The Limitations of Reprieve

What is it like to experience forgiveness for a wrong? Forgiveness is much more than a reprieve. When we are granted a reprieve, it is likely that a burden of culpability will be lightened or relieved. However, reprieves rarely result in transformation.

Take something relatively benign like the time you bent a traffic law just a bit--suppose that you chose to drive just a few miles over the speed limit. Think about the moment when the patrolcar's flashers appeared,

and then recall the feeling when the patrolman drove on past you to stop the car in front of you (the one that was first detected as the "speeder".)  That's a reprieve.

There's a feeling of relief, perhaps, but I'm not sure that a reprieve results in a change of heart -- not if we're totally honest about it. (Do I even stop to think about my part in the unsafe condition on the road or the arrogance of determining for myself what law can be bent?) Some reprieves actually breathe life into the delusion that I can continue to live on the edge, just bending the law every now and again.

Let's begin thinking about the way even the smallest experience of forgiveness can affect a relationship.  Consider the following:

When I am forgiven for an error made, (an accident, even one resulting from carelessness) I feel liberated from a burden of guilt. Suppose I have a fender bender with my husband's car. I tell him about it, saying I'm sorry. He forgives me and I move on to get the repairs made. No major deal.  But as a result of his forgiveness I will be more careful with his car (at least as long as I remember how badly I originally felt about damaging it.)

Then there are the deeper violations that occur, the ones Jesus addresses. You know the ones!  I'm referring to the violations where your thoughts or deeds feed your weaknesses. They move you further, day by day, from integrity and wholeness of heart. This can go on for years, especially when the sin resides only in the secret regions of the heart.

Yet even behind the closed door of public awareness, the sin can grow in intensity --

There is that awful moment when, quite frankly, you are busted. You find yourself being held accountable for the path you have chosen that has led to a chasm between you and the life God intends for each of God's children. And the moment you repent, there Jesus is, embracing you and saying "Go, and sin no more."

In John 8 we witness the depth and scope of radical forgiveness. Jesus addresses the powerful progression of sin, disclosure (confession) and forgiveness. Although Jesus is concerned with the sin an individual commits, this story teaches that he is also concerned with the way judgment (or forgiveness) radiates from the sinful act and ripples throughout human community.

I am reminded that none of us lives in a vacuum. I am reminded that during these final days of Lent Jesus is inviting me to delve deeply, deeply, deeply into those chambers of thought where I either bask in reprieves or risk looking askance at my fellow sinners.

I can cast no stones. I have no authority to judge or evaluate what others do or do not do. I can only enter His loving presence, acknowledge my failures, my weaknesses and my sins. I can accept the amazing gift of Jesus' radical forgiveness and move on in His spirit, forgiving others as He has forgiven me.