From Last Year’s Post which explains why I am not a fan of Good Friday. “Over the years the shock value of the crucifixion has never diminished for me. I still have trouble watching the crucifixion scene in movies, and when someone starts preaching about it, I can go from carefree to sad-and-serious in a heartbeat; this despite being raised in a mainline denomination in which we commemorated the crucifixion every Sunday. So I’ve been exposed to the shock of it hundreds and hundreds of times. But my heart has never calloused over in this area. I believe that this sensitivity is something supernatural that I have nothing to do with.”

Therefore, I do not look forward to this annual commemoration called Good Friday. However, I still feel compelled to honor the LORD by writing down some commemorative thoughts about the day. This year they relate to a couple of things that happened…yesterday.

Yesterday, I had a couple of hours to kill and caught a movie at a Dream Lounger Theater. Frequently I will watch movies from the animated film genre, as a lot of them are age-neutral in their ability to entertain. Also, they are tamer than the majority of movies offered today, and I like to get caught up on the latest 3-D animation technological feats. This particular animated movie had a scene in which the protagonist narrowly escapes with his life and snags the secondary character who had betrayed him and brought a whole bunch of retribution and violence raining down on his head. Surprisingly, instead of handily dispensing his hopelessly out-matched betrayer…the protagonist forgives her! When the latter tries to comprehend how that could ever happen, the former essentially says, “It’s the right thing to do.”

And then yesterday evening, I caught a podcast debate which may have been the impetus for the Christian host’s untimely exit from the lineup of a top-ten media outlet. During her podcast, she tried to clear her rep by doing a point-by-point analysis of a negatively critical article that a Rabbi had written about her–which had accused her of being anti-semitic. From the very start of the ~1.5 hour-long debate, I identified the root problem as communication-related (major difference in communication styles).

The host was accusing the Rabbi of not accurately reporting the facts. She backed this up by showing segments of videos from which he seemed to have “cherry-picked” seemingly anti-semitic remarks that she had made. Essentially, she included the full context within which she had made the remarks and objectively explained why they were not anti-semitic. Her communication style was pragmatic, totally unemotional, and–at times–mildly sarcastic (ironic?).

The Rabbi was her polar opposite in terms of his emotional response that was fueled by centuries old injustices. He appeared to be tapping into intense grief which would erupt from time to time, during which he would pause and fight back tears. Bottom line, he was saying that, if she was unable to walk in a Jewish person’s shoes (obviously an immutable condition for her), she should not be making remarks that could be interpreted as antisemitic by Jewish people.

Neither person would budge from his or her position. Obviously it became more than an “agree-to-disagree” situation, as this podcast probably factored into her departure from the media outlet—leaving us to wonder if she had been cancelled because of it. What would have broken this irresolvable logjam? Mutual forgiveness. 🙂

But the Jewish Rabbi doesn’t have the benefit of the New Testament and the full revelation of Jesus’ absolutely incomprehensible act that happened as He hung dying on a cross—when he looked down at his murderers and forgave them. So one could say that it should have been easier for the Christian Host to forgive—and perhaps they might have extended the olive branch first. However, it had to be a mutual thing so that both parties could derive the maximum benefit. Q: what possible benefit can anyone receive from forgiving!!?? A: It sets us free. We are no longer allowing the perpetrator to control us with ugly thoughts and perpetually-refreshed memories that produce anger, bitterness, vengeful thoughts, stomach ulcers, etc., etc.

The Creator of the Cosmos knows this and He knows that forgiveness can only be good for us! From His vantage point at the unapproachably highest hierarchical level in the Universe, He considers it to be “the right thing to do.” That gives us a little insight into what God considers right versus wrong. However, in terms of incentivizing us to forgive, He does not present it as some impossible goal and oppressive mandate that we have to gut our way through so we don’t get punished. He presents it as the ultimate solution for achieving…freedom…and Peace (Shalom)! Plus He personally demonstrated that it could be done even in the absolutely worst case scenario imaginable. What does that say about our God Who would think it was more important to “do the right thing” and forgive them from the cross than to, say, plot a vengeful return-from-the-dead? What does that say about His personal priority system? What does that say about His perfection in righteousness? Wondering about what that says, and catching just the tiniest glimpse of His Infinite Love and Goodness in it…I find myself fighting back tears.