember Forgetting That
WEEK 33
SATURDAY
I DISTINCTLY REMEMBER FORGETTING THAT
Acts 28:17-19
We have seen the mastery of resentments and anger in the Acts. The root of that power to master resentments was in the forgiveness these Christians found through Christ. Forgiven, they forgave. Here is an example out of India: A drunkard became a Christian and settled down to honest work. At the season for reaping he was attacked by bullies, who reaped his fields, cut off his fingers with an axe, and left with the harvest. The Indian YMCA secretary, who had been the means of his conversion, showed him the money that had been collected by an aroused public to help him prosecute; the bullies were known. He looked at the bags of money and then at his fingerless hands, and said: “Sir, you have been a Christian all your life, and I accepted Jesus not long ago. But when I accepted him, I promised to follow in his footsteps. You told me that when he was crucified, he didn’t say, ‘Father, punish them’; but he did say, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.’ So, just as my Master forgave his enemies, I must forgive mine; for they have done this in the ignorance of their hearts. They did not know anything better.”
Wherever the spirit of Christ is, there is an absence of resentment and bitterness, whether among the early Christians or among the Christians of today. Unlimited forgiveness characterizes real Christianity. Clara Barton was asked about a cruel thing done to her, “Don’t you remember that was done you?” She replied: “I distinctly remember forgetting that.”*
The souls of these Christians were too glad and too great to be the enemy of any person. British artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones has painted the picture of a knight who met an enemy who had done him a cruel wrong. As the hot blood mounted within him, thirsting for revenge, he saw Jesus’ figure on a wayside cross. He dismounted and knelt, praying that the wild lust for revenge would be crucified, when Jesus came down from the cross and kissed the lips of this faithful servant; the enemy passed unharmed**—the mastery of revenge.
O Jesus, you are the forgiveness of God. You give that forgiveness freely and fully. Help me to take that forgiveness and give it freely and fully. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: As they arise, I shall bury all my resentments and hurts at the foot of the cross.
*William E. Barton, The Life of Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross, vol. 2 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922), 345.
** “The Merciful Knight,” http://www.leninimports.com/edward_burne_jones.html, accessed March16, 2017.