Unfortunately, in our culture, there are a lot of negative images associated with faith. Our movies and TV shows portray faith as a thing that turns people into monsters. In Quentin Tarantino’s movie, Django Unchained, we meet one of the Brittle brothers, with Bible verses safety-pinned to his overalls while he maliciously whips a slave. Thankfully, Django stops him before he can follow through with the beating. But the impression left on the audience is that Christian faith leads to racism and violence. Yet compare the movie’s image with the one we are confronted When church members forgave Dylann Roof, the young white man from South Carolina who shot nine African American Christians after they welcomed him into a Bible Study at their church. It is clear, for these people, Christian faith led them to forgiveness and mercy, even in the face of racism and violence. The power to forgive others is a gift that has taken hold of many hearts and many homes where faith in Jesus is central.
You can see it in the outpouring of forgiveness the Amish community showed in 2007 when a man went into their schoolhouse and killed their children. NPR reported that “people around the world have been inspired by how the Amish expressed forgiveness toward the killer and his family.” Their forgiveness even inspired them to donate money to the killer’s widow and his three children. It is a remarkable piece of evidence that should cause us to pause and ponder.
You can also see the power to forgive others surfacing in the life of Corrie ten Boom,67 who survived the Nazi concentration camps. After the war, Corrie encountered one of the guards from the Ravensbruck concentration camp where her sister had died. She and her sister had been sent there for hiding Jews in their home. He came up to speak to her after a public speech she gave on forgiveness. She writes,
I was face-to-face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze…
It could not have been many seconds that he stood there—hand held out—but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do….
“Help!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”
And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!” For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely, as I did then.
A handshake is a powerful act of forgiveness, and yet in October 2019, America witnessed something even more profound—a hug. When Brandt Jean took the stand to face the police officer on trial for killing his brother, he must have had similar feelings to Corrie ten Boom. When we read her internal struggle, it makes the events that unfolded in that courtroom even more astounding.
