Apostles of Forgiveness

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
April 27, 2025
2 Easter, C
Acts 5:27-32
Psalm 118:14-29
John 20:19-31

Jesus talked a lot about forgiveness. He gave us parables about the forgiveness of God, like in Matthew 18:15-20 with a parable about guy who owed 2000 lifetimes’ worth of wages and was forgiven all of his debt. Jesus taught his disciples that as far and as long as there is vengeance in the world, that is how far and how long you are to forgive. Then, Jesus showed that he actually meant what he said when he forgave his murderers in the act of killing him. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

Sure, they didn’t know that they were killing God incarnate, but I think he meant that they didn’t know that their killing him, even just as a regular human being, their killing him was wrong. I know that because “Jesus didn’t count equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself,” and Jesus taught that whatever we do to the least among us, we do to him. 

Father, forgive them, because they just don’t get that killing other people is wrong. Forgive them, even though they’re incurring over 2000 lifetimes’ worth of debt. Forgive them because they just don’t get it; they just don’t understand the horror of what they’re doing.

Then, when Jesus was raised from the dead and met with his disciples, he said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” just as he had received the Holy Spirit in his baptism, and he told them that he was sending them just as he had been sent by God the Father. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them,” he said. “If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

If you forgive sins, they are forgiven. If you retain sins, they are retained.

This has become a bit of a power play in parts of the Church, hasn’t it? Some folks believe that priests, standing in for Jesus, proclaim people as being forgiven or not forgiven. Jesus did say, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” So, there you have it; if you don’t forgive, they’re not forgiven.

Is that really what Jesus meant, though? If you select few proclaim my forgiveness, then I have forgiven someone, and if you don’t proclaim my forgiveness, it is because I have not forgiven someone? Is that really what Jesus meant? Maybe. Then again, maybe not.

Remember just how darn much Jesus forgave and how seriously Jesus took forgiveness. He taught his disciples to forgive for as far and as long as there is forgiveness in the world. I don’t know that he’s then going to say, “Oh, by the way guys, I’m often not going to forgive, and you’ll know when, so you can retain the sins of some people.” Nah. Not so much.

“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven.” If you, or I, or anyone forgives the sins of any, they are forgiven. When you forgive someone, that person is freed and so are you. So, don’t worry about whether or not Jesus will forgive; I’m pretty sure we’ve seen that he already has. Instead, focus on your forgiveness, the forgiveness you give others. Your forgiveness is real. Your forgiveness is true. Your forgiveness is healing and life-giving.

At the same time, realize that your lack of forgiveness is just as real and just as true. Your lack of forgiveness is harmful and deadly. “If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” You get to keep that poison, if you choose, slowly killing you and those around you. Even though Jesus has forgiven, our lack of forgiveness can still harm us and kill us.

So, forgive, Jesus told us. As the Father sent Jesus to forgive, so does Jesus send us to forgive, at least that’s what the story says.

How do we know that Jesus really did send us to forgive? How do we know that Jesus was even right in his commands for us to forgive? We often don’t want to forgive. We often feel like people don’t deserve forgiveness, and we’re probably right. They probably don’t. When it doesn’t feel like people deserve forgiveness, or even ask for forgiveness, how do we know that it really is ok to forgive? How do we know that it really is the right thing to forgive?

Well, the short answer is, we don’t. We don’t know that forgiveness is the right thing. We’re asked to believe.

Thomas didn’t know if it was Jesus he was seeing. His fellow disciples had seen Jesus, and Jesus showed them his scars. Then, when they told Thomas about it, he didn’t believe, and said he wouldn’t believe until Jesus showed him his scars. Then, when Jesus offered to show Thomas his scars, Thomas said, “No, that’s not necessary. You are my Lord and my God.” Thomas didn’t see what his fellow disciples saw, and yet he believed. His fellow disciples saw even more, and they believed. Mary Magdalene, the first apostle, saw Jesus outside the tomb, and she believed. 

We have their stories, and we are asked to believe, and we are also asked to believe Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness. We are asked to believe that we are Jesus’ apostles of forgiveness, sent by Jesus to forgive.

So, how’s that work? Does being sent as apostles of forgiveness mean that if someone kills someone we love, we should just say, “I forgive them, so just let them go kill again?” Of course not. We can forgive and still have people in prison. Safety and keeping others from harm is still a thing, but what about forgiveness and even release when someone is sorrowful for what they’ve done and has repented? Might forgiveness involve advocating for their release from prison? Might that be part of the life-giving healing Jesus had in mind? 

I read a story published in People magazine about a man who did advocate for the release from prison of his brother’s murderer. Kimyon Marshall was 15 years old back in 1998, when he killed Ruben Cotton over a pair of tennis shoes. Ruben’s older brother, Darryl Green, was torn apart by grief and anger at his brother’s killing, for which the murderer, Kimyon, received a life sentence. Over the next decade and a half, Darryl struggled with his anger and struggled for purpose, even though successful in his career. “Although Kimyon was the one behind bars,” he said, “I was in my own prison, a prison of hatred.” After 15 years, Darryl and his father agreed that it was time to forgive Kimyon. So, they went to his resentencing hearing, and they heard his remorse, and they advocated for his release.

At the hearing, Darryl shook Kimyon’s hand. They both cried, and Darryl said to him, “You’ve been known for taking a life, now let’s go save some lives together.” From there, they started an organization called, “Deep Forgiveness” which works with young people, helping them break free from cycles of violence. 

They have been doing this work together for years now, and forgiveness is still work for Darryl, but he said that “Once you forgive, you’re now able to unlock the key to your own prison cell.” As for Kimyon, he says that when he received the gift of freedom from Darryl’s family, he was able to give back to the community and work to save lives.

That’s the power of forgiveness. Darryl and his family retained Kimyon’s sins for 15 years, and those sins were retained. Then, they were ready to forgive him his sins, and his sins were forgiven. What came next was healing and life-giving. A man and his brother’s murderer, reconciled, working together to bring forgiveness and life to the world. That’s resurrection. That’s the gospel of Jesus lived out among us. That’s two men believing in the forgiveness of Jesus and then living as Jesus sent them to live, as apostles of forgiveness.

So we are asked to believe and live as well. Jesus said when we retain people’s sins, they are retained, and indeed they are. We keep that poison and remain imprisoned ourselves until we’re able to forgive, and that takes time. Then, when we forgive people’s sins, as Jesus sent us to do, they are indeed forgiven. We are apostles of forgiveness, sent by Jesus to forgive, just as Jesus was sent by God the Father to forgive, and when we do, we are freed, and there is healing and new life.

https://people.com/darryl-green-deep-forgiveness-man-forgave-brothers-killer-exclusive-7506937

Jesus Has United to That Pain Too

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
April 18, 2025
Good Friday, C
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 22
John 18:1-19:42

So, if I were to say, “Cry Night,” does anyone know what in the world I’m talking about? I’m guessing not. See, Cry Night is a term (not coined by me) that is used to describe the last night of many a youth trip or retreat. 

Cry night is where you’re on a youth trip, and at the end of the trip, when everyone is exhausted and worn out, you talk with the kids about Jesus and how Jesus took their sins upon himself, and you pull every emotionally manipulative trick you have in order to get the kids to really feel their culpability in Jesus’ death so they will then feel gratitude and love for Jesus. 

Cry Night. It’s great. I don’t really do Cry Night, and I’m guessing most folks here don’t, but it has been a part of quite a few youth trips I’ve been on. It’s a bit much.

I suppose our liturgy does something similar, as we go through the last days and minutes of Jesus’ life, there is an emotional pull to our liturgy. Heck, one of my favorite hymns, “Ah Holy Jesus,” is very emotional, even having the line, “I crucified thee.”

So, I suppose I’m not against emotional appeals to our culpability in Jesus’ death. I suppose my challenge is really the potential theology behind such emotional appeals. 

In my experience, your typical Cry Night theology tends to be that we are all terrible sinners from birth, and we were all of us justly destined to an eternity of torment, God’s just punishment for our sins. Because Jesus loves us, however, he took the penalty upon himself, suffering all of the torment we should suffer so that we don’t have to. So now, realizing that, look upon the one you made suffer. Look at what you did to him.

Feel bad because of what you did. Now, love Jesus because of what he did. 

Ok, that’s fine. There’s some truth there, but that story, by itself, with the emotional manipulation, can also be a bit harmful when some folks get overwhelmed by the guilt and the horror of what “they’ve” done. 

“I had no idea I was so awful. I mean, I knew I’ve  messed up, but I didn’t think I was that terrible.” 

“Oh, you are, and worse even, but Jesus loves you, and you’re forgiven.” 

“Ok, great that I’m forgiven, but now I hate myself.”

The story of Jesus’ passion and death, and the meaning of what his passion and death were, are only partially understood with the idea that Jesus took the penalty of our sins upon himself, and the story is perhaps misunderstood with the idea that God was going to torture us all for eternity until he realized, “Oh, maybe I’ll do the Jesus thing instead.”

See, the problem with those stories is, they forget who Jesus is. Jesus is the Word of God which spoke creation into existence. Jesus is the Word of God which is God. So, when we say, “Jesus did this,” what we’re saying is, “God did this.” God took the penalty for our sins upon Godself.

What is the penalty? In a word, the penalty is isolation. We are harmed, and we pull away. We cause harm, and others pull away, and we pull away even further. Isolation, the hells we make for ourselves because we are not united to others, or we feel and fear that we aren’t united to others. That’s simply part of what it is to be human. 

So, when we say, Jesus took the penalty of our sins upon himself, we mean that even when we experience that penalty, we aren’t truly alone. Nothing can separate us from God, not even our separation from God. 

God became human, and as that human being, Jesus of Nazareth, God united fully with humanity. On the cross, God united even with our sins and the penalty for our sins. God united with our disunity. God united with the pain and misery that disunity causes us. God united with all of the hells we put ourselves in, all the hells we put ourselves through. 

Then, finally, God united even with our death, as Jesus said, “It is finished,” and breathed his last. “It is finished.” There is no more separation from God. Our separation from God has been united to God even in our death.

Why? Because God sees us hurting and alone, and God knows we need healing. 

So yes, Jesus took our sins and the penalty of our sins upon himself on the cross, and he did so because he was God, uniting with all of our lives. 

With that in mind, let’s steer away from, “Look at what you did to Jesus.” God chose that death on the cross, because God sees all that we go through, and God wants healing for us, and God knows that unity with God in every aspect of our lives, unity with God and one another is how we are healed. 

So, when we say, Jesus took our pain upon the cross, see your pain there, and see that Jesus has united himself to your pain. When we say, Jesus took our pain upon the cross, see the pain you’ve caused others; see that Jesus has united that pain to himself as well. When we say, Jesus took our pain upon the cross, see the pain of others that in your indifference, you haven’t done a whole lot to heal; see that Jesus has united that pain to himself as well. 

When you look at the cross, see all of our pain, everyone’s pain; see that is has been united to God by Jesus. Then, ask yourself, what am I going to do about it? How am I going to live? 

Not to get too emotionally appealy, not to get to a Cry Night level, but might we trust that Jesus has our pain united to God, and therefore, might could we spend a little less time constantly trying to soothe our pain, and our fears, and our worries? Instead, might we be able to strive to soothe other peoples’ pain, trusting that all that we are is already fully united with God. Might we trust Jesus’ healing for ourselves enough that we could live that healing for others?

Might each of us give up some of the ways we self-soothe and spend some of that time and money in the service of others? Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, Easter isn’t for a couple days yet, but when we spend some of our time and money in the service of others, rumor has it that we might just see Jesus on the way.